Culture and Character: A Downtown Café's Oasis of Comfort

has been around only since 2007, but in that short time has established itself as a comfortable place to sit and read or work, while enjoying the place’s remarkable hospitality. I first came upon it last fall on a day when, unfamiliar with the Fort Lee area, I found myself in dire need of a coffee and some directions home. The man behind the counter sold me the small coffee, doctoring it up with milk and sugar to my exact specifications, and then asked me to wait a moment while he got on his laptop. He then proceeded to give me two different bus routes, with timetables, that would be convenient for me to use. After a quick hand-wash in the café’s restroom I was on my way back to Hoboken with plenty of time to spare, and a certainty that I would return to Lime Tree to see what else they had to offer.

Time and again, the medium-sized coffee shop has proven satisfying, an obvious champion of “the little things” that make such a place special. Once, when I was really hungry and it was getting dark and cold, I ordered a plate of pasta with marinara sauce and vegetables—and I knew it was a longshot, but I asked for it to be spicy. The woman serving me, who I later learned is the café’s owner, Ms. Yoon, nodded and said that would be no problem. Minutes later she carried out a heaping helping of food, shredded cheese melting on top, with fresh broccoli and zucchini pieces in the sauce and artfully arranged around the rim of the plate. Once the steam had died down I took a bite and found it was spiced to perfection with hot pepper. This kind of service is rare even in famous restaurants, where the dishes are renowned and the cooks reluctant to alter the recipe; in a humble neighborhood hangout it’s even more of a pleasant surprise.

These days, as the Borders chain shuts its doors nationwide and Fort Lee finds itself without a bookstore, it seems the neighborhood is hurting for places to fill that large void—venues for quiet study, where patrons can linger over hot drinks and food while reading or writing. Luckily, Lime Tree Café is also a small bookstore, selling a variety of books in both English and Korean. I have watched customers sit in its upholstered chairs long after their lunches or slices of cake are finished, reading books or writing in notebooks as classical music plays overhead. The café has free wifi for its patrons, and there is a hot water canteen in the back for those who want to top up their mugs of tea.

For a coffee shop of moderate size, the range of food available at Lime Tree is impressive as well. Salads, sandwiches, hot dishes, desserts, smoothies and frozen yogurt are all on the menu—most of the large dishes are almost too big for one person to finish, and many are under $10. Another plus is the place’s proximity to the center of town: it’s on Main St. just off Palisade Ave., steps away from the bus stop I was directed to all that time ago.

The other morning, feeling hungry and uninspired, I settled in to order breakfast. Ms. Yoon was training a new employee behind the register, a young woman who asked me which of four kinds of bread I’d like my egg sandwich on, whether I wanted ketchup on it, whether I wanted juice from an individual carton or fresh-squeezed. It was just a simple breakfast order, but it came to me served on a pink plate, sliced in half meticulously, ketchup mixed in with the bacon, which was crumbled into pieces rather than left in whole, hard-to-bite strips. The fresh-squeezed juice was foamy and delicious. As I opened my notebook, listening to the classical music and looking around me at the bamboo plants, I was reminded that the little things make a big difference.

Lime Tree Cafe is located at 168 Main St. in Fort Lee; 201-242-9700