“In Australia, coffee is a real social medium. “We have a space that invites you to sit down with a friend and enjoy the coffee, instead of sucking it down,” says Cook.

Which is of course, the point-especially when it comes to the coffee. The food alone is enough to make this a regular dining destination, not to mention the hanging indoor garden, pillow-lined window seats, and the whitewashed outdoor patio. And while there’s a definite focus on vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options, none of those words are printed on the menu (plus, you’ll find plenty of clean protein options like rosemary lamb, baked salmon, and baked pork and fennel sausage pasta).

Lately, that’s meant a Cypriot grain salad with freekah, pomegranate, lentils, and currants. The chef, Sappho-who, like the rest of the staff, is Australian-designs the menu based on what’s in season. Not only is the store, located on the corner of Greenwich Avenue and Perry Street, the company’s biggest, it’s also the first to branch out and operate as a full service restaurant, hoping to bring a whole range of Australian specialties to New York.Īs one might imagine, the food served at an Australian restaurant is made with fresh, local ingredients (namely, vegetables). “While we were walking around the Financial District, we noticed that there were just no coffee stores like we knew in Australia-little quirky holes in the walls.”įast-forward to today, and the duo has recently opened its third space in the West Village, adding “Collective Café” to the end of the name to signify its flagship status (Puyol flew over from Melbourne last July to join the team). “Years ago I was here on vacation with my business partner Nick Stone,” recounts Cook, who’s from Perth. Both believe that the flat white, a double-shot of espresso mixed with equal parts milk and topped with velvety steamed milk known as “microfoam,” is absolutely superior java, and the two of them have been on a mission to bring the drink, which tastes even richer than a latte, to the larger world. And, truthfully, it’s because of this lack of knowledge that their eighteen-month-old business, Bluestone Lane Coffee, has had a rather wild success story so far. To be fair, they quickly admit that not many people in New York-home to millions of drip coffee guzzlers-know about the Australian beverage. “You’ve never heard of a flat white?” they ask, exasperated, looking back into my blank, uncultured stare. Aaron Cook and Ashleigh Puyol are perturbed.

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