EVERYTHING'S
A CAFE NOW

Cafés are popping up in unexpected places—whether at your neighbor's house or inside your favorite fashion retailer—and they're serving as venues that transcend traditional coffee service. 

This conversation moderated by Feed Me’s Emily Sundberg explored how the desire for community and third spaces is alive and well — from viral LA cafe Granada opening its home to the public, to Air Mail’s audience craving a physical gathering space, to Montauk General building community through pop-ups before opening a brick-and-mortar.

FRENEMIES DEBATE
THE FUTURE OF COFFEE

As drink preferences expand into matcha and other on-trend lattes, a new wave of cafés has emerged. The divide reveals a deeper tension around identity: tradition vs. experimentation, craft vs. culture, product vs. lifestyle. 

This friendly debate between operators from Onyx, Bueno Days, and Dayglow, unpacked the tensions shaping modern coffee culture, including the rise of matcha, the pop-up-to-brick-and-mortar pipeline, and how flavor, expansion, and identity are reshaping what consumers expect from cafés. Bueno Days also shared the exciting news that they’ve found their first permanent location.

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF
BEVERAGE WITH OATLY

What exactly is an Everything Bagel Jell-Oat? And why is this Tortilla Agave Latte so f'ing good?

Through an interactive presentation from Oatly's Global Head of Food & Drinks Experience, guests learned straight from the source what it takes to experiment with new combinations in a trend-driven world—and tasted them for themselves.

MY LATTE JUST WENT VIRAL

Supercharged algorithms, and the right content at the right moment, can turn a global chain into the culture's most relevant drinks brand overnight. 

This one-on-one convo between Link in Bio’s Rachel Karten and Nitro Bar founder Audrey Finocchiaro looked at how cafés are building parasocial relationships with customers, and how viral attention only matters if it converts into real action, loyalty, and product love. They also discussed why serialized content builds community, why eye-catching drinks stop the scroll, and why Nitro Bar stays true to its brand rather than chasing every trend.

GEN Z DIDN'T KILL DRINKING CULTURE, THEY JUST CHANGED IT

Despite the myth that Gen Z is drinking less (coffee and booze) than every previous generation, the truth is that their drinking behaviors are simply different: matcha over coffee, THC/CBD over alcohol. They're also interested in flavor and functionality—think fiber and gut health. 

Dan Frommer of The New Consumer explored how younger consumers are reshaping beverage rituals, from protein and alternative caffeine to customization and identity. A few favorite takeaways: “there is no more thrilling 30 feet in retail than Erewhon’s beverage case,” oatmilk won the alt-milk race according to Square data, and today’s novel flavors are tomorrow’s nostalgia.

FIRESIDE CHAT WITH
HASAN MINHAJ

Comedian Hasan Minhaj joined Food & Wine’s Kat Kinsman for a conversation on chai as ritual, identity, and cultural memory—and what happens when something deeply personal becomes part of a modern consumer brand. 

The conversation flowed from chai as a form of love and post-event bonding, to the question of which traditions millennials choose to carry forward. Hasan also spoke about his involvement in Kolkata Chai Co., the inevitability of chai’s “matcha moment,” and what it means to honor roots while allowing traditions to evolve.