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I think Skaneateles may possibly have been under consideration at one time but then Creekside Books opened with a coffee shop offering and at about the same time the property at Franklin Square became available. Strictly a wild guess on my part but I think the potentially long, quiet and painfully slow winter season in Skaneateles may have been less appealing than the long term prospect of slow but steady year round growth at Franklin Square. The business at Franklin Square may not be enormous at present but looks like it holds its own. I see that entire area - running down Solar Street past the Inner Harbor and down to the mall - as being poised to grow in a significant way.
I see that entire area - running down Solar Street past the Inner Harbor and down to the mall - as being poised to grow in a significant way.
I drive down that way about once a month and every single time I drive through there I think "wow, look at all this wasted space!" I've said it before, but there is SO much potential for that entire Inner Harbor area! I can't believe that they literally have nothing there! I grew up on the water and love waterfront areas, so if someone would actually develop the area - restaurants, shops, activity type things, etc - I would LOVE to spend some time down there. Right now it's just nothing-ness, grass, and random parking spaces all along the street.
When I first moved here and people told me there was an Inner Harbor, I immediately thought Baltimore and wondered how the heck I missed the harbor in Syracuse. Then when I actually saw it... I was like THAT is the Inner Harbor?? It's just water and vacant land!
You can thank Robert Congel, the Pyramid Company and a crooked and dysfunctional state and local political system for that. The key land on and near the harbor is owned by the NY State Canal Authority - which is part of the Thruway Authority. Developer Sutton/Northstar had a funded proposal ready to go for that area many years ago, but was knocked of the box when Congel dangled his bright and shiny mega-development carrot in front of the key players. After years and years of lies, false promises and countless postponements and delays they finally yanked the opportunity from him . With the current economic climate... and the still failed "Destiny" project looming like a giant concrete prison at the end of Solar Street... they weren't even able to get any proposals when it was finally re-opened for competitive bidding.
The City of Syracuse has now been granted control and has an 18 month window in which to get bids in and development scheduled. I'm not optimistic that they'll succeed. John Frantz of Sutton has gone on record stating that the best chance for success will be if they open up different sub-parcels so that multiple developers can all bid to build different pieces of a unified master plan. He believes that no single developer can get the finding needed to take on an overall project of that size in this city under current economic conditions. I hope they listen to him.
Last edited by phaelon56; 09-14-2011 at 02:09 PM..
NY just isn't a coffee sate so FOE is a real gem even more cause its up here. Even NYC isn't what I would call a coffee town. Seattle for a coffee lover is like a junkie falling in a vat of Mexican black tar.
We have had a couple places try here but one had a crappy location and the other went way to high end for this area. Five dollar a cup Jamaican Blue is a nice treat but a poor bussiness model.
FOE sticks to the basics and does just a great job. I'd say any breve I've had there was as good as any I had in Seatlle.
I wish they sold coffee cups, normal size not them doll house cup. My favorite is my Dippin Doughnuts cup but I would LOVE a FOE cup!!!
I wish also we had a Trader Joes in Upstate NY. They have a 100% Kona that is hands down the best coffee I have ever had and the price is very fair. Been having my Mother mail it to me but shipping kills the savings. My Amazon Prime can get me all sorta goodies but at 30 or more a pound I'm scared to try.
I agree that FOE does a good job with the basics but disagree about NYC not being a coffee town. The state itself may be more of a Dunkin' Donuts and gas station 99 cent special kinda coffee area but NYC has undergone a higher end coffee/espresso explosion in the past four years. Manhattan and Brooklyn now have close to as many higher end stellar specialty coffee/espresso joints as Seattle (or possibly more although it is a much larger city.) That being said - there are far more mid range decent coffee places in Seattle than NYC will ever have.
IMHO the best source for Kona is either direct from growers on the Big Island or via roasters who sell via http://gocoffeego.com
If you find "Kona" anywhere for less than $25 per pound I would be skeptical. Real Kona beans of decent specialty grade- green and not roasted - sell for $12 to $15 per pound and up in 100 pound lots. Add in freight costs... 12% to 15% weight loss from the evaporation of moisture content when you roast... and you have cost of goods at $15 to $18 per pound before Cost of Sales is added in.
I really like a good Kona because it's a classic "island coffee" - nicely floral, a bit of fruitiness, bright clean flavor without too much acidity - and well balanced. It's unfortunate that many people fail to understand that coffee grown in the US will cost far more than coffee grown elsewhere. Kona is expensive not because it's "three times as good" as other coffees but in part simply because it costs more to grow and ship it. It takes six pounds of coffee cherry (the ripe fruit with seed/bean inside of it) to produce one pound of green beans - and picking the cherry is a LOT of work.
The other problem - one of perception - is the unscrupulous operators who put as little as 5% to 10% low grade Kona into a blend with other much cheaper coffees and then label the bag as "Kona Coffee" with only the very fine print clarifying that it is a blend. People see that crap for $6 per pound at BJ's, Sam's Club or Costco and then insist that the $30 per pound 100% real Kona is just a rip-off.
$20 for 13 oz is about as low a price as you can get for genuine 100% Kona. My only rub with canned coffee is that it is not usually sold within a week of the roast date. It stays fresh for quite some time until the can is opened but then stales quickly. If you can get fresh roasted Kona and then split it into smaller ziplocs, freeze them and take out one small bag at a time - you'll have close to fresh roasted for about three months. Even after that the fall off in quality is very gradual.
I'll nose around and come up with a recommendation for you. The Stumptown cafe in the Ace Hotel just off Broadway on 29th Street is only a six or seven minute walk from Penn but there may be something on a more direc tpath to RCMH. The really good coffee places are not in Midtown or Times Square because of the high rents. By the way - there is now a TJ's on 14th Street just east of Union Square and another one on Broadway near W. 72nd Street.
Sadly for me the Christmas show hits right during my busy season so time of is tough. Come January I have all the time in the World but Miami is calling pretty good by then. So I will need to stay around Midtown.
Taking a first timer with me. Usally I drive to Newburgh and take Metro-North into GCT which I think is how one should arrive in NY. But this time its AMTRAK and Penn which I think is just a GIANT bus station. Oh well right??
Everyone always wants to see GZ but to me Downtown is a pain, much more so on a weekday. Give me Midtown any day. ESB is IMHO the most beautiful building in the World. I can and do stare for hours. And as a plus they have a Starbucks.
Now for a great cup of coffee and some pushcart food!!!
Last time I bought coffee at Smith was 2002. It was an espresso blend and was so burnt that it was completely undrinkable. They might have a different roaster now but I'd be cautious. FOE *usually* offers Kona during the Christmas season. They get in one or two bags - always Greenwell Farms - and do several roasts. They do roast to a lighter profile, which is important with a coffee as delicate as Kona. I attended a coffee festival in K'au District on the Big Island this spring and also did a Kona cupping at the Specialty Coffee show in Houston a month prior to that. I found that many of the farms who roast and sell direct tend to roast their beans too dark and mask the subtlety of the flavors.
Rather than buy direct or locally. IMHO the best bet is to find a US based specialty roaster who gets good green beans from HI, then roasts and ships on the mainland.
Klatch Coffee in CA is a highly respected micro-roaster that has an excellent K'au Typica. K'au is the new hotspot on the Big island for coffee growing and is just now coming into its own. It's two hours south of Kona with a similar climate and soil but some varietals and processing methods that aren't used in Kona. The most interesting Hawaiian coffees I have tried this year were from Rusty's - a farm in that district.
Another possibility is a Kona offered by Equator Estates (also in CA.) I've never tried their roasts but Thomas Keller uses their coffee at The French Laundry restaurant - my guess is they are reliable. They have a Kona at $27.95 plus shipping for a 1 lb. bag.
Equator Coffees - Kona Star Estate - 1 lb. | GoCoffeeGo (http://www.gocoffeego.com/products/Equator-Coffees/Kona-Star-Estate-505.html - broken link)
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