The middle-class neighborhood staple of the Mom and Pop coffee shop is rapidly disappearing from Manhattan. But nestled snugly on a corner halfway between Columbus Circle and Columbia University, the classic Upper West Side Greek family diner is alive and well. 
This is the Three Star Coffee Shop, where you can still get a greasy, filling breakfast for three or four dollars any hour of the day or night. As Columbia races headlong down the path of all-smothering gentrification, and the businesses of the West Sixties and Seventies continue to cash in on the upwardly mobile stroller set, Gothamist is grateful for lovable holdouts like the Three Star, caught in the Upper West Side squeeze but still surviving by offering simple, honest food at rock-bottom prices. Those fools at the Starbucks across the street don't know what they're missing.
Three Star Coffee Shop
541 Columbus Avenue (at 86th Street)
212-874-6780
