Clubhouse Cafe

A Devoción espresso drink from a bar staffed by young people learning the trade: Clubhouse Cafe is a social enterprise coffee shop in Concourse Village, a block from Yankee Stadium, run as a partnership between South Bronx United and Devoción Coffee.

Devoción coffee with a training floor behind it

The coffee programme is built on Devoción, the Colombian specialty roaster known for direct-trade sourcing and single-origin beans. That partnership gives the café a clearer specialty identity than a neighbourhood counter would usually have, and it shapes a compact menu of espresso drinks, brewed coffee, teas, hot chocolate and pastries.

For a first order, take something espresso-based: latte, cappuccino, americano or a straight shot. Brewed coffee is the faster stop, particularly before or after a game across the street. Hot chocolate is the clearest choice for anyone not drinking coffee, with tea as the other option.

A café built as a classroom

Clubhouse Cafe opened in January 2024 as an extension of South Bronx United, a youth organisation founded in 2009 that works with around 1,600 middle and high school students a year through academic support, mentoring, workforce development and soccer. The café turns that mission into a working coffee bar, giving local young adults hands-on experience in customer service, barista skills and daily operations.

The name comes from the organisation’s soccer roots, and it signals what the room is: a counter-service community space rather than a specialty showroom. Food stays light, with pastries alongside the drinks, and the counter interaction is part of the purpose rather than an interruption to it.

Why to make the stop

Order a latte or a cappuccino and you are giving a trainee barista the exact repetitions the programme is designed around: espresso, milk steaming, service under a queue. An americano keeps the order closer to the coffee itself, and brewed coffee is the simplest version of all.

The larger reason to come is what the shop is doing with the coffee. South Bronx United uses it as a real-world training environment for young adults, extending its academic, mentoring, workforce and soccer programmes into hospitality, and the café was picked up in Eater’s 2025 coffee guide. The result is a small, focused room with a simple menu and a clear purpose behind the counter, and a cup of coffee that does more work than most.