Esparks Coffee

Today is a sad day for me. Esparks coffee was suddenly closed inspite of its rising popularity in the neighborhood. I have been a regular customer for 6 years as many others who lived or worked nearby. I dont have much knowledge about coffee, so I cannot be a good judge of it. But the cappuccino they made there was one of the best. I also loved coconut and smoothies… Drinks aside, there always have been family like atmosphere, it was like visiting an old friend you have not seen for a while. Many coffee shops have opened up in the area in the last two years, but none of them have such friendly atmosphere as Esparks Coffee shop did. Given the opportunity, I would like to say thanks to the owner (Kim) and wish him and his family all the best!

love coming here with friends, very relaxing. could be bigger in space. my favorite has to be the bubble tea and for the winter a nice hot cocoa with whipped, im not a coffee drinker so im not sure on those beverages.

Server is very rude; had a soccer game that he wasn’t watching blasting while i was trying to do some work. When I asked him to put it down he told me to move to a different table so others could watch. I was the only one in the shop. Coffee is less than average not coming back.

I love this place unfortunately it’s about 25 minutes away from my house so I don’t come here as often as I would like to. I love buying Taro bubble tea from this location it’s awesome it taste really good. It doesn’t taste water down like other places. Every time I have come here the workers are really friendly. I think they make the best bubble tea ever my favorite place to get bubble tea from in queens

I love this place so much. They make this amazing drink called a congelata and it’s kind of like a frappucino but so much better. This place is always clean, friendly staff, and just DELICIOUS drinks. I bring everyone I know here!

I was in the neighborhood and was looking for my fix of bubble tea and Unilocal landed me right to «Esparks Coffee.» I had a taste for my Jasmine green tea but after reading another Unilocalers review on the caramel bubble tea I knew I wanted to try something new.
Unsurprisingly the small shop on the corner was packed and that’s because it happened to be 10 degrees outside. People were sitting and drinking their hot drinks and baked goods. There wasn’t a big selection of baked goods to choose from so I didn’t order any.
The server was okay not that friendly but nothing to complain about either. I waited until I got home to enjoy me caramel tea and was in heaven. I reheated it and enjoyed it with my home made breakfast of egg&cheese, turkey bacon, grits and toast. That drink really hit the spot and I should’ve ordered a larger size.
I’ll definitely return and check out some other bubble teas flavors.

I was introduced to this place by my boyfriend’s uncle and we both loved it. I got the green tea latte with soy, and it was really good. Less artificial than the SB one and NOT overly sweet at all. It as perfect! My boyfriend even loved his caramel macchiato! 5 stars!

We came here after a good walk to the park.
My sister initially wanted the yogurt smoothie but they were out of yogurt.
I had wanted the almond bubble tea but they also are out if that.
We decided to order the mango smoothie and I got the strawberry and blue berry smoothie.
Both I didn’t taste that much fruit. The mango smoothie tasted more like vanilla smoothie.
My strawberry /​blueberry smoothie, I tasted a bit of blueberry. Couldn’t really taste the strawberry.
Either way though it was very refreshing to drink!

Esparks Coffee is the only place that sells bubble tea in the Ridgewood-​Bushwick-​Maspeth-​Glendale-​Middle Village area. THE ONLY ONE!
Esparks is small, with seating for a few people. It has a very nice, cozy feel to it.
When I went at night, there was only one employee manning the counter. He was chill and not very talkative, but he works fast and efficiently.
The menu is extensive, and even though this shop specializes in coffee rather than bubble tea, they had over 10 different bubble tea flavors to choose from, which was a very pleasant surprise.
I ordered the Caramel Bubble Tea and the guy whipped up my order in under 2 minutes.
This bubble tea was honestly one of the best bubble teas I have ever had, and considering that this place doesn’t specialize in bubble tea, that is an impressive feat.
The texture of the milk tea was thick and creamy, almost like a milkshake. The flavor was sweet and rich. It was perfect. The tapioca balls were the only downside of this bubble tea. They were a bit mushy, but I was too engrossed by the milk tea to care about the tapioca balls.
$ 3 for a small bubble tea may be a bit to expensive for my liking, but considering that this is the only bubble tea available in the area and that the bubble tea was absolutely amazing, I’d say it’s worth the price

This is probably the only Esparks thats survived (even the one outside Elmhurts hospital went out of business!!) and is still thriving. Before the opening of Norma’s this was the only place to get a decent cup of joe (many Dunkin Donuts in the area though :/​) but now it’s just my bubble tea spot.
I can’t express it enough how Ridgewood is really lacking in great restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops. It’s a bit of a foodies worse nightmare, but fear not Bushwick and Forest Hills are only a 10minute drive 25−40min walk away! Anyways, back to this esparks review…
The coffee is good, but Norma’s is better. They actually have the best taro bubble tea compared to many other big name bubble tea shops out there like CoCo and Kung Fu tea in my very humble opinion. Its so good i usually slurp up a small size just one block away after purchasing. It never reaches my apartment conveniently located 4 blocks away. Never. BUT, and its a very big but; the boba is never consistently fresh and thats why I don’t give them a full 4 star review. I guess they don’t always have customers consistently buying bubble tea so the tapioca just kind of starts drying up, but thats no excuse. You should never serve your customers something that isn’t fresh. Period. For a long time this was also the only place to get your fro-​yo fix before the frutti yummi on myrtle opened up. My other issue is that its a bit pricey for this neck of the woods.
I’m pretty surprised at the other reviews commenting on the «friendly service» lol are you kidding me? The guy who works the counter, who I also suspect is the owner; always looks like hes super bored and bothered to have to serve you. Seriously dude a smile wouldn’t kill you! There is one girl that is there sometimes helping him out who is friendly but she always seems nervous to please you. She is like the polar opposite of the guy. I have been coming here since they first opened and I think I saw him crack a smile ONCE during the world cup. If a European country is having a big soccer game prepare to see a bunch of older European men sipping lattes watching the game in this little café. Its kind of amusing lol

Always love coming here, has very delicious variety of hot and cold drinks to choose from along with desserts. This place gets packed a lot usually and you will be lucky to find a table. But the service is very friendly, free wifi and clean bathroom.

Great coffee, staff is very friendly, prices are better than chain coffee shops, and did I mention the coffee is great?

Just visited this location a week or two ago, is it really closed?
Definitely an awkward coffee shop. Think Starbucks without the cultish service + bubble tea. Yeah I said it, they serve bubble tea.
They also have a fro-​yo machine and ok blueberry muffins (obviously store bought, but I wish I knew from where). I often stop in on a trek to Stop & Shop, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit this location.
The people that work here are really apathetic and sometimes just walk out and go to the gas station to get ice or milk and leave the place unattended… Again, kind of awkward.
Again, I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit this place. Unless you like bubble tea, which seems to be most of the population.

I like this coffee shop. The workers are nice. The coffee is great. What I can’t figure out is why the lock on that bathroom door has been broken for at least 2 years and has not been fixed. For the amount of money they charge for coffee you would think that they could afford to install a new lock

I feel like it takes a little more time for them to make my lattes, I could never stop here if I was in a rush, but it’s pretty tasty. The owner is super nice!

This small little joint is in the middle of ethnic Glendale, oddly placed on the vertex angle of a triangular block… I mean triangular triangle. Some popular attractions next to this place include ornate Romanian churches and a freight train railyard.
They have a nice bulletin board with nice cork to pin your nice businesses cards.
The iced coffee I got was decently priced. At first I thought it was going to be one of these creamy monstrosities where any bit of beany flavor was incapacitated by the heaviness of Esparkian milk, but alas, I am a man, and my coffee was a coffee.
It was good, as I stared at the boxcar on Otto Dr. thinking of all the places a freight train will see and I won’t.
Very good, Esparks.

Had a reasonably okay experience with this venue until this evening.
First off, after never having a sign up for the NYC mandatory sanitation grade, they finally have one up that says «grade pending.» That means «I’m NOT eating here since for all I know, I’ll get rat parts in my food.»
I was here to meet with job candidates. As coffee shops are SUPPOSED to be a place of relaxation where people can spend the day on their laptops, I’m well within my rights to conduct job interviews here instead of risking my safety by meeting people in my home.
A few people got drinks here & told me they were good but something happened this evening that changed all that.
One of those selfish, entitled parents walked in with two small kids, including one in a stroller. Stroller child started shrieking while she’s chatting with some older woman. The mother makes ZERO effort to calm or even acknowledge this child’s unhappiness at being in a coffee shop. I couldn’t even hear my interviewee talking to me or keep focused on the task at hand.
I walk over, mention the interview & said «If you don’t mind, could you please keep it down.» The mother says nothing while friend goes «I know you didn’t just say that.»
During this time, not a SINGLE employee bothers to step up or deal with this situation.
After the deadbeat parent & my interview candidate leave, I phoned my husband. When telling him about this & how my sister who has a young child herself would NEVER do what this woman did, the woman who endorses bad parenting makes a point to say «Get an office.» Maybe she should get a life & stick to letting kids scream in HER home vs. a public place, especially a coffee shop.
I decided to speak to the manager later on about this but when I called, the employee who answered was totally dismissive. He informed me that the manager has no set schedule & just wanders in whenever, meaning I would have ZERO opportunity to discuss this with him/​her unless I play luck of the draw.
They even have a sticker on their door that says «People on Unilocal Love Us.» Well, this Unilocaler sure doesn’t & will not be returning when screeching children have more rights there than paying adults or anyone else seeking to RELAX & have a pleasant, quiet chat.
Isn’t that the whole point of a coffee shop in the first place?

There is something weirdly impersonal about the Esparks vibe, like a birthday card from your dentist’s office. Where an independent coffee shop has original artwork, Esparks has posters of coconut beverages taped to the windows; the kind deli owners put up to get discounts on their deliveries. Where a typical coffee shop would play some moody singer/​songwriter on the barista’s iPod, Esparks plays Top 40 Pop music via satellite radio.
In short, Esparks was designed with all the unimaginative practicality of a suburb. A suburb has a Post Office, a High School, and a Wal-​Mart, Esparks has espresso, wi-​fi, and croissants; it has everything it needs and little else — and that’s what I find most charming about it. It lacks the elaborate phoniness of that other coffee chain and does not give me the synthetic heebie jeebies like Dunkin’ Donuts.
The baristas are as approachable and unassuming as the establishment itself and the coffee is good, (not great — but also not overpriced) — plus they also have a bunch of sugary frozen options if you’re into that.
Esparks, if you’re reading this I do have one suggestion:
Provide liquid sugar, (simple syrup) for your iced coffee drinkers. It’s just sugar melted into hot water. Grains of sugar do not melt in cold drinks. Leave it on the counter next to the granulated — and while you’re at it put some milk out there too! People like to pour their own milk.

It’s great to have a place like this within a few blocks of my house. The regular coffee is a little on the bitter side at times, but all the other stuff – pastries, frozen yogurt, etc – really makes up for it. My only complaint is the hours are a little on the erratic side. They never seem to be open early enough, and they seem to schedule late nights on a whim. I’m guessing this is a small-​store, small-​staff issue, and if someone gets sick it can throw the whole thing out of whack («I’m not even supposed to BE here today!»). A minor quibble, but the place does seem to be closed almost every time I pass by on the bus looking for it to be open.
But…when they’re open, they’re great. :)

This location is OPEN. I live right by it.
It’s great. I’m a bubble tea fan. Relaxed atmosphere.