It's time to talk about coffee again
New York Coffee is back and still the best thing in your inbox today
First: It seems not posting is the best SEO
As we all know, not posting for a month is the best way to increase your subscriber count by around 20%!
For some reason, many new people subscribed and have (hopefully) enjoyed this reading this newsletter.
Welcome everyone! It’s amazing to have you.
As always, we love feedback, so if you have problems with a recipe, need advice for your coffee friend visiting, or even just want to ask a question about coffee, you can e-mail us directly at newyorkcoffeenewsletter@gmail.com.
Second: Today is National Coffee Day!
To not reinvent the wheel/steal content, CNET has an okay list of ‘free’ coffees if it’s not too late. Some require purchase.
For everyone that’s been with us, welcome back to New York Coffee!
Today’s Newsletter
a coffee shop triple feature
‘why bother asking for recommendations?’
This week’s coffee shop spotlight!
Are you as tired of hearing about flushing coffee shops as I am?
Wait, you want to hear about murray hill coffee shops, too? Are you insane? The Murray Hill? Not the one that’s pretty much kips bay, manhattan, but the one past flushing, where even the subway is afraid to go?
Yeah, me too.
And so I went! Here’s “The Well Coffee”, a surprisingly non-New York style—a café in/for a church.
There aren’t a lot of these up here, mostly because you have to pay a ton of money to fit a café in a church here, much less have a church at all.
There’s also the whole thing about close-knit communities faring much better with the groups of people that migrated to the southern mountainous regions, and a history of “us vs. them” is a valuable survival strategy for such geologic areas and the ‘church/religious’ community building works nicely with that there,
but mostly the rental cost thing.
The Well Coffee’s owner was extremely nice, and the menu was very inventive. I know you might be expecting a coffee review, but I had to get this thing:
Yeah, it was great, and I really needed it after walking from Flushing to this place. And instagram-worthy, if you’re into that!
As an aside, I like to ask for recommendations from the staff when I go places. I’ll create a section for this after the café features, but I have a better experience the better that interaction goes, almost always.
Actually, asking and having that friendly chat got me a free pastel de nata, too. So consider that next time you have an extra second to chat.
I love custard tarts.
I kept walking and found a tag which is perhaps the person putting “Dream till it’s your reality” everywhere:
Gloomy ‘23
Coffee Shop #2
A little closer to Flushing, Coffee Story is a quaint sandwich and croffle shop that is proof that the egg cream is truly a staple in café adjacent eating. In fact, the area around this is a small Korean area, which lots of Korean food, coffee shops, and, as a result, creative recipes.
A “melon cream soda” is one of the things you’ll find on this menu; which is so large I can’t even tell you what I got in this picture. You can actually get a full menu here, including Banh-mi, bingsoo [shaved ice], and cream puffs
.
The owner, here, was also an incredible person and happy to chat with me about her shop.
Coffee Shop #3
Look at me, I’m traveling everywhere for you!
Beans and Malt?? In this economy?
This is the spot for the young Korean crowd in the neighborhood to look like models and resist the idea that Instagram is a perfectified version of what their day-to-day looks like. Even the staff were young, similarly to the church-café. Yet this cafés staff aggressively cleaned, polished, prepped the entirety of this rather large space.
The coffee came out great, and yet the poshness and expectations of the room put me off.
I mean, the detail on this latte is something else.
I can’t say I recommend it, though, except if you’re already in the area and you want a place to work.
That’s it for the coffee reviews!
Finally, we can move onto the next neighborhood. Closer to Manhattan?
no. Bay Ridge! Can’t wait to tell you about one of the best pizza slices I’ve had in my life, and a Palestinian café in which I talked about Lebanese real estate for a 35 minute meal.
Why do I ask for recommendations?
For those of you asking me this question, you might think it’s rude or ‘basic’ to ask. It’s a silly thought, that. You don’t go into a restaurant you’ve never had the food at before and expect to know everything, do you?
Remember this post?
An item on that list says “staff is either extremely stressed or extremely happy”. It’s generally because it shows that either the manager/owner cares a lot, or the staff cares a lot. The staff’s happiness could also show they are completely confident in their abilities and can address any issue that shows up.
It also is that they care about the restaurant as much as the owner does, which can really only happen for one reason at a coffee shop:
They feel that they are improving the lives of the customers.
I mean, why would you sweep an extra time even though it’s not closing, or wipe a counter to a buffed sheen instead of just ‘clean’?
The most amazing cafés not only care about the customer, but they make every drink according to what the customer likes best.
A couple examples:
The person getting a hot chocolate might enjoy a little more of a foamy drink than the person getting a mocha.
A person eyeing the pastries probably needs a substantial drink (maybe a tiny cookie on the side!)
Your coworker maybe needs a little something stronger than coffee
And more than that, your regulars might like a little more foam, a little longer of an espresso pull, a hotter drink. Regulars across a coffee shop might all like their drinks a certain way. In NYC, some neighborhoods demand a certain coffee style, while other neighborhoods are where the style of the coffee shop demands its customers.
At a lot of coffee shops, the employees think less of you, or simply can’t be bothered. “Oh, the ___ is the most popular drink” is not only an awful thing to hear, but if the most popular drink was your favorite you’d have said that.1
But the employees that can tell what you like just by looking are not recommending you a ‘latte’.
They’re recommending you your latte.
So, should I start asking in a new way?
What’s a drink that defines this coffee shop?
What drink should I get if I like sweet/acidic?
What’s your favorite order of the last 5 people?
All good ideas, but not enough. You might find out that ‘defining’ a coffee shop is 10 drinks, or they can’t care enough to identify that. You are going to get pigeonholed if you ask the second, and if you ask the third you might get lucky and you also might get a double shot espresso with a pump of blueberry.
I say, live by the blade, die by the blade. Asking for recommendations works at anywhere worth their salt. Anywhere that looks down at that isn’t.
Thanks for tuning in!
I normally have more, but I am already close to the e-mail length limit.
See you next week, and
Enjoy your coffee!
Do they not trust the most popular drink to be the best? Or, if you think about this, they are saying that the most popular drink is not the best; that they don’t trust their customers’ taste.