Shauna Eats Sunnyside

Sugar & Joe… uh, if you’re into cupcakes.

So, let’s precede this by stating that the enthusiastic owner of startup Sugar & Joe Café (on Greenpoint Ave. b/w 42nd and 43rd Sts.) is a tenacious baker and we admire her for keepin’ it real. More power to the sugar fiends.

Sugar & Joe did a now-ya-see-‘em opening in September, and has brought together a marriage of cupcakes, coffee, brunch items, and plastic preschool chairs. It’s actually rather charming. The cafe itself is Cute with a capital C. Like, Asian baby in a monkey suit cute. Glass hanging thingys, pastel-colored seating, countertop jars of penny candy (which do not cost a penny, mind you), and spotless stainless steel machinery surround the focal point of the joint, a colorful array of icing-happy cupcakes in an L-shaped glass display case.

The owner is a strong proponent for her goods. She emailed me a few weeks ago, and after reading practically identical praises of the cupcakery (written by our very own commenter and local blogger C. Smith) on Yelp and Local718, it’s evident the word is out. I say hustle… do what ya gotta do. Hell, The Sunnyside of Life is onboard.

But objectively speaking:

B and I wandered anonymously into Sugar & Joe one Sunday and perused the menu. It was early afternoon, and we were the only customers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—obviously it takes awhile to get the ball rolling. However, after ordering our java and cupcakes, with two workers (one of which was boss lady) behind the counter, we still had to wait a considerable amount of time for B’s vanilla latte while our server fiddled with the espresso machine, as if for the first time. I ordered a standard house blend joe, my best judge of coffee shop potential.

My coffee:

B’s vanilla latte:

Pro: S&J makes a point to offer exotic beanage, demonstrating their respect for the serious coffee imbiber. Mine was Sumantran something or other.

Con: Though my coffee was warm and had a nice aftertaste, it was annoyingly weak. B’s syrup latte (with alleged espresso shot) was essentially room-temperature milk water.

With Colombian bakeries within blocks of S&J on all sides in a primarily Latino area of the ‘hood, it’s generally a good rule of thumb to pack a strong house blend—if your brew can’t hold its own, the longer-standing (and thriving) bakeries will make it stronger and sell it cheaper. Regarding espresso drinks, I’d give ‘em the one-off on this one, but B’s pretty unforgiving when it comes to a botched latte. If we wanted a dumbed down flavorless pick-me-up, we could’ve just sashayed over to Esparks (*shudder*). Sugar & Joe exudes potential in its attention to detail (again, those hanging glass thingys…wtf?); it’d be nice if that sentiment reflected in its brewed beverages.

We took our sweets to go and hit up the brat-magnet park across the street to maximize on natural lighting and the dying days of fall. B, personally, is just not that into cupcakes. That boy has a sweet tooth that just won’t quit, but cupcakes kinda bore him. In my icing optimism, I convinced him to take the plunge into a chocolate malt cupcake, while I happily nabbed some red velvet.

B’s choco malt cuppie was standard (by that I mean it coulda come from a Duncan Hines box) chocolate icing on chocolate cake, with a sprinkling of malted powder (Ovaltine?) on top. We didn’t detect any malt flava in the batter, and thus were left to believe that this was it. All build up, but not much complexity behind the evident sweetness. Pretty much just an overpriced chocolate cupcake. Hmmph.

As B grumbled, I attempted to enjoy my red velvet cupcake, though it really just wasn’t workin’. The cake was moist and spongy, but the major problem was the cinnamony vanilla frosting, which was harder and denser than I expected (and unevenly spread, for that matter). It weighed down every… cumbersome… bite. And it didn’t really taste at all like a red velvet cupcake. The sugared nuts were good, but did nothing to redeem the eventual bloat factor—mama was NOT a happy camper.

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UPDATE (11/26/08):

B and I strolled down 2nd Ave. the other day following a delightful Grand Sichuan experience only to stumble into the lauded Buttercup Bake Shop (on 2nd Ave. b/w 51st and 52nd Sts.). B is still not an avid cupcake fan, but I took a TRUE red velvet for the road…

Behold, what the red velvet was meant to be:

Ample, moist, delicate cake beneath rich (not wonky) creamy cream cheese frosting (please note the whipped swirling action and festive sprinkles)… a damn fine, melt-in-your-mouth cuppie. Satisfying—not awkwardly sweet, densely guilt-ridden, or bloatastic. A true delight.

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I also bought a caramel-chocolate-nut Turtle turd for later, and was actually pretty pumped about it (I won’t lie, that shit looked GOOD). But the chew was even more bland than B’s latte. Bummer. Overall a disappointing outing, considering we dropped like $12 on freakin’ cupcakes and cardboard-flavored caramel.

Some of the other pastries might be worth giving a whirl—if you’re having an insatiable sugar fit, Sugar & Joe does stock some serious uppers. But service needs some ironing out, and we’re hoping they drop a heavier hand for more respectable brew. Otherwise, we’ll likely stick with $1 guava pastries and Colombian dark roast up the street.

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Sugar & Joe Café
42-20 Greenpoint Ave (b/w 41st and 42nd Sts.)
Sunnyside, NY 11104
(718) 472-1070