Abraço

Profile

Coffee bars like Abraço (“embrace” in Portuguese) don’t just pop up out of nowhere. This one traces its lineage back to San Francisco, where partner Jamie McCormick gained a following pulling shots at Blue Bottle Coffee Co., a micro-roaster known for brewing each cup of drip coffee to order. It’s this Bay Area pedigree, this ingredient-fetishizing DNA, that sets Abraço apart, and not just in terms of the rich, nuanced drinks that issue from McCormick’s La Marzocco espresso machine. Baker Elizabeth Quijada’s pastries are equally considered and artfully inventive, a coffee-bar anomaly in these days of outsourced muffins and scones. The display case seems to change with every fresh farmers’-market haul, but the olive-oil cake is a signature staple, as are shortbread scented demurely with lavender or studded, daringly, with briny cured olives. — Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite

Recommended Dishes

Frittata, olive-oil cake, coffee or espresso.

Related Stories

New York Magazine Reviews

• Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite's Full Review (12/3/07)

Best of New York Awards

• Best Prix Fixe Lunch (2010)
• Best Cup of Coffee (2008)

Featured In

• The Breakfast Manifesto - The City's Best Morning Meals (6/9/08)
• Where the Underground Gourmet Will Be Eating (9/3/07)

Recipes at Abraço

• Roasted Butternut Squash With Sherry-Vinegar Vinaigrette (2012)
• Tart Pastry (2008)