On way to Starbucks, I stumble across an authentic Italian coffee shop

At Coffee Break, an Italian cafe on Main Street in Hackensack.

Editor's note: Restaurants and cafes open and close regularly on Main Street in Hackensack, where the second major apartment-building boom in the city's history is under way. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The only company owned Starbucks in Hackensack is on the ground floor of a busy medical building with a parking lot from hell -- far from downtown.

On the way there this afternoon, I stopped to take photos on Main Street, and discovered Coffee Break, a cafe that serves Italian coffee, breakfast and lunch.

I ordered a double espresso and chatted briefly with the owners, a couple from Calabria (the toe of the Italian Boot).

Coffee Break's menu offers crepes, panini, salads, croissants and other items.

A double espresso at Coffee Break was $2.65.

More comfortable chairs are set in the bright window, across the street from a Main Street mural, below.

 

Main Street Gateway Mural wraps around the corner.

Coffee Break is at 71 Main St., Hackensack.

Delhi Palace, an Indian restaurant that serves halal meat, opened recently at 136 Main St., Hackensack, with small and large dining rooms. 

Across the street from Delhi Palace is Quench, which offers smoothies, salads and other items.