The Coffee Shop
Tarrytown is best known for its connection to the Washington Irving story of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Some of the elements of that story can be traced back to 1681 when Frederick Philipse began buying much of the land in the area. He had a large holding of roughly 90,000 acres that stretched 22 miles from the Croton River to Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx. It extended from the Hudson River to the Bronx River, representing a sizable chunk of what is today Westchester County. In 1685, he began constructing the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, which figures prominently in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow story.
In the late 19th century, the Stanley Steam Car Company built an automobile assembly plant in Tarrytown. Parts of the plant were taken over by Chevrolet in 1915 and became part of General Motors in 1918. It produced a variety of GM vehicles, ending with some of the early 90s minivans, before finally closing down in 1996.
Of course, plenty of other wealthy people followed in Frederick Philipse’s footsteps and set up grand estates along the Hudson River in Tarrytown. The Lyndhurst Mansion sits just north of the Tappan Zee Bridge that crosses the Hudson River just outside the 25-mile zone of the Port Authority of NY & NJ. Another well-known and still-standing mansion is Kykuit (Dutch for lookout), which the Rockefeller family built. More than 65 grand mansions were built in Tarrytown, though just a handful remain standing.
Finally, the Tarrytown Music Hall, built in 1885, is just next door to our coffee shop. It is the oldest continuously operating theater in Westchester County. With so much history in one small town, Tarrytown is a great place to visit, and Coffee Labs Roasters is in the heart of downtown.
While the shop is on Main Street, just off Route 9, the street has a downhill slope so that motorcycle parking can be challenging. During my visit, there was a school visit to the Music Hall next door, so most of the street parking was blocked to allow buses to drop off students. I got a space on the other side and could back the rear tire against the curb to park securely despite the slope.
The interior has exposed brick on one side, and a series of paintings are on the wall. On the opposite side is a pale blue paint with the menu in raised lettering above the counter. When I arrived, a roaster machine was running near the brick wall, and the aroma from it started the salivation.
It was jam-packed with just one spot near the window overlooking the street available, so I set my gear down and headed to the line to order. There were several other tables in the space, but all were occupied, so I hoped this would bode well for the quality of the coffee!
The menu had several options to choose from, including standard drip, espresso, macchiato, cortado, latte, cappuccino, mocha, breve, americano, and red eye, as well as cold brew and nitro. If coffee isn’t your preferred drink during your visit, they also have a vast assortment of smoothies, sporting names like Tropical Groove, Dark & Stormy, and Riding Giants, which felt oddly simpatico with the big boxer twin I was riding today.
