When St. Joseph Media purchased the 130-year-old building it rapidly filled with media and ad agencies such as Publicis and Top Advertising. Colozza saw potential in the street-level space and commissioned Anna Simone of Cecconi Simone Design to take the raw space and turn it into the aggressively cool espresso bar setting it now is.

Much of the room’s bright space is filled with two communal tables. The tabletops have been fashioned out of Cat marble, a manmade slab; thousands of river stones were packed together, drowned in a clear epoxy resin, then cut and smoothed to create stunningly original tabletops.

B has a strong, personable character, an anti-cookie-cutter identity, and damn great coffee. - D.E.