The best coffee shops and cafes in New York (2024)

New York’s coffee scene is an accurate reflection of the city itself: diverse, innovative and ever-evolving. After all, this is the city that never sleeps, and New Yorkers lust for a great cup of joe at just about any time of day.

While the city has embraced specialty coffee thanks to early pioneers such as Joe Coffee Company, Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Blue Bottle Coffee, a new wave of hyper-focused specialty coffee has recently taken root.

So what makes the city’s most serious cafes and roasters stand out? Namely, laser-focused bean sourcing, progressive processing, and borrowed brew techniques such as the Japanese siphon and Nordic-style light roasts. Some places like Coffee Project New York serve snap-chilled coffee in cans, a process where coffee is brewed hot and then immediately chilled. Then there’s innovative coffee co*cktails at the likes of Niteglow in Brooklyn, where techniques like distillation and fermentation are used to create elevated versions of the signature coffees served next door at their sibling coffee shop Dayglow.

Whether you’re seeking a hot or cold pick-me-up, here’s our selection of the city’s best options for excellent coffee.

Manhattan

La Cabra

Best for: Nordic-style light roasts and exceptional pastries
Location: 152 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, United States
Price: Espressos from 4 USD

La Cabra is the Danish-born coffee company known for its Nordic-style light roast coffees and stellar selection of pastries, specifically the kardemummabullar (a traditional Swedish cardamon bun). The coffee shop first opened in East Village in 2021 and now boasts a second outpost in SoHo. Inside, a modern aesthetic of natural wood, whitewashed walls and minimal furnishings complement a rank of streetside seating outside for warmer days. Beans are currently flown in from Copenhagen, but founder Esben Piper is launching a roastery and cafe in Bushwick, which will double up as La Cabra’s North American headquarters. Try the beautifully light and floral cold brews or opt for their signature pour over.

Coffee Project New York

Best for: Experimental lattes by award-winning baristas
Location: 239 E 5th St, New York, NY 10003, United States; various NY locations
Price: Espressos from 3.75 USD

Coffee Project New York first opened as an intimate space in East Village in 2015 and has since expanded with a roastery in Queens along with eight other coffee shops across the city. Founders Chi Sum Ngai and Kaleena Teoh have become synonymous with experimentation and high-quality coffee. Serving perfectly smooth espressos alongside elegant pour-overs, their coffees are crafted from sensibly sourced beans from all over the world including female- and family-owned farms in Ethiopia and Guatemala. Order its signature deconstructed latte, a blend built with espresso, milk and sparkling water enjoyed separately to savour the unique flavours. This year, two of Coffee Project’s baristas picked up awards at the National Brewers Cup and Latte Art Championship.

St Kilda Coffee

Best for: Aussie-style coffee and flash-brewed cups
Location: 328 W 44th Street, New York, NY 10036, United States
Price: Espressos from 3.50 USD

Inspired by the quality coffee culture he experienced while travelling in Australia, Arthur Rangini returned to his native New York to open this multi-roaster cafe on West 44th Street. Hinged on seasonal single-origin coffees, customers can expect house-roasted beans from Mexico and Costa Rica, or choose from a range of imports such as Montreal’s Traffic coffee. Coffee styles showcase Melbourne favourites including flat whites and long blacks, alongside espresso, filter and flash-brewed cold coffee, which is crafted from weekly-changing beans.

Café Integral

Best for: Japanese slow-drip coffee and house-made alternative milks
Location: 149 Elizabeth Street, New York, NY 10012, United States
Price: Espressos from 4 USD

César Vega has been serving Nicaragua-derived coffees at his 20-seat Café Integral since 2012, and it has become one of the finest speciality coffee shops in Manhattan’s Nolita neighbourhood. Excellent cups via a Japanese slow-drip, cold brew (which is offered on tap), pour-over and espresso (made from daily-changing beans) grace the menu. The coffee shop was one of the first in the city to offer alternative milks and they continue to serve house-made coconut and almond varieties. Beans are roasted in Brooklyn and categorised into light and medium-style roasts.

Hi-Collar

Best for: Siphon coffee and Japanese sandwiches
Location: 231 E 9th Street, New York, NY 10003, USA
Price: Iced coffee from 4.80 USD

This quirky wood-clad Japanese kissaten (a traditional Japanese coffee and tea house) in East Village serves as a coffee shop by day and a sake bar by night. Grab one of the counter stools for a front-row view of the talented barista team whipping up your siphon coffee, or order an iced coffee and a pork katsu sando. It’s worth noting there is no espresso machine here; instead all drinks are prepared by hand via various brewing methods.

Black Fox Coffee

Best for: Beans from the world’s top roasters
Location: 45 E 45th Street, New York, NY 10017, United States; various NY locations
Price: Espressos from 4.50 USD

Australian-born Daniel Murphy swapped his career in advertising to pursue his love for his home country’s brew, identifying an opportunity to serve New Yorkers brilliant coffees brewed from some of the world’s greatest roasters. Black Fox’s Pine Street outpost offers seating, but the three other locations are a grab-and-go setup. Each outlet serves two different bean options from the likes of Oslo’s Tim Wendelboe and Copenhagen’s Coffee Collective, plus vibrant light-to-medium roasts that are produced in-house. The entire Black Fox team is expertly trained and features award-winning baristas, such as Tom Bomford, who came second in the 2024 US Coffee Championship.

Brooklyn

Devoción

Best for: Field-to-cup coffee and Colombian-style cold brews
Location: 69 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249, United States; various NY locations
Price: Espressos from 3.50 USD

Since its 2014 Williamsburg debut, Colombian coffee brand Devoción – comprising a roastery and five coffee shops across Manhattan and Brooklyn – is celebrated for its farm-to-table approach. The roaster promises customers an unprecedented freshness: beans go from green to cup in as little as ten days – a stark point of difference to the industry standard of six months to a year. Founder Steven Sutton sources the single-source Colombian beans from Bogotá weekly, which are carefully roasted in the brand’s flagship space in Williamsburg. Here, espresso-based drinks reign, but delicate cold brews come a close second.

Sey Coffee

Best for: Micro-lot coffee served in a hip hangout
Location: 18 Grattan Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206, United States
Price: Espressos from 4.50 USD

With its airy interior and hanging foliage, Sey Coffee has a low-key welcoming energy that’s been embraced by Bushwick locals since its opening in 2010. This roaster and cafe is often billed as one of America’s best thanks to founders Lance Schnorenberg and Tobias Polk’s ongoing efforts to source the highest quality nano-lot and micro-lot coffee beans from farms in Colombia and Ethiopia. The team seeks to highlight the intrinsic qualities of green coffee through the careful selection of plant variety, growing conditions and a meticulous cultivation by talented and thoughtful producers. All coffees are made from water with a low mineral content to avoid disrupting the single varietal-beans’ natural flavour.

Dayglow

Best for: Speciality coffee in a contemporary space
Location: 8 Wilson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11237, United States
Price: Espressos from 4.50 USD

With an eye-catching blue exterior, Dayglow is the Los Angeles roaster and cafe export from Tohm Ifergan, previously drummer with From Indian Lakes. Situated in East Williamsburg, this cafe – and its connected microbrewery and bar, Niteglow – stands out for its extensive bean selection from roasters around the world. Dayglow offers 15 single origin coffees by the cup from microroasters like April in Copenhagen and Leaves Coffee Roasters in Tokyo, and certainly has one of the biggest menus in New York – including espresso, cold brew or hand-brewed via Kalita or AeroPress. Come sunset, those who still need a caffeine fix can head over to Niteglow, where Tohm’s brother Jonny is the head brewer and creates sophisticated alcoholic versions of daytime drinks like belafonte (distilled coffee, juniper berries, grapefruit and verjus) and Warhol (bourbon, espresso, cream, citrus, cinnamon and vanilla).

Loveless Coffees

Best for: Nordic-style coffee and pastel-pink interiors
Location: 86 Central Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206, United States
Price: Espressos from 4 USD

All Loveless Coffees are roasted in this pastel-pink Bushwick shop using a Loring roaster obscured behind a bamboo screen. The founding duo studied coffee roasting at the acclaimed Kaffa in Norway, where they formed a shared appreciation for the delicate and varied flavours of Scandinavian-style coffee made from lightly roasted beans. They opened Loveless Coffees in 2022 to create a staple stop for those seeking light roast espressos, pour-overs and cold brew, but they fast became a local favourite for flash iced coffee – particularly their natural Colombian gesha. The team frequently appears in coffee brewing competitions and often test out their competitive concoctions on the menu.

Drip Coffee Makers

Best for: Hand-crafted pour-overs
Location: 12 Belvidere St, Brooklyn, NY 11206, United States; various NY locations
Price: Espressos from 4.50 USD

Nigel Price split from a career in finance and spent a decade working at some of the best coffee shops in the city before debuting Drip Coffee Makers as a small cart serving pour-over coffee. Today, he operates five multi-roaster cafes spread between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, all built on manual pour-over-style brewing. On any given day you’ll find at least four pour-over options that rotate regularly, such as the Netherlands’ Manhattan Roasters and South Korea’s Fritz Coffee, while the Black & White Roasters from North Carolina serves as the company’s anchor roaster for espresso and batch brews.

Hamlet Coffee Company

Best for: Its secluded garden
Location: 465 Rogers Ave #1, Brooklyn, NY 11225, United States
Price: Espressos from 3.50 USD

Hamlet is the kind of no-fuss, multi-roaster specialty coffee shop that any neighbourhood would be lucky to have. Just a few blocks away from Prospect Park in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, this narrow, minimal cafe boasts a secret back garden and is the only specialty coffee shop in the vicinity. Founded in 2020 by specialty coffee industry veteran Laura Hwang, Hamlet’s focus is on sourcing and brewing the highest quality beans from the world’s best roaster, including Copenhagen’s Prolog and Barcelona’s Three Marks Coffee. Hwang switches up both the coffees used for espresso and drip coffee daily – the latter of which is Hamlet’s most ordered drink.

Queens

Kinship Coffee Collective

Best for: A laptop-friendly space
Location: 30-05 Steinway Street, Queens, NY 11103, United States; various NY locations
Price: Filter for 3 USD

One of Astoria’s first specialty coffee shops, Kinship Coffee Collective on Steinway at 30th Street has made waves as one of Queen’s best coffee purveyors. The multi-roaster celebrates coffees from various US-based roasters such as Portland Coffee Roasters and Oregon’s Heart, which are presented alongside Kinship’s own single origin beans. The coffee shop serves espresso, drip and cold brew, and doubles up as a community hangout with a laptop-friendly vibe and range of seating options.

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