Ninth Street Espresso opened in 2001 in the East Village as Higher Grounds Cafe. At the time, by its own account, nobody in New York offered manual espresso service as their main focus, and the owners thought it might be possible: they bought a Faema E61 Legend and coffee from Dallis Brothers Coffee Roasters in Queens, learned to build drinks and tinker with equipment, and a favourable write-up in the New York Times brought coffee enthusiasts to the neighbourhood. In 2003 the shop took the name Ninth Street Espresso and a white floating cup and saucer on a black flag as its logo, “a pirate flag to represent us in the coffee world”. It is still in its original location.

More shops followed. Ninth Street worked with “just about every roaster in specialty coffee” and then started roasting for itself, choosing coffee that is “round and accessible without being boring” and treating every coffee at the roaster with the same eye on balance and drinkability. It is a small, simple company, committed to being independent and local, with “an enduring fidelity to both quality and service”. Twenty-five years on, the goal is the same one it started with: make and sell great coffee.

There are two cafés in the East Village, in Alphabet City and by Tompkins Square, a bar inside Threes Brewing in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and the roastery and café in Long Island City. Alphabet City, the espresso on the bar for over 20 years, is the coffee Ninth Street is most known for, and Hot / Cold is what the shops pour as filter coffee and cold brew. The shop sells diner mugs, a jadeite-style glass mug and shirts made with Adam Mar in Montauk, and a Roaster’s Choice subscription sends a different coffee each month.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Ninth Street Espresso