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Near the Flatiron Building, this one-time Starbucks kiosk (well, they do have a lone iron bench on the sidewalk in front) arguably put the next door All Star Cafe & Bakery at 550 Market St. out of business in its first year of existence. Yet despite morning lines of commuters waiting for their lattes, and an overworked crew of three in tight quarters with an overworked Verismo machine, Starbucks closed shop. In came Giorgio Milos, Illy's head barista and a former Italian champ, to reopen this space as an Illy-branded café. It's a real improvement for the location, as the old All Star Cafe even beat out the Starbucks here. But you still can only do so much with Illy coffee in America. They offer espresso, panini, and pastries - plus cans of Illy (with Francis Francis machines) on display in the modern, tight space. Using a seriously polished, chrome, new, two-group La Carimali machine, they pull shots with a textured medium brown crema that look generally good. But the crema here lacks a real thickness and volume as you can classically expect from exported Illy coffee. It has a generally bolder flavor than most American Illy shots: bolder spice and a sharper bite to it without much of the typical woodiness. Served in Illy-logo IPA cups. The microfoam isn't bad and they seem to pay attention, but it doesn't do enough to avoid unfavorable comparisons with dishwater.
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