Yemeni coffee shops are expanding across the Milwaukee area

For years, Bushra Zaibak said she and other Muslims in the Milwaukee area would often gather at each other’s houses during Ramadan. 

Zaibak said Muslims do not drink alcohol and many coffee shops close earlier in the day. 

“Even if it’s an early evening, late afternoon, there really isn’t anywhere to go,” Zaibak said. 

But for the past few months, the Brookfield resident said she and others in the community now meet at several Yemeni coffee shops in the Milwaukee area, which are open late into the night. 

“For us to have somewhere where we can just go have coffee, we can just go hang out with our friends and just have a place — I think that’s just something that’s been such a needed thing that we’re really happy to have,” Zaibak said. 

A growing number of Yemeni coffee shops have opened up in the Milwaukee area over the past several months. Qamaria Yemeni Coffee in Greenfield was the first to open in early 2024. Five others have popped up in the Milwaukee area in the months since, while Qamaria Yemeni Coffee recently opened another location in Madison. 

Yemeni coffee shops use coffee beans from Yemen. The shops are known for their rich coffee, lively decor, unique bakery and food offerings and late hours. An NPR report found that “hundreds” of Yemeni coffee shops have opened across the nation in recent years.

Fauzia Qureshi, the executive director of the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, said the new coffee shops are a “great way to encourage community to grow.”

“There should be spaces where … it’s welcoming and alcohol doesn’t have to be involved, and it can be late as well — where friends can meet late at night and gather and spend time,” Qureshi said.

Azal Coffee in Milwaukee’s Harbor District closes at midnight every day of the week, according to Mike Kaid, co-owner of the recently opened business. Kaid believes his business and other Yemeni coffee shops give people who may not want to go out to bars or clubs another place to spend time together. 

“So it kind of gives people an opportunity to go somewhere where they can all hang out in a nice, clean, safe environment, but also not have to drink any alcohol, or deal with the wrong crowds of people or anything like that,” Kaid said. 

Customers of Azal Coffee can order drinks like a pistachio latte, alcohol free mojitos or the shop’s signature coffee drink, which includes coffee husks, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, sesame and cream. 

“All the new Yemeni coffee shops, not just Azal, all of them is (are) just bringing a new, fresh kind of twist to just the norm of coffee shops where you don’t have to order the same thing or see the same look in every single coffee shop you go to,” Kaid said. 

Ali Hamed and his wife, Sahar Hamed, just opened up Haraz Coffee House in Oak Creek. The shop, which has around 50 drinks on the menu, is open until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

“It’s open for everybody,” Sahar Hamed said. “And we have seen so many people from all over town.” 

She said their customers include college students and younger people. 

“Instead of nowhere for them to go, they can just come and hang out here,” Sahar Hamed said. 

“Some people found us on TikTok,” she added. “They’re like, ‘We drove for two hours and we wanted to come and try your pastries.’” 

Wisconsin is home to around 70,000 Muslims, according to Qureshi. 

“Our Middle Eastern or Muslim people, they still come and support,” Ali Hamed said. “But those people come at night, because they want a place so they can go and sit with the family.” 

The new coffee shops are a frequent meeting place for Qureshi and other members of the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, which celebrated Muslim Heritage Month in July by hosting special events at some of the shops. Qureshi also said the businesses are opening up people to new cultures and to the history of “coffee and Yemeni heritage, or even the Islamic heritage, which builds understanding and connection across these communities.”

“It’s really strengthening those communities, and our community,” Qureshi said.

Qureshi said they are also a “third space,” or a gathering place for people outside of work or home. That’s true for Zaibak, the founder of Eat Halal Milwaukee, who said she often meets her friends at one of the Milwaukee area shops. 

“Because I know they’re open, they’re consistently good, and it’s just a vibe, you know,” Zaibak said. 

At Azal Coffee, Kaid said the shop is a gathering place for people of all different ages and backgrounds. But don’t call it a trend. 

“We don’t see it so much as a trend,” Kaid said. “We just see it as just like a new staple, really, and a new norm hopefully, in the community.”