Posts Tagged ‘coffee’

5 Nov

Schmackary’s Cookies

Posted by Billy in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

The past week has been somewhat of an interesting adventure for us here in New York City, New Jersey and the outer boroughs. As you are well aware, Hurricane Sandy came and ripped right through the northeast leaving a wake of destruction in her path. It also forced the coffee crawl to take a week off. I apologize for that, but not for where it led me for this week’s crawl. Due to the fact that many businesses were down and out of food and electricity for a week, I had to walk up to Hell’s Kitchen and Times Square to track down my nourishment (and coffee). Quite the walk. Well after having a delicious brunch on 54th street, seeing the hilarious Wreck-It Ralph (go see it!), and having dinner at Don Giovanni’s MidTown I walked beside this amazing little cookie shop: Schmackary’s.
Taken right from their website, Schmackary’s has “lip-schmackin’ good cookies” and let me tell you, they definitely lived up to that name. Located at 362 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) this cookie and coffee shop is conveniently located near every bar that you could ever want to go to in Hell’s Kitchen (and I say this because it’s not only a fantastic after-dinner treat, but also an amazing treat after a few cocktails). The decor inside was simple, you don’t need much when you have cookies of all shapes, sizes and flavors. There were coffee mugs lining the walls, places to sit and people watch will schmackin on your cookies and then of course the counter to not only place your order but to see all of the sweets come out of the oven and onto their serving platters. It was enough to make your mouth water (and it definitely did mine!) The shop itself was pretty busy, assuming a pre-theater rush, so I wasn’t able to really get a good read on the baristas and counter people, however from what I could tell they were pretty nice and helpful. Seeing as this was my first time there, they took the time to explain the flavors to me as well as offer up a latte or coffee. I was very pleased with this as the employees at most places that are busy and popular tend to come off as rushing you or not being helpful at all.

That being said, I want to jump into the cookies and treats that Schmackary’s had to offer. I don’t even know where to begin though. The assortment of flavors was simply overwhelming (in a good way). They have two groupings of cookies: ones that are offered all year-long and those that are seasonal. For their “always on” offering there were the Classic Chocolate Chip, Cookies and Cream (dark cocoa, white chocolate, Oreo pieces and vanilla buttercream frosting on top), Maple Bacon (candied bacon, maple syrup, toffee bits and sea salt – YUM), Oatmeal Scotchie (oats, butterscotch chips, cinnamon and vanilla), Peanut Butter Cup, Red Velvet, and the  Sweet Corn (gluten-free, corn flour, cornmeal, sweet corn, cranberries and pecan bits). Needless to say, all of those looked and smelled amazing. For the seasonal cookies, they featured the Caramel Apple Crisp (oats, granny smith apples, white chocolate, caramel and streusel topping), Fluffer-Nutter (peanuts, peanut butter, peanut butter chips, peanut butter-marshmallow frosting on top – amazing), Peanut Butter After Dark (peanut butter, cocoa, semi-sweet chocolate and peanut butter chips), and Pumpkin Spice (pumpkin, autumnal spices, cranberries, cinnamon chips, pecans, and maple buttercream). Out of vast array of cookies that were offered, I chose the Peanut Butter After Dark and the Caramel Apple Crisp.

They. Were. Amazing!

The Peanut Butter After Dark, as you can tell from the ingredients, was so incredibly peanut buttery that it almost killed me (in a good way!). I don’t even have words to describe. If you like chocolate and you like peanut butter then you must check this cookie out. Hopefully they have it when you’re there. The Caramel Apple Crisp, how I love thee. Growing up my mom and I used to visit apple-picking orchards and then when we got home she’d make me the most delicious apple crisp that I still have ever tasted. This cookie was somewhat reminiscent of that flavor. The caramel gooey-ness combined with the crispy apple and streusel topping were to die for. I strongly urge you to visit this cookie-heaven-land before the fall season up so you can snatch up this cookie….or 5.

At the end of the day Schmackary’s, hands down, has the absolute best novelty and specialty cookies that I have yet to try. I highly recommend going there at least once a season and relaxing with a few cookies and cup of their fabulous Kobrick Coffee. It was the perfect way for me to end an incredibly stressful Hurricane Week and I would recommend that whether or not you experienced it, Schmackary’s will make your week happy too.

 

18 Oct

Pasticceria Bruno Bakery

Posted by Billy in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Wandering around Greenwich Village last weekend after a Sunday Funday event, taking in the sights of SoHo (and by sights I mean, shopping) I happened upon a fabulous little bakery on 506 LaGuardia Place called Pasticceria Bruno Bakery. From the name alone you can probably infer that I was about to partake in some delicious Italian baked goods.

Upon walking through the doors of the bakery I was instantly enamored with the decor. Halloween was to be found everywhere! From the decorations placed around the entrance to the featured goodies in each of the cases, the spooky Halloween spirit was in the air. I don’t know about you, but this time of year is my absolute favorite. Moving past the entrance and into the restaurant proper, it was a true Italian diner / bakery at its heart. Large bistro-style tables, families enjoying their food and treats and waiters bustling around. The thing that I love about diner atmospheres, especially Italian ones that are family owned and operated (I’m assuming) is that the level of service and care are top-notch. They ensure that your every want, need and desires are met and in a timely fashion. Very pleased.

Once we sat down at our table in the back corner of the bakery, a waitress quickly came over to tell us of the specials treats of the day as well as encouraged us to venture over to the bakery cases for viewing the various treats. There were 4 massive cases filled to the brim with all forms of baked goods ranging from cookies to cakes to pies to tarts. Everything you could possibly ever imagine wanting. I was in sweets heaven. As you can see from the photo, there was even a pumpkin-shaped cake! Ah-mazing. While I didn’t order the entire pumpkin cake, I did order 2 (yes, 2) yummy treats.

My first dessert to my Sunday Funday excursion was a Pumpkin Pie tart. Inspired by the Halloween decorations as well as the giant Pumpkin cake, I simply had to order this. As you can imagine it was fabulous and delicious. Smooth pumpkin creamy goodness and a dollop of whipped cream. YUM. My second dessert was a Double Chocolate Cake Souffle. I mean, do I really need to say anymore about it? The amount of chocolate was, for me, fabulous however I could see it being overwhelming for people who may not be as obsessed with sugar and chocolate as I am. I will say though it was fabulous.

For my drink I chose to order their dark chocolate hazelnut latte, in other words, a Nutella Latte. Honestly, I don’t think I need to write how great it was, but it was the most chocolatey, hazelnutty, creamy goodness and I will most definitely order it again. It probably was the best latte that I’ve had to date on my coffee crawl.

…and that’s saying a lot.

12 Aug

Blue Bottle Coffee

Posted by Billy in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

It’s a beautiful, 80-something degree day here in New York City. And by beautiful, I mean, incredibly muggy and hot. There’s nothing better to do on days like today than venture outside in search of the elusive bench-drenched-in-shade. Otherwise, sticking to indoor shopping and sight-seeing sounded pretty good to me. This is what first led me into the Chelsea Market. Big mistake on a gorgeous weekend day. Tourists. Cranky New Yorkers. Children running around everywhere seemingly unattended. Just not all too relaxing for my taste. This then brought me outside to 15th street and 9th Avenue, directly underneath the High Line. Tucked away from the naked eye was a simple sandwich board sign with just a blue bottle on it – touting the presence of Chelsea’s newest coffee shop, Blue Bottle Coffee.

I suppose, to the usual passersby and tourists, that Blue Bottle would appear to be your run of the mill coffee shop. It definitely was not that. Upon entering, I was greeted with polite hello’s, calm and not overpowering music, and the delicious aroma of coffee. While the seating area in the front of the shop was quite small, allowing for 8 stools, there was a second floor (which I will get to in a bit). As far as drinks go, there were a few things from the menu that I wanted to try, and couldn’t settle on just one so we decided to settle on a Cafe Latte and an Orange Peel Hibiscus Iced Tea.

The latte was absolutely delicious, especially being made from skim milk. The texture was creamy, the temperature was just hot enough and the latte art on top was exquisite. I noticed that, while we were being taken care of by one person, there was a second employee, the artist / barista, who did the actual coffee making magic. The work he did was simply put, amazing. It’s pretty difficult to find a great latte artist as the intricacy put into the craft is one that is incredibly detail-oriented yet must be quick. People don’t want to wait a long time for their beverages yet they do like the care and effort put into it. Go figure.

We also decided to try something on the cold side, as it was as I mentioned earlier, 80-something and muggy outside. I had asked if they had any iced teas, and to my luck, they did!! An orange peel hibiscus iced tea. That was a definite yes. Sounded scrumptious and exactly what I needed to quench my thirst. As you know from my past crawls, I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so you’ll be surprised to hear that I didn’t add any sweetener to the iced tea. The orange was sweet enough, combined with the floral aspect of the hibiscus, that it satisfied even my cravings without being over-the-top for those of you who don’t care for sweeter things. I would say that it’s a must-have here. The next time I’m cruising the High Line, I’ll make sure to swing by Blue Bottle for my iced tea to go!

We then noticed that a second floor existed. A little sign in the corner of the shop pointed upstairs and read “Siphon and Toast.” My interest and curiosity were piqued. What we found was a cute little bar. It looked like a cleaned up version of any neighborhood bar, where everybody knows your name, except that this version served up siphoned coffee, cute little cookies and brioche toast with butter and jam. Hence the name siphon and toast.

Blue Bottle’s Siphon and Toast was modeled after Tokyo’s intimate coffee bars which allowed locals to come in and enjoy a very clean and light brewed coffee with the conversational setting of a bar. Siphoned coffee is made using  a halogen burner, a siphon upper and lower bowl, a cloth-like filter, a bamboo stirring paddle and of course, coffee. The water is heated in the lower bowl to a temperature that forces the liquid to rise into the upper bowl, because there’s nowhere else for it go. The water that now is in the upper bowl is heated even more to temperature of around 90-95 degrees. Once there, the coffee grinds are stirred in, with the bamboo stirring paddle, until the coffee is made. Following this step, the coffee then filters back down into the lower bowl through the cloth-like filter, leaving a very rich and clean drink. It’s so clean in fact, that it resembles a hot tea, only with much more caffeine.  We tried two flavors, one that was a Hawaiian bean and consisted of a very floral palette and one that had much more of a chocolate and fruit appeal, with notes of pomegranate. Both were absolutely delicious.

We also had to try (lol) the Brioche Toast with Butter and Jam. The bread was flaky, had a hint of sweetness and topping that off with blackberry jam, I was in heaven. We were told that it was actually a great way to soak up some of the caffeine because apparently, the siphoned coffee was a little more intense than your regular drip coffee.

Of course the siphoned coffee was a bit on the pricey side totaling $20 for both, but knowing the work and care that went into it – it was well worth the money. Our barista was a doll, also make the money worth it! Taking the time to explain every last step to us in detail, telling us about the origins of the beans and even about the history of Blue Bottle.

I will be making a return in the near future. I’ve needed to find a great little out-of-the-way coffee shop for quite some time now and Blue Bottle may be just that. We’ll see how quickly Time Out or The Voice get hold of this, but for now, I’m going to keep it my little gem.

6 Feb

Doughnut Plant

Posted by Billy in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

As most of you know by now, besides coffee, sweet food and treats hold a very dear place in my heart. Cupcakes, pies, cakes, ice cream, cookies, brownies…everything. I love it all. I’m sure that this love stems from a long line of baking and cooking talent than runs in my family. Before I was born, my grandfather owned and ran a bakery back in North Carolina. In addition to selling everything that I mentioned above. he also (from what I hear) made some of the absolute best doughnuts around. Piping hot, flavors bursting in your mouth at every bite and always fresh are some of the words that family members and friends use to describe their experience at my grandfather’s bakery. To this day, I truly wish that I could experience it. I’m sure I’d be writing a Crawl on it!

In addition to loving anything with large quantities of butter and sugar, and the slightest touch of personal nostalgia attached to it, I decided to try out Chelsea’s new doughnut shop, Doughnut Plant. Although new to the neighborhood, Doughnut Plant also has a location on the Lower East Side which I have had the extreme pleasure in trying a few years back. Truly amazing. Amazing! Deciding to explore this new location on 23rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, it was clear that what I was about to taste would be no exception. The outside of the doughnut shop already showed me that I would be in for something wonderful. The black and white tiled entrance, the sandwich board sign calling out the day’s specials (today was an interesting-sounding Green Tea Doughnut which I did not brave myself enough up to try), and the beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows giving me a sneak peek into the fabulous shop inside. Walking inside it’s clear that the theme of a “doughnut plant” is carried through well. Wrought iron lamps hanging from the ceiling, a beautifully designed iron bar and just an all around industrial look give this place that plant/factory feel. Although it may not sound all that welcoming and comfortable, the smells and the tastes of the round (and square!) delicacies more than made up for any lack of comfort. Another theme carried throughout the store incredibly well (obviously) is that of the shape of the doughnut. From the traditional round shape to the more modern square, they are found throughout. From the wall pillows to the roped-off line stands to even the seats and booths, they were everywhere. The booths in particular were of utmost interest to me. It looked as if the initial bench was constructed of cement, overlaid with painted and glazed ceramic doughnut shapes (check out the picture on the left). Honestly, the decoration and clear thought that went into the design of Doughnut Plant was outstanding.

Now, onto the food!! It was incredibly difficult for me to refrain from ordering one of every last doughnut on the menu, but because I don’t have 25 hours in the day to workout at the gym to make up for it, I had to hold back. Sadly. The thing with the Doughnut Plant that you may or may not know is that their menu of available flavors can change daily. One day your favorite flavor will be there (or sold out) and another day it just might not have been on the docket. Because I had been there before, I did have a favorite: the Carrot Cake Doughnut. I mean, do I need to say more than that? Carrot cake batter, a ring of cream cheese icing piped throughout and drizzled in a light sugary syrup are the makings of this fabulous little treat. Unfortunately for me, they were already sold out. But lucky for me on the other hand, I like everything with butter and sugar (remember?) so I was easily able to substitute it for another. Today’s flavor happened to be a Vanilla Bean. You’re probably asking why I would pick such a plain flavor. Well I wanted to be able to focus on the craftsmanship of the “original” so that I could better judge the others at a later time. I definitely was not disappointed. Tasting what I would only be able to imagine my grandfather’s tasting like, the Vanilla Bean was just the right amount of sugary and cakey dough smothered in icing. Smothered. And, to be honest because I can’t lie to my readers, I went up for seconds. That’s right. Seconds. And what, do you ask, I went for? Well, the Peanut Butter and Jelly Doughnut. This was square-shaped, peanut butter dough, covered in bite-size peanuts and piped full of jelly. Ummm, amazing. Do I really need to say more about it? And because this is technically The Coffee Crawl, I did have coffee, although this really should focus on the out-of-this-world doughnuts. The coffee unfortunately was a bit burnt tasting and not very hot.  It was a little disappointing, but mainly because when I think doughnuts I also think coffee. What sounds better than a fresh-from-the-oven doughnut and a bold, fresh cup of coffee?

Despite that slight negative remark, Doughnut Plant was fantastic. From the moment I walked through its front doors I remembered what I once loved about its Lower East Side location. I also was able to try to catch a bit of the nostalgia in thinking about my grandfather’s bakery. In one respect I was sorry that I was never able to experience it, but in another it’s great that a place like this exists in Manhattan.

21 Jan

Doughboy Bake Shop

Posted by Billy in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Today is a day of firsts here in New York City. It’s the first snowfall of 2012, bringing with it a blanket of white covering the streets. If you haven’t yet experienced it, the West Village is simply astounding under snow, and a must-add to anyone’s bucket list. The second of firsts is that I’m writing my first Coffee Crawl in the shop, on the WordPress app, from my brand new iPad. I’ve been long awaiting this moment for such a long time and it’s finally here! I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I am. Anyway, back to the crawl. Today I’m writing from a fantastic little spot in the West Village that’s only about 3 months old: the Doughboy Bake Shop. Located at 535 Hudson Street at the corner of Charles Street, it’s clearly in the perfect spot. You’re probably thinking that it may be a little close to Cafe Panino Mucho Giusto, but both places are very different. Doughboy is much more of a bakery (obviously) that sells coffee, which I’ll get to. CPMG features more food items that you would want to go to for meals, do you see the distinction (I hope you caught that movie reference quote).

Doughboy Bake Shop is in a store that has housed many other restaurants in the recent years. Before Doughboy it was a gelato shop and before that, more of a cake bakery. I never went in to either of those former locations, but now I’m venturing in because it’s much more up my alley. And I’m so glad that I did. The first impression that I got when I walked in was, “I’m in love.” The 2 employees working were incredibly friendly and chatty, which I love. We talked about everything from where they were from originally (one was from Iowa, which I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing but hope to one day), to what the meaning of the shop’s name was. Scattered around the bakery’s walls were images of soldiers. I suppose I should have known this, but after a peek at Wikipedia I discovered that a Doughboy is actually a soldier from the World War 1 era. They were named so because after marching through the dry terrain of Mexico, the soldiers would get covered in dust, giving the appearance of unbaked dough. Interesting fact…and clever name!! Props. Most of the baking takes place downstairs, but they do have a little oven in the main portion of the bakery I’m guessing for cookies, muffins and other necessities that they may run out of more quickly. Downstairs is where the bundt cakes, coffee cakes and other yummy goods come to life. I couldn’t find any stairs within my line of sight so I was curious as to how they were transported up…and then I saw the dumbwaiter. Yes, a dumb-waiter. All that I could think of was when Michelle Williams hid in her college kitchen’s dumb-waiter in Halloween: H2O. Of course Doughboy was nothing like that setting, but still it came to mind. For some reason I just love that they use it for transporting the baked goods between floors. I don’t know why, I’m just odd like that sometimes.

Next up, and my favorite portion of the crawl: the food. The delicious, fresh-from-the-oven, food. I honestly had no idea what I wanted to try….first. Doughboy has everything from blueberry and apple cinnamon muffins to banana bread with chocolate chips to an iced blueberry bundt cake. I simply couldn’t take it. I opted to taste the apple cinnamon muffin and my companion for this crawl had the banana bread with chocolate chips. Actually let’s be honest, I had both. The muffins had just come out of the oven so as I pulled the wrapper off and tore the muffin in two, steam rose out of the middle. I really enjoy seeing the steam. It adds that extra touch of “home” that makes everything taste better, as if my grandfather just pulled it out of his oven. The banana bread with chocolate chips on the other hand, I just can’t. I really can’t. It was phenomenal. I mean, obviously bananas and chocolate are going to taste divine, but this really pushed it over the top. I know that the picture doesn’t do it too much justice, but trust me. Trust. Me. The coffee that Doughboy serves up is courtesy of Mud. Mud Coffee is a staple to New York City and can be found in Brooklyn, at various coffee shops or at their traveling coffee trucks. My favorite to visit is in Union Square before hitting up Regal for a movie. But, being a very popular and huge force in the City, Mud adds the perfect complement to the treats.

I hope that this edition of the crawl sheds a little light onto what awaits you at Doughboy Bake Shop. I hope that the same two people are there every Saturday morning, serving me the same amazing banana bread and conversation because if so, this coffee shop just become one of my all-time favorites.

7 Jan

Think Coffee – West Village

Posted by Billy in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Happy 2012 my caffeine-addicted coffee crawlers! I know it’s been quite some time, (read: way too long) since my last java journey, but I’m finally back in action. It’s no excuse, but 2011 turned out to be an incredibly busy year for me, which temporarily pried me away from my duties at hand. Well enough of looking at the past, let’s get to the present and future. And what better way to do this than at Think Coffee in the West Village.

Located at 73 8th Avenue and 13th Street it’s practically in my backyard (if I didn’t live in New York City and actually had some grass and something more than the ‘concrete jungle’ to call a backyard). Some of you reading this, if you venture out to try this shop, may recognize its location. This building was the former nightclub Mansion. I myself never had the chance (opportunity?) to check it out, as it was much before my time as a New Yorker. Being who I am, however, I would much prefer a coffee shop to a nightclub in my neighborhood any day. Carrying on. It’s actually quite gorgeous here and I can still see the remnants of a nightclub atmosphere pervading the space: high railings where partiers would have placed their drinks as the people-watched, tall almost 13 foot ceilings, great acoustics, and massive. Yes, Think Coffee is probably three times the size of a normal city Starbucks location. The front 3rd of the coffee shop is dedicated to a small seating area complete with marble tabletops and beautiful leather sofas. The middle of the coffee shop is where the magic happens: espresso machines, coffee roasters, bean grinders and kitchen where food is prepared.  Their pastries and muffins are shipped in but items such as oatmeal, granola and sandwiches are made in-house. The back of the coffee shop is another seating area. From my experience thus far, not many people venture back there as it’s a little oddly arranged with a lot of awkward open space. If this place is to succeed, something needs to go down back there because the crowd isn’t that large that’s eating here and it’s simply wasted space.

Unfortunately like too many coffee shops in the area, as soon as I walked in this morning I was greeted by blasting rock music and an unfriendly staff. I’m not sure why this atmosphere and attitude is prevalent at far too many businesses. It really does nothing to bring back customers in my opinion. I mean, I completely understand that pouring coffee to the West Village community is the last thing anyone would want to do at 8AM on a Saturday morning, but at least pretend to enjoy it. I don’t know, that’s just my opinion. Signs are scattered around the space which call out 2 main points, one the at I love and one that is quite frustrating: “10% of after-tax profits from this Think Coffee are donated to Hudson Guild, which runs a variety of educational and other programs for youth, teens and seniors in Chelsea and surrounding neighborhoods.” This is absolutely fantastic and a great business move. Supporting local initiatives and charities is one way that will keep a neighborhood “family” coming back to support. The second glaring sign reads “Welcome, WE DO NOT HAVE WIFI please enjoy your CONVERSATION.” Yes, the bolded areas here are actually bolded on the signs. I get that having WiFi will create people lingering and taking up space, but come on, even my park and the Starbucks across the street from my apartment offer WiFi.

The coffee here was decent: a very light roast, not too strong or overwhelming flavor. They do however claim to visit the farms where the beans are grown and say that the use only farms and farmers that are environmentally and socially responsible, another factor that will keep this neighborhood coming back for more. “Organic” and “sustainable” are two hot descriptors that coffee drinkers of today love to see. I tried their 7-grain muffin as well this morning and found it quite enjoyable actually. I was expecting, being as it’s the “healthy” muffin, that it would be dry, lacking in flavor and just all around bland. Much to my surprise it was the opposite of all of that: moist and freshly baked-tasting with a delicious light crumb topping. I may actually come back for this again.

All in all, I give Think Coffee a so-so rating. There are just so many things they could do with the space that they just haven’t thought through yet. It’s a shame really, because the business is not picking up and they’ve been open for about 3 months now. Despite my lackluster rating, I hate seeing businesses be slow. Hopefully it will pick up for them. But if you’re in the neighborhood, do stop in and see for yourself the former Mansion nightclub-turned-coffee-shop. I will stop in for my muffin, but you will most likely find me across the street at the Starbucks where I can actually blog live on WiFi and not save it to publish later.

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