A taste of San Francisco home at this fantastically located new Blue Bottle in the bottom of the Rockefeller Center. No longer when shopping on 5th Ave at the Saks end do you have to worry about where your next cup of coffee is going to come from! Located handily between the ice-skating rink and the ladies’ loos it is all the Blue Bottle goodness you’ve come to expect if you’re from San Francisco. Nondescript entrance (in keeping with the concourse), glass cabinet with some snack food, pour over bar and La Marzocco espresso machine. Great find! Oh, if you’re at the other end of the 5th Ave shops, the Apple/Bergdof end, then head along West 58th, almost to Avenue of the Americas to Fika (review of the Park Ave 28th Street cafe).

Blue Bottle Coffee Co, Rockefeller Center Concourse Level, New York

I was super-excited to actually lay eyes on the shuttle riding on the back of it’s 747 as we were arriving at JFK on Sunday. You have to look hard at the photo, under the road sign but you can see it – I’m impressed The Mister managed to capture it out the back of the crazy cab window!!

Spotted this little tag on a tree in New York last weekend – there’s a project to plant one million trees. They’re almost at 600,000.

milliontreesnyc.org

Girls showed New York a bit of orange last Sunday – Nichole wore some orange to keep me company! Had brunch and a wander and came upon a cool looking orange bike at a random store in Tribeca.

Also got to see proof that Triburbia as Tribeca is often colloquially referred to because it’s one suburb on Manhattan that attracts families is true! All these strollers parked outside a Tribeca cafe at brunch time!

We came upon another Joe’s coffee on this trip to New York – on the Upper East Side. It was big enough to sit inside even! Lovely friendly staff and people sitting around reading the paper or using their computers.

Another great cup of Joe

The gluten free peanut butter cookie was SO good – no flour meant it was probably all peanut butter and sugar

Joe’s Coffee, 1045 Lexington Ave, New York @joecoffeenyc

We didn’t quite make it to Laughing Man, the new Australian owned shoe box of a cafe in Tribeca last time we were in New York, recently opened by Hugh Jackman. After Sunday brunch and a stroll through Soho we decided to bypass the sheep at Kaffe 1668 (quite difficult!) and try the famous flat white, endorsed by Hugh himself.

The place was tiny! No-one was in there which is pretty rare for the good New York places so we didn’t have to wait long for our 2 individually made flat whites. They were good. Good strength, Ethiopian which was ok but no so malty or with the caramel edge we like but I appreciated the strength. There was a tiny window seat and a couple of iron chairs on the stoop but it was such a fine day that we decided to take our coffee and wander down to the park to drink it.

Another great option in the area. It was lovely just sitting in little park in the sun.

Laughing Man, 184 Duane Street, Tribeca, New York @livelaughingman

We spent most of our coffee-drinking time this trip to New York in the new Kaffe 1668 that’s opened not far from the existing one we’d visited on a previous trip. Cousin Grant told us that a new one was opening not far from his apartment and it wasn’t until we went out to Wholefoods to grab some dinner supplies our first night that we realized just how close! We were walking along chatting about getting salad and whatnot and there in the window were little fluffy sheep – ding!

I’d been harboring a quiet hope that we’d be going near Laughing Man (another new place in the neighborhood to try) on our trip to Wholefoods so I was already in the mood for coffee – 7pm local time but only 4pm San Francisco time and the only coffee I’d had that day was half a dozen sips of airport coffee at 7am in San Francisco. We were talking about this at the counter when the barista said “With accents like that would you like flat whites?” Yes please! He was a lovely chatty guy, just returned from helping a kiwi set up a cafe in London so was very interested in where we drank coffee in New York and San Francisco.

His flat white was eye-rollingly good. Perfect gulping temperature and milk like velvet right to the last mouthful. The beans were from Intelligentsia – full of malt goodness. We noted a limited breakfast menu that offered another option for our next 2 early mornings that would take us up to Midtown for the Accounting Technolgy Show and Conference we were in town for (Xero had an exhibition stand there).

I love the little sheep in the cafe – I should’ve asked the relevance of them – larger ones in the window, tiny fellas on the shelves – I patted as many as I could that first visit. Over the next 4 days we were in town we went in every day – to grab coffee before the conference and on Saturday I went in with my book while The Mister sat with the tomato sauce bubbling on the stove for a home-cooked meal we were making for the Cousin Grant household. The cafe is quite dark, the ambiance they’re going for I guess, lit by candles even during the day, however it’s spacious enough that they’re not rushing you out the door. Their cranberry pound cake and homemade granola bars are really good.

Here’s my sheep friend who kept me company by my chair when I was reading my book in the window of the cafe. I enjoyed watching the little dogs out for their Saturday afternoon walks who came up to the window to say hi to the sheep – one little sausage dog got quite a fright!

Kaffe 1668, ~ 401 Greenwich Street, Tribeca, New York @kaffe1668

Very exiting moment for me after a tall man stepped around my luggage at JFK this evening – I noted his luggage was the same brand as mine and that he was being escorted somewhere by someone in a slightly flasher United Airlines uniform than the people at the departure podium so I kept watch. He was taken through the barrier and by then I began to realize it must be someone important – side profile and bingo, I recognized him. Tugging on The Mister’s sleeve I whispered “it’s Nathan Fillion!!” – to which The Mister gawped, not sure to believe me until he realized I was right! We didn’t get to see much more of him. He let a United staffer take a photo of him in the gangway before he was off and boarding the neighboring flight to Los Angeles. I felt quite star-struck! For those who don’t know the significance, he’s the actor who plays Richard Castle, one of our favorite shows.

From IMDB

Was SO excited to see this lovely puss sound asleep in the warm window of a doggie accessory shop on the Upper East Side today. Kneeled in front of the window for quite a while but he didn’t show any signs of waking up and I wasn’t willing to tap on the glass and give him a fright.

Last weekend in New York we finally got to Third Rail. It’s a place that many people mentioned to us when we lived there a few months in 2010, when we said we only went to small independent coffee shops they’d say something like “oh you obviously know about Third Rail then?”. Except we never made it there, not quite sure why!

But we did this time after brunch in the West Village where I wasn’t game to chance the coffee – suffice to say I was pretty desperate by the time we got there pretty late in the morning. It was another tiny pokey sunny spot in a fairly residential street – room for about 10 people standing inside. Not sure if it was Village people that had told us it was a must visit spot or not, was waiting to see if the coffee was out of this world based on the numbers who’d told us to go there.

The coffee was pretty good though. Strong but a little raisiny that day. Obviously I was desperate as well so that might’ve clouded my judgement. Really well made.

It’s a spot you’d go to if you were poking around the Village I think, it’s quite tucked away.

Third Rail Coffee, 240 Sullivan Street (Bleecker/West 3rd), New York, NY 10012 @ThirdRailCoffee