Bluebird Coffee Shop, NYC – East Village delights
Aussie coffee in NYC
Editor’s note: This cafe has now rebranded as ‘The Lazy Llama’ – the coffee is still good, but more of the more expensive brews in the area. See East Village coffee.
Flying long-haul is a rugged business. Having spent more than a day getting from Sydney to New York City, via Los Angeles, it wasn’t surprising that coffee was on Greedy Girl and gluttonous husband’s radar. Given the only possibility of same in transit was, ahem, Starbucks at LAX (the only shop open in the early morning in the terminal), we had no problems forgoing our caffeine hit until we arrived in deepest, darkest Manhattan.
Our first foray out into the increasingly groovy East Village led us to the Bluebird Coffee Shop, down on 1st Street, near the corner of 1st Avenue. We’d barely stepped in the door of this tiny cafe when we were greeted with a wide grin and a resounding ‘G’day’. Yes, after travelling more than 24 hours, our first real encounter was with a fellow Melburnian, Tyson the barista. Greedy Girl swears she didn’t know about the Australian connection beforehand.
Tyson got us immediately. A strong caffe latte for Greedy Girl and an espresso for gluttonous husband. It made a lovely sight. Bluebird Coffee Shop offers a range of coffees (including the ubiquitous American iced-coffee, which almost looks like a cola drink full of ice cubes) and there are various syrups on a shelf to add, if such is your wont. Greedy Girl and gluttonous husband are traditionalists when it comes to coffee and we were happy to pull up a bench and park ourselves for our first real meal of this trip.
The coffee was slightly nutty and the flavour definitely developed as it cooled somewhat. This sort of coffee isn’t cheap in Manhattan (actually, it’s not cheap anywhere, any more) and a latte costs you US$4, but it’s arguably a very inexpensive treat.
We were also desperate for a feed. Gluttonous husband took the granola with mixed berries and yoghurt. Gluttonous husband described this, economically, as ‘scrumptious’. The granola wasn’t too sweet, the berry compote (house made) had a little tartness still to it and the slight sourness of the Greek yoghurt all added up to a wonderful brekkie dish.
Granola with mixed berries and yoghurt
We finished our coffees and plotted our assault on a very sunny NYC day. There were a steady stream of patrons and most seemed content to get takeaway – just as well. While some pictures of the interior make it seem rather large, five people seated inside is a crowd. There’s also a couple of high bar stools (two inside, two outside). It’s well worth a trip to this rapidly developing neighbourhood.
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