Café Compass: New York City
New York City is such a cosmopolitan city that every corner has its own type of magic. And when you think about food, and coffee and sweet treats, it's not the exception. It's a city that always makes us want to come back and every time we leave, we start imagining our next trip on our plane back home. If you live in NYC, you probably already have your coffee spots, but if not, here's our Café Compass:
La Cabra - @LaCabraCoffee
We had heard lots of good things about La Cabra in Denmark, so we had high expectations for our first visit to their NYC location. And it definitely did not disappoint; we loved it. The atmosphere is chill and relaxed. We really enjoyed watching how they prepared our coffees.
To satisfy our sweet tooth we had the cardamom bun and pain suisse, and both were amazing; some of the best pastries we had in a while.
It's important to mention that this isn't a spot to get some work done: laptops aren't allowed and there is no Wi-Fi. Also, we heard that there is always a line to get in, but when we went there wasn't and we were able to order right away - so keep this in mind when you're planning your visit.
Locations: 284 Lafayette St. - Bakery: 152 2nd Ave.
WatchHouse - @WatchHouse
Before visiting WatchHouse in NYC, we already knew them from our trip to London, where we went for coffee and lunch multiple times and loved every single location we visited (you can read about our experience on our London Café Compass). We were thrilled when we found out they had opened in New York since it was our favorite coffee shop from our London trip, so it was a must on our coffee-shop list when we visited New York.
The atmosphere was so nice and relaxing, and it was very pleasant to stop there to enjoy a cup of coffee and chat.
Their coffee is one of our favorites we've ever tried, and their pastries are delicious as well. Obviously we had to try the chocolate chip cookie (lol, we laugh so hard every time we write we ate a cookie - but we love them, and it's become our mission to try one when we there's one at a coffee shop); we also had the pain au chocolat, cardamom bun and croissant - one day we even bought pastries to take back to our hotel, after a day of walking around Central Park. We can't wait to go back!
Location: 660 5th Ave.
Café Grumpy - @CafeGrumpy
Café Grumpy was a really nice surprise during our last trip to New York City. We usually have different coffee shops and places to eat through the day planned ahead, but while we were leaving the Hudson Yards area and wanted some lattes to take with us while we walked around, we found Café Grumpy inside Whole Foods (the one on 450 West 33rd St.) - and it was one of the best lattes we had on our whole vacation. The people working there were warm and attentive - not grumpy at all, lol.
We highly recommend visiting your nearest Café Grumpy - we've already added them to our must-go list. We can't wait to go back to New York and visit their other locations, as well as visit them in Coral Gables, Florida.
Locations: Greenpoint - Park Slope - Lower East Side - NoMad - Fashion District - Grand Central Terminal - Rockefeller Center - Manhattan West - Financial District - Weehawken - Coral Gables.