Why I Started Coffee Shops of New York

Steam curls from a cup. A door opens. The low hum of conversation rises beneath the hiss of milk and the clatter of porcelain. Morning light moves across a café wall in a way that lasts only a moment, and suddenly I feel that familiar pull to reach for my sketchbook.

That impulse is where Coffee Shops of New York began.

This project started with something simple: sitting down in cafés around New York City with a Moleskine and a black Micron 08 pen, and drawing what I saw in front of me. No elaborate setup. No digital shortcuts. Just ink on paper, line by line, trying to capture the feeling of a place before it disappeared.

If you're here, welcome. I'm glad you found your way to this project.

What Is Coffee Shops of New York?

Coffee Shops of New York is an ongoing art project and book series built around hand-drawn café interiors across New York City.

Each drawing began the same way: I would walk into a café, order a hot Americano, find the right seat, study the light, the perspective, the people, the architecture, and start drawing. Over time, those daily drawings became a larger body of work. Eventually, they became a book.

But this project was never only about coffee shops.

It was about attention. Memory. Observation. The beauty of everyday places. The creative energy of New York. And the quiet act of slowing down enough to really see.

Why Coffee Shops?

I've always believed cafés are some of the most special spaces in a city.

They are not quite home and not quite work. They are somewhere in between. A third place. A place where people think, write, flirt, work, rest, dream, and begin again.

If you want to understand a neighborhood, spend an hour in one of its coffee shops.

You'll feel the rhythm of the street. You'll notice the regulars. You'll hear the cadence of conversation. You'll sense whether the neighborhood feels rushed, romantic, ambitious, quiet, old-world, new, or somewhere in between.

To me, a café tells you everything about a city's pulse.

What Makes New York City Coffee Shops Special?

If you've spent any time in this city, you know that coffee shops here aren't just places to get caffeine. They're extensions of the neighborhoods they're in.

A café in the West Village feels completely different from one in Bushwick or the Upper East Side. The design, the music, the crowd, the light — all of it reflects the character and energy of the block it sits on. Cafés are what sociologists call "third places" — not home, not work, but the spaces in between where life unfolds. They're where people write, dream, meet, argue, fall in love, and think. I've always believed that if you want to understand a neighborhood, you should visit its coffee shops first.

That's what drew me to this project. I wanted to capture those spaces before they changed, because New York never sits still. Many of the cafés in my drawings have already closed their doors. What remains are the drawings — moments of connection and stillness frozen on paper.

My Own Path Back to Drawing

I've been drawing for as long as I can remember.

As a kid, I filled sketchbooks with characters, people, birds, trees, and whatever else caught my eye. My mom always encouraged me to make art and follow my curiosity. That love of drawing eventually brought me to New York City to study computer animation at the School of Visual Arts.

Later, I moved to Los Angeles and worked in animation, including at DreamWorks. After that, I moved into augmented reality and eventually started my own company. I was building, managing, and creating in different ways, but somewhere along the way, I stopped drawing for myself.

That quiet, personal, meditative act of putting pen to paper slipped out of my life.

Years later, when I moved back to New York, something reignited.

The city brought it back out of me.

There is an energy here that is hard to explain if you haven't felt it. It's electric. Creative. Slightly chaotic. Deeply alive. It can overwhelm you and inspire you in the same breath. Being back in New York made me want to observe again. To slow down. To draw every day.

And once I started, I couldn't stop.

Why Hand-Drawn Illustration Instead of Photography?

People ask me this a lot. In a world where you can snap a photo in a second, why spend an hour drawing a scene by hand?

Drawing forces me to slow down and really see. When I photograph a café, I capture what it looks like. When I draw it, I experience what it feels like. I notice things a camera would miss — the way the morning light catches the steam rising from a cup, the curve of a chair leg, the expression on someone's face as they read.

The tactile feeling of ink catching on the grain of the paper is part of it too. There's something irreplaceable about the analog process. Each line is a small decision, and the accumulation of those decisions over an hour or two becomes something that feels alive in a way a photograph doesn't.

In a world that is increasingly digital, I've found deep peace in the act of drawing analog. Pen on paper. Line by line. That is why every drawing in this project was made that way.

What's Inside the Coffee Shops of New York Book?

The book is a hardcover art book featuring 100 original hand-drawn illustrations of iconic and hidden-gem cafés across New York City. It's organized by neighborhood rather than chronologically, so reading it feels like a walking tour of the city. Each entry includes the café's name, the date it was drawn, and personal notes about the space — memories, moods, and thoughts that came up as I drew.

It took me a full year to complete. I carried my sketchbook to a new café almost every morning, ordered a hot Americano, adjusted my seat to find the best vantage point, and started drawing. Some sessions lasted an hour, some lasted three. It depended on the complexity of the interior, the quality of the light, and honestly, how good the coffee was.

The book also includes an index of every coffee shop and its address, so you can visit them yourself. Think of it as part art book, part love letter, part café guide.

The first edition of 500 signed and numbered copies sold out. You can pick up a signed copy of the Collector's Edition, fine art prints of individual café drawings, or postcard sets in the shop.

What I've Learned Drawing 100 Cafés

A year of drawing coffee shops taught me a few things I didn't expect.

People are generous. Baristas, café owners, and strangers noticed me drawing and started conversations. Some brought me a free coffee. Others shared stories about what the café meant to them. One owner teared up when I showed her the finished drawing. This project has connected me with an incredible community of people who care about these spaces.

New York's beauty lives in the details. Not the skyline or the landmarks, but the worn wooden countertop at a thirty-year-old café in the East Village, or the way afternoon light falls through a frosted window in SoHo. Drawing taught me to see those things. It rewired the way I move through the city.

Slowing down is a creative act. We live in a world that rewards speed and volume. Sitting in a café for two hours with a pen — no phone, no screen — feels almost radical. But that stillness is where the best work happens. It's where I reconnect with why I started making art in the first place.

What's Next for Coffee Shops of New York?

This project is just getting started. I've begun drawing cafés in other cities, and I'm working on new products — including a softcover edition of the book, open edition fine art prints on archival paper, and limited edition signed prints. If you'd like to follow along as the series grows, the best place is right here on coffeeshopsnewyork.com and on Instagram.

I also want this site to become a resource — not just a shop, but a place where people who love coffee, art, and New York can come to discover new cafés, see the city through a different lens, and slow down for a minute.

More blog posts are coming. I'll be sharing stories behind individual drawings, neighborhood café guides, notes on my creative process, and interviews with café owners. If there's something you'd like to see, reach out. I read every message.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Coffee Shops of New York

Who is the artist behind Coffee Shops of New York?

My name is Justin Melillo. I'm a New York City-based artist and illustrator. I studied computer animation at the School of Visual Arts, worked at DreamWorks Animation in Los Angeles, and eventually moved back to New York where I started this daily drawing project. I use a Moleskine sketchbook and a Micron 08 pen for every illustration.

What is the Coffee Shops of New York book?

It's a hardcover art book containing 100 original hand-drawn illustrations of cafés across New York City. The book is organized by neighborhood and includes personal notes, the date each drawing was made, and an index of every café and its address. It's available as a signed Collector's Edition at coffeeshopsnewyork.com.

Are prints of individual coffee shop drawings available?

Yes. Fine art prints of select illustrations are available in the shop. They're printed on archival paper with pigment inks, designed to last and look beautiful on any wall.

Can I suggest a coffee shop for you to draw?

Absolutely. I'm always looking for new cafés to visit and draw. Send me a message on Instagram or through the site.

Do you draw coffee shops outside of New York City?

I've started drawing cafés in other cities as well. The New York series is the foundation of the project, but the vision is to expand to other cities over time.

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Thank you for being here. Whether you found this through a search, a friend's recommendation, or wandering the internet the way I wander the city — I'm glad you stopped in. Grab a coffee, look around, and enjoy.

— Justin Melillo, West Village, 2026