Great cafes in NYC for meetings

We work from home, so we are always on the lookout for great cafes in NYC for meetings with our wedding clients. Of course there are a plethora of Starbucks in the city, but it’s way more fun to find a cafe with character. We recently discovered two top-notch cafes, both of which are ideal for getting together with friends, clients, or business partners — and they both have outposts scattered across Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Toby’s Estate Coffee Roasters

Toby’s Estate Coffee Roasters is a small chain based in Brooklyn that sources coffee from around the world and strongly emphasizes sustainable farming and social justice. Their Brooklyn store is airy, bright, and warm. One wall features a striking, honey-colored floor-to-ceiling shelving unit with enticingly curated coffee wares. Here’s what you’ll find at Toby’s:

And of course, the pièce de résistance, a perfect cappuccino with a hearty homemade sandwich:

Toby’s Estate Coffee has three locations:

• Toby’s Estate Coffee in Williamsburg, at 125 North 6 Street, Brooklyn, NY
• Toby’s Estate Coffee in the Flatiron District, at 160 5th Avenue, New York, NY (b/w West 20th and 21st)
• Toby’s Estate Coffee in the West Village, at 44 Charles Street and 7th Avenue, New York, NY

Blue Bottle Coffee

Blue Bottle Coffee is another small chain headquartered in the Bay Area, with seven cafes in New York City. They have a hilarious explanation of their origins on their website, tracing their roots to the FIRST coffee house ever in Europe, The Blue Bottle, which opened in Vienna around 1683.

If you can believe their website (and Kyo says you can, after having a cappuccino there), they take their coffee VERY seriously.

Here are some glimpses of their Berry Street outpost in Williamsburg:

Somebody at Blue Bottle has cute handwriting.

Blue Bottle’s mean cappuccino:

Blue Bottle’s NYC locations are:

• Blue Bottle Coffee Williamsburg, 160 Berry St., Brooklyn, NY
• Blue Bottle Coffee Bryant Park, 54 W 40th St., New York, NY
• Blue Bottle Coffee Chelsea, 450 W. 15th St., New York, NY
• Blue Bottle Coffee Boerum Hill, 85 Dean St., Brooklyn, NY
• Blue Bottle Coffee Hell’s Kitchen, 600 11th Ave., New York, NY
• Blue Bottle Coffee High Line, 10th Ave and West 16th Street, New York, NY
• Blue Bottle Coffee Rockefeller Center, 1 Rockefeller Plaza, Concourse Level, Suite D, New York, NY

Wedding at a Coffee House?

An interesting side note is that Toby’s Estate Coffee’s gorgeous Brooklyn space is available for rent for private affairs. For serious coffee accionados, it would be an awesome wedding location! Why not?