The jury is still out whether coffee helps you think better or not (some say it only makes you edgy and nervous), but this sprawling location — with tables deep, deep inside — clearly believes it. This is the public library of coffee bars, and though the coffee didn’t make much of an impression on me, it’s a great place to meet someone or just sit and ponder the world’s dilemmas.

This coffee bar with French and Italian flair roasts its coffee in the Hudson Valley. It doubles as a wine bar, quiet and serene with extremely limited seating, so it’s a good place for an intimate but short conversation.

There’s a roastery in the basement of this very slick coffee shop, which provides plush seating here and there. I recommend the baked goods, which include flavored tea breads and focaccia sandwiches, but skip the bowls. The coffee is good and strong — and notably, no tip is asked for on the point-of-purchase device, nor is a tip jar in evidence.

This rustic place is equal parts sandwich shop and coffee bar and the sandwiches and salads are excellent, but the coffee just so-so. No matter, its patrons (including me) love it anyway, and the comfortable tables, the hidden back room, and the communal picnic table, as well as the seats outside in the sun, make it one of the few true neighborhood hangs left in the West Village.

This interesting coffee bar channels Paris and Tokyo, and thinks its a fancy clothing store — and if you look in the back room, it is. The madeleines and fox cookies are to die for, and all sorts of twee little pastries are provided, along with some of the strongest coffee in town. It turns into a wine bar in the early evening.

Jack’s uses a contraption that looks like it came out of a Woolworth’s lunch counter circa 1940: A giant arm stirs the grounds as the coffee is brewed. Coffee is organic. Other than that, Jack’s specializes in vegan baked goods which are pretty good at this original location. Space is tight, but there are two tables and some counter seating. Midafternoon, it’s a good place to do a crossword puzzle.

Not sure the name needs to be capitalized, but no matter: This is the best coffee bar in the West Village. The location is so obscure, it mainly attracts a crowd of regulars from surrounding properties. As a sideline since the pandemic, it has stocked groceries, and the food program features some hot dishes more ambitious than most coffee shops.

You might not notice this subterranean space as you jog by on Christopher Street, but it’s a full-blown coffee shop — one of those places where you can not only sit down, but sit down on a ratty couch. The beatnik ambiance is a throwback to the old days of the Village, one of the few coffee bars in the neighborhood where you are encouraged to relax.

With a Brooklyn roastery, this coffee bar branch with a mild heavy metal theme and nostalgic objets d’art scattered around (sometimes it feels like a 1930s dry goods store in New England) has attracted a cult of sorts and I must sheepishly admit to being a part of it. The coffee is good and bitter, and the giant fruit muffins the size of your fist not to be missed.

The recently opened coffee bar surprised even the jaded population of the neighborhood, not just because of the kooky name, but because of the framed fine arts on the walls and collection of art books for sale therein. On the other hand, go upstate to places like Hudson, Saugerties, and Kingston and bookstore-coffee bar combos are a regular occurrence.

This coffee bar in the heart of the West Village where Bleecker and Christopher collide has one of the finest collections of focaccia, pastries, and tiny sandwiches in the city — it could be a lunch destination unto itself except for a critical lack of seating, though there are benches and tables outside. Coffee is better than average.

The name almost kept me from going inside, then I realized that all the good names for coffee bars have been taken. Hungry Ghost takes its coffee perhaps a little too seriously, it’s one of those places that an expresso is handed across the counter with real reverence, and you’d better sip it rather than throw it all back at once, the way the Italians do it. A small collection of cookies and pastries is available, and the place stays open till 8 p.m.

Steer away from the too-weak drip toward the espresso beverages at this comfy spot on West 4th. It offers pastries and sandwiches with a Sicilian bent, including a plain mortadella sandwich and a roll with a hot dog inside. The chocolate croissant is just a plain croissant with chocolate sprinkled on the outside and a small vein of chocolate inside.

The line out the door persists till mid-morning at this Australian coffee bar with an ambitious food program that includes all-day breakfasts. The coffee is only average, but some of the baked goods exceptional, including a fine almond croissant, with slivered nuts on top and marzipan inside. But this place takes itself a little too seriously, which might be why it’s so popular.