The Empire Coffee Building: Your Guide to New York's Coffee Scene

It's a Caffeine State of Mind

Boasting a mean roast and a vast number of independent artisanal coffee stores, New Yorkers are spoilt for choice when it comes to topping-up their caffeine fix. So, with that in mind, we eschewed the main streets and the shining Starbucks signs (because of course we would) and headed out in search of good coffee. Here we go, below is our top 5 coffee shops in New York City.

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Reunion's qualities go beyond its coffee

Homecoming: 107 Franklin St, Brooklyn

Part flower shop, part coffeehouse, Homecoming is a unique spot in Williamsburg to get your coffee fix. Despite its minimal seating (just a couple of seats at the front and an outside area for when the sun is shining), Homecoming’s tasty coffee and quirky vibe makes it a great spot to take a quick break from your meandering of the artsy Williamsburg streets.

                TRY: Taking the setting in mind, it’s no surprise that the flowery flavour extends to the menu, with the chai latte and hibiscus doughnut topping our list of recommendations!

Coffee with a side of flowers

Greecologies: 379 Broome Street, New York

Located just across Brooklyn Bridge in the Italian area of town, Greecologies is a coffee-stop with a difference in that it specialises in on-site made yogurt. Using a combination of traditional and modern techniques, Greecologies is able to combine a modern interior design with good coffee and a unique snack to coax yourself through your day (if the comfy seats and wifi doesn’t distract you first)!

                TRY: Their modern-made yogurt with banana slices, cocoa nips, sesame seeds and honey is to die for.

Greecologies' yogurt is worth a visit on its own

Reunion: 544 Union Avenue, Brooklyn

Also in Williamsburg, Reunion is a caffeine pit-stop that may just convince you to stay for a meal. With a fantastic aesthetic, Reunion’s menu takes inspiration from the owners’ Israeli-roots to offer an interesting selection of food to go along with your coffee. With its friendly staff and cosy atmosphere, a quick visit may well be enough to turn this Union Avenue staple into a regular trip!

                TRY: For the caffeine-needy, their chai latte is fantastic but if you have some free time, you can’t go wrong with their falafel starter!

Reunion, the perfect combo of food and caffeine

Brooklyn Roasting Company: 25 Jay Street, Brooklyn

They may be all over the place (well, in a few different locations across the city at least), but their home will always be Jay Street. Roasting a selection of small-batch beans from acros the world, Brooklyn Roasting Company’s fairtrade and organic coffee is brewed on site within view of their grinding machines. With a stable wifi connection as well as a good selection of pastries, a juice-bar and a book store on-site (not to mention the exposed-brick interior), this is a coffee shop you could easily spend all day in working on whatever you need done and not even notice the hours roll by! Need to stretch your legs? With the water-front park just across the street, this is the ideal space to park-up all day.

                TRY: Have a sweet-tooth? Their maple shay surely won’t disappoint.

That vintage aesthetic had us purring!

Absolute Coffee: 327 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn

Staying in Brooklyn, Absolute Coffee is a neighborhood favorite. Easily reached on the A and C metro line, this cute coffee stop may soon become a regular journey. Brewing a wide range of unique roasts, Absolute is perfect for people looking for a good coffee to see them through their morning tasks. For the more adventurous visitor, the store also carries maps of Brooklyn’s different districts, outlining the city’s independent stores, restaurants, and services, making this a fantastic starting point for an exploration-filled day!

                TRY: Take a look-see at what they’re brewing that day and consider a filter coffee to get you on your way.

Absolute-ly ready for an adventure!

3 Simple ideas to Save Money on your Travels!

Attention: Adventures needed!

Travelling, I’m sure you know, is a hell of a lot of fun but, unfortunately, can also be extremely expensive. For this reason, we here at Latte Wanderer decided we would fill you in on a few different techniques you can use to shave a few pounds off of your next trip! After all, the more money you save on flights and accommodation, the more you can spend on the experiences and memories that will last a lifetime.

As usual, be sure to follow us on Instagram for all the latest news as well as Rakbo, a new online magazine I write for full of articles and advice on topics from travelling to studying to interior design!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles:

Right so you’ve chosen your destination and already have an idea of what you want to see, now you just have to actually get there. The best way to get there often depends on where it is that you’re going. Within America for example the best way Is often to drive. Joining together with friends and driving across America on your holiday will not only save you money (especially when you factor in just how expensive planes are on that side of the world!), but can also be a great way to give you more freedom en-route, allowing you to take detours to other points of interests! Thankfully, in more connected continents such as Europe and Asia, you have a number of alternatives when it comes to travelling, including high-speed trains and low-cost flights.

By now it is fairly common for people to use price-comparison sites such as Skyscanner in order to find the best deals on flights but price guarantees and money-back schemes are often less-used. Companies like Expedia that offer to match your lowest price (and give you a voucher off your next trip) on anything from planes, trains and hotels are can be combined with money-back sites such as Quidco that give you cashback for going through them. It may only be few pounds but every penny counts, not to mention that you can earn miles with each purchase! Oh, it’s also worth doing your checking on incognito mode, sites that track cookies can tell if you’re looking for flights and are more likely to give you a higher cost…

For people in the UK you can also pop down to your local train station and pick up a 16-25 railcard that gives you 33% off train tickets (London to Edinburgh for less than £40? Yes please!).

Lake by the roadside in the Scottish Highlands

Accommodation:

Unfortunately, accommodation can often the most expensive part of a trip, adding up as the days go on. Fortunately for those of us who travel with the intention of our accommodation being solely a base from which we can go on our adventure, it becomes a lot easier to put up without the little luxuries on offer in hotels in return for more spending money! For people on a shoestring budget, hostels are definitely a good way to go, with companies like YHA (in the UK) providing an extensive range in accommodation throughout the country for cut-prices compared to their hotel counterparts. Alternatively, there is always Airbnb. As I eluded to in a prior article, not only can staying in an Airbnb be a far more interesting way to experience a new place than a standard hotel, but with many of them below £30 a night, it can also be the cheapest!

- Still need convincing? Click here to get £30 off your next Airbnb booking! -  

Courthouse in Oxford, Mississippi

Packing:

So you’ve sorted out your flights at a cut-price rate and snagged yourself some accommodation that doesn’t break the bank. The next step? Your bags. We all love having an outfit for every occasion, but how often do you ever actually wear it all? Airlines are notorious for adding on extra fees for every small detail of you trip, but none is more avoidable than the checked bag cost. It may not seem like much with prices from £20 for the cheapest checked luggage, but when you consider that it may well be half empty for a short city-break and that that price is only one-way, it becomes an avoidable expense that you could easily spend better enjoying your destination!

West Lake, Hangzhou

Why an Airbnb may be the way forward on your next trip

 Searching for accommodation for your next holiday?

So you’ve booked your flights, next step? Accommodation. Targeting a combination of tourists and business-travelers, hotels are undoubtedly the easiest and most luxurious way to travel, but personally, unless a resort holiday is what you want, we would book an Airbnb over a hotel 90% of the time. Yes, there is a little more research that needs to go into booking an Airbnb over a hotel (pictures, location, reviews of the property as well as reviews of the host themselves) but, staying in one can be so much more rewarding than staying in a conventional hotel and, for around the same price as a hostel, should definitely be strongly considered whatever your budget. 

Here’s why…

Location:

The general consensus is that hotels are dominant in ‘tourist’ areas, but what if you don’t want to be surrounded by tourist amenities? With a wealth of options that span the entirety of the city (spots in Mexico City range from city-centre flats to out of town villas), Airbnb properties ensure that you are never too far from anything you want to see. The fact that these are houses owned by locals also means that you have a higher likelihood of finding a bed on your more remote travels, something never more clearly seen than in the Scottish Highlands where a brief look in the area surrounding Smoo Cave shows a solitary SYHA hostel that seems to be fully booked from now until eternity or several close Airbnb options.

Think this dog fancies a game of fetch?

Price:

Now of course there are going to be luxury apartments on Airbnb in every city that are comparable to the prices of hotels, but in general it is fairly clear that prices on Airbnb are much more reasonable than their hotel counterparts. Take Edinburgh for example. A single night in the ‘cheap’ Ibis hotel in the city centre ranges between £65 to £130 for a room while an Airbnb would set you back £70 for an entire flat, fitting 4 guests. Add to that the convenience of having full access to amenities (a host in Memphis provided unlimited ice-tea in the fridge among other things) and a kitchen and the choice becomes obvious! Not only is this great as it saves you some pennies in your pocket, but it also frees up a lot more cash for you to spend throughout your holiday on the things that actually matter, the experiences!

 

Where better to relax under the stars than this High Desert House in California?

Expertise:

So this one will change depending on if you’re renting out an entire flat or just a room, but the expertise of your host cannot be ignored, after all they’re locals in the place your visiting! While all hotels will have a concierge service/ office staff there to assist you with your questions, you’ll rarely find them recommending anything different to the guides designed for tourists. Your Airbnb host? They’re experts in where the locals go. Best coffee shop to relax in? They’ve been there. Non-tourist bars? They drink there. A bipartisan opinion on an attraction? They’re your best bet. It is often when you go off the beaten path that you discover the heart and soul of the city and who best to show you the way than someone who is an active part of the local culture.

Dairsie Castle is where you go to live out your Game of Thrones fantasies?

Uniqueness:

Don’t get me wrong, there are some beautiful hotels around the world, but unless you are showing me the Hilton in Hawaii (it has penguins in the foyer, it wins in everything), they all kind of look and feel the same: glass structures with floor upon floor of corridor, each housing countless near-identical rooms, there’s just no character to them. That is where Airbnb steps in. Aye, many may be standard apartments but look beyond those and you’ll find yourself with the opportunity of staying inside a campsite in the desert, a cave-dwelling used in Pirates of the Caribbean, a dog-shaped house and even a Scottish castle… How many people can say that they’ve slept in a medieval castle?! 

This house is literally all you ever wanted as a kid...

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Travel with a Purpose: El Camino de Santiago

The Camino de Santiago. The Way of St. James. “A Really Long Walk”. 

The route has been called by many names, but the journey to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain has been around for centuries. Officially the third most visited Christian site in the world, the popularity of El Camino has exploded in recent years, taking advantage of an upsurge in adventure-seekers and offering an experience unlike any other trip I’ve been on.

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It’s going to hurt…

Now this may seem like an obvious fact, but it’s one that you must see. The Camino is not easy. You are essentially carrying enough clothes and necessities on your back for anywhere between a week (El Camino Ingles) and a month (El Camino Frances), all the while walking an average of seven hours a day, much of it on hilly mountain tracks.

… but it’s so, so worth it.

Stereotypical we know, but believe me, walking into the square in front of the Cathedral in Santiago is a feeling unlike any other. Described as magic by some and addictive by all, the otherworldly feeling of accomplishment and bliss that you feel as you realise that you have completed the journey will instantly make you want to do another.

Light streaming through the arch of an abandoned monastery, somewhere in Northern Portugal

Slum it!

In recent years, the huge expansion experienced by the Camino has meant that it has developed some more ‘comfortable’ arrangements including nicer hotels and paradors for peregrinos to sleep in as well as taxi services that take your rucksacks to your various nightly stops but honestly, unless you’re desperate, don’t do it. So much of the Camino experience takes place in the albergues. These cheap hostels may be devoid of many creature comforts (if it has plugs and warm water be thankful!) and there will always, ALWAYS, be a snorer who keeps the entire room awake, but that is one of the best parts of the trip. It is at these hostels where you create bonds with your fellow walkers, forming groups to go to the bars, sharing tales of unique moments that have happened along the way and, ultimately, goes some way towards creating the community vibe that makes saying goodbye at the end of the trip somewhat harder than it should be.

The Camino becomes a way of life to many of the locals who live on the route, Galicia

Don’t be a stranger.

So much of the joys of the Camino are because of the company you pick up along the way. Countless a rainy day has become a blissfully enjoyable walk largely thanks to the stories of my fellow walkers. These are not only your main source of entertainment along the way (lets face it your iphone is not going to last eight hours) but also encouragement to ward off the pain. Not to mention purveyors of information, on my last Camino I turned a corner to see a group of ten pilgrims all offering different forms of aid to a poor girl suffering a blister! Say hi to your fellow walkers and I can guarantee that your final photo album will be filled with random strangers.

Waking the fortress that separates Spain and Portugal

Learn the lingo.

No, I don’t mean walk around with a Spanish phrasebook in your pocket (although it would certainly be helpful with the route cutting through mostly rural areas where the majority of people will speak minimal, if any, English), but simply “Buen Camino”. The phrase, literally meaning “have a good Camino” will be imprinted in your memory by the end of the second day. Repeated at every coffee stop, church, hostel, shop and restaurant as well as coming at you from every local and pilgrim you see, the phrase begins to mean everything from “hello”, to “goodbye” and “have a nice day”.

Don't ignore photo opportunities, Spanish-Portuguese border crossing

Enjoy the scenery, Galicia

 

Finally, enjoy the journey!

Perhaps more so than any other form of ‘tourism’ – if it can indeed be called that, the Camino is all about the journey and not the destination so take advantage of it. Yes it isn’t a walk in the park but it’s not a race, enjoy it. Take a break at a fountain to take in the artwork, stop off at a small town to pose for a picture in front of a statue or monument, wander around a church, have a drink of the local wine and treat yourself, have that extra slice of cake! Santiago de Compostela is beautiful but it will be the dingy hostels, beautiful scenery and unique characters that dominate your stories as you bore your friends back home rather than pictures of the finish line.

Go out and explore the surroundings of your overnight stays, street festival in Pontevedra

Lost is Fun

- Wander Lost -

What can I say? I'm a person who loses things: from USB sticks to house keys, headphone cables to Oyster Cards (for all of you Londoners out there, you're not the only ones) and travel itineraries. Yet, unlike the other items on the list, I’ve always found that the lack of a concrete plan leads to a much more thrilling adventure, to the point that I now make a conscious plan to not micro-manage my trips.

We’ve all been there, your bags are packed (mentally at least), you’ve yelp’d all of the foodie attractions, 500px’d best the snap locations and written all over your printed-out landmark sheets from TripAdvisor. The only thing missing? Some time to sit-back and take it all in.

All too often abroad I see other travellers running circles around me, rushing from attraction to attraction to tick it off their list, battling wind and rain to ‘complete’ the city, too focused on seeing everything to enjoy it. My advice? Lose the itinerary, get yourself lost, wander, randomly engage with locals.

As someone who loves coffee I often find myself attracted to the various cute coffee shops a city has to offer, preferring to indulge in a session of people-watching and chatting to the barista about his/her favourite spots in the city over charging about in the rain.

I find that people forget that about travelling, that the vibe of the location is just as central to the culture as the architecture. Don’t get me wrong, each city has its must-sees: London has Big Ben, New York contains the Statue of Liberty and no visit to Barcelona is complete without a cheeky picture in front of the Sagrada Familia, but, beyond that, you could fill a two week vacation at each  location and not see every attraction on your TripAdvisor list so remember to relax, take a break, don’t just charge through the cobbled streets of Barcelona’s Old Town taking pictures just to be able to say you were there, sit down at one of the bars along the road and order a jug of sangria, the science museum will still be standing tomorrow.

I’m generally terrible at taking my own advice, but upon returning from a recent visit to China, it struck me as to how different my trip would have been had I forced myself to go through with all of the activities I’d researched. By slowing down and spend more time communicating with the locals I was able to take part in a traditional tea ceremony at a tea plantation (rather than it just be a picture stop-off before moving on), get filmed for a Chinese docu-series in a temple up a hill (still not entirely sure how that one came about) and, by just getting lost instead of micro-managing, was able to find the hidden gems glossed over by tourists.

Love your experience, not just the break

This is the phrase that I’d want to leave y’all with at the end of the first post. Love your experience. A holiday isn’t just about getting away from school or work, it’s a stress-free adventure. Remember to come back to the real world with more than pictures of pretty scenes in your camera, but with a smile having genuinely loved it.

Thanks for reading my first post (things will improve I promise). We at Latte.Wanderer have some fun plans for future articles including our upcoming ‘Visit Like a Local’ series of city guides based on recommendations of attractions, restaurants and experiences from people who live in the city!

Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram (“latte.wanderer”) and we’ll post on there when the next post is up and tag us in any travel photos you think should be featured!

Until next time, I'm off to grab a coffee..