One of Ost’s bestseller — their hot chocolate made specially with film festival-signature laurels for me by Alex

Whoever said, “Look to the East for ______” probably did not realize at the time that his or her aphorism would resonate to which direction to go to for the most treasured coffee shop in Manhattan.  When it comes to searching for the best coffee in the city, all roads lead eastbound to Ost Cafe.

The cafe’s name pays homage to its part-owners’ lineage (“Ost” is German for “East”), as well as owing to the fact that this quaint, laid-back coffee shop lies at the heart of the bustling, gastronomical district of the East Village. Within a ten-block radius, this neighborhood hosts several of the high quality, locally-established coffee houses one can find in New York City, namely, Ninth Street Espresso, Mud, Porto Rico Importing Co., and Abraço, but with Ost, it brings about a feeling of warmth that goes way beyond just the cup of coffee itself.

I stumbled upon this unique cafe on a stifling July afternoon when I caught a glimpse of the La Marzocco espresso machine they had on their countertop. It was shiny and beautiful, just like all of the La Marzoccos I’ve discovered when I had been on my little quest to find the best cup of coffee in New York beginning the summer of 2008.  The silver La Marz beckoned me to enter, and the moment I stepped inside, Ost extended its radiating welcome with its Victorian-patterned walls and the aroma of roasted beans wafting all around.

Tucked in the corner of 12th Street and Avenue A, Ost’s relaxed setting is reminiscent of an era artists and intellectuals gather on a kaffeeklatsch over anything from literature to politics to the fine art of perfecting the espresso.  Maybe that’s a little too far out, but this joint for the caffeine-happy has that magic.  Ost Cafe’s  classical, Eastern European-inspired interiors blends well with the cosmopolitan vibe in this place — patrons on the countertop glued to their laptop screens, behind huddled, iPhone-toting college kids.  Across you can find the book readers, a Kindle nestled between the hands of one of them, as they lazily lounge on the couch.  Ost can be chock-full at times, especially that it is among the rare, few cafes in New York that benefits the laptop users with free WiFi.

“My most unforgettable moment thus far would have to be that first long weekend since we opened.  I got to Ost a little later in the morning that first day, and to my surprise there was already a long line of people waiting for me to open the cafe.  What a great feeling.”  — Alex Clark

And the coffee?  With Ost, the epitome is “Less is more”.  Unlike a lot of boutique coffee shops that have an unlimited variety of drinks with fancy names in Italian sizes, Ost Cafe offers the best of the basics, with the quintessential drip coffee complemented alongside the usual slew of espresso-based drinks.  Ost is part of a small network of cafes in New York whose shelves are supplied with the finest beans by Intellegentsia, a coffee roasting company and retailer based in Chicago, noted for their specialty blends with coffee beans sourced directly from its farmers.  Quality over quantity is continued with Ost’s finite selection of tea and other non-coffee drinks.  Their espresso is among the best I’ve ever had, with the right amount of bold tartness to last you through the day with just two shots (it must be the La Marzocco, too!).

However, apart from the fine-tasting beverages and the warm ambiance, the people who manage Ost Cafe are what hold the key to its appeal and success.   Conceptualized by two friends who met while working at the Stock Exchange, it didn’t take long until Alex Clark and Aaron Hagedorn bade goodbye to their financial day jobs in exchange for counting beans, literally speaking.  Adding the Slovakians Katarina Maxianova (Aaron’s wife) and Lenka Opalena, into the formula brought forth the birth of Ost Cafe on New Year’s Day of this year.

The dynamic foursome behind Ost bring a whole new level of community into their establishment, evident in their passion for maintaining not just a business but above all, a collective retreat for its ever-growing patronage.  Aaron and Alex, who are mainstays in the cafe, have earned a bevy of “fans” (myself included),  who all attest that the daily presence and congeniality of the two guys along with their equally amazing baristas, Steph, Dan, Michael, Brian, and Ann, are what make them frequent Ost for their every day caffeine fix and more.

So the next time New York pulls a frenzy on you or if you’re just a hardcore coffee drinker in search of the perfect espresso, it’s good to know that you need not cross the East River into specialty-coffee-stomping-ground-Brooklyn for that much desired cup.  Ost Cafe already brims with all that warm, frothy goodness that New Yorkers know to be one of “life’s simple pleasures.”  And take it from this coffee junkie, with Ost Cafe, it’s anything but a regular.

Cafe life in New York just got more savory

Ost Cafe
www.ostcafenyc.com
441 E 12th St
New York, NY 10009
(212) 477-5600

Photos by Horst Dieter Baum