Yemex Bakehouse & Specialty Coffee

Yemex Bakehouse & Specialty Coffee opened in west Houston on 11 February 2026 with a premise no other coffeehouse in the city is working: Yemeni coffee tradition and Mexican coffee tradition on one menu, treated as equals rather than as a novelty crossover. It is the personal project of Rawan Alsagheer and Efrain Ayllon, a couple who both previously worked in tech and neither of whom had culinary training — they told the Houston Chronicle they wanted to build something that represented their two backgrounds.\n\nThe areekano is the drink that explains the place. A double espresso is poured over chilled water, sweetened with a house-made syrup, then topped with cream, cheddar cheese, honey and black sesame seeds. The cheddar sounds like a stunt until you know the reference: areeka is a Yemeni dessert built on dates, honey and cheese, and the drink is a straight translation of it into a glass. Order it first, and order it cold — it is built as an iced drink.\n\nThe Mexican half of the list runs through a cafe de olla latte built on a house-made syrup of the traditional spiced coffee with cinnamon. The Yemeni half runs through the house Adeni chai — black tea with a house spice blend, milk and piloncillo, the unrefined cane sugar that also ties it back to the Mexican side — and a spiced honey latte. Behind both sits the most serious part of the offer: single-origin Yemeni pour-overs, currently a Haimi anaerobic lot from Al-Haimah near Sana'a and a Bany Murah from East Haraz. Yemeni coffee is among the oldest cultivated in the world and among the hardest to source; a cafe putting two named lots on a pour-over bar is making a real statement about where it sits.\n\nThe bakehouse half of the name is not decorative either. The kitchen turns out cafe de olla rolls and a black lime Danish — black lime being loomi, the dried lime that runs through Gulf and Yemeni cooking, which is an unusual thing to find in a pastry case anywhere.\n\nThe practical notes: closed Mondays, open from eight the rest of the week, and running to midnight on Friday and Saturday, which makes it a genuine evening room rather than a daytime stop. On alcohol the evidence is unusually complete — the entire published drinks menu carries no alcoholic item, the pastries are halal, and the Texas licence register holds no permit under the trade name anywhere in the state. Note for accuracy that the retail centre at this street number does contain a separately licensed liquor store, an unrelated tenant.