A Siberian location and even chillier service appears to have put yet another Morningside Heights business on ice.

Café Fresh seems to be the latest victim of These Economic Times. With its windows covered over with butcher paper and all signs removed for the exterior, the brusque coffeeshop looks vacant from the sidewalk. Some patrons also report the café closing unusually early Saturday at noon, which may have been a very last last call. 

Strangely enough, a Craigslist ad was spotted last October offering for sale a coffeeshop that matched Café Fresh’s description. Though managers denied the ad was their doing, a little Internet wheelin’-and-dealin’ may not have been such a bad idea in retrospect.

Let the calls for a Five Guys or Chick-Fil-A begin.

UPDATE (10:30 a.m., Monday): Did sanitation violations kill Café Fresh?



A [former] patron tells Bwog that the café may have succumbed to its ongoing battle with the NYC Department of Health. Records show Café Fresh pulled an Amir’s back in February after inspectors slapped 47 points worth of violations on the coffeeshop (the average score is 16), reopening once it passed re-inspection with a 5-point score. But that’s only the latest in a series of stomach-churning inspections for Café Fresh—it was shuttered in 2008 and 2007 for similar violations, which include lack of soap, improper food storage, and employees not washing their hands after using the bathroom.

Café Fresh management could not be reached for comment.

—JYH