Coffee Shops Open Late in Port Jefferson: Our Evening Coffee, Tea and Kava Menu

Here is a thing every Port Jefferson local knows. If you want a coffee after 4 pm in the village, your options fall off a cliff. The cafes on Main Street mostly close mid-afternoon. After that it is the diner, a gas station, or a restaurant bar where a cup of coffee feels like an afterthought.

We are the exception. Roots Kava Bar at 250 East Main Street pours coffee, matcha and tea into the night. Check our site for hours, but the short version is that we are open when the coffee shops are dark.

What we pour in the evening

We are a full bar and lounge, just without alcohol, so the drink list is longer than a normal cafe. The coffee and tea side looks like this:

• Coffee. Drip and espresso drinks, hot or iced.

• Matcha. Ceremonial grade, whisked by hand for every order. Plain bowl, latte, or iced.

• Herbal teas. A rotating shelf of loose-leaf blends. Our owner has been a practicing herbalist for 13 years, so the tea list gets real attention.

• Kava. The traditional root drink from the Pacific islands, served in a shell.

• Kanna drinks. Made with a South African plant with a long history as a chewed or brewed botanical.

• Handcrafted mocktails and vegan snacks.

The full list is on our menu. Coffee is coffee, and you can order it the same way you would at 8 am. The difference is the room around you.

Study sessions

We get a lot of students in the evening, especially from Stony Brook. The lounge has couches, low tables and enough outlets, and nobody is going to rush you out because they are flipping chairs at 3:30. A coffee, a table and a few hours of quiet is a normal night here on the slower days.

On busier nights there is live music or an open mic going, so if you need silence, ask whoever is behind the bar what is on the calendar. The lounge page has the event schedule.

After dinner

Port Jefferson has a lot of good restaurants and not many places to go afterward that are not another bar. A lot of tables finish dinner down by the harbor, walk up the hill, and end the night with a coffee or a tea at Roots. It is a short walk from most of the village restaurants and it is a better ending than a second drink you did not really want.

If you are the designated driver for the night, this is where you get to sit at an actual bar and order something real.

Ferry riders

The Bridgeport ferry drops you a few minutes from our door. If you are killing time before a late boat, or you just got off one and need a coffee before the drive, we are the closest place open. The lounge is a lot more comfortable than the terminal.

Happy Hour, 4 pm to 7 pm daily

Our Happy Hour is 4 to 7 every day, which lines up with exactly the window when the other cafes are closing. If you leave work, need a coffee or a matcha, and want to sit somewhere that is not your car, that is the time to come in.

Board games, video games, and a reason to stay

We keep a shelf of board games and a few video game setups in the lounge. A cup of coffee and a game of cards with a friend is a very normal Tuesday here. Game nights and open mic nights run through the week, and we have live music on the calendar too.

For a bigger group, we host up to 40 people with no minimum and no deposit. Details are on the private parties and events page.

Trying kava for the first time

Since you are here for coffee, we will keep this short. Kava is a traditional drink, earthy and a little peppery, served in a coconut shell. It has been the social drink of the Pacific islands for a very long time. If you want to try it, ask for a single shell and sip it. If you would rather stick with coffee, that is fine too. Our kava page has more if you are curious.

Where to find us

Roots Kava Bar, 250 East Main Street, Port Jefferson, NY 11777. Phone (934) 259-8902. Parking and directions are on the visit page.

Next time it is 8 pm and you want a coffee in the village, you know where to go.