Yafa Café is Bringing Yemeni Coffees to Downtown Brooklyn

The new Yafa coffee bar at 505 State in Downtown Brooklyn. All images courtesy of Yafa.

Two cousins with Yemeni roots are two for two with the opening of their second Yafa coffee bar in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. 

Situated steps from the Barclays Center within The Alloy Block development in downtown Brooklyn, the new shop follows Yafa’s original cafe location in Sunset Park.

With no indoor seating, the new street-level shop is streamlined for grab-and-go service, with a La Marzocco KB90 machine supported by Mahlköning E65s GBW and E80 GBW grinders for espresso, plus an EK43S for drip coffee. The bar sits within 505 State, touted as Brooklyn’s first “fully electric skyscraper.”

A view of the 505 State skyscraper in Brooklyn.

Inside and through an operable walk-up window, Yafa offers a broad selection of teas, herbal blends, and drink specials like the Cardamom Brown Sugar Latte and Tahini Chai that pair perfectly with daily pastries from Yafa’s wholesale bakery supplier, Colson Patisserie.

“We are proud to continue the long lineage of Yemeni businesses in the historic neighborhood and look forward to sharing many cups of coffee with the downtown community,” Ali Suliman, who co-founded Yafa with his cousin Hakim Sulaimani, told Daily Coffee News. 

In early 2019, Suliman and Sulaimani casually talked about creating their own community locus in their Brooklyn neighborhood. At the time, Suliman was working as a full-time social media manager for a music publication, and Sulaimani worked as a photographer’s assistant and manager of his father’s bodega.

The original Yafa cafe in Sunset Park.

“Before opening Yafa in 2019, neither Hakim nor I had any work experience in a cafe,” said Suliman. “However, being from Yemen and coming from a lineage of coffee farmers and merchants, I always joke that coffee is inherently in our blood.”

The cousins were born in the south of Yemen in 1993 and came to the United States two years later as infants. Growing into adulthood, they observed first-hand the impacts of new-wave specialty coffee shops on New York City’s marginalized neighborhoods. 

“They never fostered a welcoming environment for the communities of color that they operated businesses in,” said Suliman.

Attempting to change that, the pair opened up their first coffee shop in Sunset Park in late 2019, focusing on Yemeni coffee and culture. The business is named after the cousins’ birthplace.

Yafa in Sunset Park.

Said Suliman, “We pride ourselves on serving coffees that reflect the communities and neighborhoods that we’re serving.” 

Suliman and Sulaimani help bring Yemeni coffees to life in their two cafes thanks to their relationship with the Brooklyn-based co-roasting space and incubator Shared Roasting.

Single-origin Yemeni coffees are roasted and packaged in black bags, while single-origins and Yafa custom blends are packaged in white bags. 

While Suliman and Sulaimani don’t have immediate plans for additional retail expansion, they said they would explore the idea of opening a cafe in the Middle East should the right partner come along. 

“As one of few specialty coffee roasters that offers Yemeni coffee year-round, it is an important mission for us that Yemen gets its recognition for its vital role in the history of coffee,” Suliman said. “We encourage all roasters and coffee buyers to support the Yemeni coffee industry.”

Yafa’s new shop is located at 505 State St. in Brooklyn and is open 7am-5pm everyday. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here. 

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