11. Best Italian Accent: Falai Panneteria They brew Illy espresso—a favorite—and serve it signature black and white cups and saucers. In fact, everything here is pretty black and white: décor, tastiness, LES “cool” factor. This is a sexy spot to sip an espresso and share a “morning after,” rumpled hair, smudged eyeliner, aviator sunglasses kinda […]

For me, coffee is an everyday luxury. By “everyday,” though, I mean Simple. Pure. Uncomplicated. I don’t mean that it’s a daily indulgence. First, I can’t drink coffee every day because I love it too much. I need to ration, so as not to take it for granted. Gotta keep it special. Second, I’m too […]

Renting a Prius to drive the California coast just seemed like the right move. As a sanctimonious New Yorker, I love being able to exclude myself from the guilt I associate with the driving culture of the rest of the country. So renting a hybrid for a week of joy riding on the west coast […]

I met Celest at Think, one of our favorite casual meet-up spots, for coffee on Saturday afternoon. I wanted to finally see her photos and get the details on her Parisian adventure; she needed to hear the latest on the Italiano (good: he helped me through a recent mouse-spotting crisis at my house/ bad: I’m not wild about […]

I’m a New Yorker; I know what it means to pay for quality. It’s not that the iced cappuccino was $4.25 a pop, it’s that it wasn’t good enough to be $4.25 a pop. Though the leaves have begun to turn shades of sunset, it still felt like summer in the city on Monday as […]