|
|
|
Coffee Haven
Hey, Joe: The city's hot spots for a hot cup
|
Business New Haven
3/19/2001
By: Susan Cornell
|
Looking for a good cup of java and a hot spot, a coffee haven, in New Haven? We've unearthed some of the finest or, in one case, the most unusual, spots in the city. From the ubiquitous Willoughby's to the Connecticut-born XandO, the choices are as varied as any café menu.
There are numerous distinct choices, and at least twice as many spots when you factor in multiple locations for the same name (such as four Willoughby's and 14 Dunkin' Donuts) within the city limits. Drinking one cuppa joe from each establishment would clearly javatate anyone to outer space. Come to think of it, one does take its customers to cyber-space as Internet access is a menu option alongside latté and sandwiches.
Clearly, we can't spill the beans on every coffeehouse in town, so here is a listing of the cream of the crop. Incidentally, the beverage is actually a fruit juice as its source is the pit of the coffee cherry, the crop of the coffee tree. As the coffee tree is a fruit tree, we are drinking fruit juice. This may make the libation's consumption seem easier to justify.
The Yankee Doodle Coffee Shop
258 Elm Street
“The Doodle” is the oldest of the listings as the shop dates back to 1950 when it opened as a ten-stool coffee shop. More than 50 years later, the Doodle is still a family-run business that serves, at least during the school year, a predominantly Yale crowd. Aesthetically, the Doodle looks exactly the same as it did in the '50s. The operation even runs the same - the cash register rings up no more than $2 at a time, and Cokes are made in a real soda fountain with seltzer and syrup. While starving students and townies make up the lion's share of the clientele, the Doodle tops the list for anyone entertaining out-of-towners, anyone into nostalgia - or anyone on a serious budget.
The most amusing/intriguing part of this time-warp coffee shop is the ongoing hamburger-eating contest, the Doodle Challenge. The goal: to eat more burgers than the prior record holder. If a customer can achieve this gluttonous feat within two hours, he or she will ascend to the Doodle Hall of Fame. The record currently belongs not to a Yale student but to William Stabierski of Seymour, who downed 28 in 1999 (and can probably still taste them).
Preserving the historic ambiance is what makes the Doodle a classic. The shop celebrated its 50th birthday last April 15 and the affair was such a success that the hot spot will celebrate its 51st this year with a special 1950 menu. The 1950 Doodle breakfast includes two eggs, juice, toast, coffee or milk - for 50 cents. The '50 lunch menu includes a 20-cent hamburger and a pig-in-a-blanket for 30 cents. The Doodle is still using a soda fountain and there isn't even a cents button on the cash register to report these Happy Days prices.
Willoughby's Coffee & Tea
1006 Chapel Street
258 Church Street
Traveling through time to the present is Willoughby's, which originated in the heart of New Haven across from the Yale campus. Willoughby's is now a successful small chain with six stores in the New Haven area as well as a centralized roasting plant. Naturally, a ten-cent coffee is out of the question here - but so was the phrase mocha cappuccino in the 1950s; hence, the Yale environs are home to a diverse selection of cafés.
Willoughby's started as a bean store in 1985. The beverage side, the owners thought, would be just an added perk. What happened is that everyone - white-collar, blue-collar, young and old - loved the high-quality beverage.
A decade and half later, the company has achieved plaudits from beyond its host city's boundaries. Awards include the New York Times best rating (four beans), two outstanding reviews from Coffee Review, and “Best Coffee” from the British publication Wallpaper.
The company's stated goals are serious: “To produce the finest, freshest, most skillfully roasted coffee anywhere - Serious Coffee.”
Bob Williams and Barry Levine had the right idea at the right time - the mid-1980s - when most of us were just learning the taste potential of a true quality, high-grade beans. Williams and Levine still run the New Haven establishments, although the business is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the New Jersey-based New World Coffee. All coffee for the combined company continues to be selected and roasted in Branford.
Starbucks
1068 Chapel Street
Starbucks is the world's largest gourmet chain with a New Haven location on Chapel Street, not far from Willoughby's, facilitating bar hopping (coffee bar hopping, that is). Starbucks serves outstanding high-quality coffees, Italian-style espressos, teas, confections, pastries, coffee-related accessories - and music. The unique selling proposition of the coffeehouse is music, referred to as “a key coffeehouse element,” and this has been the case since the company's beginnings. Starbucks has had its own CD compilations since 1995 and, in 1999, added a music company, Hear Music, to the family.
A big feather in the company's cap is its reputation for corporate social responsibility. The guiding principle of the company's mission is to contribute to community-building programs and environmental affairs. From neighborhood clean-ups to in-store recycling and environmentally friendly store design, Starbucks partners at many levels to improve the surroundings. The “Green Team” refers to its group of managers who identify ways to “reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink” environmental practices. The company continually manifests its commitment to improve conditions in coffee-origin countries.
If the Chapel Street site is not convenient to you, Starbucks offers an Office Coffee Service and a Small-Business Coffee Service, depending on a host company's size. This means that you can have your own pseudo-Starbucks in-office with its brewing equipment or break-room service and coffee shipments.
Starbucks is the leading roaster, retailer and brand of specialty coffee in the world with 3,800 stores in the UK, the Pacific Rim, the Middle East and North America. Starbucks Coffee Japan opened its 200th retail location in January.
Atticus Bookstore-Café
1082 Chapel Street
To combine coffee and book consumption was a novel idea when the Atticus Bookstore-Café opened 20 years ago. Now, the business has proven to be more than a book-smart idea, judging from the café's longevity and clientele. Customers are predominantly from Yale, but business people follow closely behind.
Atticus' selling feature, of course, is the store/café's combination of offerings. Where else can one enjoy an extensive selection of new books with both coffee and a meal? The menu includes soups, sandwiches, pastries and baked breads served from 8 a.m. to midnight. Atticus provides customers opportunities to shop for books and cards, to research, to enjoy an extensive selection of reading material for pleasure, to dine, and to rub elbows with the eclectic and educated patrons. There is also a Middletown location near Wesleyan University, as well as an Amherst, Mass. café.
XandO Coffee & Bar
338 Elm Street
XandO Cosi is a blend. Not really a coffee blend, but of a coffeehouse, a sandwich bar and XandO (kiss and hug - get it?) and Cosi (which means friendly and comfortable). This might be a little deep for someone who just wanted a plain, black coffee, but XandO has created, as they say, the “perfect hangout.” The founders envisioned a traditional coffeehouse with European flair, “a comfortable, eclectic atmosphere that offered the community's best.” They strive to make their establishment warm and inclusive while embodying the personalities of their customers and neighborhood. As this is a chain, each location shares common elements, yet is a bit different. It is, in one word, hip.
Six years after the café's arrival, New Haven has a great “hangout” for business meetings from wake-up to last call. This is also the only café and pizzeria in New Haven which metamorphoses into a full liquor bar after nightfall.
XandO actually started in Hartford. Now there are 18 XandOs between Connecticut and Washington, D.C. There are also XandO/Cosi stores as well as Cosi stores from Boston to Chicago. And the company is stirring up plans for more of each of the three flavors. Incidentally, XandO Cosi Inc. is not currently a public company but does plan an IPO this year. Where else can you buy s'mores, brick-oven pizza, paintings - and coffee?
Yale Bookstore Café
77 Broadway
There are a number of hidden surprises in this combo of a Starbucks-serving Barnes & Noble bookstore. This is not, however, a Starbucks café. First, since the Yale Bookstore Café is primarily a Yale hangout, the events coordinator and public-relations guy, Don Levy, says that it gives others the feeling of being a Yale student. The spot does offer live music from time to time, usually on Sunday afternoons. Any and all aspiring musicians are welcome to play (but call ahead).
One of the unusual opportunities the café offers caters to the corporate clan: the coffeehouse will reserve space for meetings - great if you've invited your regional sales force in for a meeting and want to give the impression of being “in” with the renowned educational institution in town. Additionally, the bookstore is home to the World Language Center, a tremendous asset for businesses seeking to improve international connections.
The coffeehouse is convenient, too, offering an hour's worth of parking at the city parking lot directly across the street. Who knew that the Yale Bookstore Café was such an intelligent choice for business people, too?
Here's a quick to-go list of additional selections on New Haven's menu:
Au Bon Pain
1 Broadway
Faux French chain that serves bon baked items, sandwiches and salads avec café.
Dunkin' Donuts
Multiple locations
With 14 stores in New Haven, seeing a Dunkin' Donuts coffee cup is about as common as seeing a briefcase; toting a cup might even be fashionable. When was the last time you attended a morning meeting in which at least one cup was not present? It is difficult to know whether Dunkin' Donuts coffee is ubiquitous because it's great, or whether the multiple locations account for its prevalence. The answer lies somewhere in a coffee-combo (great and available).
Koffee?
104 Audubon Street
Located in the Audubon arts district, Koffee? itself is pretty arty. The spot is also quaint, homey, and comfy - couches and plugs for laptops are definite perks. Other distinctive highlights include entertainment, revolving artwork and courtyard seating.
Koffee Too? Opened in January at 276 York Street (formerly a Willoughby's). It offers beans in bulk as well as 29 different coffees. This caffeine-dispenser plans art shows and acoustic musical performances, comfy chairs and fresh baked goods.
Lulu: A European Coffeehouse
49 Cottage Street
Lulu's is a legendary chat-and-coffee café approaching its second decade in business. Lulu's serves pastries and lunch and is open daily (weekdays the spot opens at 7 a.m.).
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
