This Clifton Yemeni coffee shop brews flavor, culture and history
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He grew up around coffee and believes the best beans are from Yemen. The burlap bags of coffee stacked around the shop coupled with images of Alhasbani and his family’s farm conveys the farm-to-cup concept that ensures the quality of the coffee is controlled by those who grow it. Yemeni farmers would grow coffee in the mountains around Sanaa, while the merchants readied it for export at the Yemeni port of Mocha, a city on Yemen’s western coast that borders the Red Sea, Morris says.
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The baristas, unofficially called Yemeni station masters, have to keep a close eye on the pots of chai and coffee so they don’t boil over, especially when several kettles are roiling at once. If you go to someone’s house in Yemen, the first thing they give you is coffee — it’s a big deal. If someone doesn’t offer you coffee, there’s something wrong,” he says, with a laugh. Coffee always had a social quality to it, Um said, adding that coffeehouses could be found in major cities like Cairo, Istanbul and Damascus by the mid 1500s. The drink also had detractors, who thought it could inspire radical ideas or seditiousness because of its social character, she said. The beans at Qahwah House are plucked from the farm that his family has owned and operated for eight generations in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.
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The bars, restaurants and coffee shops that surround the market are available to feed visitors year-round. Visiting this warehouse district where buildings are painted with murals by local and global artists and live music often echoes throughout the streets is a must. The only American city with an Arab majority, Dearborn’s dining scene is rich with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurants of various cultures.
We get to know Ibrahim Alhasbani, the owner of Dearborn, Mich.’s only Yemeni coffee house, Qahwah House.
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COLUMBUS — Abdelrahman Yasen, a former employee of Qahwah House in Dearborn, has opened his own franchise in Columbus, Ohio with his brother Abdalziz, expanding the franchise to a new state. Located at 189 E Main Street, Columbus, Ohio, the coffee shop will be open to the public in roughly four weeks. A neat feature to Yemeni coffee is that the beans are naturally sweet, and sometimes they consist of fruity notes like mango. Both the tea and coffee served can include added spices, depending on what the customer wants. The pride for his family, home country, and the history of the Yemeni coffee bean all fuel Alhasbani’s passion for running a café.
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The coffee trees stretch across fertile terraces carved into mountainsides and thrive in the warm climate and high altitude. And if you’re a local food enthusiast unwilling to brave a busy downtown, consider this your playbook for eating around the Draft. There’s much to metro Detroit’s food landscape beyond the downtown area, though. “It is social, it is ceremonial, it is essentially an experience, not simply a drink to consume,” he added. It is social, it is ceremonial, it is essentially an experience, not simply a drink to consume. Qahwah House, founded by Ibrahem Alhasbani and known for its authentic Yemeni coffee, honeycomb dessert and various other delectable items, has locations in Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and now Ohio.
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Alhasbani revels in his customer’s first impulse upon settling down with the goods. They usually bust out their phones for an overhead shot of the dainty Arabic-style glass flute teacups and clear kettle arranged on a tray. The Clifton café, which opened Nov. 6, is in a location that straddles the border with Paterson in an area that is home to many Middle Eastern restaurants, bakeries and grocery stories. Add to that the belief that Yemen is the origin of the first coffee plant in the world, and you have a story rife with symbolism.
Now that you’re familiar with each neighborhood, check out the Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Best Restaurants Guide. Our food team has compiled 10 years of our Top 10 New Restaurants and Restaurant of the Year lists into one comprehensive directory of the best restaurants throughout Detroit and its surrounding cities. On the city’s west side, Livernois Avenue boasts a rich presence of food businesses that reflect the African diaspora. Black-owned diners, restaurants, takeout joints and bakeries line the strip.
My advice is to always drink it black so you can taste our delicious coffee, not the cream and sugar. With this situation in Yemen it’s hard to bring coffee beans to the U.S.A. It’s a challenge, but you have to take a risk. A Yemeni immigrant, Ibrahim has been roasting and brewing coffee in Dearborn for two years. But not just any coffee—he imports all his beans directly from his own family farm that he grew up on in Yemen. With political disturbances in Yemen, Ibrahim has had his fair share of challenges in importing, but he perseveres.
Waell Ali, co-owner of the newest Clifton branch in New Jersey, lives in New York and has been friends with Ibrahim since before the founding of Qahwah House. Waell started getting involved when the Brooklyn branch opened around three years ago. The place fills up with the sounds of Arabic music playing in the background, people catching up with old friends and making new ones or meeting with a potential spouse, and families playing card games. “We receive the Yemeni green beans from our warehouse in Michigan that we roast weekly — so our concept is not just freshly brewed, but freshly roasted as well,” Jaffery says. Soon Yemen became the center of coffee export with trade running from the Indian Ocean into the gulf — a depiction spelled out on a large map on the wall opposite the service counter at Qahwah House in Lombard. The caffeine in coffee would help the Sufis get into elevated spiritual “highs,” Morris adds.
After trying the delicately spiced, intensely flavorful brews at their Williamsburg location, which opened in November 2020, it’s easy to understand why he felt the need to bring Yemeni-style coffee stateside. Qahwah House (qahwah meaning coffee in Arabic) is a Yemeni coffee shop which brings people together in its locations in Dearborn, the greater Chicago area, New York, and most recently, New Jersey. Dearborn has a diverse population, and all were very supportive when I first opened and still are! I’m actually very glad that I opened my first coffee shop here in Dearborn!
"They go beyond coffee. If there's a conversation, the staff know a lot about the product, the history of the coffee, where the beans are coming from. The first time Husam Kaid tried Adeni chai (Yemeni tea) at Qahwah House, it reminded him of Yemen. One sip and he was reminiscing about Ramadan nights in the old city of Sanaa.
Customers can also indulge in pastries such as sabaya, a flaky layered bread cake popular in Yemen. “When we open more locations, we create more opportunities for jobs here and also back in Yemen,” he says. Qahwah House sources its coffee beans directly from Yemen, which creates opportunities for coffee farmers. But for the coffee that Ibrahim Alhasbani pours at Qahwah House in Dearborn, “origin” means much more than where the beans came from; it also refers to his own origin story.
People who come in groups typically order the teas and coffees in pot sizes. The small pot is $9 and serves one to two people, while two to three can share the medium for $13, and the large is $22 and serves three to four people, though the servings can be stretched, depending on the pour. Arif Jaffery, partner and managing director of Qahwah House, says the timing is critical for Yemeni drinks like adeni chai, and communication is quintessential for the entire operation. And naturally, Alhasbani sources the beans directly from his family’s eighth-generation farm in the Sanaa region of Yemen. Alhasbani’s vision when he opened his first location in Dearborn in 2017 was to bring his homeland back to the forefront of coffee culture.
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