By Claudie Benjamin
The Upper West Side Beat
Born in the U.S., Lucretia La Mura’s parents and grandparents were from Matera, an Italian city and UNESCO World Heritage site, south toward Sicily. Though she has lived in New York City for many decades, her joie de vivre is not limited by geographic boundaries, but accompanies her adventurous life. This attitude offers the key to the enticing aroma of brewing coffee and welcoming atmosphere at the 350 sq. ft. Sensuous Bean. The remarkably successful coffee shop is at 66 West 70th Street in a building that also houses businesses around the corner on Columbus Avenue.
Owned by Lucretia and her life and business partner, Tom Wilson. The Sensuous Bean is now celebrating its 50th birthday. When people ask Lucretia suggestively, “Sensuous Bean, what’s that about?” She said she answers, “No, not lingerie–coffee.”
The Sensuous Bean has many, many regulars; some locals have been coming to the shop for decades.
After graduating from St. John’s University, Lucretia worked as a K-12 teacher and later as a medical technician assisting in GI procedures. “Then, I went to live in Rome for ten years. I took a hiatus,” she said. During those years, she tutored English and frequented just about every cafe in the wonderful Italian capital. On her return to New York, she was offered the opportunity to take over ownership of The Sensuous Bean, which had been started in a shop at 228 Columbus Avenue by Joe Humphre, an accountant she knew from visits with friends on Fire Island. “I said count me in,” Lucretia recalled. She then immersed herself in the ongoing process of learning everything she could about coffee growing and roasting. The shop was moved to its present location in 1990.
She explained she had a particular interest in working with small, struggling growers she discovered in Haiti and Brazil. Long before the focus on organics, these family-owned plantations didn’t use pesticides because they never could have afforded them. Her personal favorite among the very many coffees available at her shop is the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Harrar. A great many flavored coffees are sold at The Sensuous Bean – among the most popular hazelnut (hands-down favorite), crème brûlée and, over the past two years, pistachio. Tea drinkers and customers interested in tesanes, the non-caffeinated teas made from flower and herbal mixes, will find a wide array of options here. The tesanes combine flavors of herbs, flowers, and fruit: rosebud, hibiscus, and mint. Those like peach and blueberry contain little pieces of fruit. Want a little dolce (sweet) to go with that coffee or tea? The pastries here come from an Italian bakery in Brooklyn that’s been in business for 80 years, and from Balthazar.
The cozy piccolo enclave maintained its stance even with the emergence of Starbucks throughout the UWS in the 1990s. “People didn’t used to walk around with cups and tumblers of coffee, and it wasn’t a status thing where you bought your coffee.” The greatest impact of the advent of Starbucks on The Sensuous Bean was that it started its on-site coffee brewing – Customers from that point on could buy their coffees to sip along the way, and a lucky few snagged a seat at one of several tables out in front of the store.
Lucretia still lives in the house in Brooklyn where she raised her two children. Now, one is an attorney-turned-teacher, and the other is a teacher in Harlem. She comes to the shop Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Her enthusiasm for the business is as great as ever. Perhaps the thing she values most among many joys of her work at the shop is her interactions with customers. “You learn so much if you really listen,” she said.
