Sunday, May 21, 2006


congrats to our baristi pals & hello fairway!

first let's begin by congratulating our long-time baristi friends on doing well at the world championship: yay to our dreamy candadian pal, sammy p. of artigiano, and of course the american, matt riddle of intelligentsia.

alas -- but rather expectedly, we must admit -- first place went to a scandinavian, klaus. let's face it, the scandinavians don't just dominate the championship, they own this competition.

this is one reason why when people ask me where the best coffee is, i usually have to say, well, objectively, denmark, norway, australia. . . and italy. but i'm happy to say that an american finally cracked the top 3.

bovetti in other news, after fortifying myself with my usual morning batdorf dancing goat cappuccino, i braced for the bus trip to the new fairway market (at 52,000 sq. feet, it is larger than an acre!) in bklyn's red hook, a prime location right on the most historic and beautiful portion of the waterfront.

while on sunday the bus -- only 4 blocks from my house -- is supposed to run every 20 mins, let's face it, this is new york. so basically, the bus runs every 45 mins. next time, i'm taking a car.

anyway, the new fairway is in a lovely old 4-story converted spice warehouse. it has everything -- almost. no real italian spinach, no (sob!) russian coffee cake.

but! it does have 350 cheeses, including fiori di latte made on the spot; a small drum roaster for roasting fresh coffee; 200 kinds of olive oil, including my new favorite, the australian; 25-year-old basalmic vinegar for just US$48.00; the famed chocolate babka; the famed noodle kugel; the famed selection from the salad bar (ah! the carrot souffle!); the incredible tomatoes; and a small but acceptable selection of artisan chocolate, including the hard-to-find handmade bovetti from perigord.

the prices are quite wonderful -- for example, valrhona bars, which are often US$4 or even 4.50 other places, are just US$3.49, close to the economy candy price. best of all, they deliver to my house!

so i returned from my giddy trip by car, freighted with babka, kugel, basil, tomatoes, bovetti. long-time readers know that my first house in nyc was on the upper west side right by the first fairway, where i lived for a while before coming to boo-di-fal bklyn.

thus i have been waiting 7 long years for fairway to finally get itself open in bklyn. and here it is.

hooray! i celebrated by brewing up some of sara's everyday sumatra as an americano -- creosol, spicy, turpeny -- and tearing into the chocolate babka. ah, heaven.

but! i am calling the fairway management next week and begging for the russian coffee cake. that stuff is addictive and finds a niche deep in every soul. . .

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posted by fortune | 12:52 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments