Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Shop, a visit that could get you deported!!
“I’m in love with Yemeni coffee and on a mission to share it with the world,” wrote Hatem Al-Eidaroos, the Co-Founder Of Qamaria a Yemeni coffee shop inside a small strip mall in Eden Prairie, where the first Starbucks once stood. — Hatem wasn’t just offering a new place to grab a latte for your ego. He was inviting Americans into 5,000 years old tradition , one brewed in the mountains of Yemen, the birthplace of coffee itself. The place looks modern, with the electronic menu on the wall showing what they are serving, only one kind of coffee, which comes from the birthplace of coffee, 5000 years ago, Yemen coffee with cardamom.
What inspired Hatem and Munif the founders, a bold move to open a Yemeni coffee chain in America when Yemen is often in the news for Houthi rockets, and American and Israeli bombings? Given the difficult conditions in Yemen, I wondered, how do they maintain a stable supply chain of Yemeni coffee from Yemeni farms to your baristas in America? At Qamaria, most customers are hyphenated Americans, with Somali, Ethiopian, Arab, Indian, Pakistani, and Yemeni on the other end of the hyphen. You order and you get an electric alarm that most people ignore, rely on their internal urgency. your coffee is served on a Wooden tray, with a decorative coffee pot, and a smaller cup with a traditional artistic design engraved on it; Qamaria, offers an old and complicated service. On the bathroom door two genders sign is displayed, man and woman, that’s it, because life is full of challenges enough; no need to add confusion to the mix, you don’t have to declare your gender to drink Yemeni coffee. Whereas on Starbucks bathrooms, an all-genders welcome sign, they may not discriminate against any gender, but they may discriminate against blacks and non-customers. At Qamaria the bathroom is clean, with modern plumbing, a hot air dryer, and on the ground, a watering can for those who don’t use paper towels for cleaning special before prayer. Muslims use water to purify themselves after doing their business, especially before praying, in Wudu; toilet paper won’t cut it!. Which irritated my friend, how distasteful and messy, he complained, the same friend never said a word about having a condom or needle dispenser in other coffee shops bathrooms. I ordered a Turkish espresso, the coffee from Yamen, served by a lovely young Somali barista; next to my table, a few young Asian Indians enjoying their drinks after a game of Cricket, a tall, handsome man stood and handed out new uniforms to their jubilant players; a mother chasing her son allover the place, the place is engaging, dicers, and women and men all mengel together. At Qamaria, not for customrrs with their yoga pants, mothers with their child strapped on their body or in a cart so they can talk about their newest diet of kale and free-range chicken. At Qamaria you can tell the mothers and married of unmarried, a bit overweight, and most likely chasing their free-range children. At Starbucks, they wrote on my cup, “Life is short, stay awake for it”, at Qamaria, where you can sit on an old-fashioned decorative couch with a pillow. Starbucks, they may ask yo if you want your milk skim or full, but they don’t ask how much sugar you want to add; it is up to you; it is an all-you-can-eat-sugar buffet. At Qamaria, they ask if you want your sugar normal, a measurement with moral value judgment attached to it, your sugar amount falls in the range of most people, and if your taste gets out of line, you may be up normal. The measurement of small, medium, and large; measurement without values, morals, or responsibilities. You can use as much sugar as you want, even if it would make you ill; that’s not a normal level of drinking at the Qamaria. At Qamaria, there is no drive-through service; you need to come inside and commit yourself to a place and spend time, taking your coffee-drinking experience seriously. You can’t drink your coffee on the run, you need to stop, sit down, and enjoy the coffee experience. At Qamaria, a rich selection of pastries, where Somali Sambous are peacefully sitting next to Italian, French, and Turkish Pastries. Qamarai Yemeni café, is not a workplace; it is a place to stay away from work, as Howard Schultz; the founder of Starbucks, first envisioned a third place besides home and work, to have great coffee and great conversations. On the wall, there is a big picture of a Yamani woman painting, with her traditional colorful dress and jewelry! Across from it, beautiful Arabic writing arts are displayed. At Qamaria, they don’t ask you, “Is that all?” or ask you if you are a member; at Qamaria, we are all family. Starbucks claims that they could theoretically make a massive range of drinks, from over 170,000 to even exceeding 300 billion different drinks. at Qamaria, they serve Yameni coffee, with normal or up-normal sugar, an authentic coffee experience that could now get you deported; Yameni Coffee anyone!!
Ahmed Tharwat
Host and Producer of Arab American TV show BelAhdan
Ahmed Tharwat
Host and Producer of Arab American TV show BelAhdan
follow him on Twitter/Ahmediatv
Lives in Minnetonka, MN
