I don’t think I’m telling any tales outside of school when I say that New York City has one of the best coffee scenes in America. The number of high quality cafes in the Big Apple could easily number in the hundreds, a fact that even as I write this I can’t help but balk at. But there’s a problem: NYC is so big that even the most well-traveled coffee seeker may not have experienced some of the best shops the city has to offer. That’s why Counter Culture is hosting Pop Culture, a brand new pop-up series taking place at their Broome Street Training Center in New York. Starting in April, Counter Culture will turn over the keys to shop to different NYC cafes to bring a world of different coffee services under one roof.
For the inaugural Pop Culture, Counter Culture has teamed up with six different cafes from around New York City, who will each get two consecutive weekends to display their particular brand of coffee service as well as do a few experimental things they may not normally be able to do in their day-to-day cafe life. “New York has got so many visions for what coffee service can and should look like,” Counter Culture’s Matt Banbury tells Sprudge. “[Pop Culture] gives us the opportunity to showcase what makes our partnership unique with these shops.”
Shops participating in this series include: Little Collins, Little Skips, Southside Coffee, Everyman Espresso, Chalait, and Swallow. Each will be interpreting their time at the Training Center however they see fit. Little Collins, for instance, will be serving different toasts as well as heralding the oncoming summer months with an affogato made with Counter Culture’s natural processed Buziraguhindwa from Kayanza, Burundi. There’s even talk of a bit of a fun educational angle about potato defect in coffee and it may or may not include a side of potato chips. Everyman Espresso, on the other hand, will be turning the Training Center into more of a gallery space. Serving a menu focused on Ethiopian coffee, Everyman has plans of bringing in clothing designers and hosting an event with Sarina Prabasi, author of the soon to be released The Coffee House Resistance: Brewing Hope in Desperate Times.
And speaking of clothing, Counter Culture will be releasing a series of limited edition shirts and merch celebrating Pop Culture, which will only be available for purchase at the NYC Training Center.
Branbury tells Sprudge that if all goes well, he’d like to see Pop Culture travel to other Training Centers around the country, perhaps even bringing non-local Counter Culture accounts to takeover for a weekend. But for now, some really great New York shops and giving a whole new set of New Yorkers a chance to see and taste what they are all about.
For more information on Pop Culture and updates on the different pop-up events, make sure you are following Counter Culture on Instagram.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
All images via Counter Culture
Disclosure: Counter Culture is an advertising partner with the Sprudge Media Network
