Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Harlem-Based Manhattanville Coffee Shop Opens New Location in Crown Heights

By Rachel Holliday Smith | January 30, 2015 3:06pm | Updated on February 2, 2015 9:04am
 The Harlem-based coffee shop Manhattanville opened a second location in Crown Heights this week.
Manhattanville Coffee Shop in Crown Heights
View Full Caption

CROWN HEIGHTS — The taste of Manhattanville has come to Crown Heights.

Harlem coffee shop Manhattanville has opened its second location, at Rogers Avenue and St. Johns Place this week, bringing their particular worker-friendly vibe to Brooklyn's laptop-toting masses.

The new shop’s owners, business partners Jack Gold and Rivka Sontag, are commercial designers who opened the first Manhattanville on Edgecombe Avenue because they often work out of coffee shops themselves in that neighborhood and thought they could design their ideal spot to work.

“We have a very strong love of coffee shops and a very strong idea of what we want out of a coffee shop for ourselves,” Gold said, standing next to his own mini-office set up in a back corner of the Crown Heights spot.

Work-friendly details at Manhattanville include plenty of outlets, freshly sharpened pencils in specially designed crevices in its tables and couch areas meant for collaborative conversations, he said.

“We want people to get this feeling of ‘Hey, it’s OK to hang out here and work.’ We want you to be here and work and be creative,” he said.

The new shop serves coffee from the Chicago-based roaster Intelligentsia and pastries and treats from city-based bakers using New York State local products. Most coffee drinks are priced between $2.25 and $5.00.

Both Brooklyn natives for more than three decades, Gold and Sontag said they wanted to open a coffee shop in their borough ever since opening the Harlem spot about a year ago. They decided to go for it when they saw the Rogers Avenue storefront, located on a corner with lots of natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows that can be opened in the summer.

“There’s something very enjoyable about being in the hospitality business, making people feel welcome, both in Harlem and Crown Heights,” Gold said.

News of the opening was first reported by Brownstowner.

The Manhattanville coffee shop is open at 167 Rogers Ave. seven days a week starting at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays and 7:30 a.m. on weekends.