Soft Sips coffee shop, selling dessert-themed drinks, opens with sweet start in Baldwin

Domonique Louis-Charles began concocting unique coffee drinks at home and posting photos and videos on her Instagram account last year as a leisurely escape from her demanding job as a law clerk, she said.

"And I like desserts, so I just started to play around with the coffee. One day, I would make a s’mores and put the s’mores on top. Or one day, I’d make like a waffle, and I would just throw it on top of my coffee. And then I’d start taking pictures of it and put it online," the Baldwin native said.

As her social media posts grew in popularity, leading her to create a separate Soft Sips Coffee Instagram account last fall, a friend, Shannon Newkirk-Denny, suggested turning her passion for dessert-themed coffee into an entrepreneurial partnership, which is how the Soft Sips coffee shop was born, said Louis-Charles, 27.

Baldwin roots

I wanted to create a space that was comfortable for everyone.

— Domonique Louis-Charles

She and Newkirk-Denny, a Jamaica, Queens, native who lives in Houston, opened the coffee shop in Baldwin, at 1621 Grand Ave., on July 11 and held their grand opening Saturday, when lines of customers spilled out of the front door.

Business has been brisk since the shop’s opening, which is partly due to Louis-Charles' Baldwin roots, she said.

"I feel like I knew a lot of the things that I thought Baldwin would need because of the fact that there" wasn't a sit-down, nonchain coffee shop here, she said. "I wanted to create a space that was comfortable for everyone."

The coffee drinks on Soft Sips’ menu include Fruity Silk Swirl, which is an iced latte topped with Fruity Pebbles cereal; Glazed Aura, which is coffee with a honey doughnut flavor; and Sweet Stack Latte, which is an iced latte topped with waffle cereal chunks and French vanilla cold foam.

Soft Sips also sells matcha, chai tea and lemonade, as well as prepackaged pastries, including cinnamon buns and cookies, from local Black-owned businesses.

The shop's name is an ode to the comfortable upbringing Louis-Charles’ parents gave her, as well as a reference to how having a cup of coffee in the morning before work is "soft relief" before the start of a busy day, she said.

Newkirk-Denny, a firefighter in Houston, flies to New York every few weeks to work in the coffee shop, he said.

He is not a big coffee drinker, but the firefighter has learned how significant coffee culture is to people in his occupation, he said.

That knowledge, combined with seeing Louis-Charles posting photos and videos of her coffee creations on social media, sparked the idea to suggest opening Soft Sips as a shop, he said.

"And I was just like, ‘This is beautiful.' I just know that this is something that people would love if they had the opportunity to have it," said Newkirk-Denny, 27.

Soft Sips, which employs six part-time workers, brews Colombian and Ethiopian coffee purchased from a Rochester-based roaster, Kopani, Louis-Charles said.

The shop has seating for 20 people, including chairs at a laptop bar and four round tables. Various shades of tan and brown envelop the room, which has cappuccino-colored walls.

Community comfort

The design of the shop also is a factor in Soft Sips being well-received by the community, Louis-Charles said.

"I think my partner and I both really value the idea of people feeling comfortable, and so we really try to make it a space that’s well-received and warm with the colors and ... the couches and even the laptop bar," she said.

Valley Stream friends Julie Marra and Stephanie Lopez chatted and sipped beverages at a table in the coffee shop Wednesday morning while their children attended a nearby baseball camp. The friends found out about the shop on Instagram, they said.

"It’s very tasty. We don’t have a lot of ... novelty coffee shops. And I do actually go around all over Nassau County looking for them," said Lopez, 44, who sipped a Biscoff Bliss, an iced latte with Biscoff cookie pieces.

I like that it’s Black-owned. ... As someone who grew up here, it’s very important to contribute back to the community...

Lydia Sandoval, of Baldwin

Baldwin native Lydia Sandoval, who is a graduate student in Boston, has gone to the coffee shop several times while visiting home. On Wednesday, Sandoval was in the shop doing schoolwork on her laptop, a Fruity Silk Swirl and croissant on the table.

"I like that it’s Black-owned. ... As someone who grew up here, it’s very important to contribute back to the community and especially" because Baldwin is predominantly Black, said Sandoval, 25.

Of Baldwin’s 34,994 residents in 2024, 45.6% were Black, while white residents accounted for the second-largest group, at 26.4%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

'Let people chase their dreams'

Louis-Charles and Newkirk-Denny met and became friends in 2022 through socializing in upstate chapters of organizations — she as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and he as a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. — when she was in a master's degree program at Syracuse University and he was an undergrad at SUNY Cortland.

Both Alpha Kappa Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi are members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, an umbrella organization of nine historically Black fraternities and sororities.

Louis-Charles, who earned a law degree in San Diego in May 2025, now works full-time at the coffee shop, she said.

The shop has split operating hours most days, but starting Monday, the hours will change to 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The shop is open from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday.

"One of the things that was important to us is to have earlier hours, so that way, first responders and other people with early jobs will be able to still have our coffee," Louis-Charles said.

The business partners opened the coffee shop mostly with their own money, though they did receive some contributions from "small angel investors," said Louis-Charles, who declined to disclose the cost to start the business.

While the shop has been performing well, the business’ owners have faced challenges, such as navigating the unknowns, Newkirk-Denny said.

"You’ll run into an issue today. And then you’ll fix it that day, and then you think that you’re all squared away. And then you realize, ‘Oh, well, there’s this, as well.’ And then, you know, so it’s just a constant learning process and just figuring it out ... and being quick on your feet," he said.

For Louis-Charles, the biggest challenge has been "tuning out the noise" of outside opinions that are not always constructive, she said.

"We are still obviously younger, so we’re learning and growing. And this is our first coffee shop. ... So, you want opinions, but at the same time, I think it’s important to let people chase their dreams. And I think, for us, it’s become a dream that we both didn’t know we had," she said.