Plowshares Coffee Bloomingdale

A double cappuccino at the Broadway counter is the fastest read of what Plowshares roasts and how it pulls it.

House-roasted coffee and a bought-in pastry case

Plowshares Coffee Bloomingdale is the Upper West Side flagship of Plowshares Coffee Roasters, open since November 2014 on the Bloomingdale stretch of Broadway. The company sources, roasts and prepares its own coffees, and this is the branch where that programme meets the street.

The coffee is espresso-led: latte, cappuccino, espresso and brewed coffee, drawn from a range that runs through Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Guatemala, with single origins, blends, Swiss Water decaf and certified organic lots alongside. The roasting side has since grown a West Harlem roastery café where the coffee comes off a 1940s Probat, which tells you how the company thinks about its own craft.

Pastry is bought in from people who do it properly: Bien Cuit for the main case, SANS Bakery for the vegan and gluten-free end of it.

A small room for a focused stop

The scale matters. This is a compact neighbourhood counter that feels full when the regulars come through, calm most of the time and packed at the wrong moment. The rhythm is simple: order a coffee, choose a pastry, take a seat if one is free.

Seating has always been the constraint, and outdoor tables have long been part of the Broadway experience, which the café frames as a way to sit with coffee and a pastry and step out of the day for ten minutes. Treat it as an espresso-and-pastry stop rather than a workroom and it delivers exactly what it promises.

Order the double cappuccino and pick a pastry

Start with the double cappuccino. It is the clearest expression of the café’s espresso-bar character and the drink that comes up most in what people say about the room. Espresso, latte or brewed coffee all work if the cappuccino is not the mood.

The pastry case is the other decision. Look for croissants and puff-pastry items: an almond croissant with almond cream, strawberry and cream pastries, guava pastry when it is out. The vegan and gluten-free items from SANS Bakery widen the case well beyond a muffin-and-cookie counter, and the Bien Cuit pastries hold the standard up. The best order stays uncomplicated: a cappuccino, and whichever pastry looks best that morning.