Le Gaz sits at Canal and Orchard as the café half of Fugazi, an LA-born streetwear label’s first NYC flagship. Which basically says everything you need to know about it, because it is everything you’d imagine it to be and the people there are exactly who you think would be there.

Le Gaz leads with the aesthetics. Bold red branding, accented tiles and chairs and lighting fixtures in the otherwise minimalist space. A wall of Sữa Ông Thọ condensed milk art that feels like a riff on Warhol. To their credit, they do lean into Vietnamese style coffee drinks: cà phê muối with its salted cold foam, a vani muối latte, is genuinely good. The vibe feels complementary to the retail shop adjacent, but separate enough to stand on its own.

It’s a fitting haunt to be on this corner, where the Dimes Square scene mingles with the Nolita dirtbags. Some may say it’s some of the worst transplant energy in lower Manhattan, but I think we can appreciate it as a perfect stop to grab a coffee before making your way up Orchard Street.