15 hours Ago By Jeff Kiger
ROCHESTER — Qamaria , a Yemeni coffee shop, is serving up drinks and rich pastries to customers in southeast Rochester. Qamaria opened its doors and started brewing coffee, tea and qishr on Friday morning. ADVERTISEMENT It is located in Suite 100 at 1529 U.
S. Highway 14 East in the Eastwood Plaza . That’s the 2,240-square-foot spot next to the south Rochester UPS Store and Little Caesars Pizza , where Bad Ass Coffee previously operated.
Qamaria franchisee Anan Barbarwi , who has already opened Minnesota locations in Little Canada, Blaine and Burnsville, said he opened here because Rochester customers requested it. "Rochester is a very attractive market for us as many people travel there for Mayo Clinic . Rochester customers have been driving over an hour to get to our Little Canada location to be served.
That location will offer a drive-thru option, which we expect to increase sales. It will be our first drive-thru location," said Barbarwi in January. Qamaria offers a full selection of drinks made from coffee and tea grown in Yemen.
Qishr is one Yemeni drink made from spiced coffee husks, ginger and cinnamon. Many other Qamaria drinks combine coffee or tea with cardamom, ginger, other spices and cream. The shop offers an array pastries and desserts from the Middle Eastern country on the menu include Pistachio Tres Leches, croissants and Honeycomb, a honey-drizzled sweet bread stuffed with cream cheese.
It serves desserts like Dubai Chocolate Strawberry Cup and Date Cake as well as an array of smoothies and meat pies. That space last housed Bad Ass Coffee . Lori and Todd Heins with Tobin Emrich originally opened the Hawaiian coffee house in May 2022.
Ownership later shifted to eight local investors, including Johnny Mangouras . It closed its doors on Aug. 31, 2024.
ADVERTISEMENT Rochester Realtor Ari Kolas , who is also one of the owners of Eastwood Plaza, signed the deal to bring Qamaria in to fill the spot..
