Arwa Yemeni Coffee

Arwa Yemeni Coffee opened at 1333 Beacon Street in mid-March 2026, taking a storefront in the middle of Coolidge Corner between Lee's Burgers and Maguro. The Arwa brand was launched in Texas by a group of Yemeni founders, and the Brookline store is run by franchisee Zaid Baara, a pharmacist who told Brookline.News he took the site specifically because Massachusetts offers so few places to sit with friends after dark that are not bars. That gap is the whole proposition here: an alcohol-free room with table service, a long counter and a crowd that turns over late, in a neighborhood where most cafes shut by six. The cafe is part of a wider wave of Yemeni coffeehouses opening across American metros, and it is the first of them to land inside Boston's inner ring.

The drinks follow Yemeni coffee practice rather than third-wave espresso convention. Jubani is a spiced blend brewed together with coffee husks; mofawer is brewed in a kettle with milk, cardamom, cinnamon, fresh ginger and sugar until it turns creamy; qishr is a low-caffeine infusion of husks and spice that works as an evening drink. The adeni teas are milk-based black brews built on a house warm-spice blend and topped with a whipped cardamom syrup. Alongside those sit the drinks that pull the student crowd, including pistachio, salted caramel and Fruity Pebbles lattes, blueberry matcha and a house limeade, plus a pastry case of sweet and savory bakes. The Boston Globe covered the opening on May 12, 2026 under the headline 'Arwa Yemeni Coffee opens in Brookline's Coolidge Corner,' and Brookline.News followed on May 26 with a report on the crowds it was drawing on weeknights. The Brookline store is the chain's first in New England; its other locations are concentrated in Texas, and Baara told the Globe he moved on the site because so few places in Massachusetts stay open late that are not bars.