bwé Kafe recently opened a new location at 1405 Adams St. in Hoboken, part of a newly completed apartment building by Bijou Properties — Courtesy: Bijou
By Joshua Burd
A coffee shop has expanded its footprint in Hoboken, debuting a new location on the ground floor of a recently delivered, luxury apartment building by Bijou Properties.
The operator, bwé Kafe, marked the grand opening last week of the new 2,000-square-foot shop at the property known as Edge Adams. Located at 1405 Adams St., the space also includes the second location of the independent bookstore Little City Books.
Stakeholders hailed the opening as the latest addition to Hoboken’s budding north end.
“Congratulations to Little City Books, Park & Bloom and bwé Kafe on cutting the ribbon on a second location in Hoboken today,” Mayor Ravi Bhalla said during a Jan. 15 ceremony. “These small businesses will further revitalize our growing north end and improve the quality of life for all residents. I encourage residents to visit their new locations and shop local for a new book and cup of coffee!”
Joining Bhalla to celebrate the opening were bwé Kafe owner Dale Mori-Ryan, Little City Books co-owners Kate Jacobs and Donna Garban and the owners of Park & Bloom, along with representatives of Bijou Properties and other municipal and business leaders. Named bwé North End, the new outpost features 20-foot ceiling heights within a six-story building that is registered for LEED platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
“We are thrilled to welcome bwé Kafe and Little City Books to the North End,” said Larry Bijou, managing partner of Bijou Properties. “Not only is our company based in Hoboken, but this is where many of us live and raise our families. We take the needs of the community seriously and go to great lengths to bring retail and services that enhance the neighborhood — and Edge Adams is no exception.
“From Gravity Vault to Hudson Table to this one-of-a-kind coffee shop/bookstore, every project we’ve built in the North End has helped transform the way people think about living, shopping and dining in this area.”
To create a modern gathering and social space, bwe’s owners built out a second-floor mezzanine to add usable square footage and open up additional possibilities, including making the space available to rent for private meetings, events or parties, according to a news release. The addition of Little City Books has brought nearly 3,000 books to the space.
“We’re incredibly excited to open our doors to the North End community,” Mori-Ryan said. “When the opportunity of the North End location was presented to us, the aspects that excited us the most were the location of the space, the relatively uncontested market space of the surrounding area and the beautiful Platinum LEED Certified building. This fit all the metrics in terms of creativity, innovation and impact that we felt was right to level up bwè kafe.
“We believed the concept of a coffee shop and bookstore would be a perfect fit in the long term vision for the entire Hoboken North End.”
Little City Books will occupy 300 square feet accessible in the rear of the coffee shop. Seating will be available for bookstore customers in the bwé North End café.
“The North End neighborhood is on the move,” Jacobs said. “bwé invited us to collaborate and it seemed like a great chance to meld two established community hubs, and create a new one. bwé, like us, has a tendency to use their space for all kinds of interesting gatherings. We can imagine serendipitous collaborations occurring, blending their coffee crowd with our bookish crowd which are really in many instances, the same! And we love being up by Mile Square Theatre — theatres and bookshops make excellent neighbors.”