NYCGuide
21 Great Black-Owned Coffee Shops In NYC
photo credit: Lakou Cafe
The next time you’re looking for caffeine, head to one of these spots. From a coffee shop in Harlem where you can work for hours, to a cafe in Flatbush where you can catch a show or check out some art drinking a cappuccino, these are our favorite Black-owned coffee shops in NYC.
THE SPOTS
This tiny Bed-Stuy coffee shop from alums of Daughter and The Fly is a Saturday morning scene. This is due in part to their breakfast sandwich, which is stacked with scrambled eggs, pimento cheese, pickled green tomato, and paprika mayo on a brioche bun. They’re open every day from 10am-5pm, and you can also get a glass of natural wine to quell the coffee jitters.
A coffee shop from the family behind Make My Cake, I Like It Black serves lattes, matcha, and nitro cold brew on 125th Street in Harlem. Stop by for some quick caffeine, grab a pastry, and pick up a bag of beans roasted by a minority-owned coffee company.
photo credit: Buunni Coffee
Buunni is a coffee shop that specializes in small-batch coffee beans from Ethiopia (where the owners are from). They have four locations in Washington Heights and Inwood, including at the GWB bus terminal and sell some of the best beans we’ve ever tasted. If you’re looking to send some great coffee to someone that isn’t in NYC, Buunni ships nationwide.
Part of the Seed Brklyn fashion and art collective, which also runs a garden shop and an event space at their Bed-Stuy location, the Greenhouse Cafe is a plant-filled space with an old school hip hop playlist. You can drink an espresso, listen to some vinyl, and eat a vegan Jamaican beef patty all on one visit.
Located within the Fulton Street subway station in FiDi, Voyager Espresso is a subterranean coffee nerd’s paradise, down to the futuristic, Carl Sagan-inspired space. They source their beans from sustainable coffee farms across the globe, and if you prefer to caffeinate in the privacy of your own home, they offer subscription services to get their specialty roasted coffee delivered to your door.
Co-founded by radio personality and entrepreneur Angela Yee, Coffee Uplifts People serves breakfast, lunch, and coffee brewed from ethically sourced beans in an attractive space designed by Leyden Lewis. This Bed-Stuy spot emphasizes diversity, community, and sustainability, and it's perfect when you want to hang out with a juice or a latte on a nice green banquette.
A favorite of @iamcaribbeing’s Shelley Worrell, this pastel-pink shop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens sells big bottles of their signature sorrel mocktail as well plenty of coffee drinks and a selection of smoothies with ingredients like cucumber, kale, and blue spirulina. It's a great place to grab a beverage on the way to your walk in Prospect Park (which is only about a block away).
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
This coffee shop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens is like the second, bagel-filled home for everybody who lives in the neighborhood. In addition to some indoor seating, it has an outdoor dining area where you can drink a frothy oat milk latte and scarf down an everything bagel sandwich. Follow the lead of senators Chuck Schumer and Zellnor Myrie, and take a meeting here on a weekday morning.
Originally roasting coffee in Upstate New York, Plowshares Coffee now has two cafes in NYC: one on the Upper West Side, and another in West Harlem. At the larger West Harlem location, you can take a slow morning, eat a pastry, and spend a couple of hours working, bathed in the aroma of coffee roasting on a vintage roaster from the ’40s.
Drip in Bushwick is ideal for coffee nerds. This minimalist cafe specializes in pour-over coffee and carries a wide range of roasts from all around the world. They're open at 6am every day (morning people should appreciate this), and there are additional locations in Brooklyn Heights, Soho, and Williamsburg.
Aunt et Uncles is a casual vegan cafe in Flatbush that serves things like matcha lattes, espresso, mac and cheese, and breakfast sandwiches. When you enter this Brooklyn spot, you’ll feel like you just walked into a fancy boutique. There’s a bookshelf full of art books, the pink velvet sofa, gold-wrapped cafe tables, and pastel-colored chairs look like set pieces from the first Austin Powers movie.
One of the few Black-owned bookstores in Brooklyn, Cafe Con Libros in Crown Heights is a place where you can stop in for coffee or tea, attend an intersectional feminist book club meeting, and browse a wide-ranging collection of feminist literature. Check out their website for upcoming events.
If you spend a lot of time near Fort Greene Park, you’ve probably seen this small coffee shop just a few doors down on Dekalb Avenue. The entire building is painted aquamarine, and there’s usually a line of folks grabbing cold brew. You can also stop by for pastries and sandwiches daily.
Located in Flatbush’s Little Haiti, Drip Beverage Lounge serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and you can get a Haitian patty here alongside house-roasted coffee. They’re open from 8am-7pm on the weekdays, and 9am-6pm on the weekends. They regularly host events, so keep an eye on their Instagram for updates.
Lips Cafe is a coffee shop in Flatbush that does many things well, like excellent jerk chicken wraps, but it’s also an art space, pop-up venue, and Caribbean restaurant. So whether you’re looking for a gallery to discover a local artist or want to grab a latte to warm up your Sunday morning, Lips Cafe has you covered.
Bklyn Blend is a cafe and juice bar on Tompkins Avenue right in the middle of Bed-Stuy. And while it’s important that you know they have an excellent golden chai latte, plus several kinds of Jamaican patties and sandwiches to help you survive the colder months, you should also keep Brooklyn Blend on your radar for incredible smoothies to help you thrive during spring and summer. They also have a second location in East New York.
If the farm-to-table concept is something you’re into, you’ll be happy that this Bushwick spot sources all of its yogurt, cheese, milk, and eggs from a farm in upstate New York. Stop by this community cafe for everything from a sea moss smoothie to a breakfast burrito with a side of home fries. Bushwick Grind also has an outdoor community fridge where anyone can leave extra food or pick up free kitchen staples.
With its Haitian coffee beans, chicken and waffles, and strawberry shortcake, Brown Butter in Bed-Stuy is an overachiever in the best way possible. This place is open from 9am to 2:30pm Tuesday through Sunday, and it's a great option for a casual weekend brunch (especially when you're in the mood for biscuits).
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Milk & Pull has locations in Ridgewood and Bed-Stuy. Stop by either one of them for a quality cup of coffee made from house blends, or come for breakfast or lunch and get lox and cream cheese sandwich with red onions and capers.
El Barista Cafe in East Harlem serves everything from vegan banana walnut muffins to prosciutto sandwiches and matcha frappes. This place is open at 7am most days, and it's open until 8pm on Friday and Saturday. In addition to coffee, they also serve beer, wine, and cocktails, with a Happy Hour on weekdays.
photo credit: Lakou Cafe
This Haitian coffee shop in Weeksville serves a wide range of food like a salmon burger with pikliz, a Haitian breakfast platter, and a caesar salad with roasted curry chickpeas. They have a few good vegan options, like jerk jackfruit and soup joumou. The hot pink storefront is hard to miss, and they often host events like workshops and mixers in the bright plant-filled space.
