Abraço — Restaurant in New York

Super disappointed by the service and coffee we received. The barista was rude and presumptuous. The drinks we received were terrible. I stopped here quickly to grab an espresso and a cortado for my girlfriend while we were headed to dinner with the hopes of just walking or driving down to our dinner with something to sip on but instead I felt like I nearly had a conniption because of my interaction with the barista, combined with drinks that absolutely do not justify having strong values.

Service: After placing the order the barista refused to serve my espresso in a to-go cup, but was happy to do so for the cortado my girlfriend offered… She refused to give me a good answer as to why, and just said that she wouldn’t serve it that way. The next person in line complained and offered to just steal a cup for me because of her attitude, to which the barista replied - it’s to reduce waste. So you’ll serve a cortado to go in an espresso sized paper cup or a latte in a regular one but not a plain espresso? I’ll happily throw you $.25 for the paper cup if that’s what it takes… I worked in restaurants for 7 years and I know it’s a tough business with slim margins. But to just deny it for waste reasons? You’re a bunch of hypocrites living in some weird ivory basement where you serve lousy coffee.

Drinks: After I tasted the espresso I started to understand why they wouldn’t bother to serve it in a to go cup. You’d never want to be caught dead sipping this espresso - it was terrible. Under extracted and pulled for too long with hard water. No flavor, just thick black water. It was just not worth sipping… absolutely terrible. I wasn’t expecting anything on par with like, Sey coffee but this was just bad. The milk in the cortado masked the espresso but it was still far below expectations.

On a positive note the pastries on display looked quite good. But we were en route to dinner and just looking for a pick me up.

If either the service or the drinks were acceptable I wouldn’t bother writing a review but I’m not sure if I’ve ever walked into a restaurant and felt this bad about an order. We even tipped them $2 on a $6 order, which I now really regret after they just didn’t...

I have never written a negative review, but I feel compelled to reiterate the feedback on the unwelcoming and pretentious atmosphere to help people make an informed decision on this place. First, I kindly asked if they have Decaf, as I have a medical condition that makes caffeine dangerous for me. I felt embarrassed as the barista looked me up and down and shook her head: "absolutely not." I have no issue with places not serving decaf, but it's not a good look to patronize someone for a valid question. 2nd, I was part of a group that was assigned a pastry crawl and this was one of the stops, we had to-go bags and one of the baristas kept telling us we can't have outside food in here. I get some rules but we were clearly not eating our outside food and had our bags at our feet, sorry that this is a transient city and people have other things going on where they may bring in outside shopping/food bags? 3rd, we gave up our first table to give to another group, the barista said "no you can't go here we need to clear the table first." Last time I checked there are more elliquent ways to ask for a moment to prepare a table for a group. Lastly, the cherry on top, the very moment most of our group finished our drinks, the barista told us "I need you guys to get up from this table because we have other people with full drinks who likely want a table." Unshockingly at this point, there was nobody around that didn't have a table, so they essentially wanted us out for existing for half a second without a drink in hand. The power trip the baristas go on is incomprehensible and given the lack of response from the owner on all the feedback here on the customer service, it seems this is the choice they are making, interesting choice to make people feel...

I’ve been coming to Abraco for years and have spent no short of thousands of dollars in my loyalty to Abraco coffee. Initially my schedule used to align with one of the owners working on site and every single exchange I’ve had with that duo has been nothing short of exceptional. The past few months it’s been other staff and they make me feel uncomfortable for existing. There’s an attitude served by the front hostess 7/10 times I walk in. An attitude when I ask for a takeaway cup because “I should avoid using plastic” — sis I have to go to my job so no I don’t have the time to enjoy it in a ceramic cup. You guys bought the plastic cups already so unless you want me to leave with the washable cups everyday, don’t comment? Lastly the last five days in a row they’ve served my husband or I a HALF of a mini cup for a cappuccino 😂 I don’t know if I want to keep coming to a place that the staff indulges in being absolute snobs and then snubs you on a to go cup of half filled coffee that I always tip generously on. Bring back the old Abraco or train people to be kind. Acting elitest in this environment is crazy work. This is why diversity in staff matters which has not existed as of late here.

Note - just saw that there are many recent reviews about how unwelcoming, pretentious, and elitest the staff are and there is truth behind every single one of those reviews. I truly hope the owners take this into consideration so I can go back to enjoying a cafe that felt like my safe space and...