When the New York Times ran a feature on third wave shops in NYC back in 2006, there were really only 4 boutique shops in the city: Cafe Grumpy, Gimme! Coffee, Oslo and Ninth Street Espresso. Now in 2010, Anne and Neil over at the TampTamp Blog have announced their picks for the top nine New York City cafes – with one notable omission. Ninth Street Espresso, the East Village (and now Chelsea) pioneer of espresso craft in Manhattan, is mysteriously absent from the Top 9. Is this because Ninth Street is rumored to refuse the services of Temp Tamp? Anne and Neil have remained silent to inquiries from your Sprudge.com editors. They have, however, released this public statement:

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This year, Neil and I have decided to write the โ€œTop 9? of 2009. These cafes, simply put, are our favorites of 2009 at TampTamp. They are the shops that we believe set the standards of achievement for cafe-owners to be, and we frequently recommend them as examples to watch and learn from. These are the shops we want to visit even after weโ€™ve visited ten other shops in a week, the shops we consider must-see for those coming from out of town.

Our #1 question: if this were a more conventional “Top 10” list, would NSE have been included?

TampTamp Blog – Top 9 NYC Cafes of 2009

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