2025 Noteworthy New York City Cafe Openings

Cafe write-ups are in opening date order.

NÁKO | WILLOWTOWN, BROOKLYN

January 6, 2025
Náko is an attractive, multi-roaster cafe tucked away on block-long Columbia Pl, in the cobblestone-heavy micro-neighborhood of Willowtown, in southern Brooklyn Heights. Run by a Turkish family that operates other cafe locations in their homeland, Náko (the owner’s childhood nickname) focuses on specialty coffee served in beautiful ceramics in a modern space.

At the moment they are using Hudson Valley roaster Graziella for espresso, but once their single origin grinder arrives they’re going to expand on that; on the slow bar side, under direction of Lead Barista, Lee Synobia, who learned her trade at Villager in Crown Heights, ever-changing offerings include Connecticut’s Ilse and Denmark’s Standout. Pastries are from Bien Cuit. They have recently begun opening in the evenings with light food, beer and wine.
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DRIFTAWAY TASTING ROOM | EAST WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

January 8, 2025
After 10+ years of selling mass market specialty coffee online, primarily to subscribers, Driftaway founders Anu Menon and Suyog Mody finally scratched that itch and opened a retail operation in the front area of their East Williamsburg production space across from Brooklyn Steel.

The high-ceilinged, windowless room is brightened by a skylight that pours sunlight onto the white-painted brick. Stadium style wood risers provide seating along one wall, and a large pink-tiled pourover bar (a la Loveless Coffees) with an attractive speckled white top runs along the adjacent wall, with a standalone espresso bar near the entrance.

The weekend-only (for now) tasting room serves espresso and espresso drinks but the focus is on pourovers and flights of coffees from their Rising Tide series, which features fruity coffees with varied processes that they roast much lighter than their traditional offerings. They have also begun rolling out a series of specialty drinks in collaboration with cocktail wizard Ray Lam.

Now that they’ve found their footing, they’ve been hosting pop-ups and bar takeovers, most recently Thoughtful Coffee, Gotcha Foccacia, Yellow Pear and Ugandan importer Mountain Harvest.
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ANTI CO CAFE | BEDFORD STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN

January 20, 2025 (soft opening)
Co-owned by industry veteran Emily Dullea, Anti Co’s motto is “Pro community, Anti everything else.” Located roughly in the center of the Bed Stuy specialty coffee cafe cluster, Anti Co assembles its coffee drinks with base model offerings from Arkansas roaster Onyx and does a good job with them. They have a food menu prepared by an in-house cook and gluten free offerings from The High Treatstess (who also works in the cafe). A good neighborhood spot.
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MANJUL | SOHO, MANHATTAN

January 27, 2025
Manjul, the spacious and airy SoHo cafe outpost of a Ukrainian-run fashion label with a strong Christian bent, has become very popular in just a few short months. The monkish cadre of baristas (with very few women on staff) prepare expert pourovers and espresso drinks using coffee from Berlin micro-roaster Kolo (the only shop in New York City using it). The decor and aesthetic put some in mind of La Cabra, but none of La Cabra’s New York City cafes have a tree (yet).
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DEPLOY | SOHO, MANHATTAN

March 1, 2025
After three years of deploying their custom coffee carts along the Long Island City waterfront, partners Jimmy Lai and Danny Singh, both US military veterans, opened their first brick and mortar on SoHo’s southern border. The carts are still being deployed, and all of their coffee operations use Onyx Coffee, roasted in Arkansas.
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12 MATCHA | NOHO, MANHATTAN

March 26, 2025
12 Matcha opened to huge lines for its luxury matcha experience on the corner of Bond and Bowery, and the futuristic water delivery systems at each station are visually impressive. Servers are competent and friendly and do a good job with the preparation, but there is no straight matcha available on the menu, and the matcha cheesecake and ice creams aren’t as good as one would wish given their imprimatur.
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BOYFRIEND CO-OP | BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN

March 29, 2025
Boyfriend, a queer-run, worker-owned cooperative, is in Bushwick, on the Bedford Stuyvesant border, sports gothic-leaning decor, a full bar in addition to its coffee bar, and runs a huge number of community-oriented and left-leaning political events. They use Sey Coffee, roasted in East Williamsburg, and do a decent job with it.
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SOLE CAFE | SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN

April 10, 2025
Run by Danny Mentado, the former wholesale manager for Australia’s Niccolo Coffee, Sole Cafe is a vest-pocket-sized corner cafe in a residential neighborhood across from Green Wood Cemetery. Danny serves coffee from his former employer.
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RITE. COFFEE | SOUTHSIDE, BROOKLYN

May 17, 2025
Sharing space with NYC Film Lab, Southside’s Rite. Coffee is spacious and light-filled, with high ceilings and a spare, relaxing ambiance. There are a few tables along the front window, a side bench with a couple of plugs for laptoppers, and a welcoming living room square in the middle of the room.

The owner and barista team all know their stuff and prepare the Parlor Coffee, roasted in Clinton Hill, really well. There are two espresso choices, a handful of interesting-sounding specialty drinks and at least two pourover choices. Service is friendly and professional.
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OBSCURE COFFEE ROASTERS | BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN

May 1, 2025
Nano-roaster Obscure (run by Norberto Peña) slotted itself neatly into the Bushwick / East Williamsburg specialty coffee power corridor, betwixt roaster Loveless and multi-roaster cafe Dayglow, and lies discreetly behind signage for Bushwick Comedy Club, of which it occupies the front-room space.

Norberto sources, roasts and expertly prepares Latin American coffee, much of it from his native Puerto Rico, much of it Direct Trade, and brings in baked goods from local entrepreneurs including conchas from Panaderia 2D.
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ARCANE ESTATE | WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN

May 16, 2025
The brainchild of Edgar Rojas (in partnership with Ian Walla) the evocatively-named Arcane Estate sources single origin coffees (mostly Geshas) primarily from company farms in the Panama highlands and roasts them locally at Brooklyn’s Shared Roasting. Baked goods are from Mr Walla’s former employer (ex-GM) La Cabra. The space, resplendent with dark wood and red leather banquettes, has a cozy West Village clubby vibe. Expect top notch, friendly service.
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KIS CAFE AMANT | EAST WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

June 11, 2025
After operating for three years under the name of local chain Drip Coffee, the serene, brightly-decorated Amant Foundation cafe and bookstore has been brought in-house and rebranded as Kis Cafe. The coffee bar is still manned by the same skilled baristas, and they still use Drip Coffee mainstay, Black & White, roasted in North Carolina, but their remit has changed somewhat; they are featuring various high-quality food options and plan a series of cafe-based events. Since opening, they have switched to local nano-roaster, Pipe & Tabor.
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BROOKLYN GRANARY & MILL | GOWANUS, BROOKLYN

June 20, 2025
Headed by Patrick Shaw-Kitch, head baker at Blue Hill at Stone Barns for five years, Brooklyn Granary & Mill, tucked away on a dead-end Gowanus side street, sources organic and regeneratively-grown grains from around the northeast and mills them into flour using a New American Stone Mill from Vermont. The flour is in turn sold to bakeries around the region and also used in-house to make a panoply of sourdough breads, buns and laminated pastries.

The friendly baristas know their stuff, turning medium-roast coffee from East Williamsburg’s Driftaway (also in this guide), and tea from Queens-based Anna Ye (sourcing wild-foraged teas from Vietnam) into all of the classic drink offerings. This is probably the best beverage program by a dedicated bakery operation.
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COFFEE & CHISME | BENSONHURST, BROOKLYN

August 7, 2025
After surviving the vicissitudes faced by many New York City small businesses: a shady landlord and a series of conflicting edicts from the Departments of Health and Buildings, Coffee & Chisme has relocated from a largely residential neighborhood to a more interesting part of Bensonhurst, on 86th St and 17th Ave. Run by three generations of Ramirez’s, Coffee & Chisme serves Paloma Coffee; Tomas Ramirez used to manage one of the Greenpoint branches of the Paloma empire. Their homey food menu is well-regarded.
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LARRY’S CÀ PHÊ | PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN

August 16, 2025
After building a popular business over the last two years at their original East Williamsburg location (which opened in 2023), Larry’s has opened a second cafe in the owner’s home neighborhood of Park Slope. They still use the same specialty Vietnamese coffee, with largely the same drinks menu, but have added savory and sweet food items.
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PARK AT KIMS | LITTLE ITALY, MANHATTAN

August 18, 2025
Little Italy multi-roaster cafe Park at Kims is owned and operated by four friends (including two brothers – the Kims). It occupies an Elizabeth St block that manages to shake off the Chinatown hustle and bustle just to the south and hasn’t yet succumbed to the gentrification of Nolita on its northern edge.

Design is important here, and the space is fitted out with blond wood, a concrete floor, and attractive lighting elements. The bar faces the door, and a turntable, records and speakers occupy much of the rear shelf real estate. Their intentional choice to use constellations of boxy seats, benches and tables rather than discrete seating goes a far way toward creating a relaxed, convivial vibe.

The coffee menu focuses on Korean roasters, at the moment Clarimento, Pastel and Travertine for hand brews, with Los Angeles roaster Loquat on espresso. The food selection is limited, focusing on a few quality items, the mainstay being the doenjeong (fermented soy paste) jambon beurre.
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KABIN | HUDSON SQUARE, MANHATTAN

September 2, 2025
Hudson Square’s Kabin, with an interior somewhere between hotel lobby and ski chalet and open as a cocktail bar since June 2024, has begun a daytime cafe program.

They brought on Rohith Ram, formerly at West 10 West, as lead barista, and he chose La Cabra, roasted in Bushwick, for espresso drinks, and famed Nordic roaster Tim Wendelboe for hand brews. The menu features Rohith’s family chai recipe as well as a refreshing house-made sparkling strawberry lemonade called sitrontbus.
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YELLOWSUN COFFEE ROASTERS | BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN

September 5, 2025
YellowSun, opened by two gentleman who gained a lot of experience building out a cafe chain in Saudi Arabia, turned the old Dweebs cafe into a cheery, welcoming space. Minimalism seems to be their byword, from their yellow and white branding to the spare but attractive interior to their sparse menu.
They roast their own coffee at Brooklyn’s Shared Roasting and source rare lots from Yemen (among other places). Their matcha is high quality from Japan via Brooklyn’s UnD.
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PAIRING | GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN

September 6, 2025
After a month-long soft-opening phase, southeast Greenpoint flower shop and cafe celebrated its grand opening September 6th. At least one of the owners is a restaurant industry veteran, having worked in his family’s Chinatown bakeries for most of his adult life. They use Sey Coffee, roasted in East Williamsburg.
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TOBY’S ESTATE COFFEE | WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN

September 15, 2025
In May of 2025, the New York City specialty coffee scene was agog to hear that Australia’s Toby’s Estate Coffee was opening in TriBeCa, but the West Village pop-up (that’s what they call it) opened first, in mid-September, basically a drop-in replacement for the old Cafe Kitsune. The TriBeCa location is still under construction, and a SoHo branch is in the works.

This iteration of Toby’s is still not the real one but a licensee by a Kuwait private equity company. Some of their coffee is roasted at Brooklyn’s Shared and some flown in from Australia, and apparently that is the plan going forward. When Steven Sadoff was still there, they were offering pourovers for friends (or I guess those that asked for them) but not sure if that’s still the case.

Those with long memories in the New York City coffee world might remember that Williamsburg’s Partners Coffee, these days ubiquitous in the mass market specialty wholesale scene (also with a handful of cafes), used to be called Toby’s Estate Coffee.

In 2012, Toby visited from down under for the grand opening of the original Toby’s on N 6th St, which was owned by licensees Amber Jacobsen and Adam Boyd. In 2019, Toby’s US changed its name to Partners Coffee.
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MARU | WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

September 16, 2025
After Dayglow broke the ice back in 2023, other Los Angeles-based and -inspired cafes have landed on our shores, most recently the famed Maru, which has three locations in Los Angeles, where they roast all of the coffee.

Maru, which of course opened in Williamsburg, originally to huge lines, is all about concrete, white walls and blond wood, much like their hometown build-outs.

Service is friendly and knowledgeable, and their menu is comprehensive, with three espresso choices, ranging from dark to light, three espresso sets and a large number of specialty drinks and hand brews.
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KINHFOLK | EAST WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

September 27, 2025
When they signed the lease on the ground-floor storefront of a new East Williamsburg building, Kinhfolk owners Linh Nguyen and Kevin Hu never imagined that due to issues with the building, two years would pass before they opened to the public.

In hindsight it’s possible that the two years worked to their advantage. They refined their craft through countless pop-ups at cafes and small business venues around the city and parlayed that into a popular coffee-catering business.

Along the way they were able to sample a large variety of wares from the fast-growing Vietnamese specialty market, eventually settling on specialty Robusta from Bay Area roaster River Phin (who did an event at the Maum Store in September 2025).

The Kinhfolk (haha) did most of the build-out on their Metropolitan Ave space themselves, creating an attractive green oasis, with a bar space in the front and a cozy rear sitting room. For now they’re open Thursdays through Sundays.
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HOBS at AMMAZZA DELI | EAST WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

October 15, 2025
Hobs, the brainchild of veteran barista Jeep Chokjaroenwattanakul (who usually goes by just Jeep), stands for House of Brews, and is also the name of her pet ferret.

Jeep first came onto my radar back when she worked at the long-gone Charter Coffee on Graham Ave, which I assume is where she became acquainted with Kelly Hau, the owner of Ammazzacaffé, a Bib Gourmand Michelin Italian restaurant around the corner.

Hobs is ensconced within East Williamsburg’s Ammazza Deli, the little sister of the aforementioned restaurant, roughly equidistant between the original Larry’s Cá Phê (which opened in 2023) and Driftaway Tasting Room. Interestingly, Jeep chose Denver’s Middle State Coffee and uses it for everything at Hobs.
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CHE at SINCERELY TOMMY | BEDFORD STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN

November 1, 2025
Che, a favorite all-day cafe of ours which debuted in 2023, has opened a second Bedford Stuyvesant location inside Sincerely Tommy, a boutique that it shares a partner (Kai Avent de-Leon) with.

Tariffs allowing, Che is a multi-roaster cafe using Sandbox (Germany) and Uncommon Ams (Netherlands); their fallback roaster is East Williamsburg’s Sey, and they do a great job with everything including pourovers.
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TERA | LOWER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN

November 10, 2025
The first high-end specialty cafe in the Lower East Side, Korean-leaning Tera focuses primarily on co-ferments from West Coast roasters Ondo and Hydrangea, offering each as both espresso and pourover. There is a sudachi espresso tonic among the small menu of more elaborate drink offerings.

The cafe is long and narrow, with high ceilings, dark washed walls and a dark micro-concrete floor, and might feel claustrophobic if it weren’t for a series of noren-like white cloths hanging from the ceiling at staggered intervals. A curved, dark, mottled green and white stone bar occupies most of the space on the right-hand side as you enter, with a narrow corridor to the left running into the back where a tatami room is being built out.

A long narrow galley-style kitchen tucked away in the rear of the cafe past the bar turns out an interesting nighttime menu along with daytime cafe food that at the moment is limited to a selection of financiers in six different flavors and the house version of a Spanish tortilla.
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HIGH BEAM | RED HOOK, BROOKLYN

November 22, 2025
Selina Ullrich, coffee roaster for the late, lamented Carroll Gardens coffee shop and restaurant, East One (which closed this year), has opened a huge new roastery and cafe under the name High Beam on the Red Hook main drag, Van Brunt St. Red Hook hasn’t had a serious coffee shop since the original Stumptown roastery tasting room closed (2011 ish).

The enormous High Beam space is elevated from street level a few feet when you walk in (with an elevator for those that require it), with the coffee bar on the right and a long communal table to the left. There’s additional seating in the back, across from the roaster, which is tucked into an alcove, and there’s a beautiful outdoor space for warmer months.

Matt Whipple, Ms Ulrich’s former colleague at East One, is managing the coffee bar, and you can expect well-extracted batch brew and espresso; there are no pourovers. They don’t play it safe with the roast choices; on opening day the espresso was an Ethiopian Worka Sakaro anaerobic natural. A food program is in the works.
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KETTL SEN MON TEN | GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN

December 5, 2025
Kettl, which already runs a cafe, retail and wholesale tea operation further north in Greenpoint, has opened a separate, matcha-focused cafe called Sen Mon Ten (専門店), which in Japanese refers to a shop that specializes in only one product. It’s located within 50 Norman, a warehouse compendium of Japanese businesses, but has its own entrance.

Step through the heavy front door set into the metal-framed glass front into a somewhat chilly-feeling, sparse interior, with heavy stone curved seating on the left-hand side as you enter. The seating is fronted by rough-hewn stone tables and faces a low, stone-fronted bar behind which all of the tea drinks are prepared.

Behind an innocuous rear door lies a hidden, reservation-only tasting room. A three-sided bar (seating 8) is topped by a gorgeous, wood-sided ziggurat that comes nearly to a point at a square, bright, ceiling-flush light that at first appears to be a skylight.

Sen Mon Ten is a temple to matcha, sourced from a variety of producers and served in a variety of methods to highlight different aspects. I highly recommend the reservation-required rear tasting experience, with its exceptional, knowledgeable service. All teas are accompanied by wagashi created by Phoebe Ogawa, who has a longstanding relationship with Kettl.

But the front, a la carte experience is just as special as the tasting menu, with a similar level of care taken, and one can acquire adulterated drinks in either room, such as a sparkling drink or with steamed milk. But the focus is always on the tea.
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SUMP | WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

December 14, 2025
Scott Carey and Marz Yamaguchi have returned to their old neighborhood (at least on a part-time basis) and opened a coffee shop, Sump. Sump hails from their home of the last 15 years, St Louis; they also have two locations in Nashville. When they moved to St Louis to be near family, they couldn’t find good coffee, so they opened a shop and started roasting.

Their Williamsburg shop is on the bare bones side, but don’t let that stop you from doing a deep exploration of their well-sourced, light-roasted pourover menu, mostly naturals at last visit. Sump recently hosted their first tasting event, and we are looking forward to their integration into the New York City specialty coffee community.
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MOON COFFEE LAB | EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN

December 19, 2025
Veteran New York City barista Meech Molina, who most recently manned the espresso station at Driftaway Tasting Room (also in this guide), has opened their own cafe in the southwest corner of the East Village. An attractive 450 square foot white box, the shop feels larger than it is and features a training alcove behind a sliding door that the owner plans to open up to the community.

Their house coffee is the aforementioned Driftaway, roasted in East Williamsburg, with both standard and featured espresso, batch brew and pourovers all taken from the roaster’s high end, Rising Tide series.

The plan going forward is to act as a rotating multi-roaster, keeping Driftaway as the house coffee and bringing in a different featured roaster each month.
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BUDDY BUDDY | NOHO, MANHATTAN

December 19, 2025 (soft opening)
Buddy Buddy, a high-end nut butter coffee shop (a combination as confusing as it sounds) with two other locations, one in Paris, one in Brussels, landed in New York City with a gorgeous build-out in a landmarked NoHo building on the west side of Bowery.

As a straight-up coffee shop, Buddy Buddy does a pretty good job, sourcing fairly well and roasting fairly lightly. The batch brew is tasty, and the espresso gets the job done. And as a nut butter store, they are doing even better, creating my kind of spreads, with almost no added sugar and deep flavor.

The intersection of these two things is where, to my taste, they go awry. First of all, during the times I’ve visited, the only “nut” drinks available were made with peanut butter (which we all know is not a nut). And after trying the entire specialty drink menu at two separate times, I have to say that I found most of the signature drinks, such as the organic peanut butter latte, to be only vaguely nutty. This is not a universal opinion; many people wrote to me to say they found the specialty drinks fun.

The (huge) room itself is one of the prettiest cafe spaces in the city, following none of the standard design tropes. A beautifully-lighted burnt umber bar runs down the entire left side of the main room, with bench seating and leather stools of the same coloring running up the right-hand side, a gorgeous, grayscale wall mural covering the wall above. The floor is concrete and the other main material is stainless steel. Stunning.

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