Yemeni coffee shop Qahwah House opens in Westbury

It’s been a few decades since I started drinking coffee and yet, until I visited Qahwah House earlier this month, I never knew where it originated: Yemen.

The Westbury store is the first Long Island location of a Michigan-based chain that already operates shops in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. In this big, bustling cafe you can kick back with an iced caramel macchiato and an individual strawberry cheesecake ... or you can savor a slice of honey-drizzled khaliat al nahl, honeycomb bread filled with cheese, while you sip a cup of mofawar, spiced coffee cut with evaporated milk.

Yemeni coffee here is made in the traditional fashion: Beans are ground and blended with spices — cardamom for the mofowar and Sana’ani medium roasts; cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and coffee husks for the Jubani light roast — and then added to a small pot of water and continuously stirred over gentle heat to extract all the nuanced flavors. The finished coffee is carefully decanted (so as to hold back the grounds) into a glass teapot that will perch atop a small votive candle that keeps it warm.

The khaliat al nahl, warmed so that top gets crisp and the cheese starts to ooze and the sabaya, an impossibly flaky, buttery bread that is also warmed and anointed with honey, are worthy accompaniments to the qahwah ("coffee" in Arabic).

While the wild coffee plant probably originated in Africa, it was in Yemen that the tree was first cultivated, the beans (technically, seeds) first roasted and turned into a drink that both stimulated and delighted. By the 16th century, roasted beans had found their way throughout the Ottoman Empire and into Europe, where fashionable coffee houses sprung up to brew them. Roasted coffee beans left Yemen through the port of Mokha — the source of the English term "mocha" — but the Yemenis would not allow un-roasted "green" beans out of the country, lest someone plant them elsewhere, compromising Yemen’s monopoly.

Eventually, of course, the green beans were smuggled out of the country. The Dutch planted them in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) on the island of Java — the source of the English term, "java." And then it was off to the races, with coffee beans finding hospitable conditions in the "bean belt" that includes Brazil, the largest producer, Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia, Ethiopia and more. One whole wall at Qahwah House is devoted to an immense wooden map that depicts coffee's journey from Yemen to the rest of the world. 

Once the world’s sole exporter of coffee, Yemen now produces only about 9,000 metric tons annually — compared with Brazil’s more than 3 million. But imported Yemeni beans are the only ones you’ll find at Qahwah House. They are roasted a few times a week in a machine right in the dining room, most likely by Marwan Assaedi or Aymen Alsaidi, partners in this location who trained in the New York City stores.

It’s ironic, Assaedi noted, that the most popular drink in Westbury is made with tea: Adeni chai, named for Yemen’s great port city, Aden. Much like South Asian chai, it consists of black tea leaves steeped with cardamom and nutmeg and then blended with milk.

Pots of Qahwah’s traditional coffees and teas are priced at $10 (serves 1-2), $15 (2-3) or $20 (3-4). To-go cups are $5 (12 ounces), $6 (16 ounces) and $7 (20 ounces). Pastries range from $6 to $7. You’ll also find a roster of contemporary creations from espresso and cappuccino to caramel macchiato and nitro cold brew ($5 to $7).

Qahwah House, 595 Old Country Rd., Westbury, qahwahhouse.com. Open Sunday to Thursday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.