Today Brit in Brooklyn, Creative Times and I went into Root Hill, a cafe on Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street, to ask one of the owners, Maria Bowen, if she’d like to host the June Blogade on Sunday June 22 at noon. She loved the idea!

The Brooklyn Paper reported that Root Hill is where you can get a $3 cup of coffee. But that bears explaining. You can pay 3 bucks for a cup made in their highly specialized $11,000 Clover Coffee machine.

They also have less expensive coffee, as well as sandwiches and bakery items. Gersh Kuntzman, editor of the Brooklyn Paper, had this to say about the Clover machine in his column, The Brooklyn Angle.

Here’s what happens: You place your order (and your spouse chides you for spending $3 on a cup of coffee); the barista grinds the precise amount of beans (30 grams for a Yirgacheffe Biloya); then she pours the ground coffee onto a round disc at the center of the Clover; next, it silently descends into the machine while a tap releases water at the perfect temperature (206 degrees for the sensitive Yirgacheffe Biloya); while the coffee is brewing (38 seconds is, I’m told, ideal for Yirgacheffe Biloya), the barista gives it a few gentle whisks; and, finally, your coffee is served (and your spouse is now your ex-spouse).

Interestingly, after Root Hill purchased their Clover machine, Starbucks bought Clover and they’re keeping all the machines manufactured for their stores! Bowen thinks that Root Hill may have one of the last machines available to the public.

The glass fronted cafe has a great view of Fourth Avenue, and a clean, nice modern look. There are flat screen televisions that show movies (without sound) during the day. Today 2001, A Space Odyssey was playing. Bowen said, she played Grey Gardens, one of her favorites, all day Sunday.

The owners are hoping to have music, readings and other cultural events at the cafe in the future. Good taste in movies, good taste in coffee: it bodes well for the place. Bowen said, she and the other owners opened the cafe because, “We wanted somewhere to go for really good coffee.”