As you walk in, a smell of coffee beans fills the air. You sit down on seats with patterned details and are served in dishes with colorful, intricate designs.
This place brings you to a world that blends traditional and contemporary experiences. It’s Grizzly Coffee!
Grizzly Coffee’s first location opened on August 31st of last year, on West 6th Street.
Since then, two more locations popped up in Brooklyn, one near John Dewey High School and another in Midwood. While the JDHS-adjacent spot closed before the New Year, the Coney Island Avenue location in Midwood has become especially popular.
At just 27, Khalil Ditta initiated it all. He had been working in construction when he stumbled upon the West 6th Street spot. “I got a good deal on it, where the landlord gave me 6 months free, and I built that location out at a slow pace,” Ditta said.
Starting a business can be risky, but Ditta took the leap anyway. “I had no experience in coffee, I didn’t know how to make any drinks, I just learned as I went. I hired a barista who pretty much taught me how to make drinks and recipes. Other than an LLC or a business license, that’s all I got,” Ditta said.
His love for cafes and his Pakistani roots inspired Grizzly’s creation. “Even before construction, when I was an Uber driver, I visited a lot of local coffee shops. I loved the interiors, the comfort, the coziness, and I always wanted to open one of my own, and since I’m a Pakistani, I made it a Pakistani theme,” he said.
However, just like any business, there were its ups and downs. Ditta had to close down the Grizzly Coffee location near John Dewey High School. He explained the closure: “I could not incorporate the Pakistani culture into it. It was not worth renovating it, and the John Dewey kids…they were driving away other potential customers.” Ditta values his Pakistani background and the cozy vibe of his cafes, but this location was just not the right place for that.
This might seem like a setback, but sticking to the cafe’s theme has paid off in the long run. “We have some unique drinks, we have a unique cultural experience, environment, a vibe, in this coffee shop, where people would like to enjoy more of their time rather than just grab a drink and go.” Speaking from personal experience, I can say Grizzly Coffee truly invites you to sit and stay awhile.
Ditta gives useful advice for aspiring entrepreneurs like our JDHS students. “You have to take a risk to know where you can get. If you don’t take a risk, then you will always be thinking and not making any movements,” he said. “When you start out, you need a big chunk of money, I would say [that’s the hard part].”
Although they have many traditional aspects, Grizzly Coffee also stays up-to-date with the latest trends. “The Dubai chocolate and the Dubai chocolate brownie do really good…the Dubai chocolate brownie is doing [even] better than the Dubai chocolate,” Ditta said. “We’ve [also got] a Dubai chocolate frappuccino, [and] drinks that are around pistachio and Dubai flavor,” he said.
Their stand-out swing, which was custom-made in Pakistan, has also helped build a community vibe, attracting kids, especially. “I had it shipped here in a container…it takes a month and a half for the whole process,” Ditta said.
Grizzly has also become a safe and inviting space for women in the community. Women are now able to hang, and catch up with their friends in a cozy environment. In an area once dominated by quick, male-oriented grab-and-go, Grizzly introduced something new: a warm sit-down space with all-female baristas, which has especially resonated with local Muslim women.
One of those baristas is Maham Saleem. A hijabi herself, Saleem says she feels at home at Grizzly. “On the weekends, it gets really busy, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, but on the weekdays from Monday to Thursday, it doesn’t really get that busy… I used to [visit cafes like this] before, but now I don’t since I just work here [at Grizzly]; whenever I just want to get a coffee, I come here and get it,” she said.
Saleem recommends two drinks in particular: “The brown sugar shaken espresso and biscoff latte. I remember in the beginning, when I started to work here, I used to make that for myself every single day. And whenever a new customer comes in and asks me, ‘Oh what’s your favorite espresso?’ I’m like ‘BROWN SUGAR Espresso’ … And every time they tell me ‘This is the best choice’,” Saleem said.
While she enjoys making most drinks, she also has favorites and not-so-favorites. “I like to make the traditional Pakistani chai, the doodh patti tea, it’s actually really easy. It’s really calm when I’m making chai because I have my own station at the end and nobody is bothering me… Even if there are a lot of orders coming for chai, I like that I have my own space,” Saleem said.
“Spanish Latte, that one has so much work, I have to put three different kinds of milk, that one is hard and complicated,” she said.
Saleem also reflects on the cultural impact of working at Grizzly. “There are a lot of hijabis who come here. When I’m working I wear different kinds of hijab, like a pink hijab, and when the hijabis come in I always get a compliment … That’s something that I will remember even if I quit this job, like oh I remember this person calling my hijab pretty, this and that,” she said. Just coming and visiting a cafe can help you leave lasting impressions on the people, or they can leave lasting impressions on you.
Grizzly also gives Saleem and others a chance to connect with their culture and explore their roots. “There are a lot of other cafes, Yemeni cafes mostly, and I really like the fact that Grizzly Coffee tries to bring out Pakistani culture, to let people know that Pakistani culture exists. A lot of people do mix up Pakistan and India…And I really like the fact that he [Ditta] brought out Pakistani culture… Most of the people that come in are Muslim and Pakistani, and I like how these communities are sitting together in a cafe… I get to learn more about my own culture,” Saleem said.
With Grizzly located near an elementary school and in the heart of a Pakistani-Muslim community, it attracts the right crowd. A lot of moms stop in after picking up their kids. Their kids play on the swing while they catch up with friends.
Saleem’s ability to speak Urdu helps her to communicate and meet the customers’ needs. “Most of them [customers] don’t know how to speak English, so I just talk to them in my own language, and I get to understand them, and what they want,” she said
If you’re looking for Grizzly, Ditta says to keep an eye out for two key symbols: “The swing …and the mehndi hands — the wall art. Those are the two things that assemble us.”
Looking ahead, the Grizzly brand is growing. “There’s a location coming in New Jersey, and we’re working on a location in Manhattan as well …The two locations that we have in Brooklyn are going to be franchises,” Ditta said. So stay in the loop about what’s to come.
Whether you’re in the neighborhood or just passing through, stop by Grizzly Coffee, a cafe that serves more than drinks. It serves culture, comfort, and community.
