Better Living Through Espresso

Stumptown at the Ace

Last week, my lovely wife agreed that instead of a romantic getaway to celebrate our almost three years of marital bliss, we could travel to New York City for a day-long coffee extravaganza. On Monday, ready for our adventure, we woke up early and hopped on a MegaBus bound for Manhattan. Once there, we set off to gallivanting about the city. At day’s end, we had visited 8 of the city’s best third wave coffee shops and I had consumed no fewer than ten espresso shots.

Our first stop was Stumptown in the Ace Hotel at 29th and Broadway, just blocks from our bus stop. Stumptown, among the nobility of the Portland coffee scene, has only one store on the East coast and it did not disappoint. While the required barista wardrobe (hats are mandatory) may be a bit contrived, it does add to the feel of the shop. Others have moaned that the lines at Stumptown are often excessive, but the woman in the photo was the only person in line before us. I ordered an espresso–they were pulling Hairbender, as expected–and Jenna ordered a small latté. Both were delicious and exactly as expected. The espresso was a bit toasty with a very full but smooth mouthfeel. The latté (yes, I stole a sip or two) was delicious though I’m not a terribly good judge of drinks with milk. The pour, however, was gorgeous.  It may be that it was our first stop of the day, but Stumptown’s was the best espresso I had all day. It is quite possible that my palate simply grew tired throughout the day, but nothing matched up to Stumptown’s amazing pull.

"Coffee: It's Bigger Than You (sort of)."

After Stumptown, we headed NYC-ward to visit Third Rail Coffee on Sullivan Street. Third Rail has an attractive shop most notable for its chalk sandwich board outside the front door.The interior of the shop is quite small with only four tiny tables that could comfortably seat 1.5 people. Though lacking in space, the shop is staffed by friendly baristi. Both employees behind the bar were helpful and more than willing to discuss their coffee and other wares. I ordered an espresso (Intelligentsia Black Cat) and Jenna stuck with a chocolate croissant. The croissant was incredible but the espresso, unfortunately, wasn’t. If I had to guess, I would say that the beans were a little too far off roast, but the crema was very thin and dissipated quickly and the taste was a little lacking without much of the fruity/floral notes usually found in Black Cat.  While my shot wasn’t excellent, I’m not ready to write off Third Rail. I still think they do great work; I just got a not great cup.

Café Grumpy is grumpy.

From Third Rail we headed out to Brooklyn to sample its fare. The first stop in Park Slope was Café Grumpy on 7th Avenue. Grumpy easily has the best logo in specialty coffee (though Ninth Street’s pirate aesthetic is a close second) and their coffee did not disappoint. At Grumpy I enjoyed another espresso served by the chattiest barista of the day. Because I asked about their espresso blend he assumed I worked in coffee (which, really, I’m okay with). After telling him otherwise, I said that we were on a coffee crawl in NYC and he asked my take on the shops we had already visited. We had a rather nice chat until other customers came in and he had to get to work. He said that we had come in at an interesting time because the next batch of espresso would be a new blend and that what they were pulling was a little longer off roast than they would usually allow. Despite that, the espresso was quite good. There was a nice fruitiness in the flavor and the mouthfeel was fairly balanced and pleasant. Overall, Café Grumpy is a fantastic shop and well worth the potential run-ins with Park Slope Stroller Mobs.

From Grumpy, we walked the few blocks over to Southside Coffee. There, we met Steven Baird who had graciously offered to briefly join in our quest and transport us around Brooklyn. Southside is a great stop with plenty of seating, which was rare among the shops we visited. They were pulling Intelligentaia’s Black Cat and, thankfully, doing so much better than Third Rail. I, as usual, had an espresso and Jenna enjoyed a nice pour-over of Finca La Soledad (though I may be off on the origin). It may have been the pre-lunch hunger setting in, but we could not seem to see the Southside sign, though we were less than a block away. They have a fairly understated logo and we may be blind. Nevertheless, it was an excellent stop with wonderful coffee.

After a quick slice, the three of us drove to Williamsburg and stopped first at Gimmie! Coffee. While I love the punctuation in the name, Gimmie backs up the excitement with very good coffee. The espresso was quite good though, at this point in the day, my palate was a bit overloaded so I don’t feel as if I was a decent judge of taste of flavor. The patrons of Gimmie, appropriate for Williamsburg’s reputation, were interestingly attired and sufficiently entertaining.

La Marzocco Lever Machine

Moving from Gimmie, we headed over to Blue Bottle Coffee. Another West coast transfer, this shop is the most visually pleasing among all the ones we visited. There is a very open feel–you can see to roastery at work behind a rope barrier–made complete by minimal decoration or color. There is, however, the gorgeous Kyoto iced-coffee brewer on display opposite the bar. This beautiful contraption drips room-temperature water over coffee for more than eight hours to produce a beautifully nuanced and strong brew, perfect for iced coffee (if that’s your thing). At Blue Bottle, I had two espressi. The first (Retrofit blend) was pulled from their semi-automatic La Marzocco and was quite nice. The second, however, was an SOE (Single Origin Espresso) Yemen San’ani pulled from an elegant La Marzocco lever machine. The shot, however, was lacking. Admittedly, it was my first shot from a lever machine but it had a very thin mouthfeel, almost watery, and the flavor was fairly bland.

Kyoto

Despite the bad SOE shot, Blue Bottle was an impressive stop, if only for its aesthetic beauty.

Leaving Brooklyn, we took a train back to Manhattan for a stop in Alphabet City at Ninth Street Espresso. With its spartan menu and rather out of the way location, the success of Ninth Street is impressive. Of course, it is helped by excellent espresso. The barista on bar was incredibly friendly and my espresso was quite tasty. They serve Intelligentsia, but their own Alphabet City espresso blend. Mentioned previously, I love the pirate look of their logo and the shop fits in perfectly with the neighborhood.

Bar at Ninth Street

Our last coffee stop of the day was Ost Café, only a few blocks away from Ninth Street. Despite its pretty good espresso, Ost was my least favorite stop of the day.

First off, they had no air conditioning which, really, should not count against a shop, but on a day hovering around 94°, it does. Beyond the heat indoors, the baristi were quite disinterested and unfriendly. Though specialty coffee has a reputation of snobbishness, only at Ost did the baristi seem even the least bit unfriendly. Of course, one could blame the temperature for their foul moods.

Overall, it was a great trip. We got to try some incredible coffee and see wonderful people along the way. Given the opportunity to do this again, I would visit only five or so shops. Eight stops (complete with 10 shots) is a bit much for one day. Having to choose, I would limit it to Stumptown, Gimmie!, Grumpy, Southside, and Blue Bottle.

Notable misses: Kaffe 1668, Joe the Art of Coffee, and Kickstand.