Sip Your Way Through These Yemeni Cafes

The steaming cups of rich spiced coffee and tea brewed in more than half a dozen local Yemeni cafes have a history that goes back to the 15^th century, when Yemen was the first place in the world to cultivate the coffee bean. In Buffalo, where Yemenis began to settle more than a generation ago, entrepreneurs have tapped a national trend that celebrates a culture’s fresh take on coffee and cafes.

Many have opened cafes with Yemeni American franchisers that have launched in the past decade. They use beans from family farms in Yemen and stay open into the evening. They draw people in with culturally unique drinks, artisan, scratch-made desserts, bright, airy spaces, cozy seating and Middle Eastern-style.

“Suddenly they are popping up everywhere,” said Mona Abdulla, a community advocate, of the cafes. “People already love coffee in America, but then because the coffee is so authentic, it offers a new twist.”

Abdulla, whose parents moved here in the 1970s, has been grateful for the way Buffalo cafes, many with wall maps highlighting Yemen’s place in the world, help introduce people to her culture. Yemen, at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is famous for being the first country to cultivate coffea bushes and sell the beans, or the seeds found inside the cherry fruit.

Brewed coffee began as a drink Sufi monks sipped to stay awake for evening prayers. In modern cafes, which usually don’t serve alcohol, coffee and tea are simmered the traditional way, in spices like ginger and cardamom. A lightly caffeinated drink called qishr is made from coffee bean husks. Creamy and cold creations include lime, mangoes, bananas and dates.

Menus feature Yemeni pastry, like the beehive, or khalyat alnahl. This classic soft sweet bread with round nubs and a thin cream cheese filling has honey on the top and a sprinkling of nutty Yemeni black seeds.

Abdulla orders her favorite unsweetened, with honey on the side: The sabaya made with clarified ghee butter, is flat, like a thin pancake, served in a wedge, like a slice of pizza, and has the rich buttery taste of a croissant.

“I love it because it’s soft on the inside and crispy on the outside,” said Abdulla. It also reminds her of when she used to help her mother make sabaya the night before the Eid celebration at the end of Ramadan fasting. 

The coffee houses are an easy, and delicious, introduction to the local Yemeni community any time of year, said Abdulla, who estimates that area population to be about 10,000.

“For a long time, people didn’t know a lot about the Yemeni culture,” she said. “I just think it needs to be amplified and shared.”

Buffalo’s Yemeni cafes

1. Socotra, 671 Ridge Road, Lackawanna 14218, socotrayemenicoffeehouse.com, 716-939-2778 @socotra.coffee

This bright café in Lackawanna is in a southern Buffalo suburb that is at the center of the local Yemeni community because it was once home to the Bethlehem Steel plant, where people came for jobs. It serves classic spiced coffee and tea, Yemeni pastry and trendy trompe-l’oeil cakes shaped like mangos and bananas. The unique umbrella-shaped trees featured on the walls are found in Socotra, the Yemeni archipelago and café namesake.

• Raha Coffee House,370 Amherst St., Buffalo 14207, rahacoffeehouse.com,716-615-5555 @rahacoffeehouse

At the corner of Amherst and Grant streets in Buffalo’s Black Rock neighborhood, this sunny, spacious café named for the Arabic word for comfort and ease, sells classic Yemeni brews, pastries and innovative cool confections.

• Raha Coffee House South Buffalo, 480 Abbott Road, Buffalo 14220, 716-331-3388

A newer Raha, near Mercy Hospital, has the same menu and atmosphere as the one on Grant. A unique addition: A wall-mounted tank with a waterfall feature adds soothing sounds to the ambience.

• Haraz Coffee House, 471 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo 14222, harazcoffeehouse.com, 716-248-1391 @harazcoffeehouse

This sleek, inviting café in the Elmwood Village serves classic desserts and drinks, and its specialty: the rich, bittersweet coffee of Yemen’s mountainous Haraz region.

• Mokha Reserve, 1207 Hertel Ave., 14216, mokhareserve.com, 716-259-9151, @mokhareservecafe

In North Buffalo, this café has an extensive menu. Its Adeni cream tea, simmered with evaporated milk, comes by the pot, making it easy for friends to share a cardamom infused cup.

• Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co., 5363 Main St., Williamsville 14221, qamariacoffee.com, 716-276-3213, @qamariacoffee

Find this open and bright café, named for the traditional Yemeni arched window, in the heart of Williamsville’s business district. Come for classic Yemeni offerings and Middle Eastern treats like creamy pudding topped with pistachio and crispy shredded orange phyllo pastry.

• Karak Café truck, 3801 Union Road, Cheektowaga 14225, karak-café.com, 716-306-2020, @karakcafe1

The truck is parked daily, 12 to 5 p.m., in front of the Oasis Halal Market in a suburb on Buffalo’s eastern border. Karak, a Yemeni word for strong flavor, specializes in slow boiled black tea with cardamom and cloves and a latte with beans from the mountains of the historic Mocha coffee port city. Try their savory flat breads with oregano and spiced, minced meat.

• Coming Soon: Saba Coffee House, Hotel @ The Lafayette, Washington and Clinton Streets downtown.

At long last, the Yemeni coffee trend that has been brewing in neighborhoods throughout the city will find its way into the heart of downtown. Saba is set to open in the longtime former location of Public Espresso inside the Hotel @ The Lafayette, the 19^th century landmark designed by Louise Bethune. The opening will bring Yemeni coffee closer to downtown’s office workers, hotel visitors and convention attendees than ever before.