by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Fresh coffee is not supposed to be bitter.
Heba Almasari, owner of the new Yusif's Cafe at 216 Yale Blvd. S.E., said she uses expensive, high-quality beans and sells coffee at the cheapest price in the University area at $1.59 a cup.
"We have customers in here who never drink their coffee black but only in my place," she said. "I went in and said, 'Give me the bean that nobody in
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Albuquerque carries.' I go for what everyone else ignores or stays away from."
Almasari said she opened the shop Nov. 5 to benefit college students. There are two computers for customers as well as two patio areas.
"We love the whole student scene," she said. "We like to provide a service for the students. We've had some study sessions going on here already. I've made it real comfortable and cozy. It's like a student's living room at home."
Yusif's has a sofa so blue that it almost glows. She said it came from an antique shop in Los Angeles. She also decorated the walls with paintings and prints of palm trees and Arabian Desert architecture. Almasari, who grew up in Gallup, is Palestinian, and her husband, Adel Saad, is Egyptian.
Saad said Egypt has a good mixture of African and Arab influences, much like Yusif's coffee selection and interior decoration sensibility. They also have a wall-sized cloth with King Tut's face. Saad brought back paintings from Egypt in gold, silver and blue on bamboo paper to put on Yusif's walls.
"They get the Nile bamboo and stomp it all out, and then they hand paint it," he said. "That's what papyrus is, basically. It's bamboo from the Nile. We have a really good coffee called African Odyssey."
Almasari said her chai is becoming popular.
"I had three different people tell me that I have the best chai in town," she said. "And I've only been open since (last) Monday."
Yusif's homemade food includes Middle Eastern foods like baklava; yu-yus, which are doughnut balls with syrup; kushari, an Egpytian dish that combines rice, lentils, pasta and garlic salsa; and kefta, a type of hamburger mixed with parsley and onions.
Almasari said she wants more musicians to perform at the shop. So far, she has had three performances.
"We love music," she said. "We'd love to have someone play in here every day."
Almasari said her life is busy and never boring. She was nine months pregnant when she began working on her shop, remodeling it from a house into a proper business. Her son, Yusif, is now 4 months old.
"I'm a full-time mom, a coffee shop owner and an MBA marketing student," she said.
"I love to shop. And I do some marketing projects as well on the side for companies. It's a very, very busy life, but I'm never bored."
Yusif's Cafe
216 Yale Blvd. S.E.
Monday-Wednesday 6:30 a.m.-9 p.m.
Thursday-Friday 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
Saturday 6-10 p.m.
