Instagram-worthy café in New Jersey

Sugar Tree Cafe has reinvented the idea of your typical café and turned brunch into an experience.

Each space in the café is the perfect Instagramable moment, paired with some great food.

They offer a limited brunch menu including The Big Crunch Chicken Sandwich, Deep Fried Cinnamon Toast, Lobster Tostada and more. They also offer a variety of Milkshakes, some of the options include Chocolate Salted Caramel, Funfetti, and Cookies n Cream.

The layout of the café is modern, they have a variety of seating options, including different styles of chairs, couches and tables. Also, the décor varies in the different spaces within the café.

One of the most talked about features for their drinks is their latte foam art. You can send a picture to the baristas and they’ll upload it to the machine, and the image will come out as latte foam art on top of your drink. I had to use the opportunity to create a New Jersey 101.5 latte.

I got the opportunity to speak with Sophia, who owns Sugar Tree Café alongside her husband Jack. We spoke about the inspiration behind Sugar Tree Café and what motivated her and her husband:

"During the pandemic, my husband was out of work for an entire year, and he is not a guy that just sits home. Nobody wanted to be home anymore at this point, and all of the local shops within our town closed down their areas to sit, a lot of them took away their tables to sit."

"We wanted a place where people could come and hang out. This spot used to be a Vietnamese restaurant and we looked into renting it from the owners. At first they weren’t planning on renting. Then, they called my husband back. We came in to check it out, and so comes the tree…"

"When you walked in their was a support beam, and at this point we didn’t have a vision but we knew we needed to cover up the support beam. Because right when you walk in that’s what you see. So my husband has a really good friend that’s in wedding industry and she is a floral designer. So they were all hanging out and they all came up with let’s do a tree and that is what led to the name and everything."

"We didn’t even know the name or what we were gonna do or the concept before we found the space. Every where you go, everyone wants everything to be Instagramable. So why not have a spot that’s Instagramable, has amazing food and a cool vibe in one. As opposed to just Instagramable, or just amazing food "

"We wanted to do like an upscale counter service area, meaning you come in, you order, and we bring everything out to you. You already paid for everything at the front, so you can come and go at your own leisure. But we are here if you wanted to grab us for anything."

"We also wanted it to be a vibe where everyone feels included, loved and treasured. Our employees and customer service are important to me. Customer service is everything, without it you have nothing. You could have a really cool spot, but without good customer service you lose."

Sugar Tree Café recreates the idea of your typical café and makes it into an experience you want to post and share. Sugar Tree Café is located at 358 Passaic Ave., Nutley, NJ. You can also keep up with them on their Instagram.