At the grand opening of Rose and Basil

Back in July, Rose and Basil opened at 104 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

The cafe, which serves coffee and a variety of homemade desserts, is owned by Ioana Holt, who launched the business with her college friend William Wang.

The two had their grand opening this past Friday... EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by...


[Wang and Holt]











Holt shared more about her background and how this storefront came about:

I come from a humble family in Romania and have always been passionate about food. I moved to the U.S. after a driven academic career in Romania and Austria to study at NYU. I sustained myself all my life by working in the food industry. Almost a year ago I left NYU in order to pursue ... Rose and Basil.

Rose and Basil was born in a little apartment in Soho. I worked from home doing special orders and fulfilling the ones on the Rose and Basil website.

That was until this March when I reconnected with William Wang, whom I was friends with in college. William comes from China and studies economics at NYU. He’s always had a mind for business and heart for food.

I brought him some chocolates and told him about my dream of opening a cafe.

Suddenly we were looking for rents in East Village and buying fridges and chia seeds online.