Last week, the New York Times ran an article, “New York is Finally Taking its Coffee Seriously,” about the recent explosion of cafes around the city—cafes where coffee is more of an art than a quotidian luxury. Having gathered some suggestions as to which coffee houses to visit from a story in Edible Manhattan a few months back, the trend hadn’t escaped us, but I have to admit that (as a Latte drinker first, and a coffee drinker second) I sometimes wondered if the better cups had more to do with the milk fat: at these finer coffee houses, I would never condescend to specify skim milk and so I get a smooth, creamy, whole-milk latte in return. At Starbucks, it’d probably be a “skinny latte” every time. Of course I could tell there was more to it than that, but I couldn’t have put the differences into words—excepting “yummmmmmmm.”
Apparently the key distinctions include beans roasted in the past ten days and ground to order; milk steamed to order; and baristas who are highly-trained on the peculiar functions of a manual espresso machine.
Still, even before reading the Edible or Times articles, Aron and I had made a connection between places we liked to eat and Stumptown Coffee. Somehow the two seemed to go together. If there was a “We Serve Stumptown” sign in the window, there was a good chance we’d be happy customers.
So we were pretty excited when we found out that Portland-originated Stumptown Coffee Roasters had opened up a shop of their own just off the lobby of the ACE Hotel. The coffee—roasted in Red Hook—has us both humming love tunes. And you couldn’t ask for a much better setting (plus, I’m pretty jazzed that it’s close to my office).
The Times piece has a list of some of the other best coffee spots in the city. I’m thinking I might need a cheat-sheet for my wallet.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
oh this post makes me die of jealousy…i'd love to be hopping around, trying out different coffee shops in new york!
I think the next step is for you to try it in Portland.
Ooooh! An invitation, Jesse? (I'd love to! For the coffee, of course.)
Yum. And I love the barista hats…very dashing
Our friend Brian is a roaster at Stumptown here in Portland. Needless to say, he's spoiled me for coffee. It's the best!
Lucky Ducks! I spent years in college in WA and Portland, OR where I learned the art and love of proper coffee. Stumptown is the bees knees! When I visited NYC last summer I saw that they were coming and got insane jealous. Now that NY has exceptional coffee it is unbeatable (good thing I booked my plane tickets to the city last night =)
But really, enjoy the stumptown, it is so delicately selected, roasted and made (they require specific esperesso machines and training workshops to brew it). I'm salivating just thinking of it. enjoy!
Never heard of it but it looks great!
Not much for coffee but love the photography and the info.
I switched my blog template again. Not back to the one you like though (was it the good afternoon one you liked?) I just keep trying new ones on for size. Like shoes.
As for the next weekend getaway… Well this weekend we are learnign to surf for the first time. Does that count?
And p.s. it'd be brilliant if you put together a city guide… my family and I might be coming to NY this summer. Woo!
Rachael
If you're enjoying Stumptown (woohoo Portland) you should also try Intelligentsia (www.intelligentsiacoffee.com). They have a lab in NYC where they offer tastings and classes, you might enjoy it!
Great post and great blog!! You combined two of my favorite things in one … coffee and photography. You have a great photographic eye. Maybe yo ucould come to Nashville and give me some lessons. Sadly, we only have Starbucks here, so no super cool new coffee house for us…
Manders Panders, When are you coming! I hope you have a great time, you'll have to let us know what you saw!
its simple love, I've thought of doing a city guide, but its so daunting. Maybe one of these days!
Jeff, We'll have to try it, thanks!
ah yes, stumptown is right here in my backyard! i actually have a roaster i love even more, if that's possible…check out ristretto roasters. it's definitely the opposite of stumptown – very smooth, no bite at all – but it's amazing!
thanks for stopping the blog to say hi
Oh Lucky you, I can only write about this place…. too far away to visit, well maybe one day !!!! Great post.
Yep, Stumptown is definitely a favorite. Here in SF, I just discovered that there is a BlueBottle coffee just a few blocks away, and I had a very similar extatic reaction!!!
And thanks for visiting and browsing….it's too bad that you won't make it up to Leh on your next trip to India…it's the city that we dream about going back to the most.
interesting…. Shouldn't have read this before my coffee this morning.