At 110 Washington Street, the storefront that held Shaka Kitchen for nearly nine years now has blue-and-white decor, vintage furniture, and croissant waffles on the menu. Four hundred numbers north, at the corner of 5th Street, a case of layered honey cake sits in the space where Il Laboratorio del Gelato used to scoop. Seven blocks past that, a shop roughly 500 square feet in size serves espresso over sparkling water from a former dry cleaner.
All three opened between late August and mid-October 2026, and they're spread along the street, one near the downtown end, one in the middle, and one uptown. Their hours and menus don't overlap much. Maman closes at 6 p.m. Dän stays open until 9 on Fridays and Saturdays. Sober Shot keeps a short menu built for a quick stop.
110 Washington: the downtown end, mornings into afternoon
Maman began in SoHo in 2014. It comes from the husband-and-wife team of Benjamin Sormonte and Elisa Marshall, and Jersey Digs reported that the Hoboken cafe takes the entire ground floor at 110 Washington. The same report noted that Hoboken's Historic Preservation Board approved the signage application. It is the brand's third New Jersey cafe, following Jersey City in 2022 and Palmer Square in Princeton.
Hoboken Girl reported the opening date as Friday, October 16. Readers had been sending the outlet clues since August, after they spotted packages under the Maman name arriving at the address.
The menu leans toward breakfast and brunch. Jersey Digs listed a daily quiche, a make-your-own omelet, and a breakfast sandwich with house-made bourbon bacon jam. The weekend brunch menu offers choices such as eggs ratatouille or a brioche perdu made with thick-cut challah, granola, lemon ricotta, blueberry basil compote, and hot honey. On Maman's Hoboken page, the croissant waffles are listed at $15, the breakfast sandwich at $14, and an assortment of three baked goods at $12. The page also says menus and pricing can vary.
The hours set the limits of this stop. Maman's posted schedule runs from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends, with indoor and outdoor seating, pickup, and delivery. At the downtown end of Washington Street, the new sit-down pastry option is a breakfast, brunch, and afternoon place. It isn't open after dinner.
500 Washington: the middle of the street, open into the evening
Dän Bakery + Cafe fills the hours Maman leaves open. According to Dän's Hoboken page, the shop sits at 5th Street, a block from Church Square Park. It opens at 7 a.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. on weekends. It stays open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and on Sunday, and until 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Those hours make it the only one of the three fall openings that is clearly an evening stop for something sweet.
Patch described Dän as a bakery serving breads and sweets from Kazakhstan. The outlet listed raspberry and chocolate croissants, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and ham-and-spinach croissants, and it spoke with co-owner Aijan Oztemir during a visit:
"Our most popular cake is the honey cake. We have the freshest baked goods that you can find. They're baked every day."
The baking happens off-site. The bakery says its pastries and cakes are made every morning at its own facility in Denville and delivered to Hoboken daily. The espresso is Afficionado, roasted in New Jersey, and drinks run from cortados to an iced honey cake latte. The menu headliners are the medovik honey cake, the Napoleon, savory samsa filled with beef, chicken, or pumpkin, and cardamom buns. The bakery's own advice is to get croissants and cardamom buns before 10 a.m. Listed prices include a butter croissant at $4.75, a beef samsa at $6.50, a matcha latte from $6.25, and tiramisu at $8.50. A whole honey cake is $49 and a whole Napoleon cake is $58.
Hoboken Girl reported the shop open as of September 8 and described it as the family-owned bakery's second location, after Morristown. A formal ribbon cutting followed on October 12.
The corner has changed hands before. Patch noted that before the gelato shop, 500 Washington was the longtime Hoboken Daily News magazine and grocery shop. It has been a newsstand, then a dessert counter, and now it's a bakery that runs from the first coffee of the day to after dinner.
1200 Washington: uptown, a small shop built for one quick drink
Sober Shot is the most tightly focused of the three. Stella Lin founded the original at 514 Jersey Avenue in Jersey City in April 2019, after a master's thesis in hospitality at Fairleigh Dickinson University that studied what Americans like to drink. Hoboken Girl reported the Hoboken shop open as of August 28, in a former dry cleaner of about 500 square feet with 12 feet of frontage on Washington Street.
The signature Sober Shot combines a double espresso, sparkling water, and a "white top" made from whole milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream. The menu has three sections. The Unnormal and Blue Surge drinks are served iced only, and the whole menu comes in a single size. Blue Surge drinks use butterfly pea flower tea, which is caffeine-free. The Honey Romance mixes that tea with lemonade and turns pink. The one pastry on the menu is a Portuguese egg tart. "I want to keep everything simple," Lin told Hoboken Girl.
Uptown's new stop is small, quick, and mostly iced. Maman is built around brunch and Dän around cake, while Sober Shot keeps to one size and a short list.
How the three compare
| Maman | Dän Bakery + Cafe | Sober Shot | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 110 Washington St. | 500 Washington St., at 5th St. | 1200 Washington St. |
| Opening date reported | Oct. 16 | Open by Sept. 8 | Aug. 28 |
| Previous tenant | Shaka Kitchen | Il Laboratorio del Gelato | A dry cleaner |
| Latest posted close | 6 p.m. daily | 9 p.m. Fri. and Sat. | |
| Order this | Croissant waffles, brioche perdu on weekends | Medovik, samsa, cardamom buns before 10 a.m. | The Sober Shot, Honey Romance, egg tart |
What left the street during the same weeks
The openings came while several sweet and coffee shops were closing. Chip City's shop at 113 Washington, across the street from Maman's new storefront, closed at the end of business on Thursday, October 1, when the cookie chain shut all its remaining stores, as Hoboken Girl reported. Off Washington, the team behind Saoco Cafe at 601 Jefferson Street confirmed its closure after readers sent in photos of closure signage on September 29, according to Hoboken Girl. Uptown, Maroons Creamery at 1122 Washington appeared closed by October 14, with its signage gone and a "For Rent" sign up. The shop hasn't announced a permanent closure, Hoboken Girl noted.
Shaka Kitchen's move came earlier. NJ.com reported that it closed 110 Washington on June 7 and consolidated its Hoboken business at 720 Monroe Street, where it remains open. According to the same report, Shaka served craft coffee and baked goods alongside its fast-casual menu. The 110 Washington storefront went from fast-casual food with coffee to a full cafe.
Put the closings next to the openings and the trade-offs become clear. On the 100 block, a cookie counter that closed in October sits across from a breakfast cafe that closes at 6. The 500 block traded gelato for a bakery open until 9 on weekend nights. On Jefferson Street, the west-side cafe closed, and the newest coffee is back on Washington. Uptown, the stretch near 1122 lost its ice cream counter, while a sparkling-espresso shop opened a block north at 1200.
Planning the day around the new stops
For a weekday coffee before work, Dän opens earliest at 7 a.m., and its croissants and cardamom buns are freshest before 10. Maman opens at 7:30 and takes over from there through lunch. A weekend brunch with out-of-town guests suits Maman, where the brioche perdu is a weekend-only dish. An iced drink on the way through uptown fits Sober Shot's short, single-size menu. After dinner on a Friday, Dän is the one of the three still open, with honey cake by the slice until 9. For a birthday or a dinner party, a whole medovik is $49 on Dän's posted menu.
At Hoboken Living, we follow storefront changes like these block by block, because they shape what a morning looks like from a particular address. If you'd like to talk about how your corner of Washington Street has changed this year, Contact Us.
