Cafe Minerva is one of my favorite little cafes in the West Village. Not only do they serve a mean cup of coffee, but they also make some pretty amazing white truffle pasta. Need I say more?
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Restaurant
In the midst of finals at school and a beautiful (to me at least) snow storm, I headed to Lafayette for a little coffee date with my friend Grace. While I love eating at the restaurant itself, there's a little cozy patisserie corner just to the right of the entrance.
Navy was one of the top choices on my list of restaurants to try when I got back to NYC in August. I finally managed to try it just about two weeks ago, and now of course I'm regretting not having tried it earlier.
In essence, Mezzaluna is an old family favorite, my grandparents have been eating at Mezzaluna for the past 20 years during sporadic visits to New York, and I'm more than happy to continue the tradition. Everything from the focaccia to the pizza and pasta is Italian perfection (and my grandparents actually lived in Rome for 25 years, so I trust their judgement above all else). I love that the place feels family run and that they haven't change any of the interiors since they began serving pasta in 1984. It's a true Upper East Side institution. My favorite is the Taglierini alla ciociara, my mom's favorite is the Vongole and don't forget to have the tiramisu as well.
Confession: I spent last weekend in Washington, DC. While there I had the best cupcake of my life at Baked & Wired. I thought I would never say this, but Washington might have one on NYC when it comes to the art of a bakery/coffee shop with this family run insitution in Georgetown. The place is split into two parts: the baked bar (with the craziest cupcake/brownie/cookie/all-of-the-above combinations you could imagine) and the wired bar (which serves things like dirty chai and chai-der, a combination of chai and cider.... these people are clearly doing a lot of things right). I had an amazing peanut butter chocolate cupcake with my coffee, while my friend Amanda opted for the flapjack variation topped with candied bacon. Proceed with caution if you decide to go, I can't take responsibility for ensuing diabetes or occurances of cardiac arrest due to severe sugar overdose. That being said, I still think this should be one of your first stops in Washington, and in the meantime I'll be hoping they'll open one in my beloved NYC as well.
