Milk and Honey: A Sneak Peek Inside

Finally! The long awaited café at the corner of Newkirk and Westminster is set to open. And a look inside the intricately designed space shows that the year wait was worth it. 

Milk and Honey, the sister restaurant to Qathra on Cortelyou Road, held a soft opening Sunday night and will open permanently this week as soon as they pass their health inspection.

The renovated exterior, with its graceful ironwork and woodwork has given passersby a suggestion of what the renovation looked like, but when the intricately designed interior was revealed Sunday evening, it wowed the crowd anew. 

When talking to the cafe's owner, Yasser "Max" Habib, at Sunday's soft opening, it was clear that this cafe is his pièceBabi de résistance. He has been working on it nonstop for the past year, spending an entire month on the design alone, and then spent all day, every day supervising the workers to make sure that "every screw and every nail" was installed just right."

"I have to make it better than Qathra," he said. 

He did. Although Habib's first cafe is gorgeous, this place is stunning, with glistening wood, a free-form chandelier and the centerpiece, a living herb wall that will supply ingredients for the homemade sodas. 

As for the food, Habib says the menu will be different from Qathra, but he hasn't nailed it down yet.

But for Bibi Kisoensing, who owns Bibi's Garden, a bed and breakfast down the street, any menu will do. She's just happy to have a cafe reopen at this end of Newkirk. 

"Now I have a place where I can send my guests over to have a nice coffee We were dying for something like this," she said. "I had to send them all the way to Cortelyou."

Once the cafe opens, it will have the same hours as Qathra: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, Habib said.

Milk and Honey, 1119 Newkirk Ave. at Westminster Road. 718-513-0441.