Thursday, December 15, 2011

Coffee in NYC - definitive guide

I've received a lot of "hey did you see this?" e-mails since the NY Times published an exhaustive quality list two months back (with interactive map).

While the NYTimes is exhaustive, the author provides no real delineation between best and serviceable. Here's my organized guide, with 38 places still to visit!
A Level - Best of the City
  1. Abraco (east village)
  2. Blue Bottle (williamsburg, chelsea)
  3. Cafe Grumpy (williamsburg, chelsea, park slope) - note the park slope location is tiny!
  4. Cafe Pedlar (cobble hill)
  5. Culture Espresso (penn station)
  6. Kaffe 1668 (tribeca)
  7. Ninth Street Espresso (east village and chelsea)
  8. Oslo (Williamsburg)
  9. Stumptown Coffee (penn station)
  10. Toby's Estate (williamsburg)
  11. Third Rail Coffee (village)
B Level - Worth visiting
  1. Bluebird (east village)
  2. De Luxe (park slope)
  3. Everyman Espresso (east village)
  4. Gimme! Coffee (williamsburg, noLiTa)
  5. Gorilla (park slope) - trending downwards after the coup de barista!
  6. Joe (west village, chelsea, grand central) - somehow the chelsea shop makes better espresso drinks than the other locations
  7. Ost (east village)
  8. Sit & Wonder (prospect heights)
  9. Maialino (madison park)
  10. Tar Pit (Bushwick)
C Level - Fine

Birch (noWheresville)
La Colombe (tribeca)
Fort Defiance (red hook)
Glass Shop (prospect heights)
Ground Support (soho)
Milk Bar (prospect heights)
Southside (park slope)
Think Coffee (nyu-ville)
Iris Cafe (brooklyn heights)
Bakeri (Williamsburg)

D Level - Serviceable
  1. Cafe Regular (park slope)
  2. Clover Cafe (boerum hill)
  3. Roots Cafe (park slope)
  4. Roots & Vines (lower east side)
  5. Van Leeuwen (trucks)
F Level - Avoid
  1. Cafe Regular Du Nord (park slope)
  2. Saturday Surf (soho)
  3. Root Hill (Gowanus)
  4. Jittery Joe's (midtown)
N/A - Not visited yet

  1. Baba (williamsburg)
  2. Beaner Bar (greenpoint)
  3. Boneshakers (williamsburg)
  4. Breukelen Coffee House (crown heights)
  5. Brooklyn Label (greenpoint)
  6. Cafe 474 (park slope)
  7. Cafe Mocias (upper west side)
  8. Champion Coffee (greenpoint)
  9. Espresso 77 (queens)
  10. Five Leaves (greenpoint)
  11. Indian Road (inwood)
  12. Knave (midtown)
  13. Marlowe & Sons (williamsburg)
  14. McNally Jackson (noLiTa)
  15. Moomah (tribeca)
  16. The National (lower east side)
  17. Second Stop (williamsburg)
  18. the Smile (east village)
  19. Sweet Leaf (queens)
  20. Variety Coffee (williamsburg AND greenpoint)
  21. Village Tart (village)