The Two Cafes Redefining Seattle's Coffee Culture – CoffeeTalk

In May, a visit to Minneapolis led to the discovery of Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Company, a Yemeni coffee shop in Little Canada, Minnesota. The cafe was decorated with traditional Yemeni couches and walls with a mural depicting Yemeni coffee farmers and a brief history of coffee in Muslim society. Coffee has always existed in different regions and time periods, with its origins in Ethiopia and spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula. With the beans landing in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, coffee became incredibly popular among the people, and coffeeshops became the centerpiece of cultural, political, and artistic conversations.

Yemeni coffee shops, Qahwah House and Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Company, have brought the same sentimental coffee culture from their home country to the U.S. In 2021, Munif Manweri and Hatem Al-Eidaroos opened Qamaria in Dearborn, Michigan, as an alternative to alcohol-drinking culture. Qahwah House also opened in Dearborn in 2017, founded by Ibrahim Alhasbani, who came from eight generations of Yemeni coffee farmers and fled Yemen after a bomb hit his home. When Alhasbani came to the U.S. and tried coffee here for the first time in his life, he knew that he had to bring what he knew growing up in Yemen and being around coffee his whole life to America. Thus, Qahwah House was born.

Both Qamaria and Qahwah House have exponentially grown in the last few years, with both coffee companies opening multiple locations all over the country. Qamaria opened locations all over the Midwest, while Qahwah House opened locations within the Midwest and the East Coast. It’s rather odd that a Qamaria or Qahwah House hasn’t been established in Seattle, a city known for its coffee culture.

During Ramadan 2025, two Seattle-based and Muslim-owned cafes became committed to replicating and offering a communal coffee drinking experience to Muslims who were spending long hours praying during the night. Walking into Toasted Bagels & Coffee during Ramadan was memorable. Many Muslims fled to the bagel spot after night prayers for a caffeine boost, and a line formed outside the doors.

Toasted started as a dream imagined between Murat Akyuz, 23, and Jaafar Altameemi, 24, two recent University of Washington (UW) graduates, who went on a trip to New York City and realized they could combine Middle Eastern culture with the delights of the American bagel. They opened their cafe in August 2024, located in the heart of the University District, in August 2024.

Altameemi and Akyuz knew that having a cafe that was centered on bringing elements of their homelands to the streets of Seattle was important to them, especially for college students who lived near the UW campus. They wanted to further their mission statement of spreading Mediterranean hospitality and warmth through the bagels and coffee concept.

Ramadan 2025 was a perfect time to execute the owner’s vision, as Toasted operated until 2 a.m. for four days a week. He said that there is a demand for communities, especially Muslims, to come together during the month of Ramadan, but also saw a ton of non-Muslims and non-Arabs coming and hanging out.

Lune Cafe, a Muslim-owned cafe in Seattle, is one of the few places in the area that stays open late year-round, closing around 10 p.m. for all its locations within the city. The cafe was founded by CEO Karrar Hashem, who wanted to create an alternative to Seattle’s drinking culture by offering a place for people to come late into the night, especially if they are looking for community and a delicious cup of coffee.

Lune’s location in Pioneer Square was important to Hashem because he wanted the cafe to be as accessible as possible for his customers. He opened a drive-through cafe in Auburn, another cafe by the UW Seattle campus, and a future cafe closer to the UW Tacoma campus. Both Lune and Toasted cater to the Muslim community, providing them with warm cups of coffee, iced latte, or to simply be in the company of other customers to help them through long nights during Ramadan.

Toasted and Lune Cafe bring more than their homelands experiences to Seattle; they show that there are other options for local Muslims now. These Muslim-owned cafes illustrate how the community is not too far away, and all it takes is a simple cup of coffee to show us that we can have the best of both worlds. Growing up in Seattle, coffee has always been a part of my everyday life, and I always looked forward to visiting these cafes.

Toasted and Lune are changing the conversation around coffee in Seattle and are seeing how it is now being intertwined into Seattle’s coffee culture. Nura Ahmed, a writer, filmmaker, and organizer based in Seattle and South King County, explores immigration, identity, art, and belonging. She can be found on Twitter @sincerelynura.

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