InCommon

What In Common is

In Common is a small Australian cafe at 441 Ninth Avenue, on the corner of West 35th Street in Manhattan. The address sits on the line between Hudson Yards and Hell’s Kitchen, a few minutes from the Hudson Yards subway station, Penn Station and the northern end of the High Line. It occupies the ground floor of a renovated 1960s warehouse, and the room is bright and pared back: big windows, clean lines, pale wood and natural textures, with a counter at the front.

The format is the Australian day cafe rather than the American diner. One menu covers breakfast, brunch and lunch from opening until 15:00, espresso is the default coffee, and the cooking is built on sourdough toasts, eggs, salads and sandwiches. There is no dinner, no bar and no bottomless brunch. On price it sits in the mid band, which is normal for a cafe in this part of Manhattan.

Two things define the experience before you order. The first is that In Common is walk-in only and the room is genuinely small, so weekend mornings involve a queue. The second is that it is deliberately laptop-free, which is unusual for a neighbourhood full of offices and makes it a place to eat rather than a place to work.

Who is behind it

In Common is run by two cousins, Tass and Alex, who came to New York from Sydney. Between them they had worked in fine dining restaurants, event venues and casual cafes across that city before opening here, and Tass brings more than twenty years in the specialty coffee industry, with stints alongside growers, roasters and baristas in several countries.

Their stated idea is simple and they put it on the wall: no matter who we are or where we are from, we can all appreciate a good meal in good company. In practice that translates as Australian cafe culture transplanted, with the coffee programme taken as seriously as the kitchen. The cafe works with a boutique Australian roaster and pours a house blend described as milk chocolate and marzipan, with single origins alongside it.

How the menu works

You order at the counter and take a seat, and the same menu runs all day. It is short by New York brunch standards and rotates with the season.

• Toasts: avocado toast on country sourdough, ricotta toast, and the shakshuka toast, which comes as tomato and roasted peppers with creamy yogurt, two organic eggs, soft herbs and sourdough on the side.
• Eggs: soft scrambled eggs with toast and salad, an omelet, and a breakfast sandwich.
• Sweet: French toast with whipped mascarpone and fresh berries, a whipped ricotta tart, and a pastry case.
• Lunch plates: a little gem Caesar wedge with classic dressing, grated pecorino and croutons, a griddled cheese toastie, and an eggplant katsu sandwich.
• Drinks: espresso, cappuccino, flat white, filter coffee, chai and cold drinks, plus juices.

Produce is described as locally sourced and seasonal, so individual dishes come and go. The shakshuka, the avocado toast and the French toast are the three plates that come up most often in recent reviews.

What I saw when I filmed

I filmed at In Common in July 2026. My notes are short and two sided: the shakshuka and the omelet were both very good and the room is a genuinely relaxed brunch space, but the portions are small, so do not arrive expecting a big American breakfast.

What it costs

In Common does not publish a full price list on its own site, so the figures below come from 2026 menu and delivery listings. They are a snapshot rather than a guarantee. New York sales tax is added on top and a tip is expected on table service.

Item	Price
Shakshuka toast	about 17 USD
Avocado toast	about 16 USD
Breakfast sandwich	about 15 USD
Pastries and small items	from about 5.50 USD
Largest plates on the menu	up to about 23 USD
Coffee	charged separately

One dish and a coffee lands at roughly 25 USD a head. Two dishes, which is the realistic order if you are hungry, takes it closer to 35 to 40 USD. That is normal for a specialty cafe in Manhattan and cheaper than sitting down inside the Hudson Yards mall two blocks west.

Do you need a reservation

No, and you cannot make one. In Common says plainly that it operates entirely on a walk-in basis, and that all seating is held for guests who are ordering from the food menu rather than coffee alone. There is no Resy or OpenTable listing.

What that means in practice:

• Weekend mornings between 10:00 and 13:00 are the busiest and the wait is real. Reviewers describe queuing and then turning the table over fairly quickly.
• Weekdays are easier. Before 9:00 and after 13:30 you can usually walk straight in.
• Large groups are awkward in a room this size. Come as two or three if you can.
• Takeaway coffee and food are available, and there is online ordering for pickup through the cafe’s own site.

Getting there

• Address: 441 Ninth Avenue, Suite 101, New York, NY 10001, at the corner of West 35th Street.
• Subway: the 7 train to 34th Street Hudson Yards is about five minutes away. Penn Station, on the A, C, E, 1, 2 and 3, is a seven-minute walk east. The A, C and E at 34th Street Penn Station is the most useful single stop.
• Trains and buses: Penn Station for Amtrak, NJ Transit and the LIRR, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, are both within a ten to fifteen minute walk.
• On foot: the High Line’s northern entrance and the Hudson Yards shops are two to four blocks southwest, and the Javits Center is three blocks west.
• Parking: this is one of the harder parts of Manhattan to park in. Use the subway or a garage on West 36th or West 38th Street.

Before you go

• Leave the laptop at home. The cafe is explicitly laptop and tablet free, and it is small enough that the rule is enforced.
• Expect a small plate. Portions are cafe size. Order a second dish or a pastry if you want a full breakfast.
• Go on a weekday if you can. The queue on Saturday and Sunday mornings is the main complaint in reviews.
• Strollers and suitcases may not fit. The cafe says so directly and cites the fire code, which matters if you are walking over from Penn Station with luggage.
• Coffee alone will not get you a table. Seating is reserved for people eating.
• Nothing runs past mid afternoon. The doors close at 15:00 and the kitchen stops earlier, so this is a breakfast and lunch stop, not a dinner plan.
• For the other Australian cafe I filmed in the city, see my Citizens review, which serves the same style of menu in Soho and Chelsea at a larger scale.
• Check the hours before you go. The hours on this page come from the venue’s public listings, which drift, so confirm on Google Maps or the venue’s own channels before a special trip.

Watch the visit

The reel above is the short version of this breakfast, plates and room included. For the rest of what I filmed in the city, open my map or browse the other New York recommendations.