There's a new coffee shop on the block in SoHo NYC. New location, old and highly acclaimed brand. They supply coffee beans to Michelin Starred restaurants like Le Bernardin, but they do not offer a soy milk option in their cafe locations, as I recently discovered first hand. And they seem to be quite proud of that. Who is it?? Click ahead for my 'review' and to find out who the new coffee snobs on the block are...
We Don't Do Soy. About a week ago I stumbled into a brand new coffee shop in SoHo NYC. I am always excited to try a new cafe in hopes that they will reinvent the wheel when it comes to a 'really good latte' or even an exotic creative chai latte. I don't mind paying a few bucks more for a high quality beverage, despite current trends to 'cheapen' cafe beverages, a la McCafe and DD. So, after hearing some amazing press about this new outpost, I excitedly went. The interior design is beautiful: Sleek concrete floors, cool silky wooden bar, natural light and incredibly minimalist furnishings. No menu-anywhere. It's simply order what you'd like. Or so it seems.... "Soy Latte please." I ordered and the barista looked at me like I was nuts....
"We don't offer soy." he replied...
Who are these coffee purists?
La Colombe Torrefaction
My review: Well since they won't make a soy chai or latte, I can't review. My husband tried a small cappuccino and thought it was very good. So good that they have to be soy snobs? I doubt it.
Soy Milk Snob Trend? There are definitely the coffee shop snobs out there who cringe when they smell Starbucks and think drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee is unimaginable. I get it. I'm a quality snob too. But what is so horrible about soy milk? So buy really high quality soy milk. I know perfectly well that it's harder to froth soy ilk. But it's not impossible. My Le Pain Quotidien soy lattes are always thick and frothy and delicious.
La Colombe Torrefaction, good luck shunning dairy-free-ers, but if this were Los Angeles, you wouldn't survive a day.
Snobbery is unnecessary. There are a lot of very high quality coffee shops in NYC that, gasp, do offer soy. A few I love are:
Think. Coffee
Gimme Coffee.
9th Street Espresso
Joe.
Ceci-Cela
Those are just a few, I know there many more. But the point is....you can offer options for vegan dairy-allergy folks, and still produce your dairy-milk 'perfect purist' lattes.
You are only losing customers and in this highly competitive cafe industry, is it really worth it? I ask you to sit in Starbucks SoHo location and listen to the number of beverage that ring up as "soy". I think you'll be surprised by the high percentage of soy drinkers.
...But as for me, I have plenty of options in SoHo for a delicious soy chai or latte. And sadly, La Colombe Torrefaction won't be one of them. Too bad because that interior design is so refreshing!
What do you think??? Are they coffee snobs, coffee purists or both?
Lauren says
Perhaps they fear the phytoestrogens in soy?
Sarah says
What!? That is ridiculous. This would NEVER fly here in San Francisco, with all of the vegetarians/vegans. The coffeehouse would be out of business in a month. I'm not a soy drinker but I wouldn't give my money to a place like this that was so rude to people who are even lactose intolerant and who are vegetarians/vegans. You all need to get more militant up there about your soy milk, like folks do here. =)
Daniel says
Outrageous! I can't believe someone would do that in NYC of all places. I am glad you called them out on it though. Maybe they will figure out that the snobby attitude doesn't win over potential customers. They need to wake up to the demands of coffee drinkers.
dreaminitvegan says
Snobs! I agree with Arthur you should get all of your friends to go in and ask for soy and then walk out because they don't offer it.lol. Don't these coffee houses get that there are alot of people who are allergic to dairy or are lactose intolerent. It's rare here in California not to find soy in a coffee cafe.
Arthur says
Get all your vegan/lactose intolerant, etc. friends to go in there randomly and request soy... If they realize that they are losing a lot of potential customers because they don't supply it then maybe they will change. Money talks...
Virginia Messina, MPH, RD says
Definitely coffee snobs. It's funny--I've been writing about foodies today and the idea that some people may be so snobby about certain foods that they won't consider a more ethical option. This fits right in with what I was thinking.
Mademoiselle Oulla says
I agree. It is annoying, and all it serves to do is harm their own business. I live in MOntreal and there are a handful of really great "authentic" cafes around my apartment, but I always walk past them to the Starbucks because none of them have soy milk. I'd much rather support the independent cafes, but they wont serve soy milk.
Ana Banana says
That sucks! What about the people who physically can't drink milk. Do we not exist? Screw em.
Liz says
unfounded pretension in my opinion
Anonymous says
It's true. I used to work at Starbucks and was shocked nby the high number of soy subs that came in. Some days we'd go through more soy than milk. But I live in LA, so I don't know how NY drinks coffee.
Fruitlover says
I think that is snobby. But if they want to lose customers, it's their choice.