| Cafe Life New York
An Insider's Guide to the City's Neighborhood Cafes
Sandy Miller; photography by Juliana Spear
7" x 7" • 224 pages • full-color photographs
ISBN 9781566567039 • paperback • $20.00 •
"Cafe Life New York is highly recommended to coffee lovers and armchair travelers alike -- and especially for coffee lovers thinking of visiting the Big Apple. Beautiful photographs througout adding a grand and excellent descriptive touch."
-- Midwest Book Review
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Café Life New York is an essential companion for anyone committed to discovering the true heart of one of the world's greatest cities.
Discover the cafés of New York City, the neighborhood hangouts that even street-smart New Yorkers often miss. Organized according to neighborhood, this book, the newest addition to the popular Café Life series, features those cafés that anchor neighborhoods and make life in the city richer and less daunting. The highly personal and richly anecdotal text, supplemented by color photographs that beautifully evoke both the city and its cafés, portrays the magic and allure of New York's café culture from the perspective of both café owners and patrons. Learn about New York's neighborhoods through its cafés; learn about New York's cafés through its neighborhoods. Each reflects and reveals the other.
Sandy Miller was a writer for several years (Super Traveler and New York City Street Smarts), then a children's book publisher for nearly 20 years, and now a writer again. He resides in, and remains enthralled by, New York City.
Juliana Spear is a Massachusetts-based art director and freelance photographer. Her work is featured in Café Life Paris, Romantic Paris, and Steeped: In the World of Tea.
Click here to view an excerpt and a selection of photgraphs from this book. Interlink Books
"Café Life New York: An Insider's Guide to the City's Neighborhood Cafés by Sandy Miller profiles twenty-one establishments around the city. The book is organized by neighborhood, and includes charming photographs by Juliana Spear. The social observer will find material here to occupy plenty of time in the city and a mere glance through the pages may persuade some to give up the Starbucks and turn to the quaint and quirky shops that are well worth the extra few steps it takes to reach them."
-- ForeWord Magazine
"This is not a guide to the Starbucks of Manhattan. The author, Sandy Miller, looks at cafes where coffee and tea are the focus, where high turnover is not the goal, where locals far outnumber tourists, and where owners are ever-present, their cafes serving as a 'third place' between home and work for a neighborhood. These New York coffeehouses, at least one dating from 1696, have been convivial hangouts from day one. Neighborhood by neighborhood, excluding Midtown, this guide samples 21 independent cafes still steeped in their communities, offering evocative descriptions complete with photographs, directions and customer interviews. From Queens to Hell's Kitchen, there is a heavenly coffee spot for every whim and taste."
-- Philadelphia Inquirer "When one thinks of New York, one immediately thinks of design, fashion, commerce, music, film and literature (journalism). These are the primary industries upon which New York’s wealth and prosperity are all based and thrive. At the centre of many of these industries are the local coffee spots and boutiques, which are frequented during the commute to and from work, at lunchtime, to catch up with friends, or to hold an important meeting. Until recently, there were no educated sources, with which to locate a particular coffee spot in the big apple. However, now there are a number of guides with which to explore the vibrant ‘geek chic’ of New York City’s coffee counter culture.
One of the finest is called 'Café Life New York', an area-by-area guide, written by travel writer and coffee connoisseur, Sandy Miller. A few of the best spots in each district are written about, with the topics including the origin of the café, what their specialities are, what kind of customer base they attract, and the all important coffee and machine they use. A number of similar cafes are also referenced at the end of each chapter.
However, telling oneself about great spots to grab a coffee and a Danish is not the only objective of this book, nor is it the only factor that draws the reader in. A number of wonderful photographs featuring the interior and exterior of each café, as well as the staff and surrounding community are also on display throughout. These on their own would be a treat, considering the fact that they were taken by renowned photographer Juliana Spear.
In an industry ruled by Seattle heavyweight Starbucks (in New York there is one on almost every corner), the little guys in the avenues and side streets are slowly taking over. Whether it’s a gallery or tattoo parlour that serves coffee, a second hand bookstore (frequented by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore), or the local meeting spot, it’s covered in 'Café Life New York'."
--Haircuts & T-Shirts, Australia
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