'Harlem Cafe' Opens, Serving Coffee & Sandwiches By Ponty Bistro Chef

HARLEM, NY — Harlemites craving high-quality coffee, pastries and brunch dishes have a new neighborhood option: Harlem Cafe, which threw open its doors last week on Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard.

The Central Harlem establishment kicked off its soft opening Thursday on the corner of West 133rd Street. It's the brainchild of Elhadji Cisse, chef-owner of popular restaurants Ponty Bistro and Renaissance Harlem.

As Patch reported in June, Senegal-born Cisse said his cafe would serve "classic French coffee with a little bit of African touch."

An online menu gives a sense of Harlem Cafe's offerings: hot coffee drinks range from $3 to $5 each, while breakfast items include egg sandwiches, smoked salmon bagels, avocado toast and Belgian waffles.

Lunch dishes, meanwhile, include light bites like a black bean burger and caprese panini sandwich, a half dozen salads, and bigger entrées including a roasted half chicken, sirloin steak and roasted salmon.

The pastry menu includes plain and almond croissants, blueberry scones and muffins, pain au chocolate and a spinach and ricotta danish.

Seating 10 to 15 people — plus outdoor sidewalk space — the 1,000-square-foot Harlem Cafe space was formerly home to a pharmacy. It is located just up the block from Cisse's Renaissance restaurant, and the chef said he hoped the coffee shop would help boost Harlem's burgeoning coffee scene.

"All my life I’ve been dreaming to have a good coffee shop in Harlem," he told a community board.

Harlem Cafe is only the neighborhood's latest coffee shop opening, following the spring arrival of Sojourner Coffee on West 116th Street, high-end Dell'Aria's opening last fall in East Harlem, and I Like It Black, which set up shop on 125th Street in early 2021.

Related coverage: Harlem's Ponty Bistro Owner To Open New Coffee Shop