KEW GARDENS – Year in and year out, Forest Hills wins myriad accolades as New York City’s best neighborhood. The vibrant restaurant scene blends with hip yet sensible fashion, gorgeous Tudor architecture, and the highest level of safety for its residents in the entire city. But what about Kew Gardens, the idyllic sleepy sister of Forest Hills just a gap wedge to the east?
Well the Queens suburb named after the gorgeous English Royal botanical gardens is much more than a haven for airline stewardesses and Mets fans. There are equally beguiling shops, restaurants, and cafes as in Forest Hills.
One of the hottest, trendiest spots in Kew Gardens is Odradeks Coffee Shop and Internet Café. Pronounced OH-drah-dex, Kew Gardens denizens – already known for their disdain of hyper-corporate mega-conglomerates – are saying, “Starbucks Schmarbucks, little guys can sell great coffee too.”
They also sometimes have even bigger and better ideas. It’s that scintillating combination of finding the best ingredients and creating inventive new recipes that sets Odradeks head and shoulders above the competition and has Starbucks looking to its laurels.
“Everything starts with the beans, and we buy the best coffee available from Vancouver’s famous 49th Parallel Roasters,” explains owner and operator Jake Ganz, as bright and affable a young entrepreneur as you could ever wish to meet. “Their beans are the highest quality and hand-picked in small batches from small micro-farms from places like Guatamala, El Salvador, and Ethiopia.”
That makes all the difference. You’re not getting the leftovers from some gargantuan collective. This coffee is CHOICE. You can tell right at the first sip. It’s got what both author Ian Fleming and uber-homebody Martha Stewart define as the hallmark of great coffee, that wonderful, slightly burned flavor indicative of the freshest, most flavorful beans.
Sure there are myriad lattes and espressos and cappuccinos and mochas and whatever other newfangled names people generate for the various combinations of coffee and milk, but Odradeks has taken coffee into a sinfully delicious new dimension – coffee shakes! Get beyond your tired, boring old frappacinos. Throw a little ice cream in your coffee or espresso, add a few secret ingredients, and you’ve got Odradek’s signature creation: the “shottie!”
“It tastes like there’s a party in your mouth and everyone’s invited,” said happy customer Manny from Forest Hills, who was noisily slurping the “Edgar Allen Poe,” i.e. chocolate peanut butter. There’s many other flavors too including the chocolate banana – called the “Chewbacca” because if you look really, really closely has the “ch” and “buh” sounds in it, hence “Chewbacca.” There are actually six or seven different flavors, each more velvety smooth than the last, including heath bar and peppermint (also available as mochas!) and “black and white,” blending the richness of dark chocolate and the smooth creaminess of white chocolate.
For a spin on that, try an affogato, (rhymes with OH MY GOD-OH! which is what you say when you taste it), which is two scoops of ice cream with espresso or cappuccino poured over the top. Caramel or chocolate fudge flavors are available.
But there’s much more than just coffee.
“Our paninis are wicked,” says Ganz, and he’s right. Thick rustic ciabotta bread sandwiches are toasted to perfection and stuffed with fresh, tasty ingredients like robustly flavored cheeses, grilled veggies, or the freshest Italian tuna. Thick bagels, rich hearty soups, including the coolest “build your own” French onion you ever saw (put in your own crouton and cheese from little packets…it’s charming), and fresh fruit plates provide a sumptuous snack for even the most discerning palates.
And for dessert? Wait till you get a load of Biscaities, the best idea in cookies since chocolate chips. Do you hate dry, crumbly, uninteresting old biscotti cookies that taste like ground up corrgated cardboard and paint shavings? Who doesn’t! Well meet Biscaitie, a.k.a. Caitie Allen, the local bis-cutie who puts the hottie in biscotti.
“I came up with the idea for soft, chewy biscotti, and people seem to like them,” Allen says with a winsome, mega-watt smile. What a concept! Chewy, flavorful biscotti – why didn’t anyone else think of that? You don’t eat cold, crumbly chocolate chips, do you? You don’t eat rock hard, gritty brownies, do you? So why settle for less in your biscotti? She even makes flavors to match the coffee drinks, like black and white, and chocolate-peanut butter, as well as other flavors with dried fruits or nuts. You can check out more of her creations at her blog, http://biscaitie.blogspot.com
The difference between the huge mega-conglomerate coffee purveyors and Odradeks is the difference between “merely pretty good” and “truly great.” People that know and appreciate that difference hang here for its homespun charm, high quality, and free hi-speed Internet. Located on fabled Austin Street, the beating heart of Queens, Odradeks is just steps from the Kew Gardens LIRR stop, the Q10 and Q57 buses, or the subway, there’s really little need to go anywhere else for that morning jolt, afternoon pick-me up, or evening chill-out session.
Odradeks
82-60 Austin Street, Kew Gardens
718.374.3131
www.odradeks.com
