Caffeinated Weekends - Kava Cafe

Just south of, and practically in the shadow of, the High Line, resides Kava Cafe.  This place is extra special, so run, bike or walk, but however you get there, go. 

I really get a kick out of finding something totally unexpected like this.  Kava is only about six months old.  When it gets "discovered," it will become something huge (but selfishly I hope not).  I loved it just the way I found it the other morning on one of our hot and sticky July days. 

OK, deep breath, now for the description.  It's a sleek Italian espresso bar, as I might dream in my most lavish rendering.  Polished black and brass shine throughout, a practically one-of-a-kind espresso maker from La Marzocco, lots of room to stand or sit at Kava's long bars, and best of all (besides the excellent espresso drinks using Stumptown beans) is the huge garden out back, filled with cedar tables and chairs, and completely shaded by enormous leafy trees.

Gelato, too

The perfect shaded garden

The perfect iced latte in the perfect garden

The sleek Milano-style espresso bar and rich terrazzo floor.

Kava's offerings

No detail left undesigned

(A really nice New York Times review and photos are here for more info.  The review is from January, though, and doesn't mention the garden.)

Perfect location, perfect garden.  Done.

Hot Day Cure-All

Victory Gardens' soft serve ice cream machine and offerings

Ever get that 3am craving for goat milk soft serve ice cream?  No?  Well, I hadn't either, but I do now.

Victory Garden recently opened on Carmine Street in the West Village.  It's the cutest little place devoted to food (and other) items goat milk-related.  Candies, spreads and other goat "stuff" line the shelves along one wall, but the main event is the soft serve goat milk ice cream.  

More goat milk goodies to pour on top

Toppings!

     I didn't get to try, but does it really have anything to do with goat milk?

The goat milk used is locally sourced.  Goat milk is supposed to be quite good for us - vitamin-rich, with protein, calcium and potassium, and containing a fraction of the fat contained in whole cow milk ice cream.  

Even more fun than all the ingredient stuff is the wonderful flavor.  There is just the slightest reminder in its taste that it's made of goat milk, which is fantastic for a lover of goat cheese.  It's not an overpowering taste - it's just right.  The texture is smooth and rich, and kind of grown-up.

Victory Gardens is a sophisticated and presumably healthful alternative to the frozen yogurt of the moment (which nonetheless I am  grateful for on a 90-degree evening) that is being pulled from soft-serve machines at carts, trucks and storefronts all over Manhattan these days.  But, if Victory Garden were closer to ma maison, it'd be bye-bye frozen yogurt and bah-bah goat milk soft serve (sorry, I just couldn't help myself).

Caffeinated Weekends - Third Rail Coffee

Right near the NYU Law School, on Sullivan near West 3rd, and imagining that it gets a lot of traffic from the highly caffeine-dependent students over there, is Third Rail Coffee.  It is so small that it's practically miss-able, but for the busy buzz inside and out.  Tiny tables, tiny space, and no choice for milk - no skim, they just didn't have space for it or the desire to offer options, I suppose.  They're nice about it, well, kind of curt, actually.  But I just couldn't resist, and so I ordered a cortado (less milk) at their suggestion - they weren't above making a recommendation so I wouldn't leave sad and empty-handed.

Anyway, it's amazing stuff.  Worth the stop; it's really one of the best around, in a neighborhood that takes its espresso bars seriously.  Just don't plan on hanging out.  The few tiny tables and places to put your tush will be all full up.  Guaranteed.

Offering Intelligentsia AND Stumptown (and yet not enough room for skim milk, too?)

Washington Square Park

After many years and much controversy surrounding its long period of closings and recontruction, including the moving of its fountain, almost all of Washington Square Park is open again (unfortunately not in time for NYU's Class of 2011 to enjoy it over the last three and a half years).

It was a beautiful sight to see the inside of the iconic Washington Square Arch lit on a lovely late-spring evening at dusk last week, framing the Empire State Building in the distance.  And for the aural senses, there was a grand piano directly underneath the arch playing for a small audience of classical music enthusiasts (he got the piano there, but couldn't manage the bench?).  

The 9.75-acre park was active and full of life that evening.  It reflected a microcosm of New York City in its diversity.  And now all spiffed up and shiny new, its visitors seemed to exude a pride I would not have expected in the park's previous incarnation.  Or it could have been the weather, the fact that school is out for summer, that it was the end of the business day, or who knows, but it was just perfect for une promenade après dîner.