I usually head west from Stony Brook every other weekend to work out of a nice cafe in Manhattan or Brooklyn, but have become increasingly frustrated with the tiny, crowded spaces that I’ve had to put up with. So this weekend, I decided to head east to the North Fork, and was pleasantly surprised.

I had been disappointed with the Long Island coffee scene in the recent past when I visited Local’s cafe in Port Jefferson; while quiet and spacy, there was something really wrong with either the beans or the barista’s technique, making for a really flat, unexciting brew. I wasn’t expecting much going all the way out to the east end of the island, but I really wanted to find a local roaster to replenish my weekly beans supply.

NoFoRoCo blew me away from my first step in. The cafe is set in a large old house, complete with rustic furniture and a big dark house-dog. The couches are comfortable, the WiFi is good and the staff is pleasant and interesting. There is a small door on the right side that leads to a quaint study, with its own desk, armchair and vintage computing machinery. The desk looks out onto the yard. You don’t get this in the cramped confines of cafes in the City.

Importantly, the coffee is perfect; I would rate this almost as good as Blue Bottle, in terms of both the beans and technique (a shoutout to Bri!). I had a latte and a cappucino, and they only fell slightly short in the complexity of flavours in the cup (Blue Bottle coffee bursts into a bunch of interesting flavours on my tongue; that’s as eloquent as my amateur palate can get). But there must be something to be said about NoFoRoCo being small-batch roasters.

I’ll leave you with some pictures. I’ll definitely be visiting again.