Small Bites (小吃)
Xiaochi is a periodic column devoted to short news items and links. Xiaochi (小吃) is the Chinese word for snacks.
SoHo’s Ato Tea Room, a cozy Japanese tea nook serving a somewhat bewildering array of drinks and snacks, has a pricey ($7) new drink called Einspänner, their take on the classic Viennese concoction that combines whipped cream and espresso. Ato’s version instead layers matcha cream over cold brew coffee. The lightly-sweetened matcha cream nicely balances the authentically over-roasted Japanese coffee from Bushwick’s 95 RPM.
Coffee Project, famous for its deconstructed latte and arguably the East Village’s most popular cafe, is making the jump to Brooklyn, opening sometime this month on a northern Fort Greene side street. They will be one of New York City’s first cafes to sport Alpha Dominche’s Steampunk 2.0 brewing device.
Completing the cycle of life, Clinton Hill’s Otway has returned to its Tilda All-Day roots and is now serving weekday lunch and very good coffee courtesy of former pop-up partner Olas.
On the same day that Otway jumpstarted their all-day service, Mekelburg’s Domino began purveying Counter Culture espresso drinks and Equator drip and flash brewed iced coffee from their Kent St window.
A few weeks after I discovered attractive all-day southern Greenpoint cafe Annicka, with quality coffee from Bushwick’s Sey, they discontinued their daytime coffee service closed temporarily (according to their website). Hopefully Annicka will reopen – I only tasted a bit of their food, but what I had was exemplary, and I had been planning a dinner excursion.
When I first heard new Japanese French cafe Patisserie Fouet’s address (15 E 13th St), I vaguely thought it might occupy the same space as the late, lamented Japanese French sandwich shop/cafe, Thé Adore. In fact that space is now occupied by Croque Monseiur – Patisserie Fouet is next door. The patisserie is run by Cloud Nine Hospitality Group, the same organization that owns Raku, a Japanese udon restaurant with two branches. (Fun fact: Thé Adore is mentioned in the novel Crazy Rich Asians, not by name, but to paraphrase, “as the sandwich shop on the 13th street run by the grumpy Japanese guy.” Not conclusive, but enough for me to go on, based on personal experience.)
Mysteriously named Möge Tee, the not-especially-great milk foam tea specialist whose first branch opened in Flushing about six months ago, is opening its third location in Manhattan’s new Chinatown, on the site of the former East Village branch of Cafe Zaiya. Although Cafe Zaiya had become quite grody in recent years, in earlier days it was dear to my heart as a place for cheap but good Japanese baked goods and sandwiches.
