Cupping Room Cafe

Whether it is steak or melon, this gorgeous café has whatever it takes to satiate your palate. What appears to be a low key bakery and dinner from the outside opens up into a gorgeous venue of live music and delicate dishes. For me, it brought back room style to a new pace. The environment was warm and inviting. One of the walls was even all glass on one side making the room feel even more alive than it already was. The décor was excellent; my favorite part was the desserts displayed amongst the flowers. It was presented in a manner that was hard to decide which was presenting which. Everything about the restaurant was seasonally appropriate. Now onto the important part: the food.
I have to be honest, what drew me to the restaurant was the fact that they had pancakes on their menu, so in the dinner tradition, I started with the mozzarella sticks. I bit into them and something incredible happened, I actually tasted the mozzarella cheese! It did not taste like your classical butchered mozzarella stick that we have all grown far too accustomed too. It was so fresh, it tasted like it had just been sliced from the farmers market the minute before it entered the fryer. The oil served as a taste mediator instead of initiator as it usually does. They were, I’d have to say, perfect.
My main dish, however, was not too great but I blame that on bad ordering. I was not hungry so I had the feta cheese and watermelon. The amount of feta was not substantial and the presentation was mediocre. Next time I think I’ll have the homemade pita basket with olive tapenade and spicy tomatoes instead.
To match my watermelon, I had a Green Goblin which took the traditional recipe and added an Absinthe twist, as Europe intended it to be. That being said, the peach schnapps should have been used a little more carefully, the amount it had really brought out the licorices sense of the Absinthe in not the most ideal aroma, however it did start tasting better sip by sip.

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http://www.cuppingroomcafe.com/zgrid/proc/site/sitep.jsp;jsessionid=auDJL1dRiUU7
CUPPING ROOM CAFE
359 W. Broadway
New York, NY, 10013
Tel: (212) 925-2898
Fax: (212) 966-5617

Subway Directions:
Canal St. Lines A, C, E, 1 & 9
Spring St. Line 6
Prince St. Lines N & R