D'AGISTINO BREWS COFFEE BAR WITH GOURMET LUNCH OFFERINGS

JACK ROBERTIELLO

NEW YORK -- D'Agostino Supermarkets has taken the plunge into the overheated coffee wars here by opening a stand-alone coffee bar with a twist: gourmet lunches.

Along with an assortment of bagels and breakfast pastries -- and coffee in all the sizes and varieties consumers have come to expect from contemporary coffee shops, such as cappuccinos, lattes and frozen granitas -- the store breaks out of the coffee bar mold by stocking a large display cooler with high-end lunch and snack items, including sushi platters, gourmet sandwiches and designer beverages.

Called D'AG Coffee Works, the shop, put in next to a D'Agostino supermarket, could be the first of a greater expansion into the food-service business by the Larchmont, N.Y., company.

Walter D'Agostino, in charge of the D'AG Coffee Works project and the chain's vice president of sales and director of marketing, declined comment on the new operation.

Visits to the new unit showed prices for the lunch items range from $2.95 for a small, cut-up sushi roll, to $4 for a small portion of sesame noodles, to $5 to $6 for sandwiches and the top-end sushi platters.

Roomy, with table seating for about 40 and space for 16 more at three tall counters with stools placed at the front window and along the walls opposite the coffee bar, the D'AG Coffee Works at 57th Street and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan is a well-executed attempt by D'Agostino to create its own food service/coffee shop brand.

Located across the street diagonally from a smaller yet busier Starbuck's coffee shop, the store opened July 31, and can expect to draw customers from Hearst Corp., two local television stations and CBS television and radio network studios and news divisions, all within a short walk. On two recent visits in the morning and around noon, SN found business to be considerably slower at D'AG Coffee Works than at nearby coffee shops and lunch counters.

Differentiated from the D'Agostino store by its own awning and separate entrance, the coffee shop sports a large park bench in front of its main window.

Once inside the wheelchair-accessible building, customers find one entire side of the store devoted to two long coffee bars, divided by a well-designed menu board decorated with colorful branded signs of the shop's 15 blends of coffee -- Times Square Nutty and Harlem Jazz are just two -- with a New York City connection. Prices range from $1 per cup for regular brewed coffee to $4 for a large frozen mocha.

Two registers at the front coffee bar provide for quick service during the morning rush. An auxiliary register anchors the back station, and both stations have a large Faema espresso machine and refrigerated pastry cases. At least 15 types of coffee beans, sold by the pound, are on display at the rear of one counter.

In another break from the accepted coffee bar format, D'AG Coffee Works offers customers their hot drinks in china cups; most shops in the Starbuck's/Dalton/New World mold serve hot beverages only in paper cups. D'AG Coffee Works also sells thermal takeout mugs, and provides a 10-cent discount for each refill. Like the takeout paper cups, the china and thermal cups, as well as the menu, napkins and discount card, sport the D'AG Coffee Works brand, a distinctive black and white coffee cup with "D'AG" in bold letters above it.

Some food items, like a selection of branded, prepackaged organic vegetable roll-up pastries, for instance, come from local distributors, while others -- the sushi platters, sesame noodles, tabbouleh, tuna salad, and gourmet sandwiches -- are branded "D'AG Express Gourmet," and appear to come from the D'Agostino supermarket located next door.

Sandwich types include black bean hummous on rolled Armenian flat bread, herb roasted chicken breast with arugula and roasted peppers on seeded semolina Italian bread, and black forest ham on pumpernickel.

The self-serve lunch counter, directly opposite the coffee bar in the front of the shop, is also stocked with such high-end beverages as Spa imported spring water/fruit juice combos, freshly squeezed fruit juices, and whipped fruit and vegetable smoothies.

Other gourmet snacks, like Newman's Own organic chocolates and Terra vegetable chips, receive prominent shelf placement on the racks adjacent to the cooler.

On two visits, the general feel of the shop was comfortable and relaxed.

The decor included brown and bleached wood floors, round faux marble tables surrounded by blond- and mahogany-stained chairs, and a community message board above an oak veneer coffee station on the reverse side of the lunch cooler. Written signs along the walls explain various coffee terms, and low-key Grateful Dead and folk music plays on the speaker system.