Johnna’s Pick of the Week (Travel Edition): Society Cafe (NYC)

Simple, coffee, wireless. Doesn’t it feel good to go to spot that offers all three sometimes?? When looking for a good place to eat, spending large sums of money or going to some hole in the wall that’s been the neighborhood favorite for years come to mind. It never seems to be the in between spot (*Translation: In between spot is a spot that’s not the best food you’ve tasted but it’s good food for these prices and the decor isn’t beat down) that gets any love these days. Society Cafe is that spot: in between with good food (*Entrees range from $4-$15). The setting is a bit different from your typical coffee shop with a couple of lunch room style tables in the center of the restaurant and one long letter couch lining one of the walls. Even with the lunch room style seating, it still makes you feel cozy and want to curl up/cross your legs and read a good blog online (*Ahem…JKGF…;-) while sipping on one of their caffeine treats.

The open kitchen encourages you to peer over and see what’s cooking which could range from shrimp and grits to cheddar apple sandwiches. We had the shrimp and grits which we must say we were pretty impressed with (*Even though you know JKGF is not a huge fan of spicy food and this definitely had some New Orleans spice in the pot…). The Italian sodas are worth a try too with flavors such as Coconut, Passion Fruit and Almond. We must say the thing we liked the most about Society was the vibe of the people patronizing the spot. Looking around we saw a mom, grandma and young child sitting and enjoying a meal together while on the other side of the small room sat a group of young men talking politics and beside them a young woman enjoying her afternoon latte while browsing the Internet. It seemed like the spot you could come for just about any reason: to chill, to catch up with friends/family or to just read/study.

The service. Ehhh, we could’ve done without the waitress/cashier attitude (*That’s right, the same person was doing the waiting and the cash register…in addition to randomly later on that night, we breezed through 67 Orange and there we found the same waitress!! Is NY running low on servers in the industry these days?!?…Just asking…), she seemed a bit irritated when we first arrived.

It is good to see new spots like Society popping up in Harlem these days, it adds a nice flavor to the neighborhood…and not to mention it beats Starbucks coffee;-)

Locate:

Society Coffee & Juice, Inc.

2104 8th. Avenue

NY, NY 10026

(212) 222-3323