Mokafé, a small chain of Yemeni coffee shops, has opened their second location in Greenpoint at 799 Manhattan Avenue. In fact, this is the brand’s second store on the same street with the first at 1059 Manhattan Avenue.
Mokafé brings “a unique cultural experience to North Brooklyn by offering specialty coffee directly from Yemen,” Mokafé previously told Greenpointers.
Mokafé’s new Greenpoint location was slated to open last fall, and after months of delay, finally opened its doors to customers last week. Mokafé told Greenpointers that they are still in the soft opening stages and will have a grand opening soon with a finalized menu and more permanent hours.
Mokafé has called this new Greenpoint location their flagship store and noted that it has “ample seating, an array of homemade desserts, and imported coffee,” and offers “an elevated café experience,” as Mokafé wrote on Instagram.
Mokafé’s flagship offers a large array of pastries and sweet treats with unique options like a baklava croissant, a spinach and feta croissant, pistachio tiramisu, Nutella shooters, and chocolate teddy bears called Mobears.
The cafe offers several sandwiches, like one with smoked salmon and cream cheese, one with tuna and egg, and one with Buffalo chicken. There’s also toasts with avocado, cream cheese, or hummus.
The substantial drink menu offers traditional coffee drinks, including Turkish coffee, flat whites, cortados, lattes, hot chocolate, and cold brew, plus a selection of teas like chamomile, hibiscus, mink black tea, and Yemeni shai adeni, a tea from Yemen that is typically flavored with warming spices and sweetened condensed milk.
There’s also a list of matcha drinks with flavors like lavender vanilla and raspberry oat, plus refreshers that come in a variety of flavors like pomegranate, lemon hibiscus, and lavender lemonade. A section of specialty drinks includes a honey cinnamon latte, a pistachio latte, and a brown sugar shaken espresso.
Mokafé’s hours are 8 a.m. – midnight. Eventually, the cafe plans to be open later.
I have been waiting for this coffee shop to open and now that it is open, it was well worth the wait. I love the Adeni tea, and also the Yemeni deserts. Greenpoint coffee shops typically close around 5-6pm. The fact that they are open late gives the neighborhood a late night coffee shop choice.