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Wednesday
Aug152012
Kos Kaffe Gets Some Awnings, Ups the Charm Factor
Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 11:22AM 
Kos Kaffe, the new coffee shop that replaced Ozzie's last December on the corner of Fifth and Garfield, has become one of the most charming storefronts in the neighborhood. The inside is roomy and well-planned (even after ceding nearly half the space to Beauty Bar), the color scheme is spot-on, and the new awnings that they installed a couple weeks ago invite customers to hang out in front of the shop, and add some much-needed shade to this treeless stretch of the avenue.
in Food, Storefronts
Food, Storefronts
Reader Comments (7)
This is the nicest commercial block in the neighborhood, in my opinion and it's made a massive 180 in the last 2 years. What used to be a closed up Tempo and a closed up Aunt Suzie's and a closed up Ozzie's is now Kos Kaffe, Fornino, Pork Slope, Beauty Bar, Highdive, Housing works and Al Di La. Doesn't get much better than that.
You overstate the matter just a bit Sterling. I agree with most of what you say, but Beauty Bar is an embarrassment. The place sits empty most of the time and they can’t get their act together to remove the graffiti that has been littering their front window since it opened. I predict they close before winter.
When do you walk by Beauty Bar and see it empty? 7/8/9pm? Yeah it's empty then. Walk by at 11pm/12am on any given Thursday - Sunday and it's the exact opposite of empty. I was forced into going a few weeks ago for a birthday party and it was a blast actually. Place was a little crowded for my taste, but we had fun. It seems to get a lot of traffic on the weekends late at night when High Dive is so crowded you can't walk in the door.
The neighborhood is a totally different place on Friday and Saturday nights....the amount of bars that have opened all along 5th Avenue seem to have created some synergy and people come to the neighborhood now to bar hop from 20th street up to Flatbush.
Sounds like you're walking by Beauty Bar early in the evening because it doesn't seem to get cranked up till around 10pm.
As for the graffiti, I've noticed and wish they'd get rid of it.
The awnings were paid for by donations from the community through smallknot (kind of like kickstarter for local businesses): http://smallknot.com/koskaffe
As someone who contributed on smallknot, I can tell you the project was successfully funded on 6/13/12 and the announcement that the awning was up went out 7/17/12. While Kos Kaffe is lovely and I was happy to support them, the real scoop is that as far as I know, none of the contributors have received the "distribution" that they paid for to support Kos Kaffe getting the awning.
There hasn't even been an email or a mention of this since the project was successfully funded two months ago. Again, it wasn't my priority when I donated, but I kind of expect some sort of update if you're going to advertise different distributions for different donation amounts. Kind of made the whole thing feel like Kos Kaffe took advantage of its patrons and supporters.
Hi Dave, This is Sarah from Kos Kaffe. I just wanted to let you know that we've sent out several updates and began fulfilling rewards just a few days after our campaign drew to a close. Please shoot me an email (koskaffe@gmail.com) so that we can sort this out as quickly as possible. Believe me--we are incredibly grateful to our supporters and want nothing more than to see you reap the benefits. Thanks again!
No, Beauty Bar sits absolutely empty on weekend afternoons. I don't get why it does. It seems like a slamdunk concept.
Can you read, CubanSlope?
Poster said it's crowded weekend nights. Weekend afternoons, like most bars it's much more empty.