About
bwè
kafe
Bwè Kafe (bweh kah-FEH) means “drink coffee” in Haitian Creole.
We’re a family-run coffee company from Hoboken and Jersey City, built on relationships, responsibility, and really good coffee.
In 2013, we opened our first cafe with a belief that coffee could connect people across borders and create community here at home. Over time, that belief took shape in deep friendships, mutual learning, and a commitment to support the people who grow the coffee we drink.
Hello! We’re a family-run coffee company from Hoboken, New Jersey, inspired by people, places and great coffee.
Today, we roast coffee in New Jersey and source beans from Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, and other places — always through personal relationships with the farmers and communities behind each origin. While the ways we’ve connected over the years have changed, the values that guide us remain the same: people first, good coffee always.
At every location, our team brings warmth, care, and hospitality to every cup we serve. Whether it’s your morning espresso, a warm chat over a latte, or discovering a new bean, we’re grateful to share coffee with you — from the heart.
Love For Haiti & Our Mission
The spark that started all this? Following the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, Maryanne and a team of U.S and Haitian doctors traveled to Port-Au-Prince in the days following the tragic event, providing relief support and medical aid. The Ark Project/Love For Haiti (501c3) was born from these initial trips, and for the past decade has focused on providing funding for higher education students in Haiti. The inspiration to open bwè kafe is to create a sustainable source of funding for Love For Haiti, by selling coffee & goods to our local communities here in Hoboken and Jersey City.
With Love For Haiti now supporting 19 full-time students, and bwè kafe as its largest contributor, we continuously seek new ways to serve local and global communities, with the core belief that humanity is inextricably connected and the choices and actions we take goes hand-in-hand with building the foundations of tomorrow.
bwè kafe means drink coffee in Haitian Creole.
the bwè way
This is what bwè kafe is all about; valuing each other as individuals, and continuously growing a strong culture of service together, to positively impact the communities in which we serve! Along with our Core Values, we have developed a tool bag for the bwè fam to help foster this culture of service right from the first day of training. These tools or concepts have been acquired over many years of learning (yes, often the hard way of course…) as we as a family and as a team have grown from one, to two, to three coffee shops. They are also forever morphing and fine tuning, as new challenges appear - oh hey there global pandemic - however, as long as we move forward with a humble spirit of learning, gaining from our mistakes and never burn bridges, we believe that the future is bright…just like our light roast!
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
At bwè kafe, we believe (and have come to learn!) that it is all and always about the people. No matter how high quality the product, how beautiful the space, how awesome the music...the magic comes from us as a team of individuals, authentically engaging with each other and the community, day in day out. Creating moments, that turn into habits (the good kind!), that build relationships, that foster friendships.