Hybrid Coffee Returns to Jersey City Heights With Torico’s Ice Cream

The line outside 573 Palisade Avenue on a recent Saturday afternoon stretched past the colorful storefront. Kids pressed their faces against the glass of the ice cream cart, while their parents debated between mango and coconut. That cart is ButterCream, the new seasonal collaboration between Hybrid Coffee + Kitchen and Torico, the Puerto Rican-owned ice cream institution that’s been scooping in Jersey City since 1968.

For Evan Santiago, the owner of Hybrid, this moment has been years in the making. The cart is the latest piece of his return to the Heights, the neighborhood where he grew up and where his coffee journey first began.

What’s happening

Hybrid Coffee + Kitchen officially opened its doors at 573 Palisade Avenue on March 19th, and the space has been busy ever since. It’s the third storefront for the local roaster, which also runs a location at 398 Manila Avenue in downtown Jersey City and a café inside Mana Contemporary at 888 Newark Avenue. The new Heights shop serves Hybrid’s signature coffee and espresso drinks, plus matcha, tea, smoothies, juices, and seasonal beverages. There’s a tonic-infused iced coffee that Evan recommends, and the menu includes breakfast staples like Belgian Bacon, Egg + Cheese on a house-made waffle, Loaded Avocado Toast, Smoked Salmon Toast, Brioche French Toast, Egg-in-a-Blanket, and açaí bowls.

But the real draw this summer is ButterCream, the ice cream cart set up outside the café. It’s open Thursdays through Saturdays from 12 to 6 PM (weather permitting) and exclusively serves Torico ice cream. The cart combines those classic flavors with baked goods from Butter, the small-batch bakery Evan opened in the fall of 2025 at 156 Brunswick Street. Think croissant ice cream sandwiches, and yes, they’re as good as they sound.

The background

Hybrid started in 2019 as a mobile coffee cart operating out of a converted 1970s horse trailer near Exchange Place. Evan, who was born in Hoboken and raised in Jersey City, designed the cart himself and taught himself the craft of coffee. He’d been inspired by cafés in Sorrento, Italy, and by the Italian delis he visited growing up in the Heights. “I wanted to create a place where customers can slow down, enjoy a locally-roasted cup of coffee, and connect with the people around them,” he said.

That first cart led to a storefront on Cambridge Avenue in the Heights later that year. In 2021, during the pandemic, Hybrid moved to 398 Manila Avenue, close to the original cart’s stomping grounds. In early 2024, it opened inside Mana Contemporary, bringing coffee and pastry to the arts community. Through all those moves, Evan’s approach has stayed the same: treat the shop like an extension of his living room, where neighbors are welcome to stay a while.

What it means for Hudson County

For residents of the Heights, the new café fills a gap that’s been felt for a while. Palisade Avenue has plenty of bodegas and pizza spots, but few places where you can sit down with a locally roasted coffee and a pastry and just be. Evan said the shop is dedicated to the “stoop kids of Jersey City,” a nod to the neighborhood culture that shaped him. There’s even a pew he picked up from New York City and brought into the space for seating.

The ButterCream cart is a small business love letter to Jersey City. It brings together three local concepts—Hybrid, Butter, and Torico—under one (mercifully shaded) spot. And it gives families in the Heights a reason to linger on a summer afternoon, something that’s become rarer as rents climb and storefronts turn over.

What people are saying

Evan doesn’t mince words about Torico. “Torico has been around forever and is an institution. I wanted to bring this to the Heights, as it’s hard to find good ice cream here,” he said. The collaboration is personal, too. “It brings together three Jersey City businesses and concepts in one spot. We collaborated with Torico, with the goal of sharing our Puerto Rican roots and love for ice cream.”

The response from the neighborhood has been enthusiastic. On our visit, Evan was busy taking orders and answering calls, but he still found time to chat with regulars and make sure the line kept moving. The ice cream cart has become a small gathering place, the kind of spot where you run into your neighbor and end up talking for twenty minutes.

What comes next

If you want to check out ButterCream, it’s open Thursdays through Saturdays from noon to 6 PM outside 573 Palisade Avenue. The cart will be there through the summer, weather permitting. The café itself is open Monday through Friday starting in the morning, with weekend hours too. As the weather cools, Evan will likely rotate the ButterCream concept, so if you want that croissant ice cream sandwich, don’t wait. And if you’re curious about the tonic iced coffee, it’s worth a trip on its own.

Jersey City has a way of holding onto its own. Evan Santiago grew up here, left for a career in creative direction, and came back to build something that belongs to this neighborhood. The stoop kids are grown now, but they—and their kids—can still find a place to sit, linger, and taste what home tastes like.