Ants Coffee

A short counter with tea taken seriously

The draw is not a long menu. Ants Coffee works like a neighbourhood coffee bar that has decided to keep its range legible: espresso drinks, cold coffee, matcha, tea and a small food case rather than a kitchen. That matters at the bar, because ordering never turns into a negotiation. The cold drinks are the ones to know, an iced latte and a cold brew, and the house does not name its roaster, so the useful fact is the shape of the counter rather than the bag behind it.

Tea has its own standing here rather than a token line on the board. The Williamsburg shop has hosted a Cha Lab tasting, which tells a regular that the leaf side of the programme is real work and not a hedge for people who do not drink coffee.

Family-run, counter-led, built for the daily stop

The room reads as a small modern Brooklyn café and the service is counter-led, which is the right format at this size. The exchange happens at the bar, the drinks come back the same way, and the place suits a daily run better than a long ceremony.

Its family-run identity is not decoration. It shows in how the café positions itself, a local coffee spot with a warm and direct manner rather than the severity of a tasting room. A second counter has soft-opened in Greenpoint carrying the same programme, so the model is being repeated rather than reinvented.

Order the cold brew, then add the alfajor

Start with the cold brew on a warm day, or the iced latte if milk is the point of the order. Both are house drinks and both fit the way the café works: quick over the counter, simple, and suited to a walk through Brooklyn rather than a sit-down tasting.

The matcha latte is the other clear order, particularly if the tea side of the programme is what brought you. Then add the alfajores from 34 South when they are in the case. They are the food item with a real identity here, dulce de leche held between soft cookies and made by a local partner rather than stretched out of an in-house kitchen, and they have travelled with the brand to the Greenpoint counter.