CAFÉ CROSSROADS Southdown Coffee By Rachel Northrop
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outhdown Coffee strikes the perfect balance between commitment to customers and commitment to the craft. The Huntington, New York, roaster retailer opened in 2014 and, earlier this summer, built out its third café location on Long Island. The name is derived from its neighborhood: the south end of downtown. The first Huntington location is down the street from Southdown Pizza, Southdown Market, Southdown Deli, and Southdown Laundry, so founder
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Mark Boccard thought, “Let’s just run with the theme.”
Satisfying Specialty “I was 30 years old [when we opened Southdown] and really wanted to bring great coffee to my hometown, where I knew we had some underserved customers in waiting,” says Boccard. Southdown was just what soon-tobe regular customers like Bill Gordon were hoping for. Living in New York City had provided Gordon plenty of specialty
LON G ISLAND, NEW YORK
coffee options. Moving to the suburbs, he wondered, “Can I find a local coffee shop dedicated to quality?” Turns out, he could. “From the beautiful floorboards, to baristas that know their stuff, to a seasonal menu of single-origin coffees roasted in-house, Southdown checks all the boxes for what I consider an excellent coffee shop,” says Gordon. Southdown is very much a specialty roaster retailer: Boccard travels to origin to source and the staff expertly dials in espresso shots every shift.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SOUTHDOWN COFFEE