Residents of McGinley Square and the West Side in Jersey City don’t have to wait much longer to once again stop at 695 Bergen Avenue for a cup of coffee. Although the sudden closing of Harry Street Coffee over the summer left a vacancy in the neighborhood, two local residents have announced that they will open a café and ice cream shop called Crema in the space this winter.
Owner/operators Federico Rodriguez and his wife Michele Boas have lived in the community with their two children for the last decade. Rodriguez told Jersey Digs that he saw a sense of community evolve when Harry Street Coffee opened, but seeing the space sit vacant for months motivated him to bring a local venue back to this brownstone.
“Crema will focus on high-end ice cream and coffee in a family-friendly environment year-round,” said Rodriguez, explaining that there will be least 20 ice cream flavors as well as espresso and a variety of sweets.
The café will also offer space for community events and for local artists to sell their work. According to Rodriguez, the opening of Crema will fill a void in McGinley Square.
“My wife is a freelancer and can never find anywhere nearby to collaborate with other creative minds,” he said, adding that “when we are in the mood for something sweet, we have to get in the car with our two boys to get a good ice cream.”
Although Downtown Jersey City has several independent ice cream parlors, there are very few in the city’s outer wards. That will soon change when Crema opens its doors in mid-January 2018.
