Yemeni coffeehouses, offering spiced Adeni tea and qishr brewed from coffee cherry husks, grew their U.S. footprint by half last year as chains like Arwa Yemeni Coffee and Haraz Coffee House expanded well beyond traditional Arab American enclaves. The surge, documented by restaurant consultancy Technomic, brought the total to 136 cafes among six major chains, with dozens more in development — a reflection, owners and analysts say, of shifting American tastes, demographics, and a powerful nostalgia for a homeland many cannot reach.
“One of the ways to actually visit without traveling there was to bring that experience to the U.S., and that was a huge passion for us when we opened our first location,” said Faris Almatrahi, co-founder of Arwa Yemeni Coffee, a Texas-based chain with 11 operating cafes and 30 in the pipeline. The interiors mirror Yemen’s landscape — desert-hued walls, arched doorways recalling mosques, pendant lamps shaped like the traditional caps of coffee farmers — crafting what Almatrahi called “extremely emotional” transport for a diaspora cut off by the civil war that erupted in 2014.
Ahmad Badr, who runs an Arwa franchise in Sunnyvale, California, framed the appeal more simply. “Generally in the Middle East, our nightlife is coffee, right? People hang out at coffee shops, they play cards, they talk. We wanted to bring that here,” he said. Many locations stay open past 3 a.m., a draw for the growing number of Americans who eschew alcohol. Last year’s Gallup survey found just 54% of U.S. adults reported drinking, the lowest percentage in nine decades.
The menu anchors the experience. Baristas manually blend coffee with hawaij — a spice mix of cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, coriander or nutmeg — and boil it with evaporated milk for a rich, aromatic finish. “Our coffee and teas are not just made through a fully automatic machine,” said Mohamed Nasser, director of operations for Haraz Coffee House, a Dearborn-based chain that has opened 50 U.S. outlets and has another 50 in the works. “We have to manually blend and mix … make sure that it comes out perfect taste, perfect color.”
Cindy Donovan, a first-time customer at Badr’s Sunnyvale shop, said she sought it out after an online search. “I think they’re much more refined and mellow, and much more full of flavor than a regular cup of dark roast,” she said. “The cardamom in the drinks is fantastic. Very, very flavorful, rich but not heavy.” Pastries like khaliat nahal, a cheese-filled honeycomb bread drizzled with honey, and syrup-soaked basboosa cake round out the offerings.
The Arab American population grew 43% between 2010 and 2024, according to the Arab American Institute, providing a built-in customer base. But industry observers say the cafes are drawing a much wider audience. Peter Giuliano, a researcher with the Specialty Coffee Association, noted that culturally specific cafes — from Yemeni to Vietnamese — have become “a key growth driver in the U.S. coffee industry for the last few years,” as Americans seek global flavors and authentic experiences. Social media amplifies the trend.
Coffee’s roots run deep in Yemen. While the plant likely originated in Ethiopia, cultivation flourished in Yemen by the 1400s, where monks used it to stay awake for prayers. The country monopolized global trade for roughly 200 years, until Dutch merchants smuggled seeds to Indonesia. The current U.S. boom, Almatrahi said, has been aided by a revitalization of Yemeni coffee agriculture over the past two decades, led by cooperatives, foundations, and young entrepreneurs. Coffee remains one of Yemen’s brightest economic prospects; the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates more than 80% of the population lives in poverty.
“We are ambassadors for our culture and our people,” Almatrahi said. “So when we open these shops, we want to perform the outreach, to show the hospitality, to show what we have to offer.”