Coffee in Mid-town Manhattan

On 10 Jun 2005 12:58:41 -0700, "Leila" <[email hidden]>

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I was in NYC for 4 days last week, to attend a writers' conference.
Stayed in a hotel near Penn Station and commuted up to Hunter College
on 68th & Park, Thursday - Sunday.

What I'd forgotten about NYC, having lived there a dozen years but

left

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a dozen yaers ago, is that good coffee is hard to find in NY. Things
have progressed slightly since I first moved there in 1981, when the
only good cafe coffee was on Bleecker Street at either Reggio or

Dante.

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BUT if you want a decent cup of coffee and you don't think Starbucks
qualifies, I just don't know what you're supposed to do in Midtown.
Should I have gone to that Gaillard and whatever upscale deli? I

asked

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my best friend, who lives in Brooklyn and works near 5th & 91st -

where

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do you get good coffee? She said she drinks it at home. I did find a
good cafe (the Coffee cup, on 24th Street west of 9th AVenue) and had

a

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lovely espresso there. Remembered that the "new" up and coming cafes

in

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gentrifying neighborhoods often had decent coffee - Jaffa in the East
Village (which now has a Tribeca branch) and whatever the coffee

places

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were in Park Slope that I used to frequent.

I ate breakfast at Chez Laurent cafe on Madison Avenue Friday

morning,

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ordered a cappucino since their menu boasted about their house brand
French roast. It had a slightly stale taste, as if it had come from a
can. I even wondered if it wasn't "instant" - in the old days
CHino-Latino restaurants would make this fake espresso where the
machine steamed and roared as if it were an espresso maker, but it

just

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steamed hot water and milk into instant espresso crystals.

New York is a terrific city, I will always love it with all my heart,
and you can eat very, very well there. But when it comes to good
coffee...I'm sorry, it's too hard to find. Yes, if you do your

research

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the locals will tell you the hideaway coffee places, but this is too
much work. By West Coast standards, you New Yorkers are deprived.

I did appreciate cheap coffee cart coffee - at $.75 a bargain, fresh
enough early in the morning, and at the 68th & Lex cart, not too
dishwatery weak. It was better than diner coffee. But just not that
tasty. No wonder NYers like Starbucks (ugh - they burn their coffee
beans).

Leila

I can't possibly answer your coffee in NYC query🙂..but as I was
reading your interesting posting-- you said the price of a "cheap cup"
of coffee was $.75/cup--- and that got me thinking. I calculated that
my own 100% Kona Coffee, from our small farm, all done by my husband
and me, and shipped within the US--the cost for each cup ---if you
figure on 32 cups per pound--- is $.703125 per cup. And I am talking
excellent coffee🙂here. You are absolutely correct that *$ over
roasts. Agreed.

aloha,
Thunder
smithfarms.com
Farmers of 100% Kona Coffee
& other Great Stuff

Leila said:

I was in NYC for 4 days last week, to attend a writers' conference.
Stayed in a hotel near Penn Station and commuted up to Hunter College
on 68th & Park, Thursday - Sunday.

What I'd forgotten about NYC, having lived there a dozen years but left
a dozen yaers ago, is that good coffee is hard to find in NY. Things

Before your next trip, drop into alt.coffee and ask there. You'll have a
list of places to try and won't have to bug your friends and may be able
to show them a thing or two they don't know.

jim

Jim said:

Before your next trip, drop into alt.coffee and ask there. You'll have a
list of places to try and won't have to bug your friends and may be able
to show them a thing or two they don't know.

Excellent tip, Jim, thank you.

Leila

Leila said:

Jim said:

Before your next trip, drop into alt.coffee and ask there. You'll have a
list of places to try and won't have to bug your friends and may be able
to show them a thing or two they don't know.

Excellent tip, Jim, thank you.

Most of those yokels have never been to NY, let alone Midtown.

Noo Yawkers don't go to Midtown for great food, that area is
exclusively touristdom, so yoose ain't gonna find great cawfee dere
eeder. The secret to great food and coffee in Midtown is at the dining
rooms of the big Hotels, like the Waldorf, but mostly the New Yorkers
who work in the area, those who can, when the want fine dining eat at
their corporate dining rooms, or wait for the coffee cart to come by
their cubie. The chow at the corporate eateries rivals the best in the
world... there are some fabulous kitchens and dining rooms on the upper
floors of those skyscrapers... the LOs mostly go to the Midtown soup
kitchens, gets wheeled down to the local churches, so the bums eat
better than the tourists

To find great food and coffee in NYC you need to go to the ethnic
neighborhoods and Midtown ain't. Much of the world's great comestibles
eventually ends up in NYC, much of the world's finest coffees is
warehoused and roasted there, you just need to know where to go to
partake... not in Midtown. Why do you think some schlocky deli will
have good coffee when it's handed to you in a styrofoam/paper cup.

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

Most of those yokels have never been to NY, let alone Midtown.

Noo Yawkers don't go to Midtown for great food, that area is
exclusively touristdom, so yoose ain't gonna find great cawfee dere
eeder...

Some of the best coffee I've ever had I purchased every morning on the way
to my job on 120th Street between First and Pleasant Avenues. There was a
roach express bodega on the corner were I bought a buttered roll and the
tastiest "regular coffee" of my life. Haven't had the equal of it since!

<just remember to *look* before you bite! ;} >

pennyaline said:

Sheldon said:

Most of those yokels have never been to NY, let alone Midtown.

Noo Yawkers don't go to Midtown for great food, that area is
exclusively touristdom, so yoose ain't gonna find great cawfee dere
eeder...

Some of the best coffee I've ever had I purchased every morning on the way
to my job on 120th Street between First and Pleasant Avenues. There was a
roach express bodega on the corner were I bought a buttered roll and the
tastiest "regular coffee" of my life. Haven't had the equal of it since!

<just remember to *look* before you bite! ;} >

Um, 120th St. ain't even close to Midtown... in fact that's well above
Uptown... you proved my point.

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

Leila said:

Jim said:

Before your next trip, drop into alt.coffee and ask there. You'll have a
list of places to try and won't have to bug your friends and may be able
to show them a thing or two they don't know.

Excellent tip, Jim, thank you.

Most of those yokels have never been to NY, let alone Midtown.

Some of them have probably been there more often than you have been,
sheldon, and that would make their advice at least as good as yours,
wouldn't it?

I think a couple actually live there and as their focus IS on coffee,
that makes them better references than you in this instance.

jim

JimLane said:

Sheldon said:

Leila said:

Jim wrote:

>Before your next trip, drop into alt.coffee and ask there. You'll have a
>list of places to try and won't have to bug your friends and may be able
>to show them a thing or two they don't know.

Excellent tip, Jim, thank you.

Most of those yokels have never been to NY, let alone Midtown.

Some of them have probably been there more often than you have been,
sheldon, and that would make their advice at least as good as yours,
wouldn't it?

I think a couple actually live there and as their focus IS on coffee,
that makes them better references than you in this instance.

Yeah, those self-proclaimed elitest know-nothings all racing to out
masturbate each other with who spent more for their pot. Notice how
YOU have no recommedations.... Jimbo Lame has never been to NY
either... hillybillys like y'all need to stick to what you know, hot
sauce and incest.

Sheldon

There is a new Juan Valdez Colombian Coffee Shop in Manhattan, at 140
East 57th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues, that opened a
few months ago. I have not tried the coffee there, nor has anybody I
know, but I imagine that if well brewed, it would be nice and strong.
At $4.00 a cup, it should also be very good.

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2004/10/04/new_yorks_new_brew.php

Margaret Suran said:

There is a new Juan Valdez Colombian Coffee Shop in Manhattan, at 140
East 57th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues, that opened a
few months ago. I have not tried the coffee there, nor has anybody I
know, but I imagine that if well brewed, it would be nice and strong.
At $4.00 a cup, it should also be very good.

That's quite an assumption, dear Margaret. Just because they overprice a
cup of coffee doesn't mean it will be "good".

Jill

jmcquown said:

Margaret Suran said:

There is a new Juan Valdez Colombian Coffee Shop in Manhattan, at 140
East 57th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues, that opened a
few months ago. I have not tried the coffee there, nor has anybody I
know, but I imagine that if well brewed, it would be nice and strong.
At $4.00 a cup, it should also be very good.

That's quite an assumption, dear Margaret. Just because they overprice a
cup of coffee doesn't mean it will be "good".

Jill

When I wrote "it should" I meant it as in "it better be". I believe
that $4.00 for a cup of coffee is obscene.

Sheldon said:

JimLane said:

Sheldon said:

Leila wrote:

>Jim wrote:
>
>
>
>>Before your next trip, drop into alt.coffee and ask there. You'll have a
>>list of places to try and won't have to bug your friends and may be able
>>to show them a thing or two they don't know.
>
>Excellent tip, Jim, thank you.

Most of those yokels have never been to NY, let alone Midtown.

Some of them have probably been there more often than you have been,
sheldon, and that would make their advice at least as good as yours,
wouldn't it?

I think a couple actually live there and as their focus IS on coffee,
that makes them better references than you in this instance.

Yeah, those self-proclaimed elitest know-nothings all racing to out
masturbate each other with who spent more for their pot. Notice how
YOU have no recommedations.... Jimbo Lame has never been to NY
either... hillybillys like y'all need to stick to what you know, hot
sauce and incest.

Sheldon

Actually, I have been to NYC several times, but long before I got into
coffee. That is why I made no recommendations, SFB. And those "elitists"
have it all over you, mentalmidget, when it comes to coffee. They ARE
better references than you, shelliebabie, get used to it.

jim

Margaret Suran said:

There is a new Juan Valdez Colombian Coffee Shop in Manhattan, at 140
East 57th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues, that opened a few
months ago. I have not tried the coffee there, nor has anybody I know,
but I imagine that if well brewed, it would be nice and strong. At
$4.00 a cup, it should also be very good.

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2004/10/04/new_yorks_new_brew.php

There's a lot of "mountain grown" and other types of Columbian ranging
from mediocre to quite good.

There was a discussion on this coffeehouse on alt.coffee. I don't
remember much of it as I would rather patronize a local roaster.

You can google the group if it is of any interest.

jim

Margaret Suran said:

jmcquown said:

Margaret Suran said:

strong. At $4.00 a cup, it should also be very good.

That's quite an assumption, dear Margaret. Just because they
overprice a cup of coffee doesn't mean it will be "good".

Jill

When I wrote "it should" I meant it as in "it better be". I believe
that $4.00 for a cup of coffee is obscene.

Ah! That makes a difference. And I agree, it's an outrageous price.

Jill

Sheldon said:

pennyaline said:

Some of the best coffee I've ever had I purchased every morning on the

way

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Quoted message said:

to my job on 120th Street between First and Pleasant Avenues. There was

a

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

roach express bodega on the corner were I bought a buttered roll and the
tastiest "regular coffee" of my life. Haven't had the equal of it since!

<just remember to *look* before you bite! ;} >

Um, 120th St. ain't even close to Midtown... in fact that's well above
Uptown... you proved my point.

It was my intention to bolster your point as well as to show that good
comestibles don't only exist in commercial areas or just the trendier bits
of Manhattan.

<and youse don't have to pay a nominal egg for it, either >