New York’s Best Coffee Cart (Barista Included)

It should be no surprise that I work with some of the most discerning, impassioned and overcaffeinated coffee drinkers on the planet. I’m not one of them. Me, I’m more from the Lyle Lovett school of java: My morning coffee is often mistaken for a cup of milky tea. That’s because if I can’t have truly great coffee, I’d rather have truly awful cup dosed with enough sugar and milk to make a coffee-flavored crème anglaise.

But I’m seriously considering moving further downtown after my weekend visit to Picnick, chef Will Goldfarb’s new duo of eco-friendly kiosks in Battery Park. There, I had one of the best coffees of my life, certainly the best I’ve been served outdoors. I can’t say I’m surprised: Goldfarb is known both as a "caf-fiend" and a maniac for details. I asked about the coffee’s pedigree. Turns out it’s an Italian brand called Terzi, “the product of a genius coffee maker [Manuel Terzi] from Bologna,” Goldfarb said. “And we’re the only place in the country that’s carrying it. They were so nervous about us serving it that Terzi sent a guy”—Christian, Goldfarb’s new barista—“along with the coffee.” No kidding. And, like most everything at Picnick, the coffee is served with a side of goodwill: Terzi donates some of its proceeds to an education fund set up for the children of its coffee growers.