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Qawa Coffee owners Abulrahman Alhadheri, in red, and his mother Amirah Ailaqi (not shown) have remade a former Disco Chick plcae in Metro Square on Main Street in Middletown into a coffee house.
Qawa Coffee owners Abulrahman Alhadheri, in red, and his mother Amirah Ailaqi (not shown) have remade a former Disco Chick plcae in Metro Square on Main Street in Middletown into a coffee house.
Photo: Contributed Photo
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Qawa Coffee owners Abulrahman Alhadheri, in red, and his mother Amirah Ailaqi (not shown) have remade a former Disco Chick plcae in Metro Square on Main Street in Middletown into a coffee house.
Qawa Coffee owners Abulrahman Alhadheri, in red, and his mother Amirah Ailaqi (not shown) have remade a former Disco Chick plcae in Metro Square on Main Street in Middletown into a coffee house.
Photo: Contributed Photo
MIDDLETOWN — While there are some-more than 20 coffee shops in a city portion java, a owners of visitor Qawa on Main Street in Metro Square trust they have only a right brew.
Abulrahman Alhadheri pronounced he and his wife, co-owner, Amirah Ailaqi, have spent tighten to 6 total transforming a former Disco Chick restaurant plcae into a coffee house. To Alhadheri and his wife, coffee is not merely a beverage. It’s an countenance of their Yemeni heritage.
Alhadheri, 26, points out that Arabic coffee is partial of a Arab enlightenment and tradition. The renouned form of coffee brewed in a Middle East originated in Yemen as “qahwah,” eventually roving to Mecca, Egypt, a Levant, and then, in a mid-16th century, to Turkey, where it was called “kahveh.” The splash finally done a approach to Europe where a British named it “coffee.”
On a new opening day, hundreds of extraordinary caffeine connoisseurs swarming a shop’s Main Street plcae for what would have been Qawa’s grand opening. Because of a bad weather, a executive ribbon-cutting with a mayor and Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce officials will be rescheduled. However, “when we non-stop during noon, people were lined adult out a door. We were even busier on Sunday,” Alhadheri said.
The many renouned splash on opening weekend was a Yemeni Latte done with almond milk, cardamon and vanilla.
“Our coffee is from Intelligentsia, one of a heading coffee suppliers in America,” Alhadheri said. On a website, Intelligentsia records a “commitment to sourcing, developing, roasting, and distributing a world’s excellent coffees.” The Chicago-based association buys a coffee directly from farmers in 19 countries.
“Coffee is fruit,” Alhadheri explained, “and for us, Intelligentsia picks a best and ripest.”
Qawa’s menu is traditional. A latte is 8 ounces, a cappuccino, 5. Lattes are $4.25, cappuccinos, $2.50. Specialty coffees such as Yemeni Latte go for $5. Qawa pastries come from Mozzicato Bakery in Middletown and Catalina Bakery of New Haven.
By subsequent year, Alhadheri hopes to open a kitchen in a behind and offer breakfast and lunch. Much of a coffee business will be takeout, yet a emporium can chair adult to 25 patrons. Eventually, he and Ailaqi wish to sell their possess Qawa code in groceries and supermarkets.
“We know a coffee and trust it,” Alhadheri said. “We have hired a best baristas, a staff of five, including a conduct barista. Prices are allied to a competitors. In fact, 90 percent of a menu is reduction costly than Starbucks.”
For tea devotees, Qawa relies on dual sources: Kilogram Tea, a bend of Intelligentsia Coffee, and Maya Tea, a small, family-owned business in Tucson, Arizona.
“Maya sells savoury and tasty chai syrups. We will have an collection of caffeinated and decaffeinated teas, as good as ice tea offerings. And, of course, all of a tea is organic,” Alhadheri said.
Though Ailaqi is a conform engineer — she has a renouned online code Amirah Couture — for now, she says she is entirely focused on Qawa.
The couple, who have dual daughters, now live in Middlebury, though are looking for a home closer to Middletown. Alhaderi was lifted in Syracuse, N.Y., lived in Arizona, and after warranted a master’s grade in mobile molecular studies from Columbia University. He had designed on apropos a alloy before realizing that coffee was his genuine passion.
Based on early feedback, Alhadheri is assured business will turn regulars.
Chelsea Colagrossi of Waterbury is one of them. Colagrossi, who attended a opening, posted on Facebook: “Awesome internal coffee shop! Great atmosphere and super staff. Definitely will be back.”
This is a couple’s initial blurb venture. The integrate scouted other coffee shops doing marketplace investigate for a kind of cafeteria they wanted to own. For dual years, they looked for a right location, following adult leads in Stamford and New Haven.
When 170 Main St. became available, they motionless a executive plcae was a ideal spot. Qawa will eventually have a possess app for business who can order, afterwards expostulate adult in front of a store as a barista emerges with their coffee.
Alhadheri pronounced a integrate is in it for a prolonged haul. Last November, a integrate sealed a franchise and began requesting for several licenses, including one for food.
The owners pronounced everybody they have worked with in city departments has been helpful. To get a emporium in shape, Alhadheri used Kovacs Construction of Waterbury. Kovacs helped Qawa in a planning, building, conceptualizing and construction. “Without them,” says Alhadheri, “none of what we envisioned would have come to life.”
Part of this prophesy entails new, first-class equipment. Alhadheri purchased a $20,000 espresso machine, a La Marzocco, handmade in Italy. He calls it “the Rolls-Royce of espresso makers. La Marzocco has been on a forefront of creation in espresso machines given 1927.”
During a initial few months, Alhadheri will be operative in a emporium each day; eventually, he will sinecure a manager. Future skeleton embody a second coffee emporium elsewhere in a state.
For information on Qawa Coffee Co., 170 Main St., Middletown, revisit qawacoffee.com, qawacoffeeco on Facebook and Instagram, or call 860-788-6540.