I work in the Financial District. The best coffee shop near the office is a Blue Bottle, a craft coffee chain from San Francisco (they were funded by Google Ventures). Every surface inside the shop is some sort of pale wood, they play lo-fi electronic beats on what looks like an expensive sound system, there’s always at least one barista wearing a beanie and one wearing a bucket hat, and the coffee is very good. This particular Blue Bottle is on the corner of one of the glass towers that’s part of the new World Trade Center. It looks directly out onto the 9/11 memorial’s reflecting pools.
It’s usually busy after lunch. Once there was a Japanese family ahead of me in line. When it was time to pay, the father opened a small pouch and began counting out gold dollar coins.