19 Cafe
“Small coffee shop offering some interesting lunch items from udon noodles and dumplings to a Paris sandwich(?).”
“Interesting combination of food, you don't think you will find fried rice or noodle at a coffee place.”
“The bread itself was a wheat baguette-ish deal and the pork belly was pretty okay.”
19 Cafe
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Good for Working: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
3 reviews
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You can tell that 19 Café is a personal project. From the design magazines that have been carefully placed at the communal tables to the electric mix of Japanese, Chinese and Korean art on the walls, everything was clearly done with care. I imagine the owner obsessing about the light fixtures for days, picking out the perfect filament to match the overall aesthetic.
The location is ambitious, on a block of Manhattan that faces a public housing project. Don Pedro has been a successful club here, but otherwise it's still mostly storefront churches and residential buildings. There's much less foot traffic than on Graham Avenue, and this is still three blocks from the J at Lorimer.
Even tougher is that one of the few businesses in the immediate area is ANOTHER Japanese coffee shop, the Brooklyn Ball Factory. While they may seem superficially similar, while the Ball Factory seems designed to be featured in a design catalog or perhaps a Madlibs for creating a certain kind of cosmopolitan blog post (enjoy meatball sandwich bento boxes on brushed metal stools), 19 Café seems more earnest and less outwardly self-conscious.
I'm no coffee drinker, but the tea – from Germany and a series of custom blends – was clearly chosen for taste rather than popularity. The food has the same vibe and a focus what can be executed well in the space. Things are nominally Japanese and unafraid of including some classics in with the experiments.
The gyoza was lightly fried and then exquisitely plated with a splatter painting of sriacha and a crown of vinegar. A Peking duck bun came with expertly fine slices of scallion and a generous portion of crispy meat inside. These were in total $9, a very fair price considering the quality and that cafés generally traffic in stale, tasteless hunks of starch.
I'm now looking to the future. First there are the stranger parts of the menu to try – kimchi fries, something called a 'pairs sandwich,' a series of all-day toasts that appear to be a Japanese take on smørrebrød – and the owner's promise of a more ambitious menu to come. This place unfortunately closes at 7 pm on weeknights, which means that I'm going to be forced to keep these explorations to the weekends. Expand hours if possible!
I really enjoyed my visit last week at 19 Cafe, charming little place with a quite ambiance for an evening snack. I ordered the chicken Ramen soup and my girlfriend had the pork belly Soba noodle soup,it was good but the soba soup had a little extra salt. We also had the Paris Chicken sandwich wich I really enjoyed.This sandwich is pretty close to a banh mi and a great alternative for a healthy eats. As for my drink, I had an ice tea which was a little bitter the tea bag was in a little too long. Overall I enjoyed the Ramen and Paris sandwich and would return to try the fried rice.
I really like this place. It's comfortable and in a secluded place but close to the J train. I've only have the cold brew which is a solid cold brew (as in it is tasty and packs some caffeine). It has free wifi and quiet enough to get some work done. The guy at the counter is nice and friendly. It's reasonably priced. The temperature is set at a comfortable level for summer.