The Best Coffee in Manhattan

I have never lived in New York, but all that I am (on one side) hails from there, and I have been coming to "the City" for 27 years now to see family, visit friends, search out ancestry, to find a particular book, etc... I guess that makes my 33 years a little bit old.

Since about the same time I first drooled over the Statue of Liberty, I have also been drinking coffee. I love it. Two cups in the morning. One and a half in the late afternoon, and some with dinner if I am out.

Last weekend, my husband decided that we needed a couple of days "in the City", so we booked a room at the Waldorf and planned on not planning anything. We ate well, slept well, and shopped well. And we drank a lot of coffee along the way, but what makes New York City so perfect in so many ways, is that you can find things there you can't get anywhere else. Things that you were completely not expecting.

We had finished our Sunday afternoon at the Met and decided to wander down Madison for coffee. Dumb idea against the 5 degree January wind chill. After some 45 minutes of aimless walking we saw a sign at 70th and Lexington. We had wandered slightly from our original location. The sign lit up in the distance, like a hot oasis in Siberia. Coffee! Neil's Coffee Shop to be exact, and we went inside to warm our completely frozen bones.

Once inside, it actually took us about 10 minutes of silent temperature adjustment to allow the numbness on our lips to disappear. In that verbally challenging space of time, we were seated, served, and offered menus. We waited, well, not at all. I guess we looked really, really cold. As I blurted out my demand for immediate coffee, I had no interest in actually enjoying my cup. I just wanted to drink it and warm up as fast as I could. But even with that very first sip I realized this was the best cup of coffee I have ever had in New York - in all those 27 years of visits and wanderings and ancestry-searching. It beats Oscars at the Waldorf. I beats even the great Russian number in the silver/glass cups we had on Restaurant Row. And, yes, even Starbucks is lacking against a $2.00 cup of Joe at Neil's. I drank three cups. Three times as much as my usual late afternoon allotment. I remained awake a little while longer than I had planned, but the train ride back to Philly was late anyway.

The place is quaint. It reminds of that diner book I have always wanted to write about Pennsylvania - the center of all great diners and coffee shops. I think I might have to expand the title to include, "And the Upper East Side, too". It's clean. The staff is overtly friendly, and the locals seem to know exactly what is good if you have any questions.

If you ever get caught in a freezing wind storm in the Upper East Side, you have to wander into Neil's for safety. It is one of those places you'll probably see on a movie someday; somewhere where someone finds the answers to all the great questions of the universe. The cup really is that good.