A new cafe is now open in Lyon Park, the only coffee shop in the mostly residential neighborhood.
Mocha Cafe & Pastry, at 2720 Washington Blvd, opened April 19, serving fresh baked goods from owner Minoo Taheri and her daughter, Fojan, as well as several types of cold and hot coffee drinks, including Turkish coffee — which Minoo Taheri said is one of her most popular items — and café glacé, a coffee, milk and ice cream drink.
Taheri’s full-time job is working for Fairfax County, but she said she would bake almost every day and bring the results into work. Eventually, she heard enough coworkers tell her to open a bakery that she decided to go through with it.
“I would bake because I was happy, but I would also bake because I was sad,” she said in her café yesterday afternoon. “It really comes from the soul for me.”
Mocha opens at 7:00 a.m. daily and closes at 9:00 p.m. It serves breakfast fare like bacon, egg and cheese croissants, and sandwiches like the Persian chicken salad — an homage to Taheri’s home country of Iran — and pesto turkey panini.
The community has already responded positively, Taheri said, and she even has a couple of customers who come in every day, use the free WiFi and drink Turkish coffee. Soon, her customers will be able to try her true specialty: eclairs. When she gets the proper fridge, she plans on serving eclairs stuffed with pistachios, caramel, mango and coffee flavors.