Snapshots from a New York Spring Break

April is one of my favourite times to visit New York City, although even a late April visit doesn't guarantee clement weather in the cruellest month. On our recent family trip, we were extremely lucky and apart from the rain that greeted us on our arrival, we were treated to clear blue skies and bright sunshine for the rest of our stay. The blossoms were out too in all the parks, making the city particularly pretty.

During the trip, I visited a number of new-to-me coffee shops (and a few old favourites) and will be writing about these in a separate post (my NYC specialty coffee guide is here in the meantime). I've included below a few of my other favourite experiences, sights and foods. Spoiler alert: the real highlight of the trip was when I got to see PACEY (Joshua Jackson, to non-Dawson's Creek fans) on Broadway.

Food and drink

Motorino in the East Village is the perfect spot for a quick but delicious jet-lag-beating supper. The Neapolitan pizzas are fantastic, as are the contorni.

I've done several tours from the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side, each of which has been fascinating. This time we took the Foods of the Lower East Side walking tour, a two-hour walk around the neighbourhood with plenty of stops to sample foods from diverse immigrant cultures. Highlights were the pickled pineapples from the Pickle Guys, chocolate pretzels from Economy Candy and the amazing dumplings from Vanessa's. You will probably need to book a ticket in advance.

After the tour, I met some friends at the Flower Shop, a pretty bar located just across from Vanessa's Dumplings on Eldridge Street. The cocktails were fab and the $1 happy hour oysters were also a great bargain.

While wandering from my Brooklyn coffee and breakfast spot, Golda, to Brooklyn Heights, I came across DeKalb Market Hall, a new-ish subterranean space filled with food vendors. I had coffee at Nobletree (CLOSED), and wished I had room for some pierogies or a unicorn churros ice cream sandwich.  

On a sunny Saturday, brunch tables are hard to come by in Greenwich Village. We couldn't face the two-hour wait at Buvette but managed to score a cancellation at Dante, a family favourite cafe-bar on a particularly pretty block of Macdougal Street. With brunch cocktails, delicious food and a terrific ambiance, this is a fab place to spend your Saturday.

Some hours later, we found ourselves at The Up & Up, which is just a block north of Dante in the heart of Greenwich Village. The pretty underground bar has William Morris wallpaper and serves superb cocktails from a menu so extensive and creative that ordering was a challenge. 

I went for the Surprise Trip, which contained gin, black trumpet mushroom, three types of peppercorn and unicorn (NB cocktail is not rainbow coloured!). It was delicious and my brother ranked his Zuzu’s Petals (my second choice) as one of his all-time top three cocktails.

For some time, I've been wanting to try the Impossible Burger — a plant-based burger that even carnivores love — for some time. As a former vegetarian, I've eaten a lot of mediocre veggie burgers in my time and as this market has begun to grow in recent months and years, it's been great to see the offering improve so much. 

We went to the Umami Burger at the Hudson Hotel and although my 'primary' burger was a very meaty (and tasty) Manly Burger, my dad also ordered an Impossible Burger 'for the table'. Although it couldn't quite compete with my Manly Burger, the Impossible was very good indeed — the flavour and texture was very good indeed, although the patty did begin to lose its integrity.

On Sunday evening, the weather was so beautiful that we decided to try to eat by the water. My dad managed to get us a last-minute table at the River Café and we made our way down to City Hall so that we could first walk over Brooklyn Bridge at dusk. 

The only other time I've been to the River Café was in 2000 when the parents of our group planned to eat there while we teens were going to go Grimaldi's, the pizzeria next door. The epic snowstorm meant no pizza but the River Café were able to accommodate our snowy selves — there was, however, about 2% visibility and so no iconic views of Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan. 

This time, the sun had set by the time we set down to eat but it was a special experience to dine with the twinkling skyscrapers in the background. The food was delicious too. I had scallops followed by roast chicken and everything was beautifully prepared. The pièce de resistance was the chocolate Brooklyn Bridge I had for pudding. When in Brooklyn... Overall, a wonderfully spontaneous night.

For our last meal of the trip, we went to Mighty Quinn's, an awesome BBQ joint, where I've dined before. We ordered everything, as usual, and the fried chicken sandwich, the brisket and the corn fritters were real stand-outs for me.

Neighbourhoods

Central Park

We stayed near Central Park this time and I ran there almost every morning, enjoying the gorgeous morning light and the cherry blossoms. Talk about motivation for getting out of bed and into the city!

Chelsea

I always try to walk along the High Line at least once during every New York trip, especially when the weather is nice. If I have time, I try to stop at Story or Chelsea Market afterwards for some shopping and/or eating.


Flatiron

I spent a lot of time around the Flatiron Building, Madison Square Park and NoMad on this trip, mainly because there were a few new coffee shops and shops that I wanted to visit in the area. I love the architecture, the views and the park itself in this neighbourhood.


Greenwich Village

If I had to pick just one New York neighbourhood to live in, it would probably be Greenwich Village, or perhaps the West Village. I love Washington Square Park, especially on a sunny day when everyone is chilling out, I love the architecture and I love the shops like the wonderful Three Lives & Co bookstore.


Nolita & SoHo

I love to shop and eat in Nolita and its westerly neighbour, Soho. I didn't spend as much time there as usual on this trip but did get to wander through the lovely streets, visiting old favourite shops like McNally Jackson and pop-ups like Everlane.


Brooklyn

Most of my Brooklyn interludes on this trip were spent walking from Brooklyn Heights to Lower Manhattan one sunny morning and the return journey to the River Café and Brooklyn Bridge Park the following evening at dusk. It's one of my favourite walks in the world and one of my top recommendations to any visitor to the city — try to go from Brooklyn to Manhattan, though.

Culture

One of the main reasons I went to New York was to see one of my all-time favourite actors, Joshua Jackson, in Children of a Lesser God on Broadway. The production was originally in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts and sadly ended the day before I arrived in Boston last summer so I was really glad to hear it would make the transfer to Broadway. 

Jackson and his co-star Lauren Ridloff were really terrific and the play — which tells the story of a teacher at a school for the deaf who falls for the school's housekeeper, a deaf alumna of the school — was powerful and moving. It's a story about what it means to communicate, to connect and to love. 

Ridloff, a former Miss Deaf America, signed all her lines while Jackson would also translate her lines for the audience members not familiar with ASL. If you get the chance, do try to go — it is a wonderful production.

The Blue Note in Greenwich Village is one of the most famous jazz clubs in the city — and, perhaps, the world. I'd somehow never been before and we enjoyed an evening set with Kenny Garrett and his band. The food wasn't anything special but we had great seats and it was an entertaining night.

Four Specialty Coffee Spots To Visit in Toulouse

In January, I went on a 24-hour business trip to Toulouse in the southwest of France. I had hoped to be able to visit at least one of the city’s specialty coffee shops, but the scheduling was so tight that my only free hours were between midnight and six in the morning, so I had to make do with terrible hotel coffee.

Luckily, though, I was able to return for a slightly longer trip earlier this week and although I still only had a couple of free hours, I made good use of them and visited four specialty coffee spots. It helped that the weather was much nicer than in January — temperatures reached 25C on my final afternoon — and the ‘pink city’ with its pastel-hued buildings looked particularly pretty. Here are the places I found, all within the city centre:

La Fiancée

Serving coffee and brunch for over five years, La Fiancée on Rue Peyrolières seems to be Toulouse’s original specialiy coffee shop. At first glance, the café seems tiny with only a couple of small tables in front of the coffee bar, but there’s more space in the lofted mezzanine. The coffee comes from Paris-based Coutume, one of my favourite coffee spots in the French capital, and there were two single-origin varieties available as a V60 pourover. I went for a Burundi Maridadi, and after placing my order, I went up to the mezzanine.

While I waited, I eyed up the brunch menu and regretted that I didn’t have the chance to sample the brunch menu, which included various pancakes and egg-based dishes. The coffee itself was very well prepared and had lovely milk chocolate and citrus notes. On the way out, I chatted to the friendly baristas about specialty coffee in France, London and beyond, and couldn’t resist buying a white chocolate and peanut cookie for later.

La Fiancée is located at 54 Rue Peyrolières, Toulouse. Website. Instagram.


Le Café Cerise

A few minutes’ walk from La Fiancée and just across from Pont-Neuf and the river Garonne on Quai de la Daurade, Le Café Cerise was my next stop. Located in a historic red-brick building, the café has a few tables out on the pavement, which I’m sure are popular on sunny days. Inside, it is cosy and rustic, with wooden furniture and the roaster in the back. Again, there’s a mezzanine with more seating, although there are also plenty of tables on the ground floor.

They serve pourover filter coffee but I was short on time and so stuck to a cortado. There were two single-origin coffees in the hopper, both roasted on site — a Colombian Planadas and a Kiboko from Burundi. Sticking with my theme for the day, I went for the latter, which worked well with a little milk. The latte art was very good too. And if you’re in the mood for food, they also have a salad of the day and a grilled cheese on the menu.

Le Café Cerise is located at 4 Quai de la Daurade, Toulouse. Website. Instagram.


L’Anartiste (CLOSED)

This coffee shop — whose name marries art and anarchy — was the closest to my hotel but it’s closed on Mondays, so I wasn’t able to visit until Tuesday morning. I’m glad I got the chance to visit L’Anartiste, though, because it’s a lovely spot serving specialty coffee, food and natural wines, with an emphasis on local produce.

The cosy café with its meticulously mismatched furniture and precarious stack of board games gives it the feel of being in someone’s living room — and the welcome I received from the barista was just as warm. They take their brewing seriously, however, as the shelf of brewing kit (siphon, Kalita Wave, Aeropress, Chemex, and Kono, Torch and Clever drippers) and original Faema E61 espresso machine on the bar attest.

The coffee is from Kaffa, a roaster based in La Drôme in southeast France (not to be confused with the Finnish Kaffa), which I hadn’t tried before. I had a filter coffee made with a Limu Kossa variety from Ethiopian, brewed through the Kalita Wave. 

As a ‘chaser’, I also ordered a cortado made with a Colombian Kaffa coffee. Both coffees were brewed beautifully and came in gorgeous ceramic cups that are also made locally. Ahead of a busy day of meetings, I really enjoyed a moment of calm and a lovely chat with the barista in the haven that is L’Anartiste.

L’Anartiste is located at 13 Rue de Couteliers, Toulouse. CLOSED


Florian’s Coffee

I didn’t think I’d have time for a final coffee, but on leaving my meeting, I happened upon the Florian’s Coffee cart just outside the Jardin des Plantes. I ordered a ‘slow coffee’ — on this occasion, an Ethiopian Gamoji (roasted by Florian’s) brewed through the V60. They can also do Chemex and Aeropress brews if you prefer, and, of course, the usual espresso-based drinks.

By then, the sunshine had come out and so I went to sip my drink in the busy Jardin des Plantes, and the world felt a whole lot better.

Florian’s Coffee is located on Allée Jules Guesde, Toulouse. Website. Instagram.


Bonus: shopping tips

Toulouse is a great city for shopping, and there are plenty of interesting boutiques and independent stores as well as the usual chains. I didn’t have time to do any shopping, but these places all caught my eye: Paul Marius (leather handbags); L'Interprete (concept store); Ombres Blanches (book store); Somewhere (boutique); Trait (stationery); and Matière Grise (homewares).

The London Coffee Festival 2018

Last weekend was the London Coffee Festival, one of the highlights of the London coffee calendar. Taking place over four days — two for industry and the Saturday and Sunday for the public — this year's festival was bigger and, I think, more fun than ever.

I was granted a press pass again (thank you, London Coffee Festival and Hope&Glory) and had planned to attend on Friday and Saturday but couldn't get away from work on the Friday. Instead, I spent the whole of Saturday there tasting great coffee, meeting and catching up with lots of lovely people who work in the coffee industry, and enjoying all the festival had to offer. 

This year, the festival occupied four floors of the Old Truman Brewery in Spitalfields and despite improved signage, it still took a while to master the labyrinthine layout. As such, if you are a real coffee aficionado, I'd recommend you book into more than one session next year or consider booking a VIP ticket, which gives you access for a full day, as well as fast-track entry, a copy of the latest London Coffee Guide, a free cocktail and entry to a special VIP area.

As I did last year, I've divided my review of the 2018 London Coffee Festival into three section, covering the coffee, the experiences and the kit. This year, there was also a festival fringe, of sorts, in the form of a pop-up coffee bar from Staffordshire roaster Has Bean — click here to find out more about this.

Coffee

 I spent much of my first two hours at the festival visiting familiar and new-to-me roasters, whose stands were located on the ground floor, and on the two roasters' village areas on levels one and two. First stop was Vagabond, the north London roaster whose Trade Union location has sadly closed. They had three coffees on filter, of which I most enjoyed the beautiful Pway Na Phar coffee from Myanmar — a relatively rare origin, but one growing in consistency and quality. 

Just across the aisle were the Girls Who Grind, whose "fierce AF" DR Congo coffee I tried at Melbourne in Lichfield. GWG is a small-batch roaster based in Wiltshire, and they source their coffees from female producers. I tried a lovely Rwandan Nyabihu and admired the awesome girl-power-celebrating artwork on their packaging.

Speaking of great design, I next stopped by the Pharmacie Coffee stand, where the Sussex-based team were sporting raccoon and Aeropressing-dog t-shirts designed by manager/designer Tash. I came across Pharmacie thanks to my February Dog & Hat coffee subscription box — their La Montaña from El Salvador is one of the nicest coffees I've tried all year. I bought a small bag of another El Salvador coffee, an El Cipres microlot, which smelled just as good and which tasted lovely in my Aeropress yesterday morning.

After a brief stop by the Caravan stand to sample some of this year's Niners, I headed upstairs for some more top-notch coffees from UK roasters. New-to-me Press Coffee had a deliciously intense Ethiopian Guji, while Suffolk-based Butterworth & Son (whose Lake Kivu coffee from DR Congo won me over at Stir in Cambridge last year) served me a super-fruity washed Peruvian. They too have some gorgeous artwork on their retail bags.

Regular readers will know that I'm not averse to a good pun (or even a bad one), and thus Liverpool-based Neighbourhood Coffee's coffee names always make me smile — and the coffee usually makes me smile even more. The Ethiopian Born Sippin' slipped down very nicely, and they gave me a pair of pink sunglasses that went perfectly with my outfit. 

Speaking of pink, just next door was Outpost Coffee Roasters, whose pink cups drew me in at last year's festival, and their strawberries-and-cream-tasting Rwandan Kilimbi was easily the best coffee I tried at last year's even — and one of the best coffees I had in 2017. After catching up with Chris, I tried some of the Colombian El Encanto natural, which tasted great. I intended to go back to try — and hopefully buy — some of their Rwandan Bumbogo, but ran out of time. I hope to order some once I'm back from my latest round of travels.

Later, I bumped into Dave Jameson (who gave a fun-filled coffee-and-cocktails presentation at last year's festival) at the Grumpy Mule stand. Dave kindly sent me two great Grumpy Mule coffees last month — one from Yunnan, China, and a particularly lovely coffee from Kenya. 

This time, I tried their Widescreen espresso blend — mainly because of Dave's description of the Ethiopia/El Salvador blend as being like "Mötley Crüe in a cup." I can't speak to that, but it tasted damn good, and it sounds as though there are lots of interesting things underway at Grumpy Mule.

It took me ages to find the street-food section of the festival and when I got there, the queues were long so I headed over to Bleecker Burger in Spitalfields Market for a quick bacon cheeseburger to sustain further coffee consumption. Eventually, though, even I reached my caffeine limit, making room for one final coffee from KB Coffee Roasters, one of my favourite Parisian roasters/coffee shops.

Experiences

 As Square Mile's James Hoffmann put it in this video, "it gets very serious in coffee sometimes," and at this year's festival, there was plenty of fun to be had. The Square Mile stand, for example, was set up like a (coffee-loving) child's tenth birthday party to celebrate the specialty coffee company's own tenth birthday. You could play a custom-made PacMan arcade game, guess the number of coffee beans in the hopper to win a Wilfa grinder, or try to guess the origins of three coffees. There was a special riddle hunt too and party bags, of course.

Meanwhile, to celebrate the launch of their new cold brew sodas, Sandows had a ring-toss game. Unfortunately, my levels of caffeine consumption were not conducive to successful throwing, but I did get to try some of the sodas — the citrus flavour was particularly refreshing, but I imagine the spice variety will work better on cooler days. And as I mentioned above, all the cool kids were wearing colourful sunnies provided by Neighbourhood Coffee!

As usual, I spent some time attending talks and workshops in The Lab. One of the standouts for me was a Coffee 101 talk by Tim Wendelboe (whose Oslo coffee shop I finally visited last year). Sure, it focused on the basics like coffee–water ratios, coffee freshness, water quality and extraction, but I still picked up some useful tips. I also enjoyed the V60 home-brewing class with Alex Groves of Curators Coffee.

Latte Art Live is always a popular section of the festival and although the location was better this year, allowing more people to see more of the demos, it was still very busy. I stopped by for Lem Butler's Beginners' Latte Art session — a year in and my latte art is still very amateurish and Lem had some excellent advice. For those with more advanced skills, Dhan Tamang's masterclass or the latte art karaoke may have been more up your street.

At the festival, you can also watch the UK Barista Championship and the Coffee Masters. Coffee competitions aren't to everyone's taste, but I enjoy the theatre of them and the chance to watch expert baristas at work. I caught a few minutes of Joshua Tarlo's winning UKBC presentation, and also listened to a great panel discussion with several World Barista Champions — Dale Harris, Gwilym Davies, James Hoffmann, Stephen Morrissey and Tim Wendelboe — on the value of coffee competitions. 

Downstairs at the Coffee Masters, I managed to see the performance of Agnieszka Rojewska in the quarter finals — Aga ended up winning this year's competition.

Kit

 Every year at the London Coffee Festival, I am tempted by so much of the great coffee kit on offer, from brewing gadgets, to grinders, cups and coffee-associated paraphernalia. I finally got to see Jody Leach's colourful Therma Cups. They are wonderfully tactile and will keep your coffee warm for a considerable amount of time. 

I brought my 8oz KeepCup to the festival with me, but I also bought a 6oz KeepCup, which was great for festival samples and will also be useful for the espressos, macchiatos and piccolos I often drink when I travel. I still wish there was more choice in the 6oz-and-under reusable cup market, but the bright colours of my new cup got a lot of compliments at the festival.

Speaking of colours, Hario wowed many festival-goers with their colourful new V60s, which will go on sale in the summer. Isn't the turquoise model pretty? Alas, they are only making them in the larger 02 size and not the smaller version.

Sage invited me to a demo of their new Precision Brewer, which will be available to buy later this year. I bought their Barista Express espresso machine a year ago and have been very happy with it. The Precision Brewer can brew 12 cups of coffee in seven minutes, but you can also remove the brew basket and slot in a cone filter basket to produce smaller quantities of coffee, pourover style. It can make cold brew too, if that's your thing. 

I sampled some Colombian Miraflores Toledo coffee from Pact Coffee, which had been brewed several hours earlier but still tasted fresh. Sage also kindly gave me a goodie bag, with some of the Pact coffee, a turquoise V60 (not one of the new ceramic ones, but still very pretty) and temperature-control milk jug, which will hopefully further boost my milk steaming skills.

As many people mentioned during the course of Saturday, London's tap water is terrible for making coffee, and one of the latest attempts to solve this problem is Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood and Christopher Hendon's Peak Water jug. You still have three weeks to back the Kickstarter, but I was glad to get the chance to see the jug in real life at the festival — it is indeed beautiful as well as useful. The jugs will likely ship in November, and £80 will get you a jug and about two years' worth of filters (probably a bit less if you live in London...).

Fringe

 The wonderful but all-too-short-lived (H)AND by Has Bean pop-up in Uniqlo was one of my favourite London coffee events of 2017, so when I heard that they would be popping up on Commercial Street, a short walk from the Old Truman Brewery, during the festival, I was delighted. 

I stopped by before the festival for a lovely El Salvador Las Brumas espresso, prepared by Pete Williams (who also served me at Uniqlo). I also got to chat to Has Bean founder Steve Leighton and director of wholesale Dale Harris (who won the 2017 World Barista Championship, coached by Pete). The pop-up was located in a small, subterranean space, and compared to the busyness of the festival, the Has Bean space was a peaceful respite.

I returned in the afternoon to try the soft-serve ice cream, which came with toppings inspired by Dale's signature drinks from the 2017 WBC, from oolong syrup to 'chocolate soil'. I can't consume a lot of dairy, but I'm glad I made an exception for this — a lovely treat (and thank goodness it wasn't coffee-flavoured soft serve, as I'd first thought — not my taste). They were also selling coffee beans and some very cool coffee kit, like the gorgeous, £75 copper Kalita brewer. One day...

Disclaimer: I attended this year's London Coffee Festival as press; thank you to the festival organisers and Hope & Glory. As always, all opinions are my own.

Edit: As I was travelling so much after the festival, I had to write up my post pretty speedily. Since then, there have been lots of other excellent write-ups including: Brian's Coffee Spot (part one is here); Bean There at; Commodities Connoisseur (parts one and two); Dog and Hat Coffee; and Cafe Spaces.