Yafa Cafe closes for month-long renovation

Yafa Cafe, a community spot for all of Sunset Park’s locals, is closing on Aug. 17 for renovations. According to the cafe’s owner, Hakim Sulaimani, they will ideally be closed for 4–6 weeks, but construction could delay their reopening. They plan to make a lot of spatial changes to the place: moving the kitchen to the back, elongating the bar and introducing more seating. They also hope to introduce a dinner menu.

Yafa, located at 4415 Fourth Ave. between 44th and 45th streets, serves many Sunset Park residents each day. Its classics include slow-roasted lamb sandwiches, avocado toast sprinkled with za'atar, grilled halloumi, fried chicken sandwiches with hawaij spices (a Yemeni spice blend with cardamom, turmeric, black pepper, cloves and coriander), and, of course, Yemeni coffee. Ali Suliman, Yafa’s coffee and social manager, says, “[...] like 60% of our customer base is super local. And I mean literally within a few blocks walking distance, and then on the weekends is where we get people who might have seen us online or have heard of Yemeni coffee or want to try it.” Hakim regularly drives between this location and their newer location (located in Downtown Brooklyn, in Boerum Hill). His father owns the deli right on the corner next to the flagship location, aptly named Yafa Deli. “[It was nice] to see my father work and what his position meant to the community and the way people would approach him and greet him. [...] There was a sense of pride that we had that my dad owns the deli.”

Their family owns businesses all around town—Johnny Sulaiman co-owns 2 Guys Bagels, about 20 blocks away at 25th Street and Fourth Avenue. Ali and Hakim are first cousins, and Hakim’s brother, Abdul Sulaimani, is the floor manager at the flagship location. In 1995, when their families left Yemen and came to Brooklyn, their fathers started working at a bodega. They bought it from the owners a year later. The families have been running businesses in Sunset Park for over 30 years. This familial presence in the cafe and businesses around the neighborhood helps make Yafa welcoming to locals. “I think a sign of a gentrifying neighborhood is a coffee shop,” Hakim says. “I think that's where people start to say ‘my neighborhood is finished’ because there's like a bougie coffee shop here. And I think this space kind of looks, even though it's super low budget, nice from the outside. So it's intimidating for people to walk by [...] But once they see one of us in here, yeah, like I saw these guys in their diapers in the deli.” As for the other employees at Yafa, “We try to only hire within Sunset Park. So everyone here is representative of the space and of the community, people come here and they put a lot of stock in our opinion.”

When Yafa first opened in 2019, it was the first cafe in the city to serve Yemeni coffee, a traditional blend that steeps the husk (called the qishr) of the coffee fruit in addition to the bean. To make coffee, the coffee fruit (often called the cherry) undergoes a separation in which the bean is removed from the stubborn outer layer, the qishr. At Yafa, you can get a qishr latte with cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and milk.

Yafa hosts monthly events, including educator-led workshops on tax and immigration laws, restaurant pop-ups and art classes. Many of their workshops are Palestine-focused. They have held lithography workshops for Gaza posters and a tatreez (a style of embroidery specific to Palestine) class. Their events, which often take up the whole cafe, are important for many politically minded neighbors. Hakim says, “When Industry City was trying to rezone, I think this became ground zero for the movement, everyone was meeting here to push that. All the protests began here, all the community organizing began here. [...] All good revolutions start in a coffee shop, and we try to keep the space conducive to that.” In October 2023, when the Israel-Palestine conflict first started, they hung a Palestinian flag in the doorway. Almost immediately, they got flooded with one-star reviews. This seemed to make the community even stronger, as neighbors rallied around Yafa.

The renovation plans also include a dinner menu and a later closing time—Ali says they’ll serve until at least 9 p.m. They’re planning on having mocktails and more events, with a new floor plan and longer bar opening up the space. “It'll feel a little bit more elevated, a little bit more of what we've always wanted to bring to the neighborhood.”

However, Ali and Hakim hope that these changes won’t influence the feel of the place: “and it'll still be the same general vibe, still the same community, still the same friendly faces. Just a chance to do a lot more for the community.”

An unexpected challenge? Getting rid of the bread oven: “There used to be a 1920s bread oven in the back room, and it's always been there. We just put up the wall to cover it up. And when I first opened, I didn't have enough money to excavate it because it's a pure brick, 250 square foot oven, just everywhere. [...] it's always been on my mind that I wanted to get rid of it at some point, and I think now we're just in a better place to do it. I mean, this space needs some TLC. I did a lot of the work myself.”

But before they reopen, if you find yourself missing their cardamom brown sugar latte, never fear—they’re planning on stocking their best-selling coffees at Yafa Deli, 4423 Fourth Ave., during the renovation so you can satisfy your cravings.