Common grounds: Brewing connections and embracing culture through coffee

One recent Sunday after church, the father of Alex Rodriguez, co-owner of Kafé Ojalá, entered his son’s shop to find himself in a crowd. Rodriguez’s parents have been some of his strongest supporters in chasing his coffee shop dreams, but, up until this point, his father had never entirely understood why his son would leave a 17-year career as a communications operator for State Corrections to pursue coffee.  In the standing-room-only atmosphere that Sunday, however, Manuel Angel Rodriguez looked from the shop patrons to his son and said, “I understand.”

Alex Rodriguez pinpoints this as a personal pivotal moment since the soft opening of Kafé Ojalá’s new 750 Cass Street location. “Seeing my dad say, ‘You got [this]’ means that I can put that same energy into the people that are running it daily,” Rodriguez says, adding, “that moment right there was the moment I was like, ‘I’m happy.’”

Alex Rodriguez is grateful for the new space for several reasons, not the least of which is that seven months ago the fate of the coffee shop was up in the air. When the Trenton Farmer’s Market announced that they were shuttering Kafé Ojalá, Alex had to pivot to find a new brick-and-mortar, and he was more than thrilled when One Up One Down reached out to him to take over the space on Cass Street.

The new location represents a combined legacy of coffee in Trenton. The door from the Trenton Farmer’s Market location makes a feature wall over the counter, and the market’s round table is now the nearest to the door. The lush green plants that line the frosted glass entry were left by One Up One Down, and the bright yellow espresso machine on the counter has returned to its original home. Rodriguez bought the machine from Abdul Wiswall, the owner of Trenton Coffee House and Roaster, when that shop left this location years ago.

About following Wiswall’s legacy, Rodriguez says, “This is me chasing his cup of coffee.”

Rodriguez has worked with Wiswall’s sons Abbas and Mohammad for years to learn the art of espresso and roasting. Abbas’s photography lines the wood paneled walls of the shop, and he remains the roaster for Kafé Ojalá. Rodriguez is beyond grateful for these men, and cites them as teaching him everything he knows about coffee.

“It’s nice to know that even though something might have dissipated 10 years ago we can still keep that legacy going, and it’s nice to do it in the same building it started at,” Rodriguez says.

Rodriguez himself came from Boston to Trenton in 2000 as a high school sophomore, which was around the time he met Kafé Ojalá co-owner Rich Malary. Rodriguez entered the workforce in Trenton right out of high school and has lived in various neighborhoods of the city his entire adult life; living and biking in a place that he is comfortable and at home. In 2019, he and Malary opened Kafé Ojalá in the Trenton Farmer’s Market with the help of the Wiswalls and had a successful five months before covid shut them down for a while. Returning to service happened slowly and with restrictions, but over time they were selling food and coffee again, and each year was reportedly more successful than the last. Unlike other coffee shops, Ojalá does not offer pumpkin spice lattes and other seasonal flavored drinks, but rather sticks to their signature “Ojalá Spice” and “complicated syrup” inspired by Haitian Kremas and Puerto Rican Coquito. This signature adds a unique spice and sweetness to their range of espresso drinks.

Now, on Cass Street, Rodriguez hopes to expand the shop’s offerings well beyond what it could offer in the market stall. “In this location I can be open seven days a week, and it’s my goal to be open until eight o’clock every night because I think it’s important to have a safe place for people where you don’t have to have a drink of liquor to enjoy people,” Rodriguez says.

The idea is to offer food as well as coffee, returning to the shop’s signature breakfast sandwiches with dinner meals and tapas being planned as additions for the later hours.

Rodriguez also hopes to invite musicians and artists into this new space to celebrate the art scene of Trenton.

“Trenton feels like home, you know. I have friends, I have family, I’ve invested a lot of time and energy, and I want to invest in the growth of Trenton, and I think that having this space is going to help with that,” he says.

Rodriguez believes that this space will forward the goal of giving Trenton residents a specialty coffee shop that feels like Trenton.

“You walk in here and you feel that warmth. It’s very intentional in what we’re doing. I want a Brown kid to come in here and see that I’m doing this. I want a Black kid to come in here and see [regarding Rich Malary] “Oh he owns this as well” too, like people in Trenton can do this, right?” Rodriguez says over a cup of coffee, “Me and Rich have been in Trenton for over 25 years and we wanted to execute this. For people to be receptive to it has been great but we’re very intentional, we’re very intentional with that flavor.”

Family and familiarity are key for Rodriguez who says that his business model is “giving someone an experience and making them feel like they’re at home.”

Even the name itself refers to the owners’ backgrounds. The creole “K” of Kafé plays on Rich Malary’s Haitian roots, paired with Alex Rodriguez’s “Ojalá,” a Puerto Rican fond farewell with the hope of seeing someone again.

Rodriguez says, “The quality product that we provide kind of binds [the Ojalá] community together and I’m grateful for that, so thank you Trenton, thank you Mercer County, thank you New Jersey, and thank you everyone that’s supported us.”

For more information on Kafé Ojalá’s hours and offerings go to www.kafeojala.com.