27th 2011
Coffee with a Twist
Congratulations to Park Brannen and Jane Danger who won the Buzzed! Coffee and Cocktail Competition held last week at Compose in NYC.
Here is the what Park reported:
My partner – the very talented Jane Danger (head bartender in charge at Cienfuegos) and I set out to create a cocktail that could stack up against four other barista and bartender pairs from around New York City. Working together over the previous couple of months, we set out to create a beverage that would speak to both of our skill-sets and passions. Jane specializes in preparing punches, both classic and modern, and seeks to push peoples expectations of what a punch can be. She uses fresh ingredients and spirits from around the world to give her guests a truly wonderful experience that I was able to witness first hand at Cienfuegos. Watching Jane, I noticed some parallels between the world of classic cocktails and specialty coffee and thought of just the coffee to bridge the gap.
Café Grumpy takes great lengths to source coffees seasonally and with the highest quality, and it just so happens that the wonderful coffees from Ethiopia are now in season. The day before in the cafe, I tasted a cold-brewed version of our fresh crop Ethiopia Yirgacheffe and I knew it was perfect for what Jane and I were setting out for. A nice punchy acidity, with a myriad of fruit flavors, as well as a clean developed body would pair very nice with the cocktails that Ms. Danger concocts with some of the most delicious spirits in the world. I brought some to her and we began to work through some of the flavors that we found, adding representative ingredients as well as some of our own favorite spirits. Jane shared the vision of a fresh seasonal cocktail, that would have an underlying flavor of the coffee I provided, but only underneath the layers of flavors we extrapolated from the cold-brew concentrate.
I was able to play with the coffee concentrate a little more, and found that it lacked the acidity that I was looking for, so I took a couple of extra steps and they resulted in a truly wonderful base to work from. I blended and iced a Chemex batch to bring out more of the pleasant acidity that Ethiopian coffees are known for, as well as left the concentrate unfiltered. Normally the coffee would pass through both a paper filter as well as a cloth pad, but I cut out that step. Straining through a french press screen, I found so many more flavors present than we saw with just the filtered concentrate. When the resulting coffee from these two methods were blended together, we were ready to move forward.
Much guessing and trying eventually yielded us what we thought to be a wonderful beverage, but it still lacked the nice soft body of the Yirgacheffe as well as the red fruit flavors that made it so compatible with Jane’s preferred drink format – the punch. Jane had a lightening-bolt idea that I believe put us over the top and gave us the ability to win the contest, and that lightning was in frozen form. A Pinot noir sorbet, made in Greenpoint near the Cafe Grumpy roastery, when added to the drink really filled out the tactile balance and added the pleasant red fruit flavors we were looking for. The drink was transformed, and the rest is history.
The contest itself was a mind-blowing experience! Working behind the bar with bartenders was such a great learning experience, as well watching the other teams perform and compose some really beautiful and tasty drinks. A jam-packed crowd watched our every move, and Jane assembled every drink perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner, or a better field of competitors to work with. The experience was as fun as it was educational, and I am so happy to have represented Café Grumpy at this fantastic event.
The Italian Royal Family Punch
1/2 oz lemon
3/8 oz Passion syrup
1 oz red wine sorbet
3/4 oz coffee concentrate
1/2 oz Zucca
1/2 oz Smith and Cross Rum
3/4 oz English Harbour 5 year
Shake it up & top with scoop of sorbet
29th 2011
Jo Hamilton: Faces (Chelsea & Greenpoint)
"Faces" - an exhibition of crochet portraits by Jo Hamilton will be on display in Chelsea and Greenpoint throughout May.
Jo Hamilton is an artist who relocated to Portland, Oregon from Scotland in the mid-nineties. She studied Drawing and Painting at the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1993.
In the last four years, Jo has focused on making representational art using crochet and yarn. Her unusual crochet technique is her own, an intuitive process she developed from the task of portraying her subjects- the city of Portland and its people. In her work she uses no plans, graphs or computer imaging; each piece evolves in its own unique way. Jo's intention is to push the boundaries both of fine art and craft.
For more information on the artist, please visit her website.
23rd 2011
Greenpoint Getting Greener
Our next-door neighbor and regular customer, Broadway Stages, recently completed the development of a 420kW roof-top solar panel project – one of the largest roof-top solar arrays in NYC. This project will produce more than 600,000 lbs of annual carbon dioxide offsets, which is equivalent to planting over 50 acres of trees or not burning over 75,000 gallons of gasoline annually.
We are proud to have played a big part in making all of this happen. It was while he was ordering his daily cappuccino, that the idea of putting solar panels on his studio roof-tops, was first suggested to the owner of Broadway Stages by Chris of Café Grumpy (part-time barista, full-time partner of Greenpoint Energy Partners). Another regular of the café – John Salmon of Solar Energy Systems (another Greenpoint-based company) – quickly became involved.
Many café meetings and countless cups of coffee later, Greenpoint is now home to one of the largest solar projects in NYC!
6th 2011
Painting Exhibition by Chika Yoshii (Chelsea)

Chika Yoshii’s newest artwork is now on display in Chelsea. “Flowers” is a beautiful and subtle series of oil paintings.
Chika was born in Takamatsu City, Kagawa, Japan. She studied Japanese painting at Takamatsu Daiichi High School, then studied Textiles at Kyoto Art College. She currently lives in New York City where she attends the Art Students League of New York.
You can view more of Chika Yoshii’s work here.
This exhibition will be on view throughout the month of April. Please join us on Friday, April 15th from 6-8pm for an Artist’s reception.
21st 2011
19th 2011
Help Support Time Out For Hunger & Drink More Coffee!
Visit our Chelsea store tomorrow for a coffee. Bring a friend…or a bunch of friends.
10% of the day’s sales will go to support Time Out For Hunger and Food Bank NYC, so we hope you will make it a busy day!
Read more about Time Out For Hunger here.
