You’ll walk right by it and never know it’s there.  St. Kilda Coffee in New York is just across 8th Ave on 44th St. from the Majestic (Phantom…probably never closing) and St. James (Something Rotten as of right now) theaters.  It’s down under a residential building with the street level sign, literally at street level…as in..your feet.

With a plethora of Starbucks in the vicinity, it’s nice to have an indie joint so close to the theater district.  They are open 7-7 most days, and are serving up the a pretty standard drink menu crafted from beans roasted by Birch Coffee (local NYC company).

The Flat White I ordered was decent enough, but the espresso didn’t really hold up to the milk.
There was a pretty typical 3rd wave aroma to the drink, but the flavor of the espresso was totally drowned by the milk.  I don’t know if the fault was drink assembly, or just that the shot was off near the end of the day.

However, if you want to support an indie spot, and get something infinitely better than Starbucks, and are near 44th St., check out St. Kilda Coffee.

This isn’t new news.  It was announced in 2015, that United had partnered with Illy to provide coffee for it’s operations (both lounges and in flight).  What is news here is the quantity of coffee that United serves.

Look at those numbers.  That equates to 50 TONS of coffee a month.  This isn’t Starbucks (which incidentally WAS served on United until the Continental merger).  This is an airline, and they consume 50 TONS of coffee a month.   This is so much coffee that Illy has built a special line at their plant in Trieste just to service the United contract.

Culture 36 is the 36th street location (between Broadway and 8th Ave) for Culture Espresso (main store on 38th near Bryant Park). One of my tests when I walk in to a shop is to ask, “how are you dosing your portafilters?”  If I don’t get a coherent answer I usually order water.

The answer here?  “19gr in 36 out”.  Off to a good start.

I got a flat white and my 8yr old daughter got a hot chocolate.  Both came with well crafted latte art, and my daughter says her’s was better (a nice 3 level tulip).  The coffee is from Heart Roasters in Portland and is very nice (a nice legit medium roast…not typical 3rd wave under-roasted pseudo medium).   If the coffee strikes you the right way, you can purchase a bag to take home.

The shop it self is reasonably sized for NY which is a treat…there’s room to sit and actually move.  And, if you are a WiFi junkie, there’s free WiFi here.  The music selection was also very nice.   Wilson Pickett was on when I walked in.

Another nice feature of Culture 36 is their house baked cookies.  The chocolate chip cookie we had was large, moist and gooey…just how it should be.

If you are in the theatre/dance world and spend stupid amounts of time at Ripley Grier, check this place out.

The 2015 Starbucks holiday cup design controversy is a perfect example of why humanity is doomed.  If our collective peaceful existence on this planet is conditional on a corporation placing messages on it’s products that satisfy the specific religious dogma of a *single* group, we are screwed.

If they put Happy Holidays on the cup, people would scream.  If they put Merry Christmas & Happy Hannukah & Happy Kwanza, people would scream.  Starbucks did the right thing here by actually not doing anything.  But, are we so completely far gone as a society that we demand public companies not only support, but visually show they believe the same things you?  What the fuck?!

Remember, Starbucks owes you nothing…unless you walk in and buy something; in which case, they owe you exactly what you purchased, and nothing more.  Service with a smile and a welcoming atmosphere is simply a bonus and something they do to increase return visits and pad their bottom line.  You are not “Joe” to Starbucks as a company.  Do you think they hand out free shit to gold loyalty members because they like you?  Hell no…add up the 30 purchases you made to maintain your gold level, and see how much that “free” item actually cost you.  You are a statistical dollar amount to the company…that’s it.

Now, here’s the best part.  You are perfectly free to NOT purchase their product if you dislike the company or their method of conducting business.  In fact, that’s what you should do.  Quietly take your self somewhere else that puts bible verses on their cups and start buying coffee from them and enjoy your sanctimonious narrow view of a life.  But, when you start screaming that Starbucks hates Jesus, the ONLY thing you do is give Starbucks free publicity and more business and make yourself sound like a raging lunatic asshole.  Making the person behind the counter write Merry Christmas (as your name) on the cup is just a childish, self-serving act of ego.

Get a life.  And, while your at it, learn about coffee and stop drinking Starbucks product because it’s crap.

This is the second time I have been to this Illy location, and now I’m pissed off and angry (for you guys).  The people there are completely clueless and are giving you a bad name.  The first time I visited this location, the person (I won’t use the term Barrista) was on her phone the entire time and the place was filthy, and it was clear she had no idea what she was doing.  The latte was not drinkable.

The only drink in Starbucks that isn’t just downright awful is a Blonde Roast pour over.  But, guess what?  They pre-grind the coffee and store it in a little container.  So, yep, when you ask for a Blonde pour over, you are getting stale crap.  That’s just really pathetic.  They fresh grind all the espresso based drinks, but they screw those beans up in the roaster.  The one chance they have left to redeem themselves, and they screw that up too.  At least all those iced teas I got (unsweetened) got me a free food item.

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