Steven Stark, a longtime Upper West Side resident, took inspiration for this essay from a new stand-up comedy routine he has written. You can catch his act monthly at West Side Comedy Club (75th & Amsterdam Avenue).
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The American Heart Association said recently that most adults can safely drink up to FIVE cups of coffee a day. FIVE?! Wow, I guess I need to cut back from my usual SEVEN.Really, that’s what they said. Here’s a link to the story.
I realize it’s not as simple as all that, but I stopped reading the story after I saw that. So, it’s going to suffice for the purposes of this essay.
When I worked in the family paint and hardware store (shout out to the beloved but defunct Beacon Paint & Hardware), it was not uncommon for me to drink multiple cups of coffee every day. I was up before 6 am and worked until at least 6 pm – sometimes 8 pm. There is no truth to the rumor I once had an IV drip of iced coffee going into my veins. But I did make coffee once using caffeinated water, and that’s something I don’t recommend.
My doctor strongly advised me to reduce my caffeine intake.
I have tried, but Manhattan is not the best place to try cutting back on coffee. There’s simply too much temptation around every corner – and I mean literally every corner!
You can’t walk half a block without running into a place to get coffee! There are Starbucks, Dunkin’ , 7-11s … delis, bodegas, coffee shops, diners, food carts, food trucks …
Capital One Bank now operates upscale cafes! I stopped in the other day and got a mochaccino and a second mortgage. And I’ll be paying off that mochaccino for 20 years!
Then there are the specialty cafes (and this list is incomplete):
- Blue Bottle
- Bluestone
- Blank Street
- Birch
- Ground Central
- Gregory’s
- Irving Farm
- Intelligentsia
- Stumptown
- La Colombe
- Le Café Coffee
- Victory Roasters
There’s the redundantly named Joe Coffee. There’s a place called Think Coffee – hey, we can’t stop thinking about coffee! There’s About Coffee! I saw another place the other day that is called – wait for it – COFFEE. That’s it! They couldn’t be bothered to come up with any other name. I like it. Direct and to the point. This is New York – we don’t have time for extra words.
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The Upper West Side has certainly seen a proliferation of specialty coffee sellers in the last couple of years. In the area between 72nd and 86th streets using Columbus Avenue and Broadway as boundaries, I counted more than a dozen different specialty coffee sellers.And coming soon is another – the former Café Lalo, shuttered since the start of the pandemic, is being brought back to life as Jack’s Coffee. Opening is scheduled for Oct. 1.
What do we make of this mushrooming of coffee places? (By the way, did you know you can buy ‘mushroom coffee,’ which contains medicinal mushroom extracts? Caffeine and mushrooms – a winning combination! Hold the hallucinogenics, please, I’m trying to cut back.)
Where was I? Ah yes, so many coffee establishments! Can they all survive? Remember the proliferation of frozen yogurt stores on the UWS about a decade ago? 16 Handles and Pinkberry survived, but few others did. Will there ultimately be a shakeout? Can all the coffee places survive, especially with rents being what they are?
The Upper West Side is just a tiny part of the massive, global multi-billion dollar specialty coffee sector. Some studies say there are 500-plus unique branded concepts across the United States
According to the Business Research Company’s Coffee Shops Market Overview, coffee shops market size reached $89 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to $123 billion in 2030.
And a study by OysterLink, a job platform for the restaurant and hospitality industry, showed there are an estimated 1,744 coffee shops and 956 cafes in New York City as of 2025. BrewAtlas, a community-driven platform dedicated to helping specialty coffee enthusiasts discover exceptional cafés around the world, lists 249 specialty coffee shops throughout New York City.
According to Grand View Research, a San Francisco-based global market research firm, the U.S. specialty coffee market was valued at USD $47.8 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $81.8 billion by 2030. (That’s a lotta lattes!)
Artie Hidric, co-owner with his wife, Nela, of La Bomboniera on 82nd Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, says the various cafes are different enough to co-exist and he’s not worried about the glut. (La Bomboniera is an Italian-style expresso and wine bar.)
“It’s a big population and they (the cafes) all have their own way of doing things,” Didric told me.
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Peter Heilman, chief operating officer of Jack’s Coffee, said his establishment will feature a full-service cocktail menu during evenings, which most coffee shops do not offer.“Specialty coffee is a commodity always in demand,” said Heilman, whose wife had to explain the history of Café Lalo to him. “It’s not too saturated for us.”
Of course, Café Lalo is famous for being featured in the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romantic comedy, You’ve Got Mail, written by noted Upper West Sider, the late Nora Ephron. (I wonder what her take on all these coffee places would be.) I can see the remake of You’ve Got Mail now.
“So, let’s meet at that cute coffee place.”
“Which one?”
“The one in the West 80s.”
“Which one?”
“I think it’s around 83rd Street.”
“Which one?”
“Why are you being so difficult?”
“Sorry, I haven’t had coffee yet.”
Maybe that’s why they were “Sleepless in Seattle”? Too much caffeine!
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