There has been dramatic uptick in the number of new Bay Area coffee houses specializing in Yemeni coffee in recent years. San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland each now have several Yemeni coffee houses with more to come. These coffee spaces offer not only Yemeni beans, but an alternative to the popular grab-and-go caffeine culture, something more akin to the Middle Eastern coffee experience: They’re open late and offer table service and Middle Eastern-inspired decor and ambiance.
The coffeehouses have become Bay Area darlings in the pandemic era, but the fame of Yemen’s coffee beans goes back centuries. Some 90 percent of the world’s coffee can be genetically traced to Yemen, according to Mokhtar Alkhanshali and his San Francisco-based Port of Mohka company. If that name sounds familiar, you’ve either had a cup of his $16 coffee at Blue Bottle, or you’ve read Dave Eggers’ best-selling, nonfiction “The Monk of Mokha.” The book told the tale of Alkhanshali, who was exploring his homeland’s historic, terraced coffee farms in Yemen when civil war broke out; he had to flee to safety in a fishing boat.
Now Yemeni coffee houses are popping up across this country, thanks largely to Michigan’s Haraz Coffee chain. Using beans sourced from Yemen, Haraz offers a variety of espresso coffee drinks, from Western-style lattes to drinks infused with cardamom, ginger, cinnamon or saffron — and not just in Michigan.
Soon after owner Hamzah Nasser opened his first Haraz Coffee in Dearborn in 2021, he was approached by Ali Albasiery, who owns Oakland’s Shop Rite, about opening a Northern California franchise. Soon there were Haraz locations across the country — in Michigan, Kentucky, Texas, Illinois, New York and North Carolina. There’s one in San Francisco and a second in the works for South San Francisco — and others bear similar inspiration.
Former Haraz barista Omar Jahamee co-founded San Francisco’s Delah Coffee in 2022, when he was just 18, then opened a Delah in Oakland in 2023 and, just six months later, one in Berkeley. There, you can enjoy coffee service at your table — sip a cinnamon and ginger-infused Jubani, perhaps, or rose syrup latte with your savory, cream cheese-stuffed Bee Bite — while you work or relax with friends late into the evening.
Yemeni immigrant Jabriel Isa opened Berkeley’s Heyma Yemeni Coffee in October, proud to bring awareness to Yemen’s coffee history and relieved that in recent years, it’s become easier to import coffee beans from the region. Those beans are roasted nearby at Oakland’s Proyecto Diaz Coffee, before they’re served two ways: espresso-style and Turkish-style. The signature is coffee prepared over the stovetop with cardamom and cinnamon. Enjoy it, Isa says, with the cafe’s honeycomb bread, filled with cheese and drizzled with honey, samosas or pastries.
“We just want to be a place for people to come late, study, hang out and have a place to let go of their stress,” he says.
It’s no wonder these cafes have proven such a draw. The Bay Area is home to 10,000 Yemeni immigrants, according to a 2023 UC Berkeley migration study, and untold numbers of coffee lovers in every city.
Mohka House, which opened last July in Oakland’s Dimond District, was just about full on a recent Friday afternoon with students working, listening to music and enjoying coffee with their Middle Eastern sweets. Yaser Ghalib, whose brother Hamza owns the cafe, chatted as he served customers.
People have been coming from all over the Bay Area to visit the cafe, he says. Sometimes as they sip, they want to discuss international politics, for example, the recent military strikes in Yemen, in response to Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. But Ghalib, his brother and their staff make it a priority to be cheerful, inclusive cultural ambassadors for their community, he says.
If they were at home in Yemen, they’d be doing the same thing — gathering, chatting and drinking coffee. “We started this business as a family to show our traditions,” he says. “It’s been really, really good.”
If You Go
Delah Coffee: Open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. or later on weekdays, 7 a.m. on weekends at 420 W. Grand Ave. in Oakland, 1807 Euclid Ave. in Berkeley and 370 Fourth St. in San Francisco; delahcoffee.com.
Haraz Coffee House: Open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 1452 Franklin St. in San Francisco.
Heyma Yemeni Coffee: Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday at 1122 University Ave. in Berkeley.
Mohka House: Open 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily at 2139 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland.
Sana’a Cafe: Open 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekends at 199 New Montgomery St. in San Francisco.
Source: www.mercurynews.com