Aside from the variety of teas, coffees, desserts and vegetarian eats, Witches Brew Coffeehouse brews a lot of love.

The decor separates the Brew from any ordinary coffeehouse. Dead bouquets hang from the ceilings and hand-made crafts of paper hearts and skulls dangle alongside. By day, the sunlight provides the majority of light into the Witches Brew. By night, strings of lights hang along the walls and windows. Victorian-inspired dim-lit lamps perch by some tables. Tea-light candles and a jar of sugar rest on each coffee table that is surrounded by ‘70s-dated couches and cushioned chairs. The arrangements are mismatched and positioned openly to one another. Everyone essentially sits together even if they’re strangers. It’s a place for people of all ages, particularly young adults, to connect face-to-face in an intimate and comfortable environment.

Witches Brew was established in 1996 by two sisters, Natalie and Alabama Miceli, “on a whim” because they wanted to give another option for people to go to that wasn’t a diner or a parking lot. Natalie Miceli, who was 21 years old when they opened Witches Brew, said it was never, and almost two decades later still isn’t, for the money.

“We were just so into the idea of it and we put that heart into it. That’s kind of what made it survive. I think if it was more of a money-making business plan, it may not have done so well. But I think because we really wanted something communal in the area where people could go and wanted to make it where it was different than other things,” Natalie Miceli said.

Natalie Miceli is a petite woman with long dark hair that includes a few strands of dreadlocks. Just a little bit of dark eye shadow covers her eye-lid and a long dog-chain necklace with different metal embellishments hanging at the bottom. She wears corduroy shorts, a thermal with a graphic t-shirt over it and combat boots.

Witches Brew is very popular on Long Island. Miceli said she couldn’t recall a time when business was bad. Normally there’s a line around the corner to get in during the night. Early in the day, twice a week, the Brew hosts meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous. They have been doing this for about 12 years and the size of meetings have grown to 50 attendees. Most A.A. meetings take place in church basements or community centers. It’s not usual to hold a meeting in a place as public as a coffeehouse.

“It started with my friend, who was really young at the time, and he was struggling with being sober, and he wanted a meeting place where it wasn’t so traditional. And he’s like, ‘I think [Witches Brew] would be a nice place for people to come as an open meeting because you’re a coffeehouse and you can just walk through the door and not feel uncomfortable if they want to just sit in, sit on the side, have a place to go,” Natalie Miceli said.

Miceli reflected on how most families have a history of alcoholism or drug use whether it’s in someone’s household or surroundings. She said that many don’t talk about it. “[Alcoholism has] been around me since I’ve been a kid so I’m very familiar with it and I notice how it would be pushed to the side a lot.” Having meetings at the Witches Brew has allowed people, family and friends, to open up and talk about their own addiction or of someone they love.

Not only does Witches Brew give a place for A.A. members to go to in the morning, but the Brew’s late night hours give them a social place to go at night instead of a bar. Miceli has witnessed the transformation of lives at Witches Brew’s meetings.

A middle-aged female, who does not wish to be identified, with a big smile, orange-painted nails with sparkles and auburn-red hair went to Witches Brew’s A.A. meetings for the first five years of her sobriety. She is sober for eight years now and works full-time and can’t attend morning meetings at the Witches Brew anymore. Witches Brew is where she got sober and it’s her favorite place for meetings.

“It had nice comfortable chairs, coffee was always good (because A.A. meetings are usually known for their horrible coffee), so it was good coffee. And there was a real family sense about that place,” she said.

The intimate connection existed in these morning meetings. The welcoming and relaxed atmosphere helped this woman stay sober.

“I would get my coins there because the meeting I went to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we didn’t give out coins. So the Witches Brew meeting, you got your monthly coins,” she said. For each year of successful sobriety A.A. members are awarded a coin. The coins are a bit bigger than a quarter and come in different colors depending on which anniversary it represents. There are coins for the first 12 months of sobriety and coins for each year proceeding that. “That was a huge, huge deal for me. So I religiously went so I could get my coins until I reached a year,” she said.  She received her 24-hour coin there and the following coins for each month her first year sober.

The woman said that there was a lot of controversy about having meetings in a public place because some members were concerned with their anonymity. The group decided that if someone did not feel safe at Witches Brew then that was not the meeting for them. Nassau County has a plethora of meetings at more private places.

Witches Brew gave A.A. their own closet space for supplies such as the coins, the Big Book and other materials. She said that a lot of places, including some churches, “don’t want A.A. in them because they’re always afraid that you get drunks in there that’ll fall and be disruptive.” The Witches Brew always welcomed them.

“They were very willing to help alcoholics and addicts. It was great for young people because it’s a young place. There’s such a stigma with A.A.: that it’s a bunch of old men smoking cigarettes in a basement. And this was just refreshing for young people. They felt comfortable there and it had a huge turnout for young people, which was wonderful,” she said. Outside of meetings she goes there for lunch and loves the service. A place with an alcohol-free menu that’s popular among young people is “a wonderful, wonderful asset to Nassau County.”

Witches Brew invests a lot of their time into many other organizations that focus on helping people, animals and the environment. Since they’ve opened, they’ve given a percentage of their profit to numerous groups such as several animal rescue groups, Food Not Bombs, which fights poverty and war by feeding the homeless vegetarian- and vegan-friendly foods, and Coffee Kids, which funds the education and welfare of children who labor for coffee farms.

“Besides the A.A. meetings on a continual basis, we’ve not really obligated ourselves to any type of organization. We do a lot of our own things on the side,” Miceli said. They’re constantly giving to new charities and going back to old ones. Fundraising and investing time to those in need isn’t a once a year tradition for Witches Brew.

All of Witches Brew’s coffee, espresso, and teas come from “certified, environmentally protected… organic, and fair-traded” places. The percentage of what they give to these various groups come from the pricing of their menu items. When people complain about the prices Miceli tries to explain to them why a cup of coffee is a little more expensive at Witches Brew.

“I understand if you don’t want to pay a few dollars more for a pound of coffee here but I’m not going to compromise my beliefs and exploit a country and their people to carry a $9 pound coffee. You can get that anywhere else. But you can’t get that here because we don’t do that. You don’t have to support us, but I will never change what I’m doing for a dollar.” It’s never been about the money, but creating an environment for people to learn, connect and grow.

The woman from the meetings is grateful for the Witches Brew. “They’re a very eclectic group there. Very different. They almost look like, and I don’t mean this in a mean way, but like three witches…the mother and the two daughters.” People mistake Witches Brew to be a hub for teenage goths or people practicing voodoo. “I always thought of it as you can’t always judge a book by its cover. Because to look at them, with their tattoos and piercings, you might think they’re on the ‘dark side,’ but really they’re very kind to open up and help alcoholics and addicts.”

“We’re just trying to save life in anyway we can,” Miceli said. Whether it’s funding for animal rescue, feeding the homeless or holding A.A. meetings, Witches Brew is trying to serve not only coffee, but love.