Yemeni coffee shops are popping up all over Milwaukee — and around the country — and WUWM is on it!
Our second stop on the tour — Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co.
Qamaria is in Greenfield, Wisconsin, in a small strip mall complex near 76th Street and Layton Avenue. It’s cozy,with all different kinds of seating, including a circle of sofas and recliners in the center of the shop. Moath Alshahrani is there with his friends, drinking a pot of black tea. They order it every week.
“The way it goes back home in Saudi, after a heavy meal we go for tea, black tea,” Alshahrani says.
“I like the concept that here in Milwaukee we have a place where we can go for a social gathering until late evening, but it’s not revolved around alcohol. Like you have an alternative,” Alshahrani says.
Other people, like Nevan Ameen and her kids, came to Qamaria in groups but were a little too late to grab the sofa sets.
All are welcome
Eric Cluth often shows up to the shop with a crate full of acrylic paints. He’s got two tables pushed together. They are covered in brushes, paints and canvases. He’s painting a photo of cacti at the Mitchell Park Domes and a second photo of a college friend.
Cluth says the fact that there’s a lot of people around helps him paint. “If I'm not careful, I'll go weeks without painting,” he says. “But when I'm in a group of people, even if they're not associating with me, it's so much easier for me to focus and not get lost in a video game or some video that I want to watch on YouTube.”
The vibe is also different from what he’s used to. “Where I'm from, all you do is shove headphones in, you keep your head down, you drink your coffee, and you get out as quick as possible,” he says. “And [here] I'm learning people's names. I'm getting to see them at least once a week, and they all treat me like I'm a longtime friend.”
What we drank and ate: Pistachio, pistachio, pistachio!
Qamaria has an extensive menu of pistachio coffee drinks and desserts. There’s the pistachio latte, pistachio tiramisu, and the viral Dubai chocolate bar, made with kataifi (shredded phyllo dough), milk chocolate and pistachio paste, along with the Dubai chocolate cup.
WUWM’s Eddie Morales sat down for his first-ever pistachio-flavored drink... or dessert. He says of the latte, “It’s delicious. Like, this might be my go-to drink now.”
Qamaria hires a baker who makes the dessert cups and bars. She comes in early in the morning, around 6:30 a.m.
“This bar specifically, when you bite into that layer, it almost feels crunchy, kind of like a wafer in the middle. Yeah, it’s just like the mix of the textures, too. Very good,” says Morales, who doesn’t give out “very goods” easily.
Building community one drink at a time
Both Milwaukee co-owners of Qamaria, Faraz Shuja and Anas Alhurani, met at a local mosque. Both lived abroad, one in Palestine and the other in India. Both are pleased that the business has become mainstream.
Alhurani says he grew up as an only child. Owning the shop allows him to live out his childhood dream of having lots of people around.
“I walk between the tables as that child in me who missed that gathering and missed that sibling feeling and noise and running and yelling,” he says. “This is what I feel [at Qamaria]. I feel like a small kid running around between tables, checking on customers, getting that value back and also reflecting it on others.”
Alhurani says people can grab coffee anywhere, but they come to Qamaria for the community.
