Kafe Louverture (Closed)
UPDATE: This business has closed.
We don’t mean to be inflammatory, but it must be said: Kafe Louverture has the best patties in Brooklyn. Owned by husband-and-wife duo Anthony Cunningham and Joanne Saget, the Haitian café serves a variety of homemade specialties, but the tender, flavorful patties — Joanne’s grandmother’s recipe — are the most popular.
“When I first came to the United States, I lived with my grandmother, and we would make them every week,” says Joanne, who moved to Brooklyn from Haiti at age seven. Yet it wasn’t until decades later, after the couple tired of their careers in the fashion industry (Anthony as a stylist and buyer; Joanne as a technical designer), that they decided to parlay all that deliciousness into a business venture.
In 2015 they opened Kafe Louverture, showcasing Haitian culture not only through amazing food and coffee, but also through art, jewelry, home goods and other products exported from the Caribbean nation.
“Being that we’re from the fashion industry where we focused on products and branding, it wasn’t just a business,” Joanne says of their concept. “It was about trying to build a brand.”
“In the next two years we are looking to export maybe a quarter million dollars’ worth of products out of Haiti, and that will support about 200 jobs.”
On what makes Kafe Louverture distinctive, Anthony says, “We don’t just focus on the food; we focus on the culture.” This effort is clear in the shop’s beautiful design: bold Haitian metalworks and paintings adorn the walls, books on Haitian history are stacked and displayed, and a shelf showcases exported goods made by Haitian artisans, including hot sauces, spicy peanut butter, jewelry, and decorative vases and bowls.
“In the next two years we are looking to export maybe a quarter million dollars’ worth of products out of Haiti, and that will support about 200 jobs,” says Anthony, who visits frequently to collaborate with local companies.
The café also commemorates a powerful but often overlooked history. “We’re proud of being the first free Black nation,” Joanne says, gesturing to prominent portraits of Haitian Revolution leaders Toussaint L’Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. “When people come here, it’s a reminder of who we are, where we came from and what we’re capable of, especially when we come together as a nation.”
Kafe Louverture’s dishes are made fresh daily in house, prepared with love and authenticity. On a recent visit we devoured a small mountain of each of their patties: chicken, beef, codfish, lamb (available on weekends only), herring and veggie. Made from hand-rolled puff pastry, these savory treats are melt-in-your-mouth buttery and, in our opinion, Brooklyn’s finest.
We also enjoyed hearty bowls of the chicken bouillon soup, packed with tender shredded chicken and root vegetables, and a slice of dense, moist Barbancourt rum cake. While the coffee is excellent — supplied by Cantave de Saint Marc, sourced from Haiti and roasted locally in Brooklyn — we highly recommend the hot chocolate made with unrefined Haitian cocoa (called chokola peyi) and lightly spiced with cinnamon and star anise.
