The East Village is guerrilla warfare when it comes to local independent craft-brewery coffee shops. In addition to the established players there are always newcomers making their mark on the landscape. This blog itself could only review East Village coffee shops and sustain itself for years- but would the fun be in that?

It had been the coldest day of the winter so far last year in December, and as the thermometer dropped below 30 degrees we felt a craving that had to be answered. We were in search of pierogis and what better venue for scarfing down some dumplings than Veselka’s? It is a classic destination for late night drunkards, brunch-seeking families, and Ukranian expats seeking familiar eastern-bloc fare. Mrs. Savor and I decided to put our paleo diet on hold and carb up.

Eastern European cuisine may not always involve exotic tastes and spices, but limit yourself to potatoes, beets, beef and cabbage and you can come up with a dizzying array of flavors and dishes that are immensely satisfying. There are a few restaurants that offer this type of foods at varying levels of fine-dining in New York. But for some good unpretentious grub open at all hours of the day you cannot go wrong here.

As the stupor of a heavy meal of dumplings and blintzes started to settle in we decided to attack our adrenals with a mean cup of coffee. We settled on nearby Saltwater Coffee- an Australian cafe that is a newcomer to the East Village. More importantly, they offer pourovers! After a recent trip to SF where the pourover is king I had a hankering for enjoying the ultimate pour of coffee.

It was a decent offering in a beautiful venue, though nothing special enough to call me back on the regular. Mrs. Savor’s drip coffee was very good.

It did reveal what an iconic and lively neighborhood the East Village is. I will need to return to my former digs to find more beverage options and adventures.