"This is not a workspace; it's a gathering place; familiar, warm, and quietly alive," Justin Wands told Andrea Strong's Strong Buzz when he explained why Café Wands, his project at 215 Union Street, would ask guests to leave their laptops at home. He was candid about the tradeoff, too: "I can't please everyone."
Café Wands is one of four new counters this fall between Court Street, Union Street and Smith Street. The coffee at each is serious. What sets them apart is the deal each one makes about your time. One is built so you can be in and out before the light changes. One wants you to stay for the afternoon without a screen. One keeps hours that make it an espresso stop for the middle of the day. The fourth is a Brooklyn Heights café adding a second room on a Smith Street corner.
Smør Bakery Built a Window for People Who Won't Sit Down
Smør Bakery opened at 361 Court Street, on the corner of President Street, on October 1, according to Brooklyn Bridge Parents. It is the Nordic-inspired bakery's third shop, after the East Village and Williamsburg, as The Infatuation noted. The bakery's opening-day announcement promised pastries, coffee, breakfast, lunch and doors at 8 a.m., as Brooklyn Heights Dispatch reproduced it.
The to-go window is the part of the corner that matters most. The Gowanaut reported full café seating inside along with the window, and it singled out the cardamom buns, the sourdough and the breakfast burrito as the items drawing people in. A window lets a bakery sell to someone who hasn't broken stride. That makes a corner on Court Street into a stop on the way to somewhere else.
The burrito is built to carry. On Smør's menu it comes with cheesy eggs, hash browns, bacon, scallions, avocado and a "secret sauce." The same menu lists the cardamom bun as a weekend item, so the bun people line up for is a Saturday and Sunday thing.
Smør serves the fast end of the morning. The rest of this fall's new counters are about everything that comes after.
Café Wands Is Designing for the Opposite Pace
Café Wands sits a few blocks from Smør, in the room at 215 Union Street that used to be Gus's. Wands set November 1 as the opening date in his announcement. Smør is built around a window. Wands' room is built around a fireplace.
His background explains the approach. Strong Buzz describes him as an opera singer turned restaurateur. He is a partner in Chez Fifi and worked at The NoMad and with Chef Thomas Keller before that. He told Strong he wanted to "re-establish the café as a culinary destination where people come to read, talk, and connect." He described the room this way: "Miles Davis will be playing, the fireplace will be going, we will have candles burning."
A café that wants you to linger has to give you a reason to order a second time, and the menu is set up for that.
- Coffee. Coffee director Rohith Ram is a trained neuroscientist and former medical student. He runs a light-roast-only program with a house-blended espresso, rotating single-origin espressos and pour-overs. The iced coffee is flash-brewed, meaning it is brewed hot and chilled quickly instead of cold-brewed.
- Beyond coffee. Ram makes "Ro's Chai" in house from a nine-spice family recipe. He also serves single-cultivar Japanese ceremonial matcha and his own non-alcoholic, low-caffeine Coffee Soda.
- Baking. Chef Grayson Brower, formerly culinary director at Hudson Valley's Seminary Hill Orchard and Cidery, does all the baking in house. Her opening menu includes buckwheat choux buns, slices of gooey butter cake, a fig "Newton," a house PB&J with or without crust, and breakfast sandwiches of bacon, scrambled eggs, local Gruyère and tomato jam on house-made brioche or English muffin.
- The afternoon item. A goûter, the French afternoon snack, goes on offer after 2 p.m. A café that schedules something for mid-afternoon expects people to still be there then.
- The tasting. Ram plans a reservation-only coffee tasting built on beans chosen for quality, traceability and seasonality.
The renovation follows the same plan. Wands took the former chophouse down to the studs and hired architect Richard Lewis, whose work includes Balthazar, Via Carota, Augustine and Xocomoco, to turn it into what Strong calls a "light-filled third place." Strong also reported that evening wine and cocktails are planned for later, which would stretch the room's day past the coffee hours.
Il Quartiere Keeps Hours That Skip the Morning Rush
Il Quartiere is about ten street numbers up Court Street from Smør and runs on a third schedule. According to The Soft Open, it has been open at 371 Court Street since the weekend of September 19. Uncle and nephew Chettino and Salvatore D'Angelo run it, and the storefront used to sell artificial flowers and bric-a-brac. They sell fresh pasta at a counter and espresso, Thursday through Monday from 11 to 7. The name is Italian for "the neighborhood."
Opening at 11 means Il Quartiere misses the 8 a.m. commuter entirely. That leaves it the late-morning espresso and the late-afternoon stop, when you can pick up fresh pasta for dinner on the same visit. The Gowanaut placed it next to Ven. Space and wrote that the concept fits a stretch of Court Street that has long rewarded small Italian shops.
Smør and Il Quartiere sit on the same stretch of Court and barely overlap. One is set up for the hour before work, and the other is set up for the hours around lunch and dinner.
NAKO Brings a Brooklyn Heights Café to a Smith Street Corner
The fourth counter shifts the map toward Smith Street. NAKO, the coffee-and-snacks café at 18 Columbia Place in Brooklyn Heights, announced in an October 17 Instagram post, reproduced by Brooklyn Heights Dispatch, that it is opening a second location at the corner of Smith and 3rd Streets. The Gowanaut reported that the café is renovating the former DAE space at 385 Smith Street for that location.
The corner is at the southern end of Smith Street, close to where Carroll Gardens meets the Gowanus edge. Until now, nearly every new morning option this fall clustered around Court and Union. With NAKO in place, residents closer to 3rd Street would have a new counter of their own.
Four Counters, Four Kinds of Visit
Read together, the new openings divide the day among themselves more than they compete for one customer.
| Counter | Address | Built for | What anchors the visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smør Bakery | 361 Court Street, at President Street | The fast morning | To-go window, breakfast burrito, weekend cardamom bun |
| Il Quartiere | 371 Court Street | Late morning to early evening, Thursday to Monday | Espresso and fresh pasta at a counter, 11 to 7 |
| Café Wands | 215 Union Street | The long, screen-free sit | Light-roast program, house baking, a goûter after 2 p.m., fireplace |
| NAKO | 385 Smith Street, at 3rd Street | The Smith Street side of the neighborhood | Second location of the Columbia Place coffee-and-snacks café |
Going by each counter's own schedule and menu, a Saturday could run in this order:
- Morning at Smør's window on Court and President. Get the cardamom bun, which is a weekend item, or the breakfast burrito if you're on your way somewhere.
- Eleven o'clock at Il Quartiere, a few doors up. That is when the D'Angelos open the counter for espresso. Pick up pasta for dinner while you're there.
- Afternoon on Union Street. The goûter Café Wands lists for after 2 p.m. is the kind of item meant for a long sit with a book or a friend, and no laptop.
Il Quartiere's hours run Thursday through Monday, so that middle stop only works from late in the week through the start of the next one. Smør's cardamom bun follows the weekend calendar. Café Wands' coffee tasting is by reservation. Each new counter has its own rules about when to go, and they are part of what each place is offering.
Café Wands' laptop rule and Smør's to-go window both turn on the same question about how much time a customer will give a block, and the answer affects the street as well as the café. If your Carroll Gardens home is a short walk from Court and Union and you want to know how that walkability shows up in its value, Bill and Guy can walk the blocks with you and give you a sense of where it stands. Request a complimentary home valuation, and we'll meet you for coffee at whichever counter suits your schedule.
