facttime

I was last in New York in February 2020 , a work trip that also took me to Seattle for a conference. It was a strange time to be there, as COVID cases began to climb, and no one really knew how to act as we didn't know what was to come. I did what I usually did and tried to go to as many of my favourite NYC places as possible, saving the rest for the trip with my parents I had booked in for May 2020. Of course, it turned out that it was my last foreign trip for 18 months, and the two-year gap until my return earlier this month was my longest absence from my favourite city in more than 15 years. COVID cases are starting to rise again as the BA.5 variant spreads, but I was glad to be able to make it to New York and back for a much-needed holiday with my parents. We had to take a supervised lateral flow test to get into the US but that rule was axed a couple of days after we arrived. Rates of mask-wearing, meanwhile, were a lot higher than in London — public transport and Broadway the...

Earlier this week, I wrote about three of the excellent new-to-me speciality coffee shops I visited in Brooklyn during my recent visit. But I had the opportunity to stop by a fair few coffee spots in Manhattan too. I was staying near Bryant Park, which meant that Midtown coffee shops feature quite prominently on this list. There used to be a real dearth of speciality coffee in this part of town, but there are now dozens of places to get a great cup of coffee. I did find, however, that many of the Midtown coffee shops I visited had a real focus on takeaway and served coffee in disposable cups even if you are drinking in (COVID has been a driver, of course). This isn't that surprising, given the high proportion of tourists and office workers in that part of town, but it is worth noting. Several of the coffee shops I visited were part of (very) mini-chains from coffee companies with three to five locations in the city. Some (like Felix Roasting Co, pictured above) have also benefitte...