Mule Café and Wine Bar (CLOSED)

Park Slope has plenty of coffeehouses, but no notable caffeine pit stops on auto-garage row—the rapidly gentrifying Fourth Avenue. Hil Sherman found a video store on the strip that had been closed for 15 years and reinvented it as Mule Café and Wine Bar, a bright, rustic refuge. Handsomely lacquered floors lead to a backyard with a boat-size picnic table big enough for 20. In addition to java, he’s serving croissants from Soho patisserie Ceci-Cela and muffins made at Park Slope’s Two Little Red Hens bakery. Oil lubes remain across the street.