It was located below 42nd street, on 9th avenue, and I was living at the time on 45th and 9th, close enough to patronize this tiny cafe easily and on a regular basis. They made fresh donuts and muffins, cakes and – obvs – cupcakes, but what they also had were at least two different homemade soups per day, and the most fabulous bread to go with whatever soup you might chose. Fresh quiches on weekends, too, as I recall. Yum.
The space was tiny and often crowded, the windows steaming up from the press of people within; it was run by one of two sisters born in Brooklyn, Ann Warren, and her husband Michael, and they’re still in existence (I think, it looks like sometime in 2023 there was a closed for renovation thing going on…Google maps says it’s permanently closed, argh) in that original spot, on 40th on the southeast side of 9th avenue.
Cupcakes, little mini-cakes, are a thing of beauty, especially if the icing isn’t cloyingly sweet. Theirs were perfect. Perfect. Donuts, meh, generally I can take ‘em or leave ‘em – mostly, leave ’em – but the Cupcake Café’s were, I have to admit, really, really exceptionally good, fresh, not too sweet, not oily, light and delicious, and basic, not fancy-schmancy, just brown round crullers with sugar, or not. Maybe just with sugar; I forget.
The Cupcake Cafe wasn’t too expensive, and it wasn’t too cheap; it felt like a well-kept secret because it was in so small a space, and in a neighborhood struggling to find its way after many decades of neglect, just below Port Authority, but away from the clean-up and Disney-ification of the 42nd street blocks. It had charm, and during a year of tumult in my life (I moved 3x in 1989), their comfort food was a staple helping to hold my chaos together.
I own their cookbook, which is all desserts; I’ve never used it because I don’t bake much, especially not sweet things, and certainly not anything as complicated as their cakes are. Finding it years ago, I had to have it, however, because I loved that place, and the many Saturday mornings and Wednesday lunches I spent there with friends from 1989 – the late 90s. The purchase of their cookbook many years after the fact was a small show of support, and an acknowledgement of a time gone by.
They opened in 1988; a 1988 – 2023 run is pretty damned good. People who make good food, and feed others, are doing important work. Thank you, Cupcake Café, thank you, sisters Ann and Joan for putting the cookbook together. Thank you, Anne’s partner in crime and cafe-ing, her husband Michael, and all the good peeps at the CC, including the many who dined there next to me…
Anne is on the left in the photo below. That’s her sister Joan on the right.
