Caffeine Thunder Stone OR This Cafe's Made in New York City!

Indie Indy Coffee Shops Series #2

Last weekend a friend of my wife's came into town. Her purpose? To visit both my wife and another friend who lives an hour or so away.

Rather than avoid the awkward situation of choosing one friend's familiar haunts over the other's, we all decided to meet halfway. In an area none of us knew well. Which is fair. After all, if we're all ignorant, that's still fair, right?

Well, I'm glad we did, because while looking for a place to gather and write, we found a wonderful gem, one which is a perfect companion to another coffee shop that's been waiting in the wings.

Because I've heard keeping your audience in suspense is a good thing, we'll save the gem for later.

Cornerstone Coffee House

Notice that "CoffeeHouse" is in much bigger words than "Cornerstone"
They clearly know their audience.

There is a full cafe and restaurant connected to this coffee shop. But being true connoisseurs of the bitter bean, we ignored such things like "food" and headed straight for the coffee.

Pictured: Coffee.
...and maybe other things, too.

The first thing I noticed about this place was... Okay, well, the coffee.

But the second thing I noticed was the diversification. The whole place looked prosperous, well-cared for, and nicely designed.

Which, due to pesky things like economic reality, takes money.

Let's face it: It's easy to run an independent coffee shop into the ground. It happens on a fairly regular basis. After all, usually the only products are low-margin things like coffee or muffins.

But Cornerstone countered (get it?) by putting in a bar. And a cafe. And still managing to create a comfy area to work and chill.

For working...

...For chilling.

I'll admit: At first the cafe-style decor worried me. People who run "restaurants-that-serve-coffee" can often get grumpy about people who buy hot bean water and sit for hours.

But not here. This is a true CoffeeHouse/Bar/Restaurant, and happily let us consume their tasty roasted cherry-pit tea for hours while writing a bit.

Which is why we took some home with us. Because it was tasty and they were awesome.

Also: How could we possibly resist that name?!?

SoHo Cafe

Now for the Mysterious Gem from my Mysterious Meeting with Mysterious Friends drinking Mysterious Beverages.

I refer to this wonderful establishment:

Far too cool for the strip mall it's in.
...Though the "Eat More Cake" shop next door is also cool.

After getting entirely misled by Yelp's address (Curse you, Technology!), we called them on our cell phones (Hooray for Technology!) and they very nicely gave us directions.

One is never sure what to expect when one enters an independent coffee shop, so you will of course understand the moment of pause when the entrance yielded this:

I almost wish they'd turn down the lights to
make it more creepy and atmospheric...
...almost.

But at the other end was a lovely little cafe area. There was a gelato bar, a neat coffee bar, a table, and a little lounge area in front of a fireplace.

How lovely!
Also: The Peanuts fan in me loved the "Psychiatric Help 5¢" sign.

It's hard to tell from this shot, but the menu items include Nutella Lattes. I don't think I need to say more.

One corner held a lovely amount of hip, neat merchandise, too!

Remember: Buying it from your Indie Coffee Shop makes it cooler!

But there were five of us, and not a lot of apparent seating. The menu looked tasty enough, so we figured we could sit outside (where there was plenty of seating). We could at least get lunch, but not hang out.

Then I noticed this:

Gallery, you say...?
Seating, you say...?

Which suddenly made me love this place. Allow me to demonstrate:

Why, there's PLENTY of room!

From BOTH angles! And a wall of art!

Art, crafts, and neat things lined the walls. The tables had plenty of space and there were plenty of them. It was very much like being in a hip, artsy New York shop!

With a couple key differences:

1)There was room for people.

2)The people who worked there were really, really nice.

Seriously. They kindly brought our food to our table instead of just calling it out at the counter. They chatted and joked with me, and when I came back the next day instantly recognized me.

Being a regular at many shops, I've often gotten that treatment, but not usually on the first day.

And you read that correctly: The next day. We thought about switching it up, but honestly we all liked the place so much that we gravitated there the next day almost without saying.

And to top all of it off, this coffee shop came with it's own informative plaque. And we know how much I love informative plaques...

Informative!

Oh, and their dried-backed-crushed-steeped seed drink?

Very tasty, indeed.