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Maybe it's the graham cracker coffee or the famous french toast.
It could also be the weekly open mic every Friday night that just celebrated its 13th anniversary.
For owners Scott Elfant and Tom Torres, the Oakland Avenue cafe has become a cornerstone of Warwick because of their love for the community they serve.
"We really do love Warwick. The people have been really good to us and they back us up in every way," said Elfant, of Paramus, N.J. "Warwick is just killing it. It just pulls people in. It's just a great, great town."
Elfant and Torres took over Caffe a la Mode in 2003. Elfant worked as a manager at CVS where he met his wife. Torres' mother owned a flower shop that later became the Caffe a la Mode dining room.
She had told her son the cafe owner at the time might be interested in selling.
That's when Elfant saw an opportunity and jumped in with Torres, a native of Port Jervis. They spent the next 14 years experimenting and applying feedback from their customers. The result is a quintessentially Warwick cafe that keeps busy even during the off times of the work week.
"It's always an adjustment whatever people love let's do more of. If they don't like it let's get rid of it," Elfant said. "We'll just keep doing that. It's common sense, really. Just listening to what the customers are saying."
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