Plowshares Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in New York

I’m a small cafe owner who discovered Plowshares’ Harlem cafe while my husband andI had to take “forced” time off to come to the city for cancer treatment. The pandemic wreaked it’s havoc on us, mentally, spiritually, and physically as we worked to feed our family and community during such a painful time. We fell in love with Plowshares’ consistently high quality, the kindness of the service, the compassion of the owner who was never too proud to personally serve us.

As I signed on to write this review, I saw what was written recently by thelifeofnay, berating the owner for asking them to purchase something from the cafe if they were going to use the space. That someone would write something so selfish about a small business working to make payroll and cover the overhead is just, well, shocking.

Plowshares is safe, warm, bright, welcoming and serves the highest quality coffee in the entire city (With all our weeks of cancer treatment, I believe I’ve tried them all.). This cannot be achieved by the owner alone. Maintaining a space as magical as Plowshares is a community effort. The owners must be supported by the public. Your presence as a Plowshares customer, and your willingness to pay them for keeping the heat and the lights on, for navigating the safety issues through hard times, for standing long hours and going home with pain in their bodies after a hard day’s work, and for sourcing the highest quality food for you, is what keeps them there, and keeps that beautiful space available for everyone.

Please remember that we small business owners don’t do this to get rich. We do this because we want to bring something beautiful to our communities. I beg of you not to begrudge a fellow business owner who simply asks you to do more than camp out in their establishment, using their bathroom and their wifi and the seats they need for paying customers. Please help them stay in business. Kudos to the owner for stepping forward and asking you to do your part. Too many of us small business owners are too embarrassed and shy to let you know what we need. Instead, we just go out of business and disappear. Thank you, Plowshares, for your bravery to assert what we all need to do in this line of work to stay afloat. If TheLifeofnay needs a warm place to sit down, with a clean bathroom, wifi and room to work, and they don’t wish to spend money, there are a number of NYPL branches throughout the area. They...

EXCELLENT SERVICE ! My wife and I were more than happy with our first visit here a few days ago. On Wed, Sept 11th we were now into the 2nd week of our 2 week vacation in New York, NY....lots more to do and see. After breakfast at our apartment in Upper Manhattan my wife suggested we walk down here for cappuccinos...and a super delicious almond croissant. SO WE DID ! After walking almost a mile along cruddy Amsterdam Ave in the downtrodden Uptown neighborhood we arrived at Plowshares around 10am. A friendly cashier / barista named Noah greeted us warmly and said he would be with us soon. OF COURSE ! The usual mob of laptoppers had control of almost every table in the place but we did nab a couple of spots at a community table. My wife had made it clear to me she wanted an almond croissant whether I wanted to share or not...in need of a sugar hit. OH NO ! I looked at the display case where they kept their small assortment of light pastries and NO ALMOND CROISSANTS ! We went ahead and ordered 2 x double shot Cappuccinos with 2% milk. BUGGER ! Still in shock that they were completely out of their sensational almond croissants from Petit Chou in the East Village I had to ask Noah why ? A dude came in earlier and cleaned them out. OH WELL ! Noah placed our beautiful looking Cappuccinos on the service counter...I complimented him on his good work but he humbly deferred to Malcom the barista on our first visit. We sat down at our table and totally enjoyed our rich creamy cappuccinos. It's a nice looking coffee shop, great coffee, talented baristas but the hordes of laptoppers puts a big dent in my comfort level. NEXT STOP ! We headed to the subway for a ride to Yankee Stadium...

FABULOUS COFFEE ! On Saturday the day after our incredible US Open Tennis adventure my wife and I decided to walk to this coffee shop in Harlem....about a mile from our apartment in Upper Manhattan. OH NO ! Not the prettiest of walks because this strip of Amsterdam Ave is known as UPTOWN and it was in dire straits with empty shops and homeless people everywhere. AND ! This was not just a coffee shop but a coffee bean roaster and a very good one. We had enjoyed their A - Train Espresso at the Sugar Hill Cafe a couple of times and decided to head to the source. MORNING TEA ! We arrived just after 11am....a perfect time for what we call morning tea back in Australia. OOPS ! The moment we entered we could see it was LAPTOPPER'S HEAVEN...virtually every table was occupied by someone with a laptop. My wife managed to find a bit of table space while I stood at the cashier counter waiting for service. A cashier named Giselle took our order for 1 x double shot cappuccino, 1 x Cortado both with 2% milk plus an Almond Croissant....with no artificial flavoring I found out. Within a short time our warmed up Almond Croissant was ready to pick up. Soon after Malcolm the talented barista placed our coffees on the service counter. YEAH BABY ! I totally loved my rich tasting cappuccino and my wife was very happy with her cortado. YUMMO ! Personally I am not a big fan of almond croissants but this one was exceptionally delicious....an absolute gem from Petit Chou Downtown. We were very happy with the polite service, our coffee drinks and the very delicious almond croissant. ANOTHER...