A few weeks ago, I visited Think Coffee on Bowery for the first time. I stopped in again after work on Friday, and I’d have to say that my reaction so far has been pretty positive. While Brooklyn has no shortage of excellent places to get coffee, Manhattan at times seems to have a copious amount of Starbucks locations, with little competition unless you’re willing to get slightly more formal. (I should note, however, that the cafes at Housing Works and McNally Robinson are both quite good.)

While I don’t think Think has quite the coziness of somewhere like Gorilla or Champion, it reminded me a lot of, well, getting a cup of coffee at someplace other than Starbucks in Seattle or Portland. In both cities, though said chain is widespread, there are alternatives (though I was saddened to learn that they’d absorbed Coffee People a few years ago, as I enjoyed many a fine coffee-based drink there over the years). The Bowery location has high ceilings, plenty of windows, and ample space in which to sit back and get some reading done — something nearly impossible to do at many of its counterparts. And given that I once spent ninety minutes at a Tully’s in Ballard reading a Robertson Davies novel — well, these are the things that shape a fella’s mind.

Also: Think’s coffee? Pretty damn good.