By bringing together coffee, community and local history, Sully Arias-Serna and Christopher Serna hope their new café will become a gathering place for West Hempstead and Lakeview residents.
For the Lakeview couple, opening the Neighborhood Coffee, in West Hempstead, was about more than serving a good cup of coffee. It was about creating a place where neighbors could connect, local history could be celebrated and a family’s dream could come to life.
“This is our community,” Arias-Serna said. “We want to invest in our community.”
The couple celebrated the grand opening of the café, on Woodfield Road, on Sept. 12. The business is a product of perseverance, the culmination of a decade-long passion for coffee — as well as several years of construction delays and financial challenges.
For Serna, the journey began about 10 years ago, when he started making coffee for friends. Working as a biomedical engineer at the time, he discovered he had a passion for the craft of coffee-making. A birthday gift from his wife — a pour-over coffee maker — fueled his interest and eventually inspired him to pursue something beyond his day job.
Arias-Serna embraced the opportunity to help her husband realize his dream while building something meaningful for their family — their two children — and the community.
“It’s really all just love and passion for coffee,” Serna said. “It’s really awesome.”
The couple purchased the property, a storefront business, in 2021, shortly after the birth of their oldest daughter. When the previous tenant left, they saw an opportunity to move forward with their plans, but turning the space into a café proved more difficult than anticipated. They faced significant construction expenses, permitting and approval issues, and contractor challenges. Along the way, they also welcomed their second child. At times, the obstacles left them wondering whether they would ever open, but after investing so much time, money and effort, they were determined to see the project through.
For the couple, who have lived in Lakeview for about 10 years after moving from Queens, the business was also an investment in the neighborhood they now call home. That commitment is reflected throughout the now finished café, particularly in its menu, which draws inspiration from local landmarks, area history and family memories.
The Lakeview Station burger is a reference to the community’s former railroad station, while the Island Garden salad pays tribute to the former basketball arena in West Hempstead. Several menu items offer brief description of the history they are inspired by.
That history can be personal. The Are Those Buttermilk? pancakes were inspired by a childhood memory involving Serna, his brother and their father, who found the boys at a diner just as they were being served a stack of pancakes. And Aida’s Famous Coffee honors Serna’s mother-in-law, whose morning coffee helped introduce him to the drink when he was 18 or so and attending college.
For his wife, researching local history helped shape the concept. The more she learned about the area’s past, the more she wanted to incorporate those discoveries into a business whose name reflects its purpose.
“I was fascinated with the fact that there was so much more history that I was uncovering that I didn’t know about,” Arias-Serna said.
Since the café opened, the couple said, the community’s response has exceeded their expectations. One memorable moment came when a customer bought breakfast for other diners, manifesting the generosity they hope the café will encourage.
They have also watched neighbors reconnect inside the shop, including two people who unexpectedly met up after not having seen each other for over a decade.
Those moments reinforce the couple’s vision of the Neighborhood Coffee as more than a place to grab breakfast or a drink. They want it to become a community hub where residents can catch up with old friends, make new ones and stay informed about local happenings.
The Sernas have taken part in local civic meetings, and hope to share information with residents who might otherwise miss community updates.
Looking ahead, they plan to introduce events including dinner nights, art gatherings and coffee tastings, creating more opportunities for people to socialize.
For Serna, the experience has reinforced the importance of perseverance when pursuing something meaningful. For his wife, the business represents the culmination of years of hard work, sacrifice and belief in a shared vision. Now, with the support of the community, the couple hope to continue evolving the café’s menu while maintaining the quality and care that inspired them.
“If you work really hard and you believe in something and you just keep pushing, you’ll always get there,” Serna said. “So never give up.”
