Looking for Great Hotel Coffee? Foursquare Serves Up Its “Best of New York Guide”

It’s billed as the guide that tells you where people actually go when they’re in New York. Well, up to a point. Foursquare’s new Best of New York Guide is based on where people linked to Foursquare go – and that ain’t everyone (or everywhere).

Still, Foursquare, the location-based social networking website for smart phones and other mobile devices, is all about places. And like many crowd-sourced guides, it’s intriguing, if short-sighted. It doesn’t list hotels, but I found hotel connections as well as tips for restaurants, places to hang out and, most important, coffee. Read on and be prepared to spend your time in Brooklyn and Manhattan below 59^th Street – way below.

Best Coffee

Stumptown Coffee Roasters, the Portland, Oregon coffee house that opened in 2009 at New York’s hip Ace Hotel (more Portlandia roots), shores up first place, deservedly. Foursquare tip: “… Enjoy free wifi in Ace Hotel lobby. Passcode at the desk.”

Birch Coffee, a feisty independent located in the lobby of the Gershwin Hotel, is third. Foursquare tip: “Best iced coffee.” The complete list:

1.    Stumptown Coffee Roasters

2.       La Colombe Torrefaction

3.       Birch Coffee

4.       Third Rail Coffee

5.       Saturdays Surf NYC

6.       Culture Espresso Bar

7.       Brooklyn Roasting Company

8.       Kaffe 1668

9.       Abrao

10.   Ground Support

Best American Food

Breslin Bar & Dining Room at the Ace – Foursquare users clearly love this place – comes in second, the only hotel restaurant in the bunch. Foursquare tip: “Scotch egg, seafood sausage and lamb burger FTW! The full ten:

1.       Joseph Leonard

2.       The Breslin Bar & Dining Room

3.       Minetta Tavern

4.       ABC Kitchen

5.       The Smile

6.       Peels

7.       Henry Public

8.       The Dutch

9.       The Smith Restaurant

10.   Five Leaves

Best of the Great Outdoors

Madison Square Park? It’s as big as a minute, but Shake Shack originated there — and it’s walking distance from the Ace. Foursquare tip: “… in front of the Flatiron building. A dozen food vendors are stationed…”

1.       Madison Square Park

2.       Top of The Rock Observation Deck

3.       Coney Island Beach & Boardwalk

4.       Brooklyn Bridge Park – Pier 1

5.       Empire State Building 86th Floor Observatory

6.       Central Park West

7.       Wollman Ice Skating Rink

8.       Gantry Plaza State Park

9.       Zuccotti Park

10.   Gramercy Park

Best Bookstores

You can’t go wrong with Strand. Foursquare tip: “Don’t miss the rare book room, it’s amazing!” But no Book Culture on 112^th Street? C’mon, Foursquare users, branch out.

1.       Strand Book Store

2.       McNally Jackson Books

3.       Kinokuniya Bookstore

4.       Greenlight Bookstore

5.       Midtown Comics

6.       Barnes & Noble

7.       WORD

8.       Bergen Street Comics

9.       Spoonbill & Sugartown Books

10.   Book Off