What dangers lurk in the Iris Cafe’s biscuits? via Facebook

Each morning Brooklyn Heights residents wake the smell of roasting coffee, the chatter of their neighbors, and an abundance of fresh-baked muffins and scones. And it is awful, according to the Post (via the Observer). Some residents living above Iris Café, which opened in 2009, are now threatening to take the eatery to court for chronic food odors that have been deemed “offensive.” (more…)

Oslo, in happier, less burned times. via Flickr user Ancient Cycles

We joked about it last week, but in reality, Oslo’s Bedford Avenue store burning down is a bummer. It was a locally owned coffee shop in an area where Starbucks has yet to penetrate, and more than that, it employed people who lived around the neighborhood. Now of course, those people are out of work, through no fault of their own. Fortunately, Lucky Dog (which is a bar you can turn into an office) is helping them out with a fundraiser benefitting the employees. (more…)

A burned out Oslo is just the beginning. Photo via Austin McCutchen

This could be the end of life as we know it. It’s true, Brokesters, things are a-changin’, for better and for worse. For better: we may be seeing improvements on the G train. For worse: we may be losing Coney Island to a strip mall anti-paradise. But the biggest change to come, indeed one of the most horrifyingly and universally life-altering things we could imagine, has to do with none other than our precious, precious coffee supply. That’s right, folks, according to The Awl, our future coffee supply is in danger. (more…)

We could all use a coffee and a friendly face today. Via TA Facebook.

Finally tackling your fear of bike commuting into work today, thanks to Sandy? Transportation Alternatives is serving up free coffee and commuter support from 730am-11am on the  city side of the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges today, and possibly more days this week too. And the coffee is from Brooklyn Roasting Company to boot.

Gentrifier trap?

Last Thursday, we brought you the story of the world’s most tone deaf do-gooder. Casting themselves and gentrification by way of espresso as a force for good, our mystery blogger invited one and all to a pop-up espresso shop in Bed-Stuy. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to speak to this coffee clown, so on Saturday, I rode down Patchen Avenue to where it meets up with Sumpter Street, not quite knowing what to expect. (more…)

Coffee really does stunt your growth: that’s a 45 year-old man. Via Baby Metoxen

Are you a “don’t touch me until I’ve had my morning coffee” kind of person? Hah, trick question. We all are! Until Sigmund Freud climbs out of his grave and gives impassioned testimony in front of Congress on the benefits of cocaine, coffee is all we have to get us through the day, alert and chewing on our pens with nervous energy. Fortunately, today is National Coffee Day. Originally started to bring attention to the plight of small coffee farmers, it now exists to bring some relief to the under-caffeinated masses with free coffee from a few chains. (more…)

Scary latte photo courtesy of Examiner.com.

Since quitting my museum job a month ago and starting a job at a coffee shop, my life has simplified considerably. No more getting screamed at by crowds of people in foreign languages, no more answering the same question 873 times a day, and no more hour-long peak-time commutes. The only down side: customers who require very special attention and behave badly when they don’t receive it. Trust me, we’re here for you soy macchiato drinkers; nobody sets out to be a bitchy barista. So how about you don’t do any of these things on your next coffee run? (more…)

Horn-rimmed glasses toss at the Hipster Olympics, in BERLIN. Take that, your expectations! Via TheLocal.de

Brooklyn sure takes a lot of flack here for being the epicenter of the overly hip happening (concerts at the center of a maze in a warehouse, for example) and the nexus of all intensely precious food trends (that damn mayonnaise shop again). Some of it is warranted, some of it is probably jealousy. It is nice, however, to remind ourselves that not every annoying trend comes from Kings County, like this past weekend’s Hipster Olympics, which happened so very far away in Berlin. Here, a list of 6 recent things we’re glad can’t be pinned on us. (more…)

Slim Jim, meet your trendy Brooklyn cousin.

Yeah, we know the Brooklyn food scene has jumped the pasture-raised shark, but it’s not like everyone’s going to be abandoning Smorgasburg for Wendy’s any time soon. At this point it looks like blood orange donuts and Bulgogi tacos are here to stay. Cooking up your own scheme for the next banh mi stand? Before you quit the corporate ranks (or your coffee shop job) and join the pork bun party, know that the food business is probably a lot riskier, more demanding and, yes, expensive than whatever gig you may be leaving behind. And be prepared to spend less time in the kitchen and more with accountants, city permit agents and suppliers. Still curious? Here, a handful of seasoned Brooklyn foodtrepreneurs on what you need to know before taking the po’ boy plunge. (more…)

A few weeks ago, we vowed to work our way through the supermarket coffee aisles in search of the best brews you can buy in a can. We got through three cans for roughly $5 a pop: Cafe Bustelo (rich, but acrid when made too strong), Martinson’s (ugh) and Maxwell House dark roast (my personal fave) before losing our will to live altogether and giving up. I know it sounds lame to abort mission, but no. Never again. Some things are sacred, and for me, decent coffee is one of them. If you’re in that camp too, the money you save by buying Proctor & Gamble joe is not worth the existential doom induced by one less reason to wake up in the morning, one more mass-produced, tasteless product in your life in place of a simple pleasure you genuinely cherish.

But if it’s Café Bustelo you genuinely enjoy — a number of you said you do — that’s cool too. Not me. A lot of Brokelyn readers also swear by Trader Joe’s beans, and I happened to find a deal at Whole Foods of all unexpected places: their cans of house brand whole bean coffee are $4.99 for 12 oz., which comes out to around $7 a pound. So what indulgences can’t you live with out? Wine? Lipstick? Spotify premium?