Chef Alex Raij's Cobble Hill Cafe Tekoá Soft Opens With Homemade Pastries

Alex Raij and Eder Montero's anticipated new Cobble Hill cafe Tekoá soft opened this week, functioning as just a coffee shop with Irving Farm coffee and Raij's homemade pastries. Eventually, Tekoá — the hit-making duo's first non-Spanish restaurant — will be serving lunch, brunch, and cocktails, but Raij wanted to do a test run in the space with just the baked goods and coffee, she tells Eater. "We wanted to get the baking down," Raij says. "It's a learning curve with the coffee and the baking. The [savory food] is known, good territory."

Raij's pastry program reflects things she's eaten in the past that she's loved, she says. Options so far include cookies, a coffee cake, and an oat cake. She's also serving a peanut butter cookie, her favorite item from Ted and Honey, the beloved neighborhood cafe that used to be in the Tekoá space. "Most of them are nostalgic recipes for me," Raij says. Many of the items are sweet instead of savory, part of the testing process for the chef.

The rest of the menu, including sandwiches and pancakes, will slowly launch in the next few weeks. Tekoá is "very much a coffee shop" right now, Raij says. "We're living in it for a while before we go totally live," she says. "[The people living on the street] have been without coffee for so long, they're happy to have us test our skills." Check out the space at 264 Clinton St., just a couple doors down from the team's hit restaurant La Vara, and stay tuned for updates as Tekoá unveils more menu items.