Blue Stripes Cacao Shop

by Cliffton Chin

last updated: 2/20/2024 by Cliffton Chin

28 E 13th St, New York, NY 10003

Union Square

Blue Stripes Cacao is a chocolate coffee shop! It’s one of my favorite cafés, and is important to me because it was one of the first cafés I ever went to study in. The café is warm and inviting, almost looks like their steampunk-ish glass front with their white stringed lights was designed for a Christmas postcard. When I visited, it was a hot summer day at the end of August, and sunlight was streaming in through their all-glass front wall. Every item they sell seems to have cacao in it, and their croissant poached egg avocado sandwich is also not too shabby. :)


Prior to my first visit here, I had been going to cafes and posting my location to a study-focused group chat. My posts would usually read something like this: “I am studying at a table at this café in this neighborhood. If anyone is around or if anyone is feeling distracted studying or working by themselves in their apartment, feel free to join me and we can work together here!  I’ll be here all day.”  Blue Stripes was the first café where someone actually saw one of my posts and joined me.


As for the café itself, it’s a pretty nice café with good pop and retro-pop music, a bathroom behind a heavy metal door in the back, near a self-serve water dispenser that one of the workers fills, and various seating, including a group table in the front with built-in desk lamps and outlets. I got through a lot of engineering chapters here that day. The front table is by a wall of plants. If there is an issue with the café’s wifi, the wifi of the school across the street reaches over so it’s a café that I'd consider has an always-on connection.


I visited Blue Stripes a year later and it seems that they convert into a wine bar at night and have live jazz. I’m not sure which days of the week they have this but it’s a nice addition. 🎷

work readiness
wait
a couple of minutes
wifi
basic
outlets
space
table size
seating
size
one bedroom 800 - 1000 sq ft
noise
chatter
low
background music
medium