Rogner Cafe & Lounge

Does the front room look pretty empty? Wander back to the large back room and enormous back garden, which may be the best in the neighborhood. The service was friendly and prices were fair ($ 5 for a large bottle of beer, $ 6 mixed drinks). It’s a café in the European sense, it is best thought of as both a coffee house and a bar in one.

I love this place. Underrated Hidden gem in Ridgewood. Couches, TVs, nice outdoor seating area with waterproof TV setup

Rogner’s is the café/​bar located on my block. It’s right outside the Q39 bus stop, and I used to run in here for a «Polish Espresso» drink if I didn’t have enough time to go to the coffee shop that I like before work. One thing that annoys me a bit is that they only have these tiny styrofoam cups for takeout — like, the same cups that you would keep in your bathroom for gargling. The coffee drinks are also super expensive — you’re looking at about $ 4 for a coffee drink. The owner is a very sweet person. When I go into the store, he insists on pouring the coffee drink into a large glass and he strains the remainder in the takeaway styrofoam cup to carry onto the bus. The «Polish Espresso» (which is what I was given when I asked for iced coffee and is basically two shots of expresso in cold frothy milk) was delicious and had me FLYING from the caffeine shot.
This is also among one of the numerous coffee shops/​bars catering to the Polish community of Ridgewood. I wish that this place was a bit more mainsteam, like, say, Spolem. It’s such a cool place! They have this awesome drinking garden, huge flat screen TVs, tons of comfy chairs and a really great space both inside and outside.
My boyfriend and I came in here a few times over the summer and the owner was so sweet and gave us amazing hospitality and ice cold beers, and prime seats to watch the soccer game. Unfortunately, we were the only non-​Polish people among the rest of the patrons, which consisted of about 25 extremely drunk Polish guys. I don’t understand why no women ever frequent these Polish bars. However, this place is more accessible than most of those other places, inhabited mostly by old men. The crowd here is much younger.
This place has so much potential. They definitely have the potential to be a better bar than Spolem, and I do hope that they start to get the business they so sorely deserve! Plus, it would be awesome to have a bar five houses down from my apartment! :)