Nice drip

Maru Coffee (Williamsburg)

GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Café

I’ve long stood firm on the belief that there are exactly two food places in NYC worth waiting in line for — Cafe Sabarsky and Emilio’s Ballato. Yet in the last couple of months since Maru Coffee opened on Wythe Avenue, I’ve waited in line from 15 to 45 minutes no fewer than five times for a cup of coffee. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I go at 8a on a Saturday or 1130a on a random Tuesday. Maru’s Williamsburg outpost is always packed with a blend of well-dressed, obviously busy New Yorkers who would probably walk away from any other coffee shop line but are happy to wait patiently for an iced breve macchiato and a seat in Maru’s sunlit, Japandi-styled interior.

I first had Maru’s cultish (and slightly controversial) cream top coffee on a work trip to LA. For weeks afterwards, I tried and failed to find a place in New York that came close. I reverse-engineered a decent approximation using my Subminimal nanofoamer and beans from Public Records, but it just wasn’t the same. You get the sense that everyone else at the Williamsburg Maru had a similar experience. The crowds aren’t just here to snap a photo of their coffee — it scans, mostly, as coffee connoisseurs, people who are excited to talk to the baristas about single-origin lots and linger over a hand-brewed cup and some screen-free conversation.

For the first few weeks you couldn’t get the cream top Americano in Williamsburg, but the team has since remedied that situation. You can also get your fancy whipped cream fix on the tiny bonbon and iced macchiato drinks. But the real menu draw, for me, are the espresso sets. As someone who always wants coffee with their coffee, I was charmed by their black-and-white offering: a cortado with a sidecar of drip. It pairs especially well with one of Lysee’s milk chocolate banana cookies, which are available on the weekends (the weekday pastry offerings are from Frenchette). It’s the perfect midday snack to enjoy while ogling Maru’s tightly curated selection of brewing equipment and wondering whether you do, in fact, need a Yamanaki-shikki wooden dripper. –Carina Finn

→ Maru Coffee (Williamsburg) • 320 Wythe Ave • Daily 730a-5p.