FIPS Preview: Hungry Ghost

As a college student visiting friends in Portsmouth, NH in the late nineties, on more than one occasion we'd end an evening of debauchery with a trip to The Friendly Toast, a crunchy hippie diner with locales in Portsmouth & Cambridge, MA. The waitresses smelled like patchouli, the atmosphere was laminated collage kitsch & the food was badass breakfast.

...so when I got an email about a new place opening in the Park Slope area called "Hungry Ghost," I started having word-association flashbacks to The Friendly Toast. As it turned out, my flashbacks were right on target.

Hungry Ghost is a new coffee shop opening in the next few weeks on the east side of Flatbush & 6th, in the same triangle of food & drink that includes Flatbush Farm, purbird & Cubana Café. It's the latest venture from Murat Uyaroglu, the owner of Prospect Perk, the tiny coffee shop just a few blocks down at Flatbush & Sterling.

As it is, the Park Slope area has its fair share of coffee shops...& for good reason. Coffee wakes our asses up. Coffee shops dispense said uppers AND provide a hangout for breeders & freelancers alike. It's NOT "socially acceptable" to chill at a bar at 9am. You need to balance out the alcohol with coffee if you want to be an effective lush, people. Coffee shops are KEY.

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[My Favorite Park Slope...]: Coffee Shop Breakfast Options

Kos Kaffe's Granola BowlAs an unemployed loser relentlessly hopeful freelance writer, I spend most days working in coffee shops around the neighborhood. And because I often forget to buy basic morning essentials like eggs, milk and Peanut Butter Puffins while out grocery shopping, I usually end up eating breakfast at said coffee shops. I'm thankful that we've got so many great cafes in this neighborhood -- Postmark, Cafe Regular, Tea Lounge, Cafe Grumpy, Cocoa Bar, Cafe Martin, Gorilla, Noella Brew Bar -- but when it comes to breakfast options, I have to tip my shabby cap to Kos Kaffe. When the coffee shop first opened a few months back they weren't offering much for food, but have recently introduced breakfast and lunch options via a chalkboard hanging above the counter. And I've slowly been sampling every single dish.

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[My Favorite Park Slope]: Sit-Down Coffee Break Spots

Image Via Chinae Alexander

New York has officially made me a minor coffee snob. Some days I wish I could just go back to thinking a cup of joe at Dunkin' was the fucking jam. But I can't...and you probably can't either. 

For a runaway cup of coffee, I'll do Gorilla or Cafe Grumpy -- my favorite coffee in the Slope. The drinks are excellent and there's never any room to sit...anywhere (unless you want to sit in the garbage collection area outside of Gorilla, where you'll find me pretty much every Saturday morning). 

But sometimes you just want to sit and actually enjoy the fine art of coffee-ing, rather than using it to prevent waterboarding a co-worker before 10AM.

Here are my two favorite sit-down coffee joints in the Slope:

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Park Slope Gets Its Second Swedish Espresso Bar

The owners of Konditori, a Swedish espresso bar on 5th Avenue near Degraw, just opened a second location on 7th ave between 4th and 5th street, where pet food and supply store 4 and a Tail was once located.

Do you think their coffee bars are decorated exactly like all of our apartments? 

[Via Here's Park Slope]

Brooklyn Based Rates Best Brooklyn "Coffices"

To all bloggers, writers and guys & gals cranking out that dissertation: are you looking to expand your coffee shop workspace horizons?

Brooklyn Based has ranked a bunch of BK coffee shops that can second as your personal office. They call them "coffices" (cute), and each are rated using the following factors: layout/aesthetic, vibe, coffee, wi-fi and plugs -- all the necessities you need to work from home without actually having to work from home.