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Just a few short years ago, New York City was a coffee wasteland. When I first became a coffee drinker my brew of choice was a cup of hazelnut flavored watery swill from the corner bodega. This was obtained with the magic words “coffee regular” which indicated the inclusion of a fat spoonful of sugar and splash of milk. The final cup was presented with a lid, a stack of napkins and a stir stick all shoved into a paper bag. No doubt the coffee beans used for this were the least expensive component.

Today New York is still a coffee quagmire but there are many more troops fighting the good fight and establishing oases of true brew. My co-conspirator Kyle and I flew to the city last weekend to attend what we thought was going to be the grand opening party for the new Cafe Grumpy Chelsea shop. The shop is up and running but due to some lost RSVPs the “party” turned out to be less a formal event and more a big group of coffee geeks hanging out at a bar. Which anyway is really more my cup of… er, tea.

The two big up-to-the-minute stories in the New York coffee scene are Cafe Grumpy’s entry into Manhattan and the soon to open second shop from Ninth Street Espresso.

With major media taking notice, Grumpy seems poised to make a big splash. Their new Chelsea shop is rocking not one, but two by-the-cup Clover brewers for a rotating selection of single origin coffees from Counter Culture, and they’re featuring Andrew Barnett’s Ecco Reserve espresso. The location is just a few steps off the beaten path (20th Street between 7th and 8th Aves) and is warm and inviting. A lot goes into getting the doors open on something like this and Chris, Caroline, and the rest of the Grumpies pulled it off well.

Ninth Street Espresso never disappoints and each time we visited the shop was slamming. A new bar design and a standing bar at the window have ratcheted up the energy and pace of the place in time to deal with the new throngs of coffee pilgrims who’ve recently discovered this Alphabet City Mecca. Ken Nye and his crew have a great thing going - the quintessential neighborhood joint with a global reputation. Great coffee, done right, zero bullshit. A second Ninth Street Espresso bar is set to open very soon on 13th street (confusing? so what) at the Classic Stage Company just off of Union Square (136 E. 13th).

The real fun of the visit was in seeing old friends and meeting new colleagues. It was really great hanging out with the blogging duo of Mike White and Chris Owens of Williamsburg’s Gimme Coffee. Shooting the breeze with allies like the visiting Gabe Boscana or the crew from Ninth Street is worth ten times the cost of a plane ticket. Its really cool how people in this scene who might otherwise consider each other competitors instead act as comrades. I’m taken aback by how many former coworkers and assorted Seattle refugees I was able to see - if New York didn’t already feel enough like home, this just reinforces it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 1:40 am and is filed under Coffee, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.