Shibam Coffee

Shibam Coffee opened on Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia in February 2026, timed to the first Friday of Ramadan — a deliberate choice, since the hours a Yemeni coffeehouse keeps are built around the evenings when people are out after dark. It is the first Philadelphia location for a chain with thirteen sites nationally, in cities including Pittsburgh, Dearborn and Columbus, and it takes its name from Shibam, the walled Hadhramaut city famous for its mudbrick towers.

The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the opening and set out the menu, which is the standard Shibam list. Jubani is made with coffee and the husk of the coffee cherry, served with cardamom, ginger and cinnamon. Adeni is the Yemeni black tea, brewed with cardamom and nutmeg and finished with milk. Mofawar is coffee with cardamom and cream. The house Shibam coffee is a light-roast Yemeni bean brewed with the husks and spiced with cardamom, ginger and cinnamon, then given cream — the most complete expression of the style on the list. The Saudi coffee is lighter still, with cardamom and saffron, and pale gold rather than brown. For anyone who wants something sweeter there is a lotus latte built on Biscoff cookie butter, and a pistachio latte.

What makes this a going-out venue rather than a coffee stop is the clock and the room. It opens at six in the morning on weekdays and runs to ten at night, and on Friday and Saturday it stays open until midnight. The Inquirer described the opening weekend as a reflection of the city's love for a growing cafe culture that has created cherished cultural spaces for immigrant, Muslim and diasporic communities — which is to say these rooms are full at eleven at night, and full of people talking.

On alcohol, this is one of the few venues in this category where the position is stated by the venue rather than merely inferred: its own Instagram bio says everything on the menu is halal, and the menu carries no alcoholic item. No kava, kratom or other psychoactives are served — caffeine only.