Mar 25 2024
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It’s not every day you stumble into a coffee shop that has a Michelin-starred pastry chef making the fresh baked goods in the pastry case. Pastry chef Ryan Butler’s eponymous Butler is a feast for the senses.
The 750-square-foot space is cute and cozy with seating for 26 in caramel-colored wrap-around leather banquettes, small circular brass tables, and Carrara marble-wrapped counters. As you queue for your coffee, you can watch the team making the day’s pastries like mini sausage rolls, financiers, and sticky date muffins.
Located within view of the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO, the bakery-cafe serves Intelligentsia coffee, small batch coffee from Chicago, and a range of sweet and savory pastries. The DUMBO location is the second of four Butler locations. There are two locations in Williamsburg and one in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.
Before opening Butler in 2016, Butler worked at many famed New York City kitchens, including the now-shuttered New American restaurant, Piora, which he helped earn its Michelin star. He opened the DUMBO location in 2018 with co-founders Rod Coligado and Hugo Murray. He’s designed a menu based on seasonality that reimagines classics with modernity.
You might come for the coffee, but don’t skip the food here. Breakfast includes avocado toast with baby golden beets, feta, lemon poppy, tahini, and micro amaranth on house-made sourdough bread and mushroom toast with forest mushrooms, braised leeks, and lemon ricotta on house-made sourdough bread. Lunch options include a rotisserie chicken sandwich with wild arugula, fontina cheese, pickled hot peppers, and onion jam on house focaccia and a roasted cauliflower wrap with aged cheddar, pine nuts, golden raisins, and squash purée.
Patrons can get inspired by taking baking classes with Butler through Airbnb Experiences.
Photo credit: @butlerbakeshop
Coffee Project started as a passion project. Co-founders Chi Sum Ngai and Kaleena Teoh opened their first coffee shop in New York City’s East Village neighborhood in 2015, and it quickly took off.
Today, Coffee Project has a roastery, a training center, and seven coffee shops, including five in Manhattan (Chelsea, East Village, Financial District, Hell’s Kitchen, and West Village), plus Long Island City, Queens, and Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
The coffees are sourced from cooperatives and family farms. The team is constantly adding new house specials to its menus, like Ginger Elixir, ginger syrup stirred into sparkling water, topped with a shot of espresso, and garnished with candied ginger; Happy Drink, simple syrup stirred into sparkling water and topped with espresso and whipped cream; and Coconut Paradise, sweet coconut juice with floating chunks of coconut and topped with espresso.
The industrial-chic Fort Greene outpost has a small, light-filled seating area flanked by exposed brick walls, large windows, and a white neon “Coffee made me do it” sign. It’s a comfortable place to enjoy seasonal pour-overs of single-origin coffees roasted in Long Island City and indulge in coffee experiences like a Deconstructed Latte served in individual parts. Crispy waffle cookies are also available.
The food menu is equally impressive with made-to-order brunch options like an avocado croissant with cherry tomatoes, feta, chili flakes, and sesame seeds, and home-made ube waffle with fresh cream and berries. Pastries like croissants and muffins are locally made.
Coffee Project is home to New York’s only Specialty Coffee Association training center. Amateur and professional classes are offered for enthusiasts and professionals to learn everything from brewing skills to latte art to roasting.
Photo credit: Coffee Project
Stop at this coffee shop for coffee and pastries; you won’t leave feeling peckish. Located on a quiet, leafy street two blocks from Fort Greene Park, Peckish is a small, sun-drenched coffee shop that serves an exceptional range of pastries baked in-house.
The rotating pastry menu is exceptional and varied, offering everything from chocolate pistachio croissants and cherry rye muffins to Anzac cookies and Budapest coffee cake to feta cheese boureka and empanadas of the day. Each pairs perfectly with coffee and espresso sourced from New York-based Joe Coffee.
Peckish is a smaller version of nearby Peck’s, a neighborhood specialty grocer offering house-made prepared foods, craft beer, and coffee. Peck’s opened in 2013 on Myrtle Avenue and in 2017, expanded, opening Peckish, a coffee shop focusing on coffee and snacks.
Make sure to arrive early in the morning, shortly after 8:30 a.m., when breakfast sandwiches — eggs and bacon on Brazilian bread — are hot and ready. It’s not uncommon to see a queue of hungry patrons and their dogs waiting for coffee, breakfast foods, and homemade dog treats. The space itself is narrow, with seating for 17 at small tables and a long bar with stools. With the park just steps away, it’s perfect for ordering on the go.
Photo credit: Peckish
Coffee shop by day, bar by night, The West Coffeehouse & Bar has just what you need in Williamsburg. Opened in 2010, the space is the brainchild of Williamsburg film writer and director Esther Bell.
Named for actress Mae West, who was born nearby, The West is a space to eat, work, and, at night, drink and be entertained as the coffeehouse-bar hosts entertainment on most nights until 2 a.m.
The coffee bar features locally roasted coffee and espresso from Forty Weight Coffee Roasters in Ithaca, New York, and Lofted from Bushwick in Brooklyn, New York. Breakfast options include a variety of toasts like spicy hummus toast with chipotle garlic sauce and sunflower seeds, apple butter toast with cream cheese and sunflower seeds, and raspberry ricotta toast with ricotta cheese and raspberry cranberries.
On a typical day, the space and its backyard, with a well-manicured garden, are filled with local creatives working on their laptops or discussing their latest projects. There’s also a coffee window for ordering on the go.
When it comes time for happy hour, there are 12 rotating craft beers on tap, plus wine and seasonally-inspired cocktails. Once you settle in, you’re bound to want to stay until the wee hours, taking in near-nightly entertainment that ranges from weekly open mic nights to live music to DJs.
Photo credit: the West Coffeehouse & Bar