Yemeni Cafe Planned For East Side
Haraz Coffee House, slated to open in early 2025, would be the chain's first cafe in Wisconsin.
2900 N. Oakland Ave. Photo taken Dec. 21, 2023 by Graham Kilmer.
A handful of Yemeni cafes have emerged throughout the Milwaukee area in recent months, offering spiced beverages, pastries, and—of course—the country’s distinctly flavored coffee.
After visiting cafes in Oak Creek and Greenfield, Madhi Hassan and Hasan Abuasi were immediately impressed with the coffee’s earthy, complex flavor—a result of dry-processing the beans with their fruit intact. In other regions, beans are typically separated and dried prior to roasting.
“Being Middle Eastern, we’ve always been heavy coffee drinkers, and we’ve always tried different coffees,” Hassan said, noting that he’s sampled Turkish, Arabic, and other coffees while traveling overseas. “I grew a passion for that kind of stuff, so that was the beginning of it.”
Now, the partners are planning their own location on Milwaukee’s East Side.
Haraz Coffee House is slated to open in early 2025 at 2900 N. Oakland Ave., in a first-floor retail space within the The East Sider apartment building.
Abuasi, a graduate of the UW-Milwaukee, said the location is close to his heart. “I would’ve loved to have something like this on the East Side,” he said.
Haraz, a national chain based in Michigan, operates 10 locations across the country, with more than a dozen more on the way, according to its website. Abuasi puts that number much higher, estimating that the fast-growing brand has as many as 126 locations under development.
This will be the chain’s first location in Milwaukee and for that matter, in Wisconsin.
An online menu for Haraz Coffee House includes ginger and cardamom-infused coffees, pistachio lattes, saffron lattes, matcha and a variety of teas, along with classic coffeehouse offerings such as americanos, cappuccinos and iced coffee. A list of fruit-based refreshers features strawberry lemonade, dragon fruit and pink coconut flavors.
The cafe also offers specialty drinks such as mufawar, which is infused with cardamom and cream and served in a large glass kettle.
“It gives you the feeling of being at home, where you’re sitting with your family at the table and you’re all sharing this teapot,” Abuasi said.
The partners also highlighted adeni chai, consisting of black team cream and a house spice blend imported from Yemen.
“That’s going to be different than what you see in other places,” Hassan said.
To eat, Haraz will serve coffee cake, milk cake, cheesecake and other sweet treats. Abuasi said the upcoming cafe will focus on cheesecakes, with up to 15 rotating flavors that change according to the latest trends.
The cafe’s future home is still a work in progress, with construction planned to take place throughout the coming months. The project is expected to wrap up at the end of the year.
If all goes according to plan, Hassan and Abuasi hope to open the cafe just as UWM students are arriving back from winter break.
The finished space is meant to be welcoming and cozy, with plenty of room to linger with friends or get work done. “We’re going to be more of a place to hang out and study than anything to-go,” Hassan said.
Traditionally, cafes have been a place to socialize, he added, and Haraz plans to honor that. “A lot of coffee places right now, they’ve pretty much walked away from what a coffee place is supposed to be like,” he said, noting that coffee houses have historically served as sites to “socialize, engage in active conversation and conduct business deals.”
“Our goal is literally to go back to the roots of what a coffee house used to be like. We want you to come in, have a good time, meet up with your friends, study … that’s what our goal is going to be.”
Haraz, founded in 2021 by Hamzah Nasser, is named for the Haraz Mountains on the lower west coast of Yemen. Residents of the region claim it as the “birthplace of premium organic coffee,” though Ethiopia also contends for that title.
The Milwaukee location is planned for a building that’s already home to Buffalo Wild Wings GO and Cousins Subs. The retail spaces are at ground level of a five-story, 55-unit apartment building at the corner of N. Oakland Avenue and E. Locust Street. An affiliate of Locust Propco, LLC owns the building.
Hassan and Abuasi haven’t yet finalized the cafe’s hours, but plan to be open from early in the morning until around midnight.
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