Coffee, cigarettes, and a mild-to-moderate feeling of irritation at life in general: the three power sources that keep New Yorkers going. I enjoy a cup of coffee now and then as a treat or as a way of extending my working hours, but in general I rely more on the other two methods. My partner Michael is the coffee snob of our household. A small marble table in our kitchen has become a shrine to his morning espresso, with jewel-cut glass cups, a sleek grinder, and an espresso machine shaped like a little robot. Together, we decided to rate the cafes we visited together in 2023 and add little sketches and notes when we had time. We rated each spot on a scale of 1-10 for their atmosphere and coffee and then rated non-coffee drinks and pastries when applicable.
The seventeen shops we rated are not all of the spots we visited individually, just the ones we visited together. In all honesty, I probably visit Dunkin Donuts the most often of any coffee shop purely due to its hours and immediate proximity to school. But if you want a good coffee, and I mean actually good coffee, then these are our recommendations.
Best Coffee: Sey
(Bushwick, Brooklyn)
Sey is often named one of the best coffee shops in NYC (or even in the USA), and it’s for good reason. Sey’s coffee is consistently lightly roasted and delicious, but its flavors vary wildly. I’ve had juicy and fruity, funky and earthy, floral, and every other flavor note you see printed unconvincingly on the side of coffee bags. When it says “notes of white peach and baking spices”, you actually taste it in the cup. Their technique is consistent and they serve a sweet complex espresso, with a glass of sparkling water, and delightful pourover, albeit a bit pricey.
The only other minor drawback is Sey’s warranted popularity: there’s rarely a place to sit and often a line for the bathroom, but the interior feels modern and spacious with white walls, high ceilings, and hanging plants.
Best Pastries (And Runner-Up for Best Coffee): La Cabra
(Soho + East Village, Manhattan)
When it comes to pastries, it’s no contest with La Cabra. In addition to the Instagram-famous cardamom bun (which looks like a beautiful knot tied out of dough) and the oft-considered “best croissant in NYC”, they offer a menu of seasonal treats like apple danishes, hazelnut buns, and passionfruit semlas. Through text, it is hard to convey how different La Cabra’s apple danish is from the mushy, bland ones often on offer at cafes and diners, but they hardly deserve to share the same name. The coffee is first-rate as well, and people know it. On weekends you can expect a line snaking out of the door of both the Soho and East Village locations, and it’s not much better on weekdays. But once you get inside, it’s 100% worth it.
Best Atmosphere: Acre
(Greenpoint, Brooklyn)
Acre is one of my favorite spots to sit and draw in the summer, and it’s a perfect place to meet a friend for lunch. The front is filled with carefully selected home goods, handmade ceramics, and jars full of things to stock the perfect Japanese pantry. The middle part of the space is filled with seating, and the back is an outdoor garden where you can relax in the sun when the weather allows. It gets busy on the weekends, but during the week it’s usually a relaxing spot where you can enjoy a hot yuzu tea or a cold coffee jelly (courtesy of Sey). In addition to drinks, pastries, and sundries, there is a lunch menu that offers bento boxes, sandwiches, and other sides. My preferred order is the Japanese fried chicken karaage bento box or the Japanese egg salad sandwich.
Best for Specialty Drinks + Bean Selection: Dayglow
(Bushwick, Brooklyn)
Dayglow is a small cafe chain that started in Los Angeles but has expanded to Chicago and New York City. The Los Angeles Times has raved about their LA cafes, calling it a “candy store for Nordic-style roasts”, and the Bushwick location is no different. Inside, you can find a cornucopia of beans from the world over, all packaged in brightly-colored bags and boxes. These beans don’t come cheap, but it’s a great place to try out some new varieties for home brewing. Dayglow also offers a large menu of specialty coffee drinks, many of which are completely vegan. My favorite is one called “The Morning Show”: a drink made with distilled coffee, orange, condensed coconut, and passionfruit.
Most Overrated: Devoción and Coffee Project
Both of these spots are frequently mentioned on other “best of” lists, but they had some of our lowest ratings. Michael likes acidity, but the espresso at Devoción was so tooth-achingly acidic that we went back again a week later to make sure it hadn’t been an accident. Unfortunately, it was the same result. The Williamsburg space is beautiful, with lots of room for people looking to do a little work or read a book, but we were disappointed by the coffee itself. Coffee project also had a similarly sour espresso (not quite as bad), but with no added benefit of a pleasant atmosphere.
What We Noticed Overall:
Nowhere to sit
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, and not only because of the ever-increasing rent that makes space a premium in the city. Cafes also want to discourage post-covid work-from-home employees from camping out on their laptops all day, but this has led to a distinct lack of seating and an overall decline in the cozy coffee shop days before the pandemic. Some cafes we visited had creative workarounds for this problem (Acre prevents laptop use on weekends and Sey prohibits it outright). The most spacious locations were Devoción and Loveless, while PPL is so small that it only seats about two people, max.
Kettl reigns supreme for tea
Kettl is a local tea company (with cafes in Greenpoint and Bowery) that sources a wide variety of teas directly from Japan. A good portion of the cafes we visited were serving Kettl as their tea option, and there’s a reason: it’s the best!
If a cafe serves your espresso with a sidecar, that’s a good sign
Out of all the cafes we sampled, the ones that scored highest on their coffee were the ones that took care to serve their espresso with a small glass of sparkling water on the side. The purpose of the water is to cleanse your palate before and after drinking. This gesture is associated with third-wave coffee culture, so the lack of a sidecar is not necessarily a bad thing, but in our experience, its presence indicated a higher level of care for the craft. If they don’t at least offer a spoon, we would proceed with caution.
Browse our sketchbooks
Michael’s Sketchbook
Charlie’s Sketchbook
Special Thanks to Michael McNulty for helping me co-write this guide.
Backseat Driver 
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