everything that was built.

Around covid, I started to visit New York frequently to go to shows and see my ex at the time. He lived in Ridgewood and so every morning we'd go to bureks pizza. Growing up in New Orleans, I never had any Albanians around me, so I was excited to be in a neighborhood with so many... Being able to hear my language spoken as people walked passed, made me feel so giddy. We'd get burek, a yogurt and sit at the tables outside I'd be grinning ear to ear, listening to people speak my mother tongue. Right across the street.. a view of a cafe that was seemingly closed, it had my flag above the entrance, a sweet little snowman caricature on the door, and a cappuccino vinyl on the window. Again, I'd never had Albanians around me besides my family and going back, I was so enthralled with everything here being so of my culture.

I would try every so often to go to this cafe with the flag and snowman but it was always closed at the front. Eventually after a third or fourth try, I would hear voices coming from the inside, Albanian men speaking, I then understood it was probably just a place for them and I left it alone.

In march of 2025, I finally moved to New York. After doing shows for years in New Orleans, I felt I reached my artistic cap there and wanted a chance to do more. One of the first places I visited my first week was Ridgewood, specifically to go to the snowman and flag cafe from before... Closed again, I walked up the block and had an espresso at the other Albanian spot in the neighborhood. Albanian families seemed to frequent this spot, there were little kids running around everywhere, it was so very sweet to see.

I walked back down and found the other cafe finally open. The girl working was none other than Betti. We clicked instantly. I told her I'm Albanian and she called the owner and told him and every other Albanian guy who walked in and out, it was so sweet. She made me feel truly at home. We sipped coffee and chatted for hours out front. The owner gave me all my drinks for free and said if I ever needed anything now that I'm in New York to call him, that we were the same blood and he'd be there for me like an uncle. I wasn't shown anything else there, just the front room and I thought it was so adorable.

I started coming more frequently and as I got closer with Betti, he finally showed me the rest of the space.

At the time as few know, this space was really only open to Albanian men and the friends of the employees. Honorable mention.. also to a small group of American boys who played soccer nearby, they befriended the owner and gained trust and access to the full space earlier the previous year during a time that he was doing the initial renovations.

A few weeks go by, and Betti had left the cafe. I walked past shortly after and I saw the owner working the bar alone. We got to talking and he told me he had no other employees then, so I offered to start working there on all my off days, I had 2 other jobs at the time, but I felt a cultural responsibility to help out. The beginning was interesting, he gave me almost no duties, would leave early and let me close on my own. I felt the trust immediately. However it was only Albanian men I ever really served and it was immediately pretty bad with them. They'd stay beyond late, they were suggestive and incredibly disrespectful towards me, but i accepted it as par for the course with Albanian male customers. I also felt because I'm Albanian and my respect for the owner, I could always handle it.

I started inviting my friends to come to the cafe every time that I worked. I'd have them sit out front with me to create a sweeter seeming environment. As many know walking past the cafe was a mostly avoided interaction by the neighbors... I wanted the space to have business, and where there are cool girls hanging out everyone else will follow.. However, according to previous employees, he had always told them to not let anyone see the space besides their close personal friends but he truly truly never told me this.

Slowly I noticed people started flocking to the space. Everyone almost verbatim saying something along the lines of- they've lived here forever and never felt like they could come before. The owner and I would then put on a huge show for everyone new who came, starting with free shots of rakia and then long conversations about Albania, and vintage furniture. We then put up a community board, completely and solely his idea.

I slowly started letting my musician friends do their after parties there. Granted, I wouldn't ask his permission but I'd let him know that I trusted the first couple people who would come in and it all seemed perfectly fine with him... He was excited about it even. He always wanted the place to be filled. Slowly, more random groups of people would hear about the space from everyone else.. Birthdays were getting booked and things of that nature flowed naturally. But everyone still felt the need to gate-keep the space, understandably so.. In October, I did a larger after party for an electronic artist a lot of you know of and were there for and I think thats when the owner saw how big the space could really get. Things were still slow however. I think people still felt they needed to be explicitly called to the space or allowed in. They'd come and think they had to say they knew someone to be able to go downstairs. It was always really funny to hear. The spot was definitely blown up now, but at an 'underground' level.

New years eve 2026 was on a Wednesday, which was my shift. All the friends and regulars I had built around the cafe, I knew were mostly going out of town for nye and I didn't want to have a boring start to the year. So I asked him permission to throw a real show, I explained that if he let me run a proper show for nye it would blow up completely and be the biggest thing ever. I told him the space is obviously so incredible, he curated something truly so beautiful that upon first sight everyone loves and everyone else is going to become even more obsessed with it. We all are aware of how incredible the aesthetic curation is and that was all him.

I planned with him to get rid of some of the old 'amenities' so that we'd be able to have a safe show and he listened and got rid of a lot of the things that were 'filling up the space'. He was fully game for my show and I felt so lucky.

Out of respect for being the first wave of non-Albanian patrons at the cafe, I hit up a few djs I met through Betti to play the show.

Now most importantly for and to the absolute full credit of the success of the show, I then dmed a New York based, Albanian-American singer, Suzy Clue. We had a few mutuals at the time and she responded to my dm instantly, then linked me with her manager. Her name on the bill is 100% the thing made the event pop off that night.

The show was booked. I rented cdjs and asked the owner to have the show catered with traditional Albanian food. My dream show was happening. A full integration of my two cultures. I asked Betti to come back and work the show as she knew the bar better than anyone else and thank god she agreed. Her and Maria, a newer addition to the cafe, were bartending that night. I was running around setting everything up stressed out and djing.

The owner left during the afternoon after he set up all the food. Nye is of huge importance in Albanian culture and so he went to spend it with his family of course. We agreed he'd come back at 12:30 to pop off the bigger fireworks and I'd have some of my friends pop the smaller ones during the time change.

The show was huge, I knew it would be. Everyone that came, were all artists, creators, and musicians that I recognized and respected. It was and still is one of my favorite shows I've ever done. If you were there, you know very well how insane it was, let alone how od the fireworks were lol. Everyone left around 6, Maria and I closed the bar together alone that night and we locked up at 7 am. I walked home so fulfilled, also one of the best dj sets I've done in my life lol.

From then on birthday parties were happening all the time and we'd celebrate everyone by popping off all our left over fireworks for them, which annoyed the neighbors deeply... sorry guys. The success of all the birthday parties were all a credit to the owner, he put his all into those specifically and made a lot of people feel very loved. He was thriving in that attention.

Moving forward on my end, more after parties were happening there and I tried my best to curate a following of musicians and djs I respected to play at the space. I was also always explaining to the owner that we cant let just anyone do a show at the cafe as we have something so special and we need to protect it by only hosting respectable events... and he listened. He gave me full trust and control. Which I will be forever grateful for. I was renting cdjs semi often out of my own pocket and he found out. He asked me to send him the link to everything we needed, saying that he'd buy them. So I sent him a listing for cdj 3000s and a sound system and he did it.. he really bought them.

On February 3, 2026, the day he bought the cdjs, I hosted our first open decks at the cafe. I started to explain to him what an 'open decks' was and he interrupted me and said I didn't need to explain anything to him anymore. That I could do what I wanted when I wanted there and he fully trusted me. I was brought to tears, and our first open decks was huge. All my friends pulled up and then random people I had never seen before heard of it as well, and came with their usbs. Now every Wednesday there's an open decks that I started and I was so proud.. Having an open decks at a new venue is huge and that set all the other things in motion. It was truly all gas from that moment onward.

The blizzard that happened this year on February 22 was our second official show... I had left New York for a few weeks and came back into town with my brother who I threw raves with in New Orleans.

I had a couple of my friends and my Brother dj and it was a beautiful snowed in show. I launched the cafes website that night with a vlog of the show. The website featured a calendar of all the events that ever happened and a chatroom. Everything was going so great. Shortly after that week on February 26 my friends Elisha and Avi threw a huge show that went beautifully and it was the first outside show we hosted there. Shows started booking themselves. I just curated what was allowed to happen

Shortly after ramadan ended in the latter half of march, the full family got officially involved with the everyday things at the cafe and then it all went sort of 'fam-corporate.' I didn't have full control over all the shows I had booked and was still actively booking anymore, nor did I have control over the social media aspect of the shows I was booking either, besides what I posted on my own instagram, which was incredibly difficult to move around. Slowly the credit was very obviously being taken away from me as the booker. I was being overshadowed by outside forces while still having to do all of the work, Ultimately anyone can understand thats not how being a programer works and it was all getting in the way of absolutely everything I built and was trying to continue building, but because of the sole fact that I personally did build the energy surrounding the cafe for the purpose of my career, I wasn't ready to give up on it... But then, months went by of consistent overshadowing and disrespect. I was constantly having to prove myself in a space that I built.

Unfortunately that wasn't the only obstacle I had to jump over… and I will only cover this briefly as I want this story to focus on my programming and community building. It's really without being said that everyone knows about the original male patrons and other stuff there better than even I do. The original male patrons who frequent were still a huge problem, things kept getting worse with them as they were angry to lose their 'spot' and I was truly the only person protecting the girls there, alongside having to protect myself. It was a bummer to say the least and ultimately it all got to much, and all of that combined is the full real reason I left the cafe.

Back to the present. Now..... so completely accidentally I happened upon an opportunity to be partnered in to my current spot, Relax Lounge. Another Albanian owned bar. and of course I took it... Long story short a few Albanian friends of mine were regulars here and they introduced me to the space and vouched for my curation. The proximity and timing, wallahi, is all a coincidence. I got truly lucky once again. I still cant believe it. I'm so thankful for the support and the shows that have happened here so far and i'm so thankful for and proud of all the shows i did over there. Thankful for the girls who are bartending for me here. I couldn't do it without all these incredible friends. Im so blessed it's unbelievable.

Im so excited for all the changes and shows to come. Music and programming is truly my life's work and I get so much happiness from community building. Again, I'm so fucking lucky I was able to do it twice with two beautiful Albanian spaces. I owe everything I am to my people.