I’ve been meaning to get to D’Espresso, a midtown espresso joint, ever since it caught the eye of my French counterpart, Murielle. Thanks to the high-concept interior — designed to look like the skewed interior of a library — it garnered a lot of attention when it launched. The coffee got good reviews, too.

I was expecting it to feel claustrophobic when I stopped by the other day, but because the “books” are black and white, they sort of recede into the background. My latte was very tasty; it was also quite expensive. On the other hand, almost all good coffee in New York is these days. It might have been more fun if even some of the books had been real, but that would encourage lingering, and lingering is not very midtown.