This week we’re highlighting some of the categories in our Best of the Lower East Side reader survey. Today — it’s all about coffee.

 After four years, one of the old kids on the block
One day way back in 2006, Mike Caswell spent several hours people-watching on the block of Orchard Street between Broome and Grand streets. The midtown real estate broker Caswell had hired to help him choose a site for the high-tech coffee shop he planned to open suggested a spot halfway down that block. At first, Caswell thought he was crazy.
“This street looked like a war zone,” Caswell says, sipping an Americano in a window seat of Roasting Plant, now in its fourth year. But his agent insisted that the Lower East Side was the place to find Caswell’s target demographic. So the industrial-engineer-turned-coffee-entrepreneur, who at that point had invested seven years developing his automated roasting and brewing system, agreed to check it out. From a table at 88 Orchard, one of the first new businesses to open on lower Orchard, he saw exactly the type of customers he believed would dig his 21st-century brewing system and premium product.

Minimalist coffee bar with a small selection of baked goods.
100 Stanton, near Orchard
(212) 982-7030
Hours Mon-Fri: 7:30am-8pm Sat: 8:30am-12am Sun: 8:30am-10pm
Web site
Wi-fi
The Clinton Street cafe features good coffee, sandwiches, a full bar and (of course) exemplary chocolate and chocolate desserts. Cocoa Bar has wi-fi and is almost never crowded.
21 Clinton Street, near Stanton
212-677-7417
Hours: Mon-Thu: 7am-12am; Fri: 7am-1am; Sat: 8am-1am; Sun: 8am-12am
Web site
The organic cafe in the New Museum run by Maury Rubin of the City Bakery. There’s a nice selection of pastries, sandwiches, soups and salads.
235 Bowery, at Prince
212-219-1222
Hours Wed: 11am-6pm Thu: 11am-9pm Fri-Sun: 11am-6pm
Menu

Cusine: Coffee
Address: 221 East Broadway (at Clinton)/map
Phone: 212-876-8065
Hours: Mon-Sun; 7 a.m.-4 p.m.
Menu/web site
Reservations: n/a
Delivery: yes
Jamie Rogers and Lisa Fischoff run this community-oriented coffee shop on East Broadway. They serve Stumptown Coffee, a selection of baked goods (many made by neighborhood friends) and offer sandwiches, soups and snacks, very often created with local ingredients. There’s a robust bulletin board in the entry announcing various local events and happenings. And then there’s those pushcarts: increasingly popping up at various locations around the neighborhood.
A network of clear tubes instantaneously transplants raw beans to a roaster, resulting in a supremely fresh cup of java. A former Starbucks exec dreamed up the idea in his basement. The original store is on Orchard Street.
81 Orchard, near Broome
212-775-7755
Open Mon-Fri, 7am-6:30pm; Sat-Sun, 8am-6:30pm
Web site
Bright, friendly coffee shop on Orchard with a good selection of teas, salads and sandwiches. They recently began offering a full dinner menu, with table service after 6pm, as well as wine and beer.
88 Orchard, at Broome
212-228-8880
Mon.-Thurs. 7:30-11PM, Fri. 7:30-midnight, Sat. 8:30-midnight, Sun. 8:30-7PM
Web site
A handsomely appointed space on the NW corner of Allen and Delancey serving soups, salads, sandwiches on Balthazar bread, and gourmet coffee from a menu owner Mark Hernandez calls “California cuisine.” Housemade baked goods light up the serving counter, and change daily. There’s also free wi-fi offered in a bright, comfortable space.
212-966-2737
61 Delancey St., at Allen.
Open 8 a.m.-7 p.m. daily
Website
Recent coverage in The Lo-Down
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