LO-FI Cafe

LO-FI Cafe is a Black-owned neighborhood coffee shop at 413 Nostrand Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

The coffee is Driftaway, brewed properly, and the pastry case pulls from Brooklyn bakeries rather than a distributor's catalog. The space is modern and open, built for both kinds of coffee-shop visit — the quick cup on the way somewhere, and the long sit where you settle in with a laptop or a friend and lose an hour.

What the cafe is really going for is the neighborhood spot, the one you end up in a few times a week without deciding to. Nostrand Ave has plenty of foot traffic and not enough places that feel like they belong to the block. LO-FI is trying to be one of those.

The cafe is open Monday through Friday from 7am to 5pm, which makes it a real morning-commute option and not just a weekend destination.

If you live in Bed-Stuy, this is worth putting into rotation. If you are passing through Brooklyn and want coffee from a Black-owned shop that takes the coffee seriously, it is an easy stop.