West Hempstead couple brings The Neighborhood Coffee to life after 4-year stall

Christopher and Sully Serna saw an opportunity when a deli closed in early 2022 in the West Hempstead building they owned.

The couple, who had talked about opening a coffee shop for years, began making moves to make their dream a reality in the vacated space, but their efforts stalled, they said.

"We went into a lot of setbacks, financial setbacks, learning setbacks. We couldn't get [building] permits right away, so it took us about four years to actually open this location," Sully Serna, 38, said.

Two weeks ago, they finally reached their goal — opening The Neighborhood Coffee, which is a cafe and a full-service kitchen serving breakfast and lunch.

"We put in a lot of sweat and tears into this space, and we almost gave up. But we had invested so much that we just kept going," Sully Serna said.

The West Hempstead couple, who are the parents of two children — 5-year-old and 19-month-old daughters — set out to create a welcoming space for their community, which was the inspiration for their business’ name.

Located at 678 Woodfield Rd., the shop is across the street from the Lakeview LIRR train station.

Community support has been strong, despite the Sernas not paying for any advertising, Sully Serna said.

"Most of our support is just word-of-mouth from locals," she said.

Crystal Dookran and her two co-workers, all of whom are bus aides for a nearby private school for children with disabilities, now regularly stop at The Neighborhood Coffee for coffee and food before their afternoon route starts, said the South Ozone Park, Queens, resident, 43.

“Great customer service. … You feel very warm,” she said.

Her co-worker, Narayan Huggins of Richmond Hill, Queens, also appreciates the friendliness of the shop’s employees, she said.

“I like the food. I like the coffee. I like everything in there,” said Huggins, 58.

A costly endeavor

When the Sernas bought the Woodfield Road building for $489,000 in 2021, The Lake Park Deli occupied 1,200 square feet of leased space on the first floor and two apartments were being rented on the second floor. After the deli closed in early 2022, the couple began planning to replace it with their concept.

But the building, which was constructed in the 1920s, required extensive renovations they hadn’t expected, they said.

"We had to completely gut the space and renovate it. And, you know, usually when you do that as a store, the landlord helps out with some of the construction. But we were the landlord, so we ran out of funds pretty quick when we had to update everything," Sully Serna said.

In 2023, Christopher Serna returned to his full-time job as a biomedical engineer, working 80 hours a week, to save money to open the business. Sully Serna had been a construction project manager before she left that job after having her first daughter in March 2021.

The couple invested $650,000 of their own money, including everything in Christopher Serna’s 401(k) retirement savings plan, to make a down payment on the building for the mortgage,  pay the contractor doing the renovations and for the equipment and supplies needed for their business, Sully Serna said.

Rent from the tenants in the  second-floor apartments helped the Sernas stay afloat until they got the business up and running, Christopher Serna, 39, said.

The business buys its coffee from Eldorado Coffee Roasters in Maspeth, Queens, which supplies it with espresso beans from Colombia, a blend from Africa and South America for drip coffee, and organic Guatemalan and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans for the French press.

The Neighborhood Coffee employs seven people, including chef Sam Mar.

"We make everything here. We make it from scratch," Christopher Serna said.

The food on the menu is named after current and former landmarks in the Lakeview hamlet and overall West Hempstead, including The Lakeview Station Burger, with bacon cheese sauce and grilled caramelized onions, and The Limbach Farms, which is crispy, breaded eggplant with grilled asparagus, plum tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and a chipotle aioli on rustic sourdough bread.

The Maple Street Toast is deep-fried French toast with fresh berries and whipped cream made in house.