Stumptown Coffee Roasters
Stumptown's espresso blend is called Hair Bender, after the Portland beauty parlor its first cafe took over. This counter has poured it in the Ace Hotel lobby on West 29th Street since 2009.21 The case carries Austin-style breakfast tacos from King David Tacos.1
Why go
Stumptown's founder, Duane Sorenson, started buying green coffee straight from growers in 2003, beginning with the Aguirre family at Finca El Injerto in Guatemala. Stumptown will not put the words Direct Trade on a bag until it has bought from that farm three years running. In 2025 the company says more than nine tenths of everything it bought cleared that bar. Enveritas checked the purchases against thirty criteria.2
Pain D'Avignon supplies the pastry here and Spirit Tea supplies the leaf.1 The seats are the hotel's, out in the lobby, and The Infatuation files the counter under coffee shops for a meeting.4
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Hair Bender espresso. It is the house blend and the oldest.2
- Order: the cold brew.1
- Order: a breakfast taco if you want lunch out of a coffee counter.1
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation NYC, filing it under meetings (18 January 2024):
the huge hotel lobby has lots of comfortable couches and armchairs. There's also wifi and a good noise level, so you can have a meeting without whispering or screaming.
4 - Stumptown's own account of the room is that it has been a meeting place
for artists, travelers, entrepreneurs, and coffee enthusiasts since day one.
1 - The limit: I have not found a critic who has written about this counter. The Infatuation lists it and says it has not been.
Good to know
- Where: 18 West 29th Street, inside the Ace Hotel lobby.1
- Other doors: 30 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village, and 212B Pacific Street in Brooklyn.3
Verdict
could-visit — Nothing is booked here and nothing arrives at a table. It makes a good half hour and a poor afternoon.