Each weekday morning outside the Spuyten Duyvil Metro-North station, Charles Whitfield stands behind a sage green coffee cart tucked along the curbside. His new venture, Drawbridge Coffee, is serving commuters headed to the nearby platform.
Whitfield, 35, has lived in Spuyten Duyvil for four years, but his relationship with coffee stretches much further back. Raised in the Bronx and Honduras, he remembers sneaking coffee from his grandparents as a child, stealthily dunking bread into their cups. This childhood ritual bloomed into a career spanning neighborhood coffee shops and some of New York City’s finest restaurants.
“I love connecting with people and I love talking to people,” Whitfield explained. “I also love to create and not only just create, but to create atmosphere, to create connections.”
Less than two weeks after opening, he said, this carefully curated blend of coffee and camaraderie was already shining through. Some commuters are still discovering the cart for the first time, he said, while others have already become regulars. Even those who choose not to stop for a sip often wave or exchange a few words with Whitfield on their way to the platform.
The idea for his mobile cafe grew in part from Whitfield’s own commute. He noticed how many people arrived at the station each morning carrying coffee from home, noting few options existed nearby for riders in Spuyten Duyvil to grab a cup of joe before boarding a train.
“How many times did I wish I could ride a train and have a cup of coffee on my commute to work?” he said.
Drawbridge is the culmination of years Whitfield spent honing his mastery of coffee.
At 17, he started as a barista at Starbucks, where he stayed for a year before moving into “third-wave” coffee, a more artisanal approach that emphasizes manual preparation, bean origin and taste. Wanting to better understand the craftsmanship behind each cup, Whitfield joined Coffee Cake Corner, a small mom-and-pop shop on the Upper East Side. There, he learned elaborate latte art and trained his palate to distinguish the unique flavor profiles of different beans.
His career eventually brought him to Eleven Madison Park, a famed three-Michelin-star fine-dining restaurant overlooking Madison Square Park. After learning the eatery was looking for a barista in fall 2021, Whitfield said he walked in without an interview, résumé in hand, and made his case to a manager. He was hired on the spot.
Whitfield moved through several roles at Eleven Madison Park over the next four years, first as a barista and later as its first coffee and tea director, overseeing that portion of the beverage program. He then branched into dining room service and bartending, looking to understand hospitality beyond the beverage.
Still, Whitfield craved something of his own. Without the financial backing or space for a storefront, he decided to start smaller, building from the ground up instead.
Drawbridge Coffee is entirely self-funded, Whitfield said, down to the cart he built himself. Much of that work was done at Half-Moon Overlook, a scenic lookout in Spuyten Duyvil Shorefront Park offering sweeping views of the Hudson River. Even then, he recalled, neighbors would stop to ask what he was building. Some watched the stand take shape from his first cuts of wood, later returning as customers.
The cart’s sage green exterior reflects both Whitfield’s taste and its surroundings.
“Green is my favorite color,” he said, adding that the softer shade seemed fitting beside the neighborhood’s trees and waterfront. “It’s welcoming. It’s soft. I’m already surrounded by nature and greenery, so I just think it blends really well.”
The name itself is also deeply rooted in the neighborhood. From his apartment just above the train station, Whitfield can see the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge, a movable crossing carrying Amtrak’s Empire Corridor line between the Bronx and Manhattan.
Upon further research, he learned it was a type of drawbridge — a word he said also captured what he wanted the business to represent.
“When I thought about ‘bridge,’ I thought about connecting people,” Whitfield said. “I thought about community. I thought about destinations.”
The cart is currently operating with a summer menu centered on cold drinks, including cold brew, matcha, iced tea and house-made lemonade, along with pastries. Whitfield said the smaller menu was a practical choice. An espresso machine alone would cost him roughly $5,000, before adding a grinder, generator and other equipment, he said.
Throughout the venture, Whitfield has drawn on techniques from his time spent in fine dining. His lemonade takes about 24 hours to prepare, beginning with lemon peels macerated in sugar to draw out their oils before the fruit is juiced. He also makes a strawberry syrup and offers fresh orange juice, with plans to experiment with cold-pressed juices.
By fall, Whitfield hopes to add an espresso machine, expanding the cart to cappuccinos and lattes as the weather cools. For now, he said, he remains focused on building the customer base one morning at a time. After he closes up shop on weekdays, he heads downtown to Marcel, a world-renowned fine-dining restaurant in Manhattan.
The response the cart has received, he said, has made him think the neighborhood was ready for it.
“I’ve gotten so many people that come by, just like, ‘This is exactly what we needed,’” Whitfield said. “It’s been a lot, a lot, a lot of support.”
Keywords
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Spuyten Duyvil,
Charles Whitfield,
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Eleven Madison Park,
small business,
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cold brew,
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Spuyten Duyvil Bridge