After a Kew Gardens cafe was struggling to make ends meet, Jake Ganz decided to follow his business hunch and make a move. He met with the previous owner of the space – located right next to the Long Island Rail Road Kew Gardens station at 82-60 Austin Street – after wandering in one day, and in good spirits, they decided that Ganz would eventually take over.

The Kew Gardens resident and Forest Hills native, who is an avid fan of specialty coffee, bought the space then opened his cafe at the beginning of November 2011.

“Specialty coffee is super hot right now in the city,” he said. “The New York Times is doing articles about it all the time. We're trying to bring that level of sophistication and quality to people.”

The coffee house is already attracting a lot of young professionals and college students that live in the neighborhood, as well as the longtime residents.

“There's no real coffee shops other than in Astoria, where you can come and sit down with your computer in this kind of environment,” he said. “In the city, there are tons but there's nothing around here.”

Odradek's offers coffees from different regions of the world. Customers can indulge in ground and brewed to order coffee from Costa Rica, Kenya, and Columbia to name a few, as well as various teas.

And the space is not just a meeting place for people; it also offers a convergence of art and audience. The coffee shop has already hosted a local artist showing in December and on January 26, hosted a book signing with author Deborah Emin and her book Scags at 18. The coffee house also plans to host more events in February and the upcoming months with dates to be determined.

Ganz is also working on a literary publication called "The Coffee Press" and a bi-monthly newsletter of short fiction and poetry.

“Our idea is that we will offer someone something to read with their morning coffee that will be fun and stimulating and maybe a little bit different,” he said.