Come sip, and let kids play, at Seaford cafe

Toddlers bounce around while moms socialize

Posted

The new Sippy Cups Café in Seaford caters to its customers — moms and their children, such as Adina Skoler, who grew up in Wantagh, and her 3-year-old son Jake.

“My son is on the autism spectrum, so I’m a little overly cautious of where I bring him,” Skoler said. “I feel very comfortable bringing him here.”

Skoler said that a friend of hers who comes to Sippy Cups all the time told her about the café. It’s conveniently close to her home, clean, and has the most current and trendy toys, according to Skoler, who now lives in Massapequa.

Sippy Cups is the newest innovation for moms to enjoy a coffee and a snack while their children play.

Mary Tedesco, a Massapequa resident and another frequent Sippy Cups Café customer, has been bringing her two children Jake, 5, and Lexi, 3, to the café for six months. Tedesco said that Sippy Cups is perfect for kids and mothers, because it has great activities for children ranging from crawling babies to toddlers.

“What’s beautiful about this place is if it’s raining, you come here,” she said. “If it’s too hot, you come here. If it’s too cold, you come here. Or if you just want to hang with the moms and let the kids get a burst of energy so that they sleep well, you come here.”

Tedesco loves how the café is kept clean. “We are huge germophobes, so if the place is not clean, then we’ll try it once [and] never come back,” she said. “There is never any concern about sanitary stuff.” She said a girl is hired to pay attention to messes made — and to be a second pair of eyes for the kids if they engage in a potentially dangerous activity that the parent does not see.

Tedesco said she will keep bringing her kids to the café until they outgrow it.

Owner Danielle Bracco opened the special café in November 2017, on Merrick Road, near Jackson Avenue.

Bracco worked in advertising in New York City before creating the Sippy Cups Café. She has two children, 4-year-old twins, and was home with them on Fridays during that time.

“I was always looking for places to go with them,” Bracco said. “I was always intrigued by the coffee and play concept.”

Bracco visited different coffee and play shops. The play was there, she felt, but the coffee portion was lacking. In some locations, she said, the coffee section was just a Keurig machine.

The Sippy Cups Café uses Brooklyn Roasting Company beans. Everything is freshly ground, and espresso is offered, as are muffins and other snacks.

“I’d never been to [a coffee and play shop] like this, which is why I felt like there should be one like this,” she said.

Bracco said she loved the creativity and people at her advertising job, but not the commute, late nights and weekend work. She thought she would be good at executing the coffee and play concept and decided to “go for it” in 2016.

“I think that there is a need for it,” Bracco said. “I think that parents and grandparents and nannies are all looking for places to go with the kids, and to add the coffee portion of it makes it a little more social.”

It took Bracco six months to find the café location and eight months to open.

“It’s a way for young kids to socialize and have fun, but also where a place where parents or caretakers can come and enjoy as well,” Bracco said.

The outdoor section of the Sippy Cups Café also makes it stand out from other shops with the coffee and play concept, according to Bracco. Special events are put on in that area such as water playtime and a bounce house.

Many of Bracco’s customers come from the surrounding neighborhoods such as Massapequa, Seaford, Wantagh, Bellmore and Merrick. Some customers come from farther away, such as the North Shore and out East.

Several parents who visit the shop come with their friends and use it as a social place and their kids’ play-date location.

“I have a lot of people that come here that don’t have any friends [and] that are stay-at-home parents, and it’s a place for them to meet new people,” Bracco said