GLOBAL VILLAGE
W. 4th St. stop has Indonesian, Sri Lankan and Italian goodies
Thousands of NYU students frequent the A Train station at West 4th St./Washington Square in Greenwich Village, which is one reason the surrounding streets are filled with budget-friendly, globe-trotting eateries like these.
STEAMPUNK AND SPICE
A former environmental lawyer and scientist, Kopi Kopi owner Liz Lapadula stumbled into the coffee world by accident in 2010, she says, after the Indonesian native visited a Jakarta coffee shop focusing on local beans. Since then, she’s studied the drink from preparation to cultivation, even graduating from the American Barista School in Portland, Ore.
Today her Greenwich Village coffee shop focuses solely on Indonesian beans like Java Jember and other Indonesian drinks like the es alpukat ($7)— a chilled mug filled with layers of creamy avocado, iced coffee and frothed milk — but that’s only one of the ways in which it’s unique. The cafe among just a handful in the city to own the pricy Alpha Dominche Steampunk coffee brewing machine — its glass towers look like they belong in a lab — and there’s also a full kitchen helmed by Indonesian cooks.
They draw Southeast Asians from around the city for the Indonesian fried rice called nasi goreng, served with skewers of chicken satay and peanut sauce ($16.95 at dinner); wide bowls of soto ayam, a spicy chicken and potato soup served with chili sauce and lemons ($10 at lunch); or sweet bananas wrapped in pastry dough with cheese and chocolate.
Kopi Kopi: 68 W. 3rd St. near LaGuardia Pl. (212) 777-7285
ELBOW ROOM NOT INCLUDED
Those that frequent Pepe Rosso
to Go know that the warning on the wall — “Eat Fast! We need the table” — is only halfway in jest. The 17-year-old SoHo spot serving pastas, salads and house-made focaccia (most of it taken to-go, of course) seats 10 at most.
Owners Michele Costa and Mauro Servino — old friends from northern Italy who also run the new Pepe Rosso Social over on Mott St. — overcome their small size with a menu of hearty pastas that reads like Italian-style comfort food 101: spaghetti bolognese ($11.95); rigatoni with fried slivers of prosciutto and a blushing pink cream sauce, topped with a pile of fresh arugula ($12.95); meaty lasagne ($12.95); or sandwiches layered with cured meat, provolone and caper cream ($8.95).
Better still, there are also lunch specials till 4 p.m. for $9.95.
Pepe Rosso to Go: 149 Sullivan St. near Houston St., (212) 677-4555
THE GODFATHER OF STREET FOOD
Years before every celebrity chef had a food truck, Sri Lankan native Thiru Kumar had built an international reputation for his NY Dosas cart in Washington Square Park.
“I wanted to do something different, that nobody else does,” Kumar says of his decision to start selling South Indian dosas 13 years ago, when every other truck sold hot dogs. It turned out to be a wise move: He still sells out of almost everything, he says, by 2 p.m. each day.
Kumar’s specialties are the crepe-like pancakes called dosas, made with a complexly flavored batter of rice and lentil flour. Kumar cooks each to order on his little griddle, folding the paper-thin cakes over curried potatoes and crunchy vegetables for a version he calls the Pondicherry ($7).
Kumar also makes thicker, smaller pancakes called uthappaam ($6), including a version called the Jaffna Lunch ($7). He blends the crepe batter with herbs, then dusts the top of each pancake with a blast of dried spice-layered dried chutney. There is also lentil soup, samosas and on Thursdays, spicy fried noodles.
NY Dosas: Washington Square Park, at Washington Square S. and Sullivan St., (917) 710-2092