Qahwah House

Qahwah House began in Dearborn, Michigan in 2017, in the first Arab-majority city in the United States, and has since grown into a national chain built around a single idea: that Yemeni coffee, grown on terraces above Sana'a and traded through the port of Mokha for centuries, deserves to be served on its own terms rather than folded into an American espresso menu. The Minneapolis shop opened the week of April 28, 2025 at 1851 Central Avenue NE, taking a Central Avenue storefront in Windom Park in a stretch of Northeast where the after-dark options had been almost entirely bars. Beans arrive from Yemen and are roasted in the shop; the walls carry photographs of the Yemeni countryside, brass coffee pots and material on Sana'a's role in the coffee trade. Staff member Sue Wazwaz told the Northeaster in May 2025 that the coffee "comes straight from Yemen" and is roasted on site, and that the shop is "known for Yemeni coffee and tea. A lot of cardamom, ginger and nutmeg."

The drink list is where the specificity sits. The Yemeni Style Coffee and Tea section runs Sana'ani, a medium roast with cardamom; Jubani, a blend of medium and light roast with coffee husks, cardamom, ginger and cinnamon; Mofawar, a medium roast served with cardamom and cream; Rada'ey, a light roast with ginger and cardamom; and Qishr, the cascara drink brewed from coffee husks with ginger and cinnamon. Adeni Chai pairs Yemeni black tea with cardamom, nutmeg and milk, and a separate Yemeni Tea is spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. A ginger milk and a Turkish dark roast with cardamom fill out the traditional column, and a conventional espresso bar of lattes, americanos and cold brews sits alongside for anyone who wants it. Nothing on the menu contains alcohol and there is no bar programme of any kind. The midnight close every night of the week is the point: this is a room built for sitting for hours, and it gives Northeast Minneapolis a late option that is not a taproom. For a visitor who has not been to a Yemeni coffeehouse before, the useful orientation is that these are not espresso bars with a novelty column: the traditional drinks are the reason the room exists, they are brewed rather than pulled, and they are meant to be sat with rather than carried out. Beans are also sold by the bag at the counter.