Pic courtesy of Papermag.com
Is it because it’s tough these days to pick a name that isn’t already taken? Or because The Smile is simply the best name ever for a café? Who knows. Swing by for a couple of exquisite espresso shots in one of the coziest, most beautifully furnished little rooms in downtown Manhattan. This isn’t the kind of café where you can spend all afternoon nursing a cup of coffee (like, say, at Think around the corner on Bleecker and Bowery). If you did that, The Smile would go out of business. We wouldn’t want that to happen, so consider ordering lunch (maybe a sandwich of roast beef with horseradish cream, or manouri cheese with fig preserves). The Smile recently started serving dinner too—entrees like Moroccan lamb meatballs, or parchment-baked cod.
The Smile. 26 Bond St. between Lafayette St. and Bowery; no phone.
Prices/Features: CHP, VGT (See Welcome to Salmaland for key to letter abbreviations.)