New cafe to offer coffee and more

Uniting the world, one cup at a time

By Kara Didrich| Manor Ink

Livingston Manor, NY – Café Amancay is on the way! Located at 47B Main Street in this hamlet, this new coffee shop will open in October by Livingston Manor resident Carola Muller de Mascolo.

Café Amancay will feature good quality coffee from a company in New York City that gets its coffee from several different countries. Mascolo promises that all of the café’s drinks will be prepared with heart.

Along with many classic coffee beverages, the café also plans to have salty and sweet baked goods. Other unique menu items will be added as time goes on. One of them is mate (pronounced MAH-tay), a South American tea.

“They drink it in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, and you drink it with a straw,” explained Mascolo. “The idea is to bring the mate as a ritual, like the Japanese.”

Mascolo and her family wish to do something for the town by making their café affordable. “We really want to do something from our heart,” she stressed. Mascolo expressed a very strong desire that her coffee be affordable, thus creating a space for people to come and sit down to talk.

To facilitate that, the front of the café will be an inviting “living room-like” area that feels very welcoming and comfortable. Bringing people together is the primary motivation behind Mascolo’s opening the shop. “I think that coffee is a way of uniting the world,” she said.

She also wants to ensure that there’s somewhere for the local community to visit throughout the week rather than just on weekends. She plans to have the coffee shop open everyday of the week to ensure it’s accessible to everyone. She also stated that she plans on donating a portion of their profits to a non-profit organization or charity.

Mascolo’s inspiration for the name of the café came from a South American wildflower, the amancay. It’s an orange or yellow flower that is seen as a symbol of resilience.

“It’s about unconditional love,” said Mascolo, “and that’s what I think the world is needing now.”

Originally from Argentina, Mascolo shared that her husband and children chose to settle down in Livingston Manor, claiming the place feels similar to where she grew up. She hopes to make the town feel more connected to people coming from other places and settling down here.