Caffe Aronne is opening a kosher location on the Upper West Side this summer

Caffe Aronne is expanding uptown and owner Aaron Dahan gave us the details. Dahan told Pretty Kosher that the new location, set to take over the JCC’s ground-floor space at 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, was originally quoted a two-week turnaround by the contractor, but he’s betting on late August or early September in reality. “Because you know how these things go,” he said.

The menu will mirror what’s on offer at the Lexington Avenue original—think espresso built around cardamom, date honey, lavender and rose, plus toasts loaded with avocado, salmon and honey truffle ricotta—but with one new addition built specifically for the West Side: a caprese sandwich swapping mozzarella for halloumi. “It’s an ode to who we are, Israeli,” Dahan said.

That sandwich isn’t just a menu tweak but the perfect illustration of how this location came together. A few weeks before signing on, Dahan ran a pop-up in the space as Caffe Aronne, handing out free coffee and pastries and asking people flat-out what they wanted from a kosher spot in the building. The answer: pastries and coffee, sure, but also real lunch options. Hence the halloumi caprese, and hence a wider grab-and-go lineup built for people heading into the office rather than sitting down.

The JCC came to Aronne directly and the space they’re stepping into has a lot to live up to: it was most recently home to Michaeli Bakery, whose babka Dahan doesn’t hesitate to praise. But bakery margins are brutal and the pop-up was as much market research as marketing.

It’s also the latest chapter in a story that’s been building since October 2023, when Dahan’s public support for Israel led his entire staff to quit, which in utrn led to lines wrapping around the block on Lexington Avenue as the community showed up in force. That surge of support is what pushed Dahan to pursue kosher certification in the first place, making the Upper East Side location official under Rabbi Mehlman in May 2024. Now that same trajectory is headed to the West Side.