Daniel Maurer “Mosaic Man” Jim Power visits the Bean’s new truck.About an hour ago this morning, a city marshal entered the storefront that until yesterday was home to The Bean. It will soon be occupied by a Starbucks. Across the way, on Third Street near First Avenue, the Bean’s manager Guy Puglia was selling drip coffee out of a rented cupcake truck that had been found on Craigslist. Mr. Puglia said the truck will stay here, or at least nearby (“it’s hard getting a parking spot in the same place every day in this neighborhood”) from about 7 a.m. till 7 p.m. daily, until the Bean’s new store opens a block south in about a month.
“We’re not doing this to make money,” said Mr. Puglia. “We’re getting killed.” Mr. Puglia would not disclose the price of the truck rental, but indicated it was “a good amount of money.” Still, by moving four wooden benches across the street and eventually setting up a wireless hotspot, he and owners Ike Escava and Sammy Cohen hope to remind customers that they’re still in the espresso business. Read more…
Khristopher J. Brooks Work is underway at the Yippie Museum Cafe.Earlier today, EV Grieve reported that the Yippie Museum Cafe is under renovation. We now have more details about what the place will look like when the work is done.
When customers walk in, they’ll notice that the carpet, which dated back to the 1980’s, is gone. That’s because the cafe’s manager, Robert Payne, had the carpet pulled up and thrown away. Now after stepping in the front entrance, customers will see a black, rubber mat covering the hardwood floor.
After taking a few more steps into the cafe, customers will see stencil designs on the wood floor. Customers will also notice that the loft that loomed over the cafe’s cash register is gone. Mr. Payne, who plans to create the designs for the floors, decided the loft was taking up too much space. On the walls, customers will see the same Yippie posters and psychedelic art that was there before, but Mr. Payne will have the art restored, so the images will look like new.
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Todd Olmstead Some of the selection at Van Daag.For many coffee drinkers, the morning brew is a ritual, an essential start to the day whether consumed at home, work, or somewhere in between. But for coffee geeks, the experience is so much more than adding fuel. It’s a precise, scientific process in which beans cultivated with care on small farms in far away countries are ground specifically for that single, perfect cup. Many are coming to drink coffee with the same attention as fine wine.
Joining the movement is Van Daag, with a new coffee menu featuring beans from two renowned Scandinavian micro-roasters.
“Van Daag wanted a coffee program that would be something different, something that New York hadn’t seen yet,” David Latourell of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea told me. He helped assemble Coffee Collective of Copenhagen and Tim Wendelboe of Oslo along with Ecco Caffe, a small California roastery that Intelligentsia owns.
One patron described the former World Barista Champion as “godlike,” but Mr. Wendelboe, who is tall and has boyish features, doesn’t carry himself like a star. This event felt more like a gathering of old friends – though they were also happy to dispense their considerable coffee wisdom to anyone eager to slurp the brown nectar.
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