Verb Cafe was a shabby, cash-only space in Williamsburg that had no Wi-Fi but served good coffee for 15 years. Naturally, it got priced out of its Bedford Avenue storefront. The store that replaced the Verb in the summer of 2014, Soap Cherie, sells soaps in the shape of cupcakes. Locals bemoaned it as the latest loss in a gentrifying city. The artist Molly Crabapple wrote on Twitter, “New York is change, I know, but still, can’t believe CBGB’s is dead and the Chelsea Hotel is gutted and Verb is now a soap shop.”

But if New York is change, it is also reinvention. A revived Verb Cafe opened last November in Greenpoint, less than a mile north of the original location. The new Verb has Wi-Fi and accepts credit cards but has some of the same employees and a similar unpretentious vibe. The coffee is still good, too.

Leading the new Verb is Cisco Rodriguez, a longtime employee at the old cafe who is an owner and the general manager at the new place. He started at Verb in 2001 and was there until the end. When a customer offered to bankroll him in a new outpost, he said he was excited to do it.