I'll be staying in Manhattan/Chelsea in the next few weeks and was curious if there's anything new going on there that's related to coffee, such as roasting tours or really new shops to try. I'll probably be hitting Ninth St., Gimme, and Grumpy since those seem to be mentioned a lot. Are there any places to take a roasting tour similar to what Intelligentsia does? The only place I found where you can see roasting is a place called Roasting Plant Coffee Co. but they have some crazy thing called a Javabot that roasts and grinds the coffee to order. I might check it out if I have some extra time, but it looks more gimmicky than anything. Thanks for any help. I'm also planning on trying to find some nice logo cups if the shops sell them. I also visited Zabar's which was pretty fun (very crowded) and bought some of their Blue Mountain Style coffee which I haven't tried yet but it smells great. No roast dates on any of their coffees, though.
I edited the subject to reflect the experience after the trip.
aindfan Senior Member Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 22 Location: USA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Gaggia Achille with Silvia... Grinder: Le'Lit PL53
Posted Mon Jul 14, 2008, 5:58am Subject: Re: Anything New in Manhattan/Chelsea area?
While I don't know of any new coffee places, I did see yesterday that Grumpy has an "espresso to go" for $10 - no, it's not actually served to go, you just keep the Grumpy cup. You may also want to stop by Joe: The Art of Coffee (seems to get mixed reviews here but I really like it - they certainly seem to know what they're doing, 5 locations downtown and at Grand Central Terminal) and Everyman Espresso (13th street near Union Square). I don't think there are many roasters in Manhattan, but I've heard some great things about Dallis Brothers Coffee in Queens (more specifically, about their Five Points Espresso), so you may try getting in touch with them.
EDIT: Forgot to mention Mercury Dime. I haven't been there, but I read somewhere that it was good. I think they have Dallis coffee.
Posted Fri Jul 18, 2008, 11:18pm Subject: Re: Anything New in Manhattan/Chelsea area?
Thanks for the reply - I just got back from my trip this evening and didn't see your post until now. I did see the cup offer at Grumpy and am now a proud owner of that really nice Nuova Point cup with the Grumpy face on it. They told me it was a joke at first since people would ask for espresso to go and they refuse to do that (paper cup), so this was their compromise. Nice! Didn't go to Joe: The Art of Coffee as I was pretty busy all week and it was a little (actually it felt really hot to me when coffee hunting and walking) hot out to go too far, but I went to Cafe Grumpy (Chelsea location - awesome little shop), Ninth Street (Chelsea Market), and Gimme (Manhattan location). I'll probably write some more once I get some sleep, but overall I'd say I liked Grumpy the most. Really nice people that took the time to go over the coffees and things like that and the fact that they sold logo cups was perfect. I didn't even go over to Queens, but maybe next time.
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