By Gus Saltonstall
Coffee shops are on a short list of businesses, along with bakeries and nail salons, that have proliferated on the Upper West Side in recent years.
Many among us have our go-to coffee spots each morning. An establishment that is built into the routine of our days. A place where in many cases, we relay the exact same order, day after day, with possible slight variation on the weekends.
Mine is typically an iced coffee with a splash of milk and a Splenda, or a once in a blue moon Cortado with oat milk, when I’m feeling a bit fancier.
Part of what has allowed so many coffee shops to open is that the businesses can operate out of smaller than average storefronts. Establishments that sell cups of Joe don’t need large dining rooms, or storage space for merchandise, or any sort of indoor seating at all.
This means that despite the number of options on the Upper West Side, you will generally encounter the same coffee shop experience throughout the neighborhood — the establishments are busy.
And thus arises the importance of proper etiquette within them, especially when there is any sort of significant line.
If you are in a group, order together.
This works on multiple levels. If you are in a pair, you can shorten the ordering process significantly by telling the barista both of your drinks at once, as opposed to each of you ordering and paying individually.
The larger the group gets, the more important this practice becomes.
If there are five of you and you each wait to provide your coffee order one by one, instead of going all at once, you are notably extending everybody’s time in line.
If you are one person, the most coffees you should be able to order at single time is four.
In the age of lattes, macchiatos, and flat whites, it takes a period of time for even the most skilled baristas to create a cup of coffee. If you go up and order seven different types of drinks during the morning rush, you are keeping everybody in line for longer than they need to be. On top of that, coffee trays hold up to four cups, which seems like good guidance to follow.
Know what you are going to order.
If you are in a long line, you should have a plan of what you’re going to order before you get to the cashier. In almost every coffee shop, there is a menu within sight of the line, and this gives you the time to make a selection before you get to the moment where you need to do so. Again, this saves time for everyone in the coffee shop with you.
Avoid too much small talk, once you complete your order, move on.
Yes, it’s good to be friendly. And yes, many baristas pride themselves on their people skills. But if there is a long line behind you, and you have completed your order, it is not the time to launch into a conversation about where you went on vacation last week. You are both slowing down the line, and delaying the barista from either relaying your order or making it themselves.
Do not linger, and make sure the walkways are clear.
Continuing with the concept of moving on after you order, coffee shops are tight and narrow in many cases. In the majority of shops, there is a designated space to pick up your coffee, but if you linger at the ordering station, you are both slowing down the next person and creating a traffic jam of sorts.
The cycle of movement within a coffee shop is delicate, and can be quickly thrown off by a single person stationing themselves in the central walkway. The rhythm can also be unsettled by people letting their dogs sit in the shop on an extended leash, while they pay more attention to some other happening within the store.
Do not sign up for the rewards program when there is a long line behind you.
Almost every coffee shop has a reward system. For every 10 cups of coffee ordered, you get one for free. However, if you have not signed up for it, it is not the right time to do so on Saturday morning when there are 12 people behind you, and you have to carefully type out your email and phone number multiple times on an iPad.
Do not hog the condiment area.
Many coffee shops have stations where you add the milk or sugar to your cup. Do not make people reach over you because you have decided to lean on the ledge next to the Sweet’n Low.
Running and bike clubs should not be allowed in busy coffee shops on the weekends.
Yes, this gets a bit more controversial. But, then again, I ask you your feelings as you arrive at your favorite coffee shop on a Sunday morning and 27 joggers have walked in 10 seconds before you. It is great that they are exercising. In a group with a chance to make new friends, no less. But it is simply too many people for a small coffee shop, especially when exercise groups are more likely to each order individually. The community suffers.
Do not berate the baristas.
If you make the choice to go to a busy coffee shop, and your drink doesn’t come out in 10 seconds, do not start giving the barista a hard time.
And to be clear. Coffee shops are great. You form relationships with the people that work there and your neighbors, who show up every morning just like you.
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WOW! That’s a lot of rules for a $5 cup of Joe that I can make at home for .25cents! Forget about it!
Twenty-five cents; $.25; 25 cents. — Editor
Computer keyboards no longer have a cent symbol, did you notice?
I did and it drives me nuts!!
.25 cents? You mean a quarter of a penny?
Uh…that’s how you write 25 cents – .25 (though to make it clearer, there should have been a dollar sign in front of it – i.e., $.25). If you wrote 1.00, that would be a dollar, so how else would you write 25 cents?
Uh, no it isn’t.
The dollar sign wouldn’t have made it clearER; it would have made it accurate.
Without the decimal point. 25 cents equals .25 dollars.
Marie,
Not if you use good coffee + good milk.
Also, you have account for your rent/mortgage and ConEd bill when doing your calculation of at home coffee making costs.
Jay, depending on how much coffee one makes at one time (e.g., I use a drip pot that makes 6-8 cups at a time), and how much of the “bag” or other coffee container one uses, you essentially “amortize” the cost over the number of cups. Yes, there is also a very small addition for milk and sugar, but otherwise, a cup of coffee at home is always going to be cheaper than one purchased at a coffee shop. and not all coffee-making requires electricity.
Your pedantry is showing. 😉
Have you priced organic milk? And yes, good coffee bars (not Starbucks) have used organic milk for decades.
Then unless you’re using really subpar coffee, 8 cups of drip brewed coffee are going to cost you more than 25 cents apiece.
I don’t disagree with the proposition that making drip or press coffee at home is cheaper. However hot foaming milk requires an expensive powerful espresso machine. So the idea that what’s $5 in a coffee bar is 25 cents at home is highly misleading if not an outright invention.
No it does not! You put milk in a pot on a stove, and heat it, and it starts foaming all by itself! Or you can be fancy and use a foaming tool, or a whisk…Or use a can of whipped cream, like Cabot, before or after you pour your coffee.
No, stove top heated milk is not the same as steam foaming.
Whipped cream doesn’t taste at all like steaming foaming. That’s an entirely different drink.
No one thinks can whipped cream tastes like whipped cream.
Those who care about whipped cream don’t use vanilla or sugar, so that rules out Cabot.
Right diners were more common back in the 1970s, and up until 25 years ago.
You’re so wrong. Your snobbery is totally without foundation, or fondant.
Virgil,
Point to something I’ve said that’s wrong.
You’ve proposed significantly different drinks as substitions.
Also, besides the extra effort to whip the cream, organic heavy cream is not cheap, while good coffee bars (not Starbucks) have used organic milk for lattes for decades.
Now, if you want to steam milk [organic] at home and then brew good coffee, yes, you’ll save good bit of money over a daily latte at a good coffee bar.
chemicas in Splenda no good for
brain. Use Stevia harmless
Nothing to do with milk
Tanka very much
Don’t you mean Sanka?
Really, have you priced organic milk?
Answer: No.
Home costs etc. are sunk costs that have nothing to do with this. Economics 101.
40-50 years ago if you told someone that people would be waiting in long lines at ubiquitous coffee shops to pay a small fortune for coffee, they would have thought you were crazy.
Some of us still do. “Coffee, milk and two sugars”. Done. None of this made-up fake Italian nonsense.
You’re not familiar with how bad food was in the 1970s, which was big motivation for things like good coffee from shops.
Maxwell House is garbage coffee. So is Starbucks.
Can tell you never visited Italy in the 1970s or 80s.
Not so. Food was not bad in the ’70s. It was more substantial and nutritious, to be sure. It was also affordable. Even in the ’80s, a Chinese take-out would provide a fried half-chicken with a mound of french fried or fried rice for $5.00 or less! Ramen was 10 cents. Pizza was a dollar or less per slice.
Robusto coffee is good, just different from Arabica. Sadly, Folger’s no longer has its original taste. It’s a question of preference. The big change was from percolated or boiled coffee to drip coffee thanks to Melitta and Mr. Coffee. Diners were everywhere and affordable. Some still are!
I wasn’t limiting my comment to food in NYC in the 1970s, where on average it was okay to good.
NYC Chinese food (the inexpensive stuff) went down hill from the 1970s. It’s come back a bit and is definitely neighborhood/management dependent.
Also, I never commented above regards prices, albeit part of what you’re seeing in higher prices stems from not so well hidden inflation over the last 40 years.
Neither of you (Jay or Leon) is quite on point.
Jay is not on point because there is not a variable element to home and utility costs that relates to the coffee (unless you are counting on the electricity to run the coffee maker which can’t be a lot hopefully even when provided by Con Edison).
Leon is not on point because there are no sunk (actually sunken) costs – those relate to past expenditures not ongoing ones) and because this isn’t actually economics 101 (which tends to be macroeconomics).
Why would you not account for the addition to the ConEd bill from the coffee maker or stove top?
Also, you ignored my milk cost point.
Yep! And couldn’t sit inside.
If there were seats, sure you could sit inside. Unlike today, where if there are seats they are taken up by computers with people attached, so there is never a seat available if you just want to sit to enjoy your coffee.
Back when I sat at the counter at Chock Full O’ Nuts with my cup of java, we pronounced it “Fuggedaboudit.”
But now I too make my coffee at home. Here’s to coffee either at a hard-working barista’s counter or in our kitchens.
Who remembers “Yuban!?” In the early 1980s, I was a (very young) guest on Joey Adams’ radio show…sponsored by Yuban!
When we could no longer get Butter-Nut (which has come back), we switched to Yuban. I still used it as recently as twenty years ago as Rite-Aid sold it. 8 0’Clock coffee is still excellent. MJB is tops, as is Lavazza Perfetto.
Do you mean Beech Nut?
I miss Chock Full O’ Nuts–the best coffee ever! Cream cheese on Date Nut Bread; Yum!
You can buy it iin a grocery store or online. It is the strongest coffee I’ve ever tried; it causes insomnia.
My mother raised me on those. What a shame we can’t get date-nut bread anymore, no more Oregon Farms, let alone Crosse & Blackwell.
Date nut bread!! So rich; good memories.
The secret to making it is to cook the dates in water so they are soft and wet, then you get a sticky product as it should be.
I met Joe DiMagio at Chock Full on 91st and Broadway, or was a twin donut.. can’t remember.
When he left did you ask “where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?”
the coffee shop turns its lonely eyes to you. ooh ooh ooh.
My Grandma Jessie used to take us to Chock Fulla Nuts!!
I went to the Chock Full ‘O Nuts on west 57th Street diagonally across from Carnegie Hall and up the block from The Art Student’s League, where I attended Saturday classes since the age of 10, sometimes with my mother. They made this low-calorie soft-serve chocolate” ice cream” concoction that I loved when I was in my early-mid teens and imagined that I was fat. And I can sing the Chock Full O’Nuts jimgle/commercial at the drop of a hat. I miss it. As I miss countless other things.
I used to buy their frozen marble cake loaf at Sloan’s, it was delicious.
chock full of nuts is the heavenly coffee….
“better coffee a millionaire’s money can’t buy!”
Back when you sat in Chock Full O’Nuts, you probably didn’t call it “java,” or “Joe,” as Mr. Saltonstall does. Why not just call it a cup of coffee? “Barista” is another term that I could do without. Btw, did you have a nutted cheese or a cup of clam chowder with your coffee?
Joe goes back to Martinson’s origins. It predates all of us.
Nutted cream cheese always. Except for the times when I really truly needed a whole wheat doughnut.
Nutted cheese. Thanks for the memory.
We called coffee “java” back in those days. I don’t remember Joe. There was a Chock Full O’ Nuts at Broadway and 116th. “Barista” was not yet an occupation.
Now I hear the song “Java Jive.”
I remember that one!
I used to love that CFON! We used to go while students at Barnard. 🙂
These are all common courtesy suggestions, but the worst offenders don’t care. An inconsiderate person has no desire to be otherwise. And this neighborhood is full of inconsiderate people…otherwise you wouldn’t have published this article.
SO many people have an unwarranted sense of entitlement. It also permits many to steal rides on transit (thought I’d add a kvetch).
Maybe this person just has a stick up somewhere.
This is similar to many of your others and applies in most retail establishments – have your payment method ready – nothing worse than someone who has been waiting in line for 10 minutes waiting until it is time for payment to fumble through their purse/wallet/pockets/phone to figure out how they will pay.
Also, if your phone rings, you get a text, or whatever else, if you are at the front of the line, either step out of line or wait until you are done. Don’t make people wait for you.
Time is money, not just for the store but for others in line.
If you have no time, it is your fault for mismanaging your time. This is your problem. Let people live. Especially the elderly, and those who don’t like to cram their cash into their wallet or packet and mess it up.
It seems like people don’t even realize they have to pay until the cashier tells them how much. And why, do women wait to open purse, find wallet, get change another place, close purse, when men have money in their hand !
“Women”? Oh no, honey.
Men’s clothes have pockets. Women’s, seldom.
I am a man, I carry my wallet in shoulder bag, while in line or before, I get out my wallet, I know I must soon pay
Invitation to a mugger.
No, men do the same thing. They pull out a huge billfold and have to go thru two stacks to find their card.
Same thing at the grocery line! News flash folks, you’re going to have to pay for the groceries. While the nice person is scanning and bagging your food, maybe that’s a good time to get your payment method ready, rather than starting the search when everything is done.
I agree but since I’m usually the one bagging my groceries, I don’t always have my hands free to hold my credit card
Just keep the sidewalk clear so the rest of us can get by thanks.
The first thing I noticed after leaving New York was that NO ONE WAS BUMPING INTO ME ON THE SIDEWALK! There’s no excuse for elbowing people.
Solid State was a hidden gem and now the line spills out the door! Did they go viral??
No coffee for you! …NEXT!!!
This reads like a set of rules laid out by the “Coffee Nazi” (yes, I borrowed from Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi” episode written by Spike Feresten.)
How about the people that order a cup of coffee and expect to sit at a table for 3 hours so they can work? I find that issue the most egregious of Upper West Siders – since they are entitled to “work at home,” and yet refuse to work at home. Coffee shops are paying money for their space to SELL beverages and FOOD, not to be offices. West Siders can go to a library or a larger venue that has free public space, with chairs and a table. As far as your electronic devices go – get a portable charger. This city is expensive enough without the entitled expecting free commercial space at places where people work for tips and owners need to have major TURN-OVER to stay in business.
And then those 4+ people placing one order for the party has to figure out what each person owes, so they can get venmo-ed. This is a huge inconvenience for the customer. If you’re a retailer, staff correctly; or this customer will go somewhere else!
“a huge inconvenience”, lol sure, if you’re a boomer. the rest of us can figure it out pretty easily, and do it outside the shop where we’re out of the way of everyone else
Can, but don’t. See the difference?
Well, you can, but so many of you don’t.
This is such a neurotic, UWS article (and I love it).
Could you put together a set of rules for cyclists e.g., don’t run the reds, stop for pedestrians in Central Park, etc.?
Exactly, How about the people that do the STOP & CHAT with Baby carriages right in the middle of the sidewalk? Even worse the Dog Walkers with their EXTENDED LEASES walking oblivious to that fact that FIDO is walking from the curb to the storefronts as they blab on their phones.. It’s hell here, but where else are we going to go? LOL
Really? If you walk dogs you get an extended lease?
Ah! Yes! Then we can do “Trader Joe’s rules”, “Walking down the sidewalk rules”, and so on, and publish a “New York City UWS etiquette manual”, to be handed out to new UWS residents and unsuspecting passersby … (Just joking … sort of … 😉 It is good to be reminded of blind spots and possibly improvements, which I am sure many of us have and can use )
I hate lines and discourtesy equally but if I’m going to pay $7 for a coffee, I want it made to order and done correctly. If I order for my 3 friends too. someone’s order is going to be messed up. And part of customization is that condiment area.
If you want fast food/coffee, go elsewhere or order online for pickup. I’m not going to dally but don’t rush me.
McDonald’s has excellent coffee. Dunkin’ Donuts is just fine, too. Get a real life, people.
When did coffee get so complicated.
It used to be, drink,wake up then find the bathroom.
Bathrooms? Where?? Most of the coffee shops, at least on the UWS, DO NOT have bathrooms available for customers’ use!! They used to. Very inhospitable!! Makes you want to bring back the “good old days”. Sigh….
For sane people, that is still the drill.
Don’t order for more than 4 people is a stupid rule. If some poor intern is coming in to order for 7 co-workers, they’re literally doing everyone else a favor by not crowding the store unnecessarily – literally helping with the next rules on the list. Thank them.
I didn’t really understand this one, If one person is ordering multiple coffees for other people, that’s quicker than having four people ordering separately.
Sounds like someone is just jealous that they don’t have minions.
It’s quicker than having 7 people order. But if you get in line and see 7 people ahead of you, would you wait? Probably not. If you see one person ahead of you, you would expect to have a short wait until you hear them order 7 complicated drinks.
Love this! Of course, much of this should be common sense, but…it ain’t so common these days. 🙂
This is one of many reasons why I don’t drink coffee (though I agree with most of the points and think they apply well to other similar venues).
As a non-coffee drinker can I add a related statement that you should not bring it on public transit? Either drink it at home or drink it where you are going. There is no need to travel with it, especially because those traveling with it on a crowded train think it entitles them to keep their arm out and take up a lot of space. I’m really sorry the coffee where you are going isn’t as perfect as it is where you are coming from. Deal with it. Or at least have it in a well-sealed tumbler, not a coffee cup you get at a store.
Rant over! Non-coffee drinkers are an oppressed class (just kidding, sort of).
I tried walking with a cup of hot coffee once. It had a lid, yet it kept splashing me with hot coffee through the tiny hole. Then my arm started to cramp because it was frozen in position. I thought, how can people do this? I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of coffee-induced bursitis soon.
Muffins, thought it’s been there 30+ years, really needs to improve its coffee. It keeps its business because it has a large selection of good baked goods and sandwiches, but the coffee is Starbucks grade.
If you’re a regular, and order coffees that take prep time, tip.
Makes things go a lot faster in the future.
Also: The signs and laws say “No Dogs”; it’s a big fine for the shop if the health department spots a dog inside. So, if you insist on bringing your dog inside, you’re telling the staff and owners that you don’t care about the place. You and your dog are not a special exception — no matter how well behaved both of you are.
And that you have no consideration for anyone else. Dogs are unclean, period. And cause problems for people with allergies, people who walk their cats, hyenas, bears, wallabys and snakes. Pets do NOT go inside buildings except your own! And carry a spray bottle to rinse their urine off of everything they pee on!
That’s funny. Since when does the health department actually fine food establishments that allow non service dogs? Literally every store (not sit-down restaurant) has given up on denying entry to dog owners. During covid they allowed it and there was no going back.
I hate it but I’m so tired of fighting.
For at least a year, there was letter in the door of Pioneer saying something about a $2000 fine in 2023.
So it happens.
And I’ve checked, the letter is still up Pioneer’s entry door.
i consider that i too have given up, but i do make complaints, by asking to speak to the manager, who then appears (pulled away from whatever was being done) and i state my case, then walk away. i figure if enough people did this, things might change. it usualy takes me about 10 minutes. Whole Foods is a main target. my last visit there i spotted five dogs in the aisles.
It’s much more exciting to confront the selfish young pup, I mean, dog owner, for their rude behavior. The fact that they just take it for granted is a sign of entitlement and having been raised badly. So next time you think about taking your dog inside an establishment, consider what it is saying about you to other people. It’s not pretty.
I agree.
I don’t get any of this.
I wake up. I brew a pot of delicious coffee. I sit in my underwear and drink it with great pleasure.
I go to the gym.
I love my life.
I bought a Proctor-Silex coffeemaker, and it is even better than Mr. Coffee. But I also have two Drip-O-Lators, which are the best, and a Moka pot, as well as a porcelain drip filter cone.
I’m with you Jane! One of the greatest joys of my retirement (after many years of up early, out, bus, work) is home delivery of the NYT – a pot of coffee – read! (The same paper that I quickly read and did the puzzle on the way to work – now takes – 2 hours!)
I was with you up until the “I go to the gym” part.
words outta my mouth!
Although caffeine and polyphenols have their place, I have never in my life cared for coffee (AKA “mud water”) and these days don’t get out much.
So there!
Back in the early 1970s, as a student at Columbia, my go-to place was Chock Full O’ Nuts sit-down counters at Bway & 116th St. The ultimate treat was a nutted cream cheese sandwich on date-nut bread for a budget-busting 85 cents, delivered by a no-nonsense uniformed waitress. You ordered “coffee”–a single word”–which arrived fresh-brewed and piping hot in a gleaming off-white ceramic mug with a small jug of cream if requested. 15 cents if I remember correctly. Their whole-wheat donuts (20 cents?) were sonewhat greasy, but dunked into their legendary coffee and popped into the mouth just before class . . . Heavenly! Proust had his madeleine, Upper West Siders had their Chock Full O’ Nuts donut!
yes! in the ‘80s we did that too
I would have, but, a friend called it “Chock Full O’ Roaches” and it scared me off.
This sounds like a “Soup Nazi” insteuction booklet.
I miss Box Kite. Such delicious coffee.
Yes. Me too. Best coffee shop in NYC, no question. Manny opened his own shop uptown (Superhet Coffee).
I get coffee in my neighborhood for $1.50 and it is far better than what I make at home. It is never crowded and I can sit and read the paper for the whole morning if I choose. I have conflabs with my friend, the waitress, or a neighbor who may appear. Heaven!
“Conflabs,” sounds like me.
I don’t agree with this article, I’d rather more baristas slow down and make a higher quality drink rather than just cycling through customers. There is a lot of bad coffee in NYC because speed is prioritized over quality. If you are in a rush, stay home or just order a drip coffee and move on. As far as paying goes, most are tapping to pay so really doesn’t matter if you order together or separately, the espresso machine is going to be the bottleneck and again I’d rather my barista take their time.
These are the basic rules. What about the secret rules?
we aint tellin, on account of them being secret … 😉
Sadly, I do a mobile order at Starbucks and it’s ready when I get there. Don’t hate me! With kids and work, I don’t have time to wait!
Is the coffee hot?
Yep!
Surprised there wasn’t more said about ordering on an app before you get to the coffee shop.
Well, that just slows everything down for the people in the coffee house – all the staff are doing the online orders, and those customers jump ahead of everyone waiting on line in the shop.
I have a good one – don’t bring your dog. It takes up space in an already crowded situation, and is frankly unsanitary to bring into food establishments. The entitlement around dog ownership in NYC has gotten out of control. People just outright assume everyone loves their dog as much as they do (newsflash – they don’t), and get weirded out when you have an averse reaction to their dog jumping on you.
People abuse the “oh, it’s a service animal” narrative, and frankly I think it’s downright disgraceful and disrespectful to those who actually need a service animal to function. Get over yourselves. Leave your dog home for 20 min while you grab a coffee – I guarantee you it will be just fine when you return. It’s not a human child, it’s ….. a dog.
Newsflash, I love everyone else’s dogs! I get to pet them, I don’t have to pick up poop or do any of the rest of the work involved.
How’s it unsanitary? The dog is on the floor, do you also put your coffee on the floor?
I have a dog, and I love my dog, and I wish very much that I could take the dog with me – I don’t have time to go out twice before work. I don’t think it should be prohibited- but it is. (I do have sympathy for those with allergies, though, so for that reason I have som sympathy for the rules, but I don’t believe the health concern given that plenty of other countries don’t share these rules and haven’t died of plague.) But I don’t take my dog in the coffee shop because it isn’t allowed and I am an adult who can follow rules and delay gratification.
What I do wish is that there were more places with windows that allowed you to order from outside. It would be so nice to be able to stop and order a coffee without going in, or to order on the app and pick up without going in. If I had a shop, I would have that if I possibly could.
108th and Amsterdam (on 108th) – nice coffee place that you can only pick up from outside. Good coffee. I don’t remember what they are called.
There’s one at Amsterdam and 86th too – but the line was exceedingly long the last time I went there (which suggests that my idea could be useful to future coffee shop owners!).
delete Splenda. no good for u.
Stevia harmless use as much as u wish
This info from from Dr Amon PBS
both Splenda and Stevia taste awful, though Stevia is certainly healthier.
Useful advice, well stated. I hope that many will read it — and take heed.
I’m reminded of when I first moved to California for a few years and was complaining to my cousin (another NY transplant) about how long it took to simply fill up my gas tank (no self serve in those days). He said, “So, you’ll have a conversation.” I added that I needed to pick up my girlfriend from her job and didn’t want to keep her waiting. He said, “So, she’ll have a conversation.”
I’ve taken that to heart. A few minutes of my life could be spent in anxiety or in pleasant conversation with a stranger or neighbor.
This
And … There is ALWAYS lovely coffee at home! No lines, no rules (well, MY rules, but those don’t count…), and any variation I want for as many people I want …
(Sort of) jokes aside, I hear ya. I think that having awareness of others and being mindful of one’s surroundings and others’ needs is just generally a good human practice. Anyplace. Coffee shops included. Now, where’s my second cup of coffee? Ah, I’m gonna skip my line and make it … 😉
I miss the old coffee shops with plenty of interior seating areas that used to line the streets of Manhattan.
These etiquette directives all make good sense. My only quibble with this piece is that the new wave of coffee establishments aren’t “coffee shops.” A coffee shop was a place where one could sit down and order coffee and/or meals, especially breakfast and lunch. They used to be plentiful but have become rare nowadys. These directives would not apply to true NYC coffee shops.
Dull article
Hey, how you all feel when upon paying the cashier or barista asks you to leave a tip on your cc card or drop something into the tip jar
I for one don’t like it!
Damm cup of fancy shmancy coffee for $5.00-7.00 and a tip on top of it, I think not!
Wow! What’s the rush? Stop and smell the coffee. If you are crazy enough to pay $7 for a cup of coffee it should be perfect. There should be no stress involved in the ordering process, nor in the creation process. Chillax!
I was going to head out for a coffee. After reading the article, I’ll stay home and make my own.
If the coffee prep is the rate-limiting step, ordering and paying faster doesn’t really speed things up, it just means a longer wait after you have ordered. Isn’t that the case for most stores?
Ignore this fuddy duddy; get the coffee you want, for the number of people you want; sign up for the rewards.
In 1979 Chelsea, my old neighborhood joint on 23rd & 8th, a large coffee to go with a real store made donut was .75. Sitting at the counter, coffee, egg and toast $1.99 with free coffee refills. This was when NYC wasn’t a mall.
Okay, and how much did you earn in 1979?
Coffee refills are still free at diners.
If memory serves, that was the Riss diner/luncheonette. Just up the block from the Chelsea Hotel and a short left turn on 8th to Formica-clad breakfast heaven.
In the interest of efficiency it would be helpful if all coffee shops posted their prices on the menu board and online. I was surprised that one of my favorite coffee places does not do this.
A couple of these rules are just downright selfish and I’d be ashamed to be the one to write them. No running groups or cycling groups on weekends? Sorry that YOU have to wait in line behind these groups, but why should the group members suffer so YOU don’t have to wait, and why should the establishment suffer by losing business so YOU don’t have to wait? The fact that four people come in together but pay separately makes YOU have to wait longer? Poor baby. If I go in with a group of friends, and I am not planning on paying for them, and they are not paying for me – as in we are each paying for our own coffees, then we will order separately. If it is two of us ordering separately or ten of us. If one person comes in together order 20 coffees, well sorry YOU were surprised by this, but those 20 coffees are business for the establishment and you just have to wait. There is nothing wrong with one person making the coffee run. It’s classic!
Some of the others are very much common sense. It really is annoying when someone starts looking for their money after everything is otherwise done – yes, take your cash/credit card out and have it at the ready right away. And that goes for anywhere, From cabs to restaurants to stores.
My guess is that the cafe owner welcomes 27-member running and/or cycling clubs.
If an individual patron is inconvenienced, so be it.
Get a 10-cup cafetera for home use, and you’ll save money and likely increase satisfaction in the intermediate term.
Coffee is way too expensive, The city should open and operate The People’s Coffee Shop. You can pay whatever you can afford, and all New Yorkers will start their day equally.
We don’t care 🫵🏻🗑️
Jeesh! What a nag’
I think this person did not have a good night sleep when they wrote this article.
Too much caffeine.
This omits the most important, most basic rule of etiquette: do not talk on your cell phone with the speaker on. Nobody wants to hear the other side of your conversation. Nobody wants to hear the scratchy noise of that amplified voice, even if out of range of hearing specific words clearly. Do not commit noise pollution in a cafe (including in outdoor seating).
This is one of the worst takes I’ve seen in my entire life. As the leader of a community based run club, we always message the coffee shop we plan to go to in advance and make sure they can receive a high volume of patrons at a specific time. To dive even further, one of our runners owns a dearly, beloved coffee shop on the UWS that we always love supporting. One of the very reasons our community was born was to support small business’ on the UWS. When local businesses suffer, the community suffers.
So extremely disappointed in West Side Rag…
Completely agree! Imagine asking cafes to turn away large groups of paying customers.
Ok so your run club is clearly a highly evolved operation and we are all grateful. (Sorry if we missed your halo(s) at the cafe. ) But when the author has clearly experienced big frustration from the unenlightened choices of some other boorish run club, I think your comments should be directed at them, not him (or the WSR). And may all the run clubs emulate yours!
Couldn’t agree more! Hate seeing this type of NIMBY attitude in a wonderful neighborhood.
I feel prouder than ever to be an UWSer when I see so many locals out exercising and supporting our businesses!
Agree with all points!!
Terminology problem: coffee shops in NYC have always been what we also know as diners. For food and drink. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or anytime. These newer places are coffee bars or cafes. Mainly serving varieties of fancy coffee combos – with minimum effort food menu, more easily microwaveable or not. I spent a lot of money for a year or so getting one daily steamed oat milk cafe americano. Am now off caffeine! Try it.
She’s actually writing about “coffee houses” – not coffee shops or coffee bars or cafés.