Gimme! Coffee, Soho: Part of our Nolita Micro Tour!
6 words or less: On-the-Go quality, Remembers-your-name connections
Location: 228 Mott Street (between Prince and Spring)
Hours: Weekdays 7-7 & Weekends 8-7
Open Since: July 2007
Amenities: While there is no seating, there’s a long standing bar, and some outdoor seating in front if the weather’s nice. They also have a bathroom. No wifi.
Must Try: Cappuccino & Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Owner: Kevin Cuddeback
Roaster: Director of Coffee is Liz Clark and our Head Roaster is Jacob Landrau (Macro Roaster of the Year 2013 from Roast magazine roasts in Ithaca New York )
Visit this shop as part of our Nolita Neighborhood Coffee Tour!
I met with Won, the manager of the Mott street Gimme! Coffee, on a mild beautiful Summer Day: the perfect time to stop by this location specifically. We sat out front and chatted about what makes Gimme! coffee special because one of the things that makes this location special is that it is the tiniest of places you can imagine. One counter runs the length of the store and an edge wide enough for your espresso runs the opposite. This space is so tiny and has been around for so long by New York speciality coffee standards (since 2007) that you know, the coffee must be good.
And it was. The cappuccino foam maintained an edge of acidity from the espresso called the Leftists blend and the milk from Battenkill Farms was slightly caramelized from the steaming… behind that tiny crawl space of a work area, the roaster and the barista were delivering a perfect creamy coffee package. Won explained his history with the company which began in 2013. He studied at the coffee academy in Korea before moving to the US. More than any other place he had worked, he expressed how Gimme! Coffee really listened to the ideas of the employees. It was clear that Gimme! Coffee, roasted in Ithaca, still knows how to retain talent even though they’ve grown to this shop, two places in Brooklyn and their four stores Upstate where they started near Cornell University.
I’ve visited their branches in Trumansburg and Ithaca previously which allowed me to notice a pattern: a sense of community. In every shop I’ve been in under the bright red imperative flag of Gimme!, I’ve seen regularly acknowledged by name. In Trumansburg, there were old men gathered around discussing the fishing game of the season. In Ithaca, there were graduate students parsing out their strategy for the Comps. And in Soho, there were cute young men with great shoes ordering their iced coffee and film crew grunts buying an order for who-knows-what actor around the block.
From tiny shops like this space in Soho to long tables of students surviving the coldest winters in the state, Gimme! Coffee values connections and quality in equal measure.
NYC Under Grounds 
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