Cafes
There's always a chain of cafes in whatever city you're in: Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, Xando, Peet's Coffee, etc. They're okay. Most of them have nice places to sit and relatively good coffee and snacks. But there are some places that are great. These are the places I want to talk about. And most of these places won't pressure you to leave if you just want to sit for a while with your coffee or whatever. If you get a chance to check any of these out, please do!
Baltimore
City Cafe:corner of Eager St. and Cathedral St.
This is great cafe in the Mt. Vernon district. They have great coffee and pretty good food. The place is light and airy,and good music is playing. The staff is pretty nice. The people who frequent the place are mixed, with more of leaning towards the gay and lesbian community.
New York City
Zido's: 3rd Ave. between 22nd and 23rd St.
Cute place, good coffee, okay snacks. Frequented by the VSA, CUNY, and Baruch students from the area.
Cinema Classics: 11th St. between 1st and 2nd Ave.
Great ambience, cool crowd, okay coffee, great snacks from a bakery nearby called Taylor's. Shows movies at night for $5. Also rents movies.
Mission Cafe: 2nd Ave. between 4th and 5th St.
Small and cozy, great coffee, great food.
Des Moines Cafe: 3rd St. and Ave. A
Spacious and airy, good coffee, good snacks.
alt.coffee: Ave. A between St. Mark's Place and 9th St.
Great space, cool artwork on the walls, good coffee, okay snacks, smoking and non-smoking rooms, comfortable couches, frequented by East Villagers
Cafe Pick Me Up: Ave. A and 9th St.
Great ambience, good coffee, good snacks, outdoor seating when weather is nice
Housing Works Cafe: Crosby St. between Prince and Houston St.
Awesome space and ambience, okay coffee, good food, cool readings, and used bookstore to browse through
Le Gamin Cafe: MacDougal St. between Houston and King St.
Very cute French cafe, wonderful food, good coffee, great ambience, eye candy. Sometimes you sort of feel like you're in Paris. There are two other cafe locations actually, their menus are the same, but their ambiences are different. Of the three, I'm partial to this one.
Grey Dog Coffee: Carmine St. between Bleecker and Bedford St.
Great ambience, great food, great coffee (free refills), eye candy. They have a killer brunch. This is one of my most favorite places.
Original Espresso Bar: Christopher St. between 7th Ave. and Bleecker St.
Great ambience, great coffee, great food, eye candy. This place almost feels like a little bit of the east Village on Christopher street. They play really cool music here too.
Factory Cafe: Christopher St. between Bleecker and Hudson St.
Beautiful space, good coffee, okay snacks, gelato, eye candy. This place is great for people watching.
Magnolia Bakery: Bank St. and Bleecker St.
Cozy, wonderful baked goods, good coffee. Feels like you're sitting in someone's kitchen down south.
Paradise Cafe: 8th Ave. between 16th and 17th St.
Great ambience, wonderful food (especially the soups and cookies), great coffee, eye candy
Big Cup: 8th Ave. between 21st and 22nd St.
Large, airy space, comfortable couches, good music, good coffee, good snacks, great eye candy. Gotta love the psycho clowns on the walls.
Chelsea's Best Espresso Bar: 7th Ave. and 22nd St.
Small, but cozy space, great snacks, and great coffee. The counter people are extremely nice.
Drip: Amsterdam Ave. between 83rd and 84th St.
Great ambience (funky and fun), good coffee, great snacks, eye candy. The novelty about Drip is that it runs a sort of dating service: you fill out a form for a nominal fee and for a little more, you can request that your profil be given to someone of your choice for a possible blind date. Interesting, no?
Houston
Empire Cafe
Great ambience, great coffee, great food.
If you have any comments, please feel free to email me!
back to contents