Union Coffee — Restaurant in Lambertville

This is a lovely cafe and the espresso is top notch. If you want real espresso in any of its manifestations, this is your place. The caveat is, apparently, to get your espresso before the start of the last hour of the day there. I recently stopped in around 4:00 on day where Union closes at 5:00. It was busy, but not overly so, and we got a nice table by the window. When I heard my drink called, I went up to the counter and was handed my cortado in a paper cup. Thinking this was a mistake, (everyone sitting around was drinking from ceramic cups, and there was a pile of fresh ceramic cups on top of the espresso machine) I offered that I had not ordered to go. I was told that "after four, we only use paper cups to spare the dishwasher." This is disappointing (and also odd), as the quality of the espresso is so good that it made the taste of the paper cup all that more present. As a friend put it, would a restaurant suddenly start serving on paper plates simply because it was the last hour they were open? One would bet not. Why people who order in the last hour are not permitted the same experience of the espresso, not afforded the same experience as people who paid for the same thing just minutes earlier, is not clear at all. It used to be that businesses were open, then did the clean up after closing. Very disappointing for such outstanding espresso. If you go, be sure to get there in time to not only order, but to receive, you espresso before the beginning of the closing hour. If I'd wanted my espresso in a paper cup, I would have...

There’s a hand made wooden table at Union Coffee I rested my cold brew on it and looked through the plate glass and out onto the street It’s a comfortable space Kind people

I went to take a sip Looking at the table I saw it A mess Something had spilled A mess had been made

I thought to clean it Make it ‘right’

Then I looked again

It wasn’t a mess It wasn’t a liquid It was hard, solid, rigid It was the table’s finish As the hands that made the table had intended

Not slick Not refined

Creative Unique One of a kind

The finish had character

I hadn’t seen it Not at first I’d mistaken it for a mess I was wrong

It was art

If a day should come That you meet someone Or see it in yourself A bit of a mess

Look a bit closer Give it some consideration It might not need cleaning It might not need to be made ‘right’

It might just be It might just be Creativity Uniqueness Character

It might just be...

I've never been to a coffee shop that serves a London Fog, and after trying it, it seems like a mistake. Usually a coffee drinker, and usually drink my coffee black, but I make the exception for this drink.

Definitely a nice place, prices like you'd expect for the area, and a nice little outdoor seating spot. I always see people sitting out there chatting and never fail to see people stop on their walks to talk to a friend who they happened upon at the coffee shop.

Their menu items are refreshing, definitely things you'd expect from a coffee shop, but at the same time not items you'd think of to put on a menu. I found myself wondering "why don't more coffeeshops have this?" Really sets them apart...