by Gerard P.

Ugh... Where do I begin?Leaving aside the multiple code violations-almost all of them related to some serious health contamination-and closings by the City Dept. of Health, there is really no reason to visit this place unless you are stranded in Bay Ridge after Midnight and need to locate an available restroom. To say that this cafe lives up to its name is an understatement of epic proportions. In its original incarnation, it was a dank, dilapidated, bright-white container that vaguely resembled the Muqata after being hit by several dozen tank shells launched from Merkavas. There were usually Arabic-language soap operas playing in the background, with a group of incontinent Egyptian men alternately smoking hookahs, or yelling indecipherably at one another. The only occasions when I patronized the cafe, usually after coming back from a bar or real restaurant located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens, I was served tea so scaldingly hot that I became convinced the building was a split level, with Gehenna directly opposite the coffee shop. Skip this place, and go directly to Starbucks.