A Caffeine Fiend's Dream on DeKalb

Locals walking down one of the neighborhood's main thoroughfares don't need to look far for a caffeine fix — there is a café every block!

DeKalb Avenue between S. Oxford Street and Vanderbilt Avenue features so many coffee shops that even Starbucks would likely think twice about opening a store there.

The area's oldest café, Tillie's, is the most isolated, yet only two blocks away from WTF Espresso & Tea on Willoughby Avenue.

The most congested spot is two blocks over at the intersection of Carlton and Dekalb avenues, with and Bitter Sweet virtually next door to each other and Smooch Café just around the corner. Jack's Coffee is also nearby at the corner of Cumberland Street.

That's six coffee shops within four blocks of each other — excluding bodegas!

"It's definitely more of a challenge," said Patricia Mulcahy, the owner of Tillie's. "Every time a new place opens, my business declines by a certain amount."

And the competition has mounted quite a bit for Tillie's, which was one of the only cafés in the area when it opened 14 years ago.

Still, the assorted business owners remain cordial — and caffeinated.

"Would I prefer it if they weren't here? Yes. Would they prefer it if I weren't here? Yes," said Basquali, the one-named owner of Smooch. "But really, Fort Greene is like a small village. Everybody knows everyone, and there's enough crumbs to go around."

Basquali even admitted he spends his money over at a competitor: WTF Espresso & Tea.

"I like them, it's the only place I go for coffee," said Basquali, who — again — owns his own coffee shop.

Others are even more at ease with the stiff competition.

 "My first impression of the neighborhood was, my God, there are so many cafes on one little street!" said Michal Kukola, the manager at Catherine's Caffe. "But I don't think of any of us as competing because no two places are the same."

It may make some business owners pull their hair out, but locals reap the benefits.

"From what I've found so far, they're actually all pretty distinct," said Laura Chubb who recently moved to Clinton Hill. "I just stumbled on Smooch, which I really like for just chilling out in the daytime with a coffee and a muffin, and I've hit up Tillie's a couple of times for their open mike nights — I feel cultured drinking there."

She also pointed to an additional bonus: "If you get yourself kicked out of one place – which by the way I've never done – there's always somewhere else around the corner that will take you in and serve you coffee."