La Cabra arrived in New York from Aarhus as a coffee roaster and has quietly become better known for a bun. That inversion is worth understanding before you go, because it determines what time you should turn up and what you should be disappointed about if you get it wrong.
Both rooms run to eight in the evening, which is unusually late for specialty coffee, but the cardamom buns are a morning proposition and go early. Ask Karpo which La Cabra is nearest, whether the pastry case is still worth the trip at this hour, and what else is open around it.
The cardamom bun problem
The cardamom bun is a knotted, laminated, cardamom-heavy piece of Scandinavian baking, glazed and sticky, airy rather than dense, and considerably more interesting than the cinnamon rolls it superficially resembles. It is the single most photographed item either room produces and it sells out.
There is no complicated strategy here. Come in the morning. The pastry case is at its fullest early and thins steadily; by mid-afternoon the selection is whatever survived, and on a busy Saturday that can be very little. If the bun is the reason for the trip, treat it as a breakfast errand rather than an afternoon one.
The rest of the case is worth attention on its own terms — the laminated pastries and the sourdough are made with the same seriousness — but the bun is the one that has done the work of building the reputation.
The coffee is Nordic and the latte is the exception
La Cabra roasts light, in the Danish manner, which means filter coffees that lean bright, floral and clean rather than dark and chocolatey. Ordering a black filter here is the way to actually taste what the roastery does, and the staff will tell you what the current lot is.
The cardamom latte is the outlier and the thing many people come for. It is sweet, spiced and comforting, which is essentially the opposite of what the roasting philosophy is aiming at, and it is very good anyway. There is no contradiction worth worrying about — order it if you want it, but do not let it be your only impression of the coffee.
The matcha is also unusually good for a coffee-first café, which is not a given and is worth knowing if you are arriving with somebody who does not drink coffee.
Two rooms, two neighbourhoods
The SoHo shop is at 284 Lafayette Street and runs 7am to 8pm on weekdays and 8am to 8pm at weekends. The East Village location on Second Avenue is the older Manhattan room and has its own following. The coffee and the baking are the same; the neighbourhoods are not.
SoHo is the busier and more transient of the two, with a higher share of people passing through, and the queue at midday on a weekend reflects that. The East Village room is more of a neighbourhood café and easier to sit in for an hour without feeling like you are occupying a table someone else wants.
If you want to sit and read, choose Second Avenue. If you are already downtown and want a bun and a coffee to carry, Lafayette Street is the right stop.
The eight o'clock close is the underrated fact
Specialty coffee in New York almost universally closes between four and six. La Cabra runs to eight, which puts it in a very small category: a place where you can get a properly made filter coffee and a good pastry at seven in the evening.
That makes it genuinely useful in a way that has nothing to do with the buns — as a meeting spot after work, as an alternative to a bar, or as the last stop before something else. The room in the evening is quieter than during the day and the light through the front is better.
The trade-off is the pastry case, which by that hour is mostly empty. Evening is for the coffee. Morning is for the baking. Trying to do both in one visit at four in the afternoon is how people end up mildly disappointed by a very good café.
What kind of room it is
Pale, minimal, wood and white plaster, with the restraint that Scandinavian design implies and very little decoration. It is a calm room and a slightly hard one — surfaces are unforgiving acoustically, and at peak the noise builds.
Seating is limited at both locations relative to demand, and the culture is closer to European café than to American coffee shop: people sit for a while, but it is not a place set up for long laptop sessions and the tables are small. Treat it as somewhere to have a coffee rather than somewhere to work.
Beans are sold to take away and the retail bags are a fair way to keep the roasting once you have left, particularly if the filter coffee was the part that landed rather than the bun.
Practical notes
SoHo at 284 Lafayette Street, open 7am to 8pm weekdays and 8am to 8pm weekends; a second Manhattan room on Second Avenue in the East Village. Cardamom buns sell out — come in the morning if that is the goal. Order black filter coffee to taste the Nordic-light roasting; the cardamom latte is sweet and spiced and deliberately different. The 8pm close is unusually late for specialty coffee and makes it useful in the evening, when the pastry case is largely empty. Seating is limited at both and neither is set up for long laptop sessions. Beans are available to take home.
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Ask Karpo first
Whether La Cabra is the right stop depends entirely on the hour — mornings are for the bakery case and evenings are for the coffee. Ask Karpo which of the two rooms is closest and still open, whether the pastries are likely to have gone by now, and what else nearby is worth building the rest of the walk around.
