Mokafé Coffee House, the hot new coffee and pastry chain, has soft launched their newest location at 273 16th Street in the Soho Lofts complex in Northern Downtown Jersey City. The huge cafe features 20 tables and 10 additional seats at the coffee bar with plenty of open space. Even with its soaring ceilings and neon lighting it still feels intimate and cozy, the perfect spot for a morning coffee or afternoon snack.
Founded in 2023 by partners of Palestinian and Yemeni descent, Mokafé has seen explosive growth since opening their first store in Paterson last November. In the past nine months, they’ve rolled out cafes in Brooklyn, Astoria and just launched a brand-new store in Times Square. It doesn’t stop there. After Jersey City, look out for locations coming in Greenpoint, Weehawken and Fort Lee.
If the Yelp and Reddit reviews for their other locations are true, this is more than a solid local coffee shop, this is a standout coffee and food destination with Instagram-worthy pastries, delicious viral Dubai chocolate and mouth-watering coffee drinks, hot and cold. They serve a broad variety of croissants, including three variations on flat croissants, nearly a dozen types of cookies, plus five wild twists on tres leches cake. Their Instagram feed is overloaded with seasonal coffees and pastries, secret menu hacks and insider information.
The broad array of specialty coffee drinks as well as the classic drip coffees and cold brews all feature freshly-roasted, single-origin beans from smaller coffee farms. They approach coffee as both a science and an art. Yemen is considered to be the origin of coffee and their Harazi Blend from Sanani, Yemen is their premier coffee and it sits alongside the Concepción Buena Vista Blend from Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The servers are all conversant in origin, roasting methods, brewing techniques and flavor notes in every cup.
The Jersey City Mokafé is their largest café yet and will also be their first and only location to feature brunch and dinner. The brunch menu boasts all the classics, including a kids menu, while the dinner menu is packed with steaks, short ribs, salads, oysters and more.
One of the guiding principles behind Mokafé is the Swedish social philosophy of Fika. which promotes the idea of sharing coffee with friends and colleagues to increase productivity and well-being. On their website they call Fika “a state of mind – a mindset that embraces slowing down and taking delight in appreciating the unique flavors of coffee and the company around you.”
If the friendly staff, delicious coffee and treats, spacious footprint, and welcoming pistachio-green chairs and banquettes don’t help patrons on their road to Fika, then nothing will.
