Ghost Town Coffee opens in Kings Park after years of delays

Kings Park finally got the independent coffee shop Chloe Rain McGeehan spent years trying to build, and the location could hardly be more visible: Ghost Town Coffee opened across from the Kings Park LIRR station, putting it squarely in the daily path of commuters and downtown foot traffic.

For McGeehan, who grew up in Sound Beach and has worked in Long Island restaurants since she was 15, the opening marked the end of a long stretch of searching and waiting. In November 2024, she said she had spent about three years looking for the right space and was hoping to open in early 2025. The shop did not arrive until last week, more than a year later than she first expected, after months of delays, setbacks, inspections and patience.

The finished café reflects McGeehan’s personality as much as her business plan. Ghost Town Coffee takes its name and branding from her love of Western culture, with a hand-painted skull-and-flower sign and a rustic but relaxed design that stands apart from the standard chain coffeehouse look. Inside, the shop mixes that Ghost Town identity with a North Shore neighborhood feel, serving coffee, teas, seasonal lattes and baked goods from local bakeries.

The 1,500-square-foot space gives the café a built-in audience from the station next door, where riders moving through Kings Park each day can stop in before the train or on the way home. That visibility mattered in a hamlet where repeat customers and pedestrian traffic can shape whether a storefront becomes part of the routine or just another short-lived opening. On opening day, the shop drew customers eager to see the completed space after months of anticipation.

Ghost Town Coffee also fits into a larger story playing out in Kings Park. The hamlet is part of a downtown revitalization effort tied to a $10 million New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative award, and state planning material describes downtown Kings Park as clustered around the LIRR station and Main Street. Local recovery plans have emphasized walkability, restaurants, mixed-use development and sewers, all aimed at turning the station area into a stronger business district.

That makes McGeehan’s café more than a ribbon-cutting. It adds another independently owned business to the downtown corridor and gives commuters a place that feels tied to Kings Park rather than imported from somewhere else. After years of delays, Ghost Town Coffee opened as a small but visible sign that the station area still has room to grow.