Sana'a Cafe (New Montgomery)

Sana'a Cafe takes its name from the Yemeni capital and was operating on New Montgomery Street by late 2023, when The Oaklandside referred to it as the Yemeni coffee shop with a location on Montgomery Street in San Francisco that was preparing to open in downtown Oakland. CBS News Bay Area filmed inside the cafe in April 2024 for a segment on Yemeni coffee culture downtown; manager Sam Mardaei used the piece to talk about the depth of Yemen's coffee history, pointing out that the word mocha comes from the Yemeni port city of Mokha. The group has since grown into a small chain with further San Francisco sites and an Oakland roastery, but the New Montgomery room remains the busiest of the city locations.

The cafe serves no alcohol. It opens at 6:30am on weekdays and 8am at weekends and runs until 10pm every night, which places it firmly in the category of alcohol-free evening rooms rather than morning coffee counters. The drinks divide between traditional Yemeni preparations and the modern espresso bar. On the traditional side there is Adeni chai, black tea cooked with cream and spice; Sana'ani, the house black coffee; qishr, brewed from the dried husks of coffee cherries rather than the bean; and mofawar, spiced coffee finished with cream. On the modern side the shop is known for its Spanish latte and for pistachio, rose and Yemeni lattes. The counter carries saffron milk cake, Biscoff-layered desserts, baklava, honeycomb pastries and savoury turnovers, and the kitchen puts out light bites through the day. The address, a block from Yerba Buena Gardens and within walking distance of the Financial District, means the evening trade is a mix of office workers, students and people meeting somewhere that is not a bar. Mardaei told CBS that Yemen's coffee history runs deeper than most customers realise and that sharing it is the point of the business, a framing that fits the way the room is used: people stay for hours, and the cafe's usefulness comes as much from the 10pm close every night of the week as from what is in the cup.