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The matcha craze may have met its caffeinated match with the increased presence of Yemeni coffee in Silicon Valley.
Last year, Milyar Cafe debuted in Santa Clara and San Francisco-based Yemeni coffee chain Sana’a expanded to Mountain View and Redwood City – with yet another Sana’a in the works in Sunnyvale. Looking at the broader Bay Area, Delah, Heyma, Mohka and Qamaria all opened within the past five years.
On Dec. 31, a newcomer to the Bay Area put down roots in Sunnyvale: Arwa Yemeni Coffee.
Founded in 2020, Arwa is a Texas-based Yemeni coffee chain named after the first queen of Yemen. The cafe now has locations in Texas, Illinois, Connecticut and California and has plans to expand to five other states soon. Yemen is one of the world’s first coffee-producing areas, and its mountainous regions grow Arabica coffee known for a complex, earthy flavor profile with notes of dried fruit, chocolate and spice.
Samir Irani, who previously owned various coffee shops, bistros and brunch spots including My Milkshake in downtown San Jose and Crepes Bistro in Santa Clara, is one of the partners behind the new Sunnyvale franchise (other owners are Mohamad Alneser, Ahmad Badr and Mohammed Alrai). When visiting friends and family in Texas, Irani was very impressed with Arwa and decided he needed to bring it closer to home.
“I have been to many Yemeni stores, and I’ve been to many coffee shops, and what stood out about Arwa was the welcoming feeling I felt when I walked into the store for the first time,” he said. “It had a perfect blend between a place where I would want to hang out with friends and a place where I would want to sit alone.”
The other facet that stood out to him about Arwa was that customers are given the option to sample the traditional drinks before committing to an order. Those drinks include jubani, a blend of coffee, coffee husks (cascara) and warm spices; mofawer, a sweet and creamy spiced coffee; Adeni tea, a sweet and creamy spiced black tea; red tea, a spiced and sweetened black tea; and Sanaani coffee, a medium-roast coffee with cardamom. Traditional drinks are available in 12-ounce cups ($5.50-$6), 16-ounce cups ($6-$6.50), shareable pots ($19) and 96-ounce carry-out containers ($40).
Other notable drinks include the Yemeni Latte, which comes with a camel stencil on top and features cardamom syrup, honey and spices; date palm latte with date syrup and white chocolate; Biscoff latte and pistachio latte ($7.50-$8.50). Iced refreshers and matcha lattes are also available ($7.25-$8.50).
Unlike other Arwa locations, Arwa Sunnyvale bakes its pastries in-house. Items include various flavors of manousheh, fatayer, croissants, milk cakes and cheesecakes ($5.50-$8). Irani said the honeycomb is a must-try item, which he described as “a bagel without the hole” stuffed with cream cheese and drizzled with honey or cardamom syrup on top. Mixed baklawa boxes are also available ($40 for one pound, $70 for two).
The cafe’s interior design is inspired by Queen Arwa’s palace in Yemen, with marble floors, white walls, intricate cut-outs and tall arches. Located in a former Peet’s Coffee, the cafe has room for more than 140 seats in the main dining area with nearly 50 additional seats in the attached lowered seating room, available to be booked for private events. Soon outdoor seating will also be available, adding an additional 30 to 40 seats.
Co-owner Badr thinks the growth of Yemeni cafes is likely tied to two reasons. One is that the cafes provide high-quality coffee and specialty drinks that you can’t find elsewhere. The second is the heightened social element of Yemeni coffee shops.
“They offer the ability to hang out for hours on end … and that ties back to just the Middle Eastern culture,” he said. “Coffee shops for us in the Middle East are not just to go get coffee and leave, but they are places to go hang out with friends and family and talk. You can talk about life. You can just be hanging out playing card games.”
Notably, Arwa is open until 10 p.m. to midnight depending on the day and offers a variety of free card and board games for customers to play.
Irani agrees that having a community spot to hang out is likely the reason for the growth of Yemeni cafes. He notes that coffee shops are shrinking in size and many are focused on takeaway only. Recent cafe openings, including Home Coffee Roasters in Sunnyvale and Hatched in Palo Alto, follow this trend.
“We are losing the sense of ‘This is an actual third space where you can spend time working, spend time with friends,’” he said. “And the hours also are limited to the morning time, where you can only grab it during business hours.”
Co-owner Alneser said he’s open to the idea of continuing to expand Arwa throughout the Bay Area, but he first needs to see how successful Sunnyvale is.
“We live in a place where everybody’s busy working,” he said. “It’s such a fast-paced environment that we’re trying to offer something that the Bay Area needs.”
Arwa Yemeni Coffee, 605 Tasman Drive, Sunnyvale; 408-743-5388, Instagram: @arwayemenicoffee. Open Monday to Thursday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday to Sunday from 7 a.m. to midnight.
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