Williamsburg’s Blue Brown Cafe (45 Havemeyer St.) is a cozy coffee shop and cafe owned by three Southeast Asian immigrants, Nuke, Supitcha, and Edwin. Supitcha and Nuke moved to Brooklyn from Thailand, while Edwin hails from Indonesia.
“We all came to the United States for different reasons, but we met working together at a restaurant in New York City,” Blue Brown Cafe’s co-owner and North Brooklyn local Nuke told Greenpointers.
Nuke explained that she and Supitcha worked as baristas for years in various cafes around the city, and said, “Over the last few years, we played with the idea of starting a business together and finally were able to make it a reality last fall when we signed the lease on 45 Havemeyer Street.”
“We both have a passion for coffee and sharing the unique flavors of Thailand and Southeast Asia,” Nuke continued. “There are many cafes in Brooklyn, so we wanted to stand out by fusing our culture with well-known drinks.”
Nuke told Greenpointers that choosing a name was difficult at first, but when they saw the home of their shop, it was simpler. “Once we found the building, the name sort of fell into our laps,” Nuke said, explaining that “blue” comes from the sky-blue building, and “brown” comes the warm wood tones of the interior.
Blue Brown Cafe’s menus showcase the unique flavors of Southeast Asia. The cafe offers classic espresso and tea beverages, plus a menu of signature drinks that includes Thai iced coffee, dirty chai tea latte, and a Blue Brown latte that comes with a butterfly pea flower.
“Our signature drinks menu has been particularly popular. We have our Blue Brown latte which uses butterfly pea flowers for color, as well as many health benefits. The dirty Thai tea latte has been very successful as well,” Nuke said.
Blue Brown Cafe also offers a food menu with Thai tea custard croissants, sweet cassava balls, dark chocolate salted caramel cookies, banana caramel chocolate chip cookies, pandan cake and a few other pastries. Nuke said that the Thai tea custard croissant is currently the cafe’s most popular food item, and said that she plans to add more Thai desserts to the menu in the future.
“We wanted a space that felt cozy like home with local artwork adorning the walls,” Nuke told Greenpointers, explaining that Blue Brown Cafe hopes to eventually double as an event space. “We’d like to host local art exhibitions in the future, but want to make sure the cafe operates smoothly before we branch out.”
Blue Brown Cafe is open Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.