Specialty Coffee Shop, Carpe Diem Cafe, Opens in Norwalk

Norwalk’s growing coffee shop scene just got one new addition.

Carpe Diem Cafe’s goal? Specialty, higher end, baked goods made in-house, coffee shop parties, adult beverages, and a few Dominican dishes amongst the pastry and breakfasty offerings.

Owner Elvis Fernandez is setting out to be different from the rest of the coffee shops in the area and is relying on his entrepreneurial spirit and some industry experience to make that happen with Carpe Diem.

“I grew up in New York City in the Dyckman neighborhood and I ended up in Norwalk because I met a girl here three years ago,” he says. “I never had a real job, I always worked for myself, but my dad is in the industry. He has restaurants and nightclubs in NYC. I wanted to be a business owner since I was little.”

Fernandez’s business mindset, paired with baking skills he learned in culinary school when he was 18, plus an area of Norwalk that’s on the rise, made opening up on West Avenue a no-brainer decision.

After a year of getting the space up to snuff, Carpe Diem opened at the end of August with high hopes of being known for specialty coffee.

“Specialty is something that some places can say they are, but they might not necessarily be,” Fernandez explains. “Coffee everywhere gets graded from 1-100. For you to be considered specialty, your coffee has to be graded at 80 or higher—the average shop is likely between 50 to about 70—my coffee right now is a 92. And when you’re considered specialty, you can get graded on a scale from 1-6 (one being the highest). I had a specialist here weeks ago, and it takes time to get graded, they come in and look at a lot of things, not just coffee, but technique, quality of the coffee you offer, stuff like that. And just because of my coffee quality, he said we’re considered a four. He gave us some training and we’re having him back in to train us further, especially on our pour over station Chemex, French press, and more.”

In addition to coffee, Carpe Diem, at least by the time you read this, should have a wine program, sourced specifically from smaller wineries all over the world, including some natural wines, with Fernandez saying he doesn’t want anything that’s mass produced that you’ll see everywhere. The same is true for beer, which will also be globally sourced from smaller batch breweries and you will see some Connecticut brews on the list, too.

Matcha is popular here, too, and Fernandez gets his “earthier tasting matcha” from small farms in Japan.

Pictured: Iced matcha latte with oat milk and fresh pressed strawberry juice

A few cocktails are on Carpe Diem’s beverage list in the form of mimosas, an espresso old fashioned, and orange enhanced cold brew with Irish cream. Soon, Fernandez want to add a few others like an espresso martini, and wants to mimic a smoked old fashioned he fell in love with on a trip to Colombia.

As for the food, Fernandez bakes almost all of what you’ll see in Carpe Diem’s bakery case; the croissants, puffs, cakes, and pie, except for a few things like the macarons, and his mother contributes also.

A Dominican chimi burger, a seasoned beef patty, topped with cabbage, red onion, and pink sauce (mayo-ketchup)

“I bake almost everything here, but my mom makes the oatmeal raisin cookies, and she’s been a big help around here, but she’s been calling herself the owner!” Fernandez says. “Oh, and my uncle, Hungría Sánchez, he’s a well-known artist in the Dominican Republic. He painted the murals in here by hand.”

Even though Carpe Diem just opened, there’s a lot more coming, according to Fernandez. He’s already teased daytime coffee parties featuring DJs that he knows from NYC with house music.

He’s also tinkering with a membership club.

We peeped this hunk of red velvet cake, plus, carrot cake, pumpkin pie, and more in Carpe Diem’s case.

“Maybe it’ll have two or three tiers where you can come in every day and grab a cup of coffee, any coffee you would like, and certain milks would be included, or you’d get other milks at a discounted price, and it would be a monthly membership charge,” he says. “The membership would apply to this location or any others because I’m already thinking of more locations and we’re working on launching our own app.”

And remember that previously mentioned pour over station? One other facet that Carpe Diem wants to offer are even higher end coffees, including one that’s $300.

“We want to do pour overs for $300, $250, $100 because there are people out there that do look for that,” Fernandez says. “The one I’m trying to sell for $300, it’s from Peru, and I’ll be the only one in the United States that has it. There are those coffee fanatics that want that and I want them to come here.”

520 West Avenue, Norwalk
203.286.6048, carpediemcafe.co
Instagram @ilovecarpediemcafe