From One Cake To A Café
Café Nocturno didn't start as a café at all. It began as a small-batch bakery supplying tres leches to Mexican restaurants around Cleveland, then grew into a downtown storefront near Public Square. When customers kept asking for a place to enjoy dessert and coffee late into the night, we leaned in, changed our name, and became the city's late-night café. Same recipes, new after-dark home.
The Walls Tell Stories
Look around and you'll see work by Cleveland artists on every wall, currently including pieces by Hector Vega. We display and sell local art without taking a commission, because we'd rather support the people making it, and we rotate in a new artist every so often. Add UNO, chess, checkers, and salsa nights, and Café Nocturno becomes less a bakery and more a gathering place.
The Happy Place
We want Café Nocturno to be, as Phil puts it, the happy place. Somewhere you can sit down, talk, and stay a while over cake and coffee, with Latin music in the background and no alcohol in sight. Everyone is welcome here, whatever your background and whether or not you speak Spanish. Tres leches may be our roots, but the table is open to the whole city.
Phil Davis | Owner & Baker
Phil Davis is the founder and baker behind Café Nocturno. His tres leches story started at home, when his daughter asked him to make a cake she'd found on TikTok. He'd never made one before. Friends wanted their own, then his students did, and soon Phil was baking from a small commercial kitchen and supplying tres leches to Mexican restaurants around Cleveland. When demand outgrew the kitchen, he opened a flagship downtown and, listening to what customers wanted, reshaped it into a late-night café. Phil brings years of Cleveland restaurant experience to the counter, including a former restaurant recognized in 2002 with a "Best Food for World Peace" award from Cleveland Scene, a nod to his belief that food brings people together across cultures.
In the News
Cleveland Scene
Scene covered our rebrand from Pasteleria y Café into a downtown late-night dessert and coffee destination, and why tres leches is our feel-good signature.
Cleveland.com
Cleveland.com announced our grand opening near Public Square, spotlighting the late-night hours that set us apart downtown.