The Best Bookstore Cafés in New York City

This impressive used bookstore in SoHo is a nonprofit first and bookstore/café second. Dedicated to combatting homelessness and AIDS, the venerable and essential Housing Works also sports a used record section, a fantastic array of coffee table art books, and racks of vintage science fiction books. And, it’s an excellent rest stop after a day in the city, where you can come down with a bowl of soup and then fly back up with a cup of joe.

New(ish) to Queens, the Topos Bookstore Cafe in Ridgewood is a wondrous, plant-filled café and bookstore. It enlivens the block and is well worth the trip on the L train to the Brooklyn/Queens border. New and used books are available, as well as more than enough food for thought as you down a cup of the best coffee this side of Forest Hills.

First off, the café at McNally Jackson is huge and never jeopardized by readings—those happen downstairs. So, why not come for both? Stocking international titles by country/region, as well as DVDs and magazines, McNally Jackson is the first word in new (as opposed to used) books sold at bookstore cafés, and it likely always will be.

This Bushwick highlight is as relaxed as you’d expect from a home-brewed poetry spot and used bookstore. You can get coffee here and chill a while, or drop in for a recommendation from the proprietors who will be happy to point you in the right direction regardless of whether your tastes run to experimental fiction or juicy memoir.

Manhattan’s uber-comfortable Bluckstockings serves excellent coffee and tea in addition to the wide selection of feminist and queer literature, among other topics. Given the store’s commitment to community, it’s not surprising that the café is a hub of socially-engaged New Yorkers.

MoMA’s annex art space in a disused Queens schoolhouse opens into a full-service café on the ground floor. What’s even better is that the café is adjacent to the museum bookstore, which is famous for its selection of critical theory, small press and—as you would expect—art books ranging from classic to contemporary.