Kodawari Coffee on 100 Forsyth St, New York, NY 10002
*This review is not sponsored or in collaboration with any affiliation. All opinions are my own. Due to COVID-19 and most locations being shut down or only service Delivery or Curbside, I will not be reviewing Atmosphere, Quality of Service or Aesthetics unless applicable*
Ordered: Latte with Oat Milk ($5.25) + Tax and Tip= $7.72
Favorite Features: The plants and brightness of the store really opens it up! I also like the location of this near Chinatown and across from a park.
Atmosphere: Inside of the store is very small and filled with floor plants! There is only one customer allowed inside at a time so you may have to wait in a line.
Quality of Service: Who I presume to be the owner, is very kind and personable. He was the sole employee in the store which tells me this is a very small business (so you should show as much love as you can!)
Other: There is a brunch spot right next door that looks like a great way to spend your Sunday!
Student Discount? None
(NEW ADDITION) Study Spot? No, very small space and most likely not great for this.
Whenever I get my coffee on Sunday Mornings, I like to tell a story with my actions. I don’t just get coffee, I learn something new, see something new, talk to someone new, or do something new. It’s become my ritual. These actions have become a way for me to remember where I was at that point in time and how I was feeling. It’s like tracking your progress to see how far you’ve come. I may not remember exactly what I ordered that day, but I can tell you that a random woman stopped me in Central Park to ask about my hair while I was sipping on black coffee from Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Co. I know that the morning I went to B Cup, I wandered around Alphabet City for hours, not wanting to go home and think about the mounds of homework I had yet to start. My first time at Perk Kafe, I knew it would quickly become my neighborhood favorite and the place I went when I needed to feel at home. At Outro, I sat alone in the outdoor area behind the cafe and read a book while rain poured down. The early hours of the morning at Matto, I sat outside talking to my dad before walking home and the air started to get cold, signaling Fall. The owner at Blackstone in West Village called me “sweetheart” and we had a quick conversation about how beautiful the weather was this time of year. And that day I found a hidden flower garden, open to the public, behind a church. A girl about my age smiled at me at the Pier because we had pulled out the same book to read at the exact same time. When I visited 787, I walked by a historical church that had recently burned down, and I brought a friend a coffee while we talked in the lobby of her job about my reckless love life. Le Petit Parisien was my last weekend in NYC before returning home for the Holidays. I remember drinking coffee outside at their bright red tables and talking to my parents on FaceTime.
As silly as it may sound, I think I’ve found a ritual and a solace in getting coffee on Sunday Mornings that has connected me to others. It’s a time for me to acknowledge myself and my being, where I’m at mentality and emotionally, and also a chance for me to catch up with people I love. My parents look forward to my calls as I’m sitting outside at a coffee shop or in my home, just returned from a neighborhood favorite, reflecting on my crazy week and them reflecting on theirs. I’ve developed the habit of texting friends who I only see every so often, checking in on them and offering my assistance where I can. A part of my routine has been to enjoy the moment, because so much of my week is spent in online classes, meetings for clubs, organizations and my company, or in songwriting sessions that seem to never end. So much of my time leaves me, that I forget that I’m an active body whose mind needs to be refreshed every so often. Which I can’t so much do behind a screen.
Today I visited Kodawari, a coffee shop in the Lower East Side with incredible charm. The coffee was good and the owner was very kind, which I always appreciate on my Sunday outings, especially when a lot of my week is full of stress and deadlines (and sometimes, really rude people). I walked 30 minutes there and back on the cold January day, while talking to my mom on the phone and listening to the first episode of my new podcast Take Note (by Stage Whisper-Her). As always, I’m reflecting on how far I’ve come in my life and I couldn’t be prouder of myself. In just a year, I’ve become so accomplished in academics, career and relationships. A year ago, I was crying over some boy, defeated after ending my first semester of college with my first ever “C” in a class I hated, unsure where I stood in some of my friendships, anxious about how my spring semester would turn out. And then the pandemic came. And none of it mattered anymore. But in the midst of it all, I still launched my website in May, spoke out about injustices to black men and women (which I had previously been uninformed and unsure about), recognized my place in some relationships and let them go, got my first apartment and first internship. Then I got my second and third internship. I started a company with incredible friends I made in a class. I finished my first semester of my sophomore year by hitting my goal GPA. I worked hard for what I had. Yeah, damn straight I’m proud.
Every so often I have to force myself to reflect on these things because if I don’t, I’ll fall down the rabbit hole of thinking I’m not good enough and telling myself I need to do more. In reality, I’m doing just fine and I’m perfectly on track.
For now, that’s all I’ve got. So I’ll see you next week for another blog--till then check out my Tik Tok and let me know in the comments of this post if I should keep doing Sunday Morning Coffee with Piper Page via Tik Tok!
Dad, how was your coffee this morning?
Sunday Morning Coffee | Piper Page