Europe-Inspired Morristown Café Becomes Place For 'Coffee Snobs'

Wednesday is National Coffee Day. To mark the occasion, Patch spotlighted a new, unique Morristown coffee shop — Lokl Cafe at 80 South St.

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Every so often, a bunch of croissants take a flight from France. Some of them end up in the stomachs of patrons who have tried Morristown's new Lokl Cafe.

At one point, patrons who grew up in the nation tried them and asked if Lokl Cafe had a French baker on the premises. They did not, but the customers said the croissants tasted like they came from a Paris café.

"We don’t just bring things back to your local area," said Yianni Arvanites, co-owner of the European-inspired Lokl Cafe. "When you’re trying things in our location, we bring you back to the local area you might have experienced when you were on vacation."

Arvanites and co-owner Peter Stog long dreamed of opening a European-style café. Arvanites is the kin of Greek immigrants. From a young age, he always looked forward to summers in Greece, experiencing the traditional flavors of his heritage. Stog was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, where fresh, whole foods were the standard at the kitchen table and in restaurants.

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Stog and Arvanites try to bring in the best food and coffee they can find, no matter where in the world it comes from. Arvanites says Stog is a "coffee snob," so they set a high standard for their brews.

Their main roaster is Rock Canyon Coffee — based outside of Aspen, Colorado. If the coffee sits on their shelves too long, they'll take it off — it'll either come home with the owners or their staff, but they won't sell it. According to Stog, once the coffee is roasted, it's ready to drink within four to six days.

"And then after you open up the bag and start using it," Arvanites said, "or even after we receive it, if it’s not sold in seven days, you might as well buy, as he puts it, supermarket coffee."

As far as baked goods go, they credit their baker — Zeynel "Murat" Ozbek. The Turkey native's culinary studies began in Europe, but he also received a degree in the United States.

Many places use frozen filo dough, Arvanites says. But Ozbek creates each filo sheet from scratch, making for authentic baklava.

They originally planned to open summer 2019, but Lokl Cafe faced delays. They needed Jersey Central Power & Light to increase power into the building at 80 South St., but several snowstorms and natural disasters held up the process.

Then the pandemic hit, which limited the number of employees JCP&L could send to do the job. After the restrictions ended, they again faced delays from more bad weather. But once they got the additional power installed in the fall, Lokl Cafe finally readied to open the week before last Christmas.

To their surprise, not all the customers have been "local." Patrons have come from New York, South Jersey and even Pennsylvania. They feel fortunate that the community — and those from afar — have embraced them in the early going.

"That’s the one thing that my partner and I wanted to pride ourselves on — to provide the best of the best and not just be average," Arvanites said. "I feel like that’s the first step towards failure, when you accept being average."

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