Harper's Cafe — Restaurant in West Orange

Nifty, old-school coffee shop. By "old school," I mean it has a rustic quality; it does not look like it was built last week from hand-distressed particle board just off the boat from Taiwan. Rather, it has a lived-in, earthy quality that I sometimes miss in coffee shops. Speaking of earthy, I'll talk about the coffee now. I had three drinks. The first was a double espresso. I felt the espresso lacked body. It had the consistency of iced coffee: thin, with very little if any crema. A better comparison might be to Turkish coffee: hot as the dickens and thin, with no syrupy-ness. Unsurprisingly (based on this consistency), the flavor lacked bite. My suspicion is that the grind was too coarse. However, what flavor I did register was very pleasant and somewhat lustrous. I assume this is because the beans were roasted right here in this shop. And, as I sipped it, the flavor grew on me. My third drink (I'll get to the second in a moment) was a drip coffee, whose flavor profile was almost exactly the same as the espresso (sort of lending credence to my theory that the beans were roasted here). Though it could have been hotter, I liked it. It may have been the dregs but it still had that local, in-house flavor. My second drink was an oatmilk cappuccino. It was blazing hot. I like a foamier cap, but my personal biases aside, it was good. Overall, the drinks were enjoyable. This shop also sells whole-bean coffee in earnest, unlike Light Bulb (also in west orange, which I have also reviewed). It was a good place to sit and caffeinate, which is one of the main things I enjoy doing in coffee shops (in case you couldn't tell). The people there were very nice. I will definitely go again. If they bring their espresso quality up to that of Light Bulb, I may go to Harper's exclusively, for its character and...

Found this spot via Google—rating was 4.8, so of course my wife and I had to check it out. We kept it simple: I ordered the 2 eggs with bacon platter, and my wife had a bacon and egg breakfast sandwich on a roll. Unfortunately, the food didn’t live up to the rating. The eggs were bland, and the bacon wasn’t anything to write home about—might be worth sourcing a better quality brand. My wife felt the same; she said the sandwich was pretty flavorless, and honestly, the best part was the bun. As for the coffee, that was another letdown. I got a drip coffee with half & half, and my wife ordered a cappuccino. Both were pretty bad—weak and lacking depth. To top it off, we waited around 12–13 minutes just for the coffee, which felt excessive given how slow the shop was at the time. I genuinely love supporting Black-owned businesses, so I’m sharing this as constructive criticism. I hope the team takes it in stride and continues to grow, because the potential is there—but the experience just wasn’t it for...

I stopped by Harper’s Cafe on a Saturday afternoon during their caffeinated event with KINNECT New Jersey, thinking I’d just grab a coffee and a sandwich on my way to Philly. But I ended up staying almost 30 minutes because the vibes were just that good. The space is beautifully curated, the ambiance is calm and inviting, and the staff was incredibly warm—shoutout to Garan, who took great care of me and was super patient with my order. They accidentally gave me the wrong drink at first, but it turned out to be delicious anyway, and they handled it with care. The coffee was amazing—I don’t know where they get their beans from, but it was easily one of the best I’ve had in Jersey. Harper’s is definitely going into my regular café rotation. A whole vibe from start to finish.

PS it was the MJ coffee chart for me 😂 I’m a proud off...