semicolon cafe — Restaurant in New York

When I moved to my neighborhood seven years ago, I checked out the local Caffe Bene (now “Semicolon”) because it’s a Korean brand. The owners are a Korean couple who are the same age as my parents. Over the years, they’ve shown me so much kindness. I saw a lot of my parents in them and was worried for them when NYC locked down. They barely had any customers in the winter so I visited often. Mrs. Kim would run out of the kitchen to turn on the heater for me.

They are now thriving! So happy for them, and their sandwiches & coffee are delicious. Yesterday, I congratulated her on the booming business and she took me back to feed me Korean food. Mrs. Kim gets up early everyday to prepare Korean food for all of her young employees on top of baking bread and managing her business. She immigrated a couple decades ago to give her children a better future and has been working hard every day. Despite having pain in her hands now, she said her greatest joy comes from seeing other people happy so that’s her mission with the cafe.

Heart-warmed and inspired by her kindness. New York! Check out “Semicolon” on 157th St & Edward M Morgan Place. Bulgogi breakfast sandwiches......

🤬 insulted and angry. My son adore French macrons but I will find another lace to buy them for him where I won’t be insulted by the Asian woman with no etiquette!🤬 the price of the macrons are clearly stated and when I asked her for a dozen she said “are you sure you want 12 ? That’s 37 dollars”did you assume I couldn’t read or computate? As I handed her a $100 dollar bill she proceeds to say “we don’t have change, don’t you have a card? “and then walks away . I don’t have my cards today and I also don’t have time for micro aggression during black history month! I would have left but my son adores Macrons. I found $37 in my purse and paid for the dozen that she refused to package untill she was sure I had exact change which caused my Uber to cancel my ride home!🤬I hung out a few minutes to wait for a Lyft and as I was the only BLACK AMERICAN in the store I noticed she didn’t price quote or ask for change of currency for ANY of the other patrons. I find it disrespectful what she did and someone needs to talk to her about her bias, her etiquette and class. I’m Black and buying $37 cookies for my son, you work in a coffee shop that I doubt pays you...

This place seemed to have a cute vibe and I liked the interior. Though, with a name like semicolon cafe I expected a literary themed shop. I order a spinach cup pastry and an apple pastry. They were ok. I also ordered a flat white and a matcha bomb. The flat white was smooth while the matcha bomb constipated of a poor quality matcha that tasted like fish. The barista seemed chill, but also seemed poorly trained on the products that were being sold in the shop. One major thing that pus me off was the invasion of privacy towards the staff that worked there. The photo copies of the vaccination cards of every staff member was displayed on the pillar on the right of the cashier. These cards display full name and full date of birth. That is scary and a very bad situation for the workers to be in. Someone could easily use that for the worse. There should be a sign saying “all employees vaccinated” or something of the like and the copies of vaccination should be put in a designated binder in the back office with east accessibility in case an inspector needs to verify that covid rules are being followed. Why would any competent owner put their employed...