goop’s Megan O’Neil’s New York City Top 5 cafés

Gwyneth Paltrow launched goop in 2008 from her kitchen table as a homespun weekly newsletter with her unbiased travel tips, wellness insights and health-centric recipes. Roll forward ten years and goop has arrived in London with a pop-up lifestyle store in Notting Hill’s Westbourne Grove. To celebrate we asked New York City resident Megan O’Neil, goop’s senior beauty editor for her favourite cafés in her home city. There’s nothing she doesn’t know about wellness in New York City.

abcV

abcV makes me insanely happy.

It’s light and airy inside, the vibe is polished yet breezy and they set the tables with the most beautiful plates and rustic linen napkins and dainty teacups. I one day want to be a woman who sets her table so exquisitely! And the food is beyond.

Contrarian carnivores love it as much as plant people. I die for the green chickpea hummus (so creamy and luscious) with fresh pitta, the turmeric cauliflower steak and the market carrots with nut butter.  I was skeptical when I spotted it on the menu because that doesn’t sound that great, but it’s spectacular.  The mushroom walnut Bolognese literally tastes like a decadently rich meaty pasta situation. Also, the adaptogenic cocktails are perfect when you need a 4pm pick me up or you’re meeting a work person for “drinks” and don’t want to drink because maybe you did enough of that over the weekend. I get an almond milk latte there every single morning. It’s frothy, soothing, energising, but a considerable part of the appeal is starting my day in such a lovely place.

The Butcher’s Daughter

I love the abundance of plants they have in there, and I love the food. The banana walnut pancakes and the coconut-date-almond butter smoothie are my jam. It’s called 7 Minutes in Heaven on the menu, and, yes, it’s worth the $10. They serve water in a pretty carafe full of fresh mint leaves. Eating at the Nolita location on a sunny day is just bliss. And everyone who works there is so friendly, you just kind of want to hang there all day.

Juice Press

I bring my lunch from home most days, but when I don’t I always go to Juice Press.

Their split pea soup is rich and cosy and perfectly seasoned. It tastes homemade! There is NOTHING bad in it! It’s just so impressive that the only ingredients are water, split peas, zucchini, onion, carrot, celery, olive oil, jalapeno, garlic, thyme, lemon juice, pepper, garlic, and bay leaf. I cut and pasted that from the web site because I want to recreate it at home for fall! Their cashew milk oatmeal is also fantastic, it tastes like creamy dessert.

by Chloe.

Someone sent me one of their cakes—vanilla with vanilla frosting—on Valentine’s Day. I closed my eyes and was moaning as I ate it in the office. And then I learned it was gluten free!!

It’s plush and decadent, it tastes like the absolute opposite of “gluten free.”

And it’s festively multi-tiered. Just looking at it makes me happy.

Cook Space

If you love to eat, love to cook, don’t love to cook, love a beautiful Brooklyn-y design aesthetic then you’ll be obsessed with Cook Space. It’s this beautiful kitchen loft space—literally my dream kitchen—that offers cooking classes for every kind of food and skill you can imagine.

There’s an awesome vegetarian food class, and then there’s everything else under the sun: pizza, pasta making, Jewish comfort food, knife skills, Vietnamese street food.

It’s the best thing to do with friends or your mom or brother or husband, and you can even rent out the whole space for a night. My husband, brother, and I just signed up for the pizza class. You sit down at the end to eat the meal you’ve all made, and you don’t really have to even clean up—they do that! They mix you a dynamite cocktail to sip on during class and music is always wafting in the background. The whole thing is very atmospheric.

New York City
New York City