LONGTIME HEIGHTS CAFE JAVA JAVA NOW TRYING TO SELL ITS GROUNDS 
A reader notes that the owner of Java Java Cafe on 11th St. and Herkimer has placed the building at 911 W. 11th St. and its adjacent parking lots up for sale. Java Java is still open for business, however. Pay $1.25 million and you’d get close to 17,000 sq. ft. of land with street frontage on 3 sides, along with the 2,450-sq.-ft. building, which dates from 1940. But you’d need to fetch your own coffee. [HAR]
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This building BAFFLES me. Is the coffee there any good? It looks like a coffee prison.
Perfect midrise site.
Good food and ok coffee.
It’s more a of a restaurant than a coffee place. The food was/is good but a little but a little expensive for breakfast.
I’m not sure about the coffee, but the breakfast is pretty good.
But we love going there for breakfast as a family on the weekends! I am a bit confused by all of the closings. This one makes sense (not that I like it) if they are selling, but all of the great places losing leases confuse me. How long were the leases? The businesses seemed great, so why the need for a different one?
Denise,
I don’t think you “get it”. Forget the fact that you think think you like the food here. Restaurants like this don’t fit the neighborhood profile anymore. I’m sure that a good self-serving, self-loving artisan type can revive this place by hanging some antique sickles from the Soviet era on the walls next to a windowed meat locker and name the place “Vulcan” with a 25% increase price hikes across the board.
I have heard that the owner is retiring and cashing out on the property. I disagree that the restaurant is no longer relevant for the neighborhood. Yale St. Grill does a solid business serving food that is not much different from what they were serving 40 years ago. Same for Someburger. Not everything in the Heights has to be high-end foodie stuff.
Their coffee is TERRIBLE. The only thing confusing about this is how a place named after the drink doesn’t care more about the coffee they serve.
I think (hope) Prog was kidding. This THIS this is exactly what I hate about the development in and changes to the neighborhood. The awesome local owned businesses are either forced or cashed out and souless capitalists sleeze in.
I am not sure if I agree if it is a midrise site or more retail space.
I don’t care for a midrise (Heck no!) but I would welcome a Starbucks! Maybe another Los Cucos so that residents living in Heights west side don’t have to drive to Studewood on the far East side where the other one is being built. Other than that, The lot is too small for a bigger restaurant.
Heard from someone who spoke to the owner (so, Heights rumor mill in full effect). Apparently this sale has gone through. There is some legal wrangling (maybe deed stuff? I don’t know) that is preventing final closure, but it should happen with in the next 30 days and the new owner will repurpose the existing building in to another restaurant.