Profile

The “voice of the people” is the emphasis here, where there’s equal attention paid to raising consciousness and to serving coffee to fuel the impassioned conversations. For the latter, try the lattés, cappuccinos, and white chocolate mochas, all made with fair-trade-certified beans. For the former, owner Sander Hicks, founder of Soft Skull Press, has his own muckraking newspaper, The New York Megaphone. The school-bus-yellow interior has a comfortable, lefty feel, with a coffee bar made of salvaged mahogany and topped with recycled glass and cement. — Ethan Wolff