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People order coffee and food at Bun Chai Yemeni Coffee & Tea Tuesday Afternoon.
Madalyn Braun/DAILY. Buy this photo.
At Bun Chai, a new cafe bringing Yemeni traditions to the Ann Arbor community, co-owner Ghazi Alsafari can often be seen manning the register and encouraging customers to try something new. Since the cafe opened after Labor Day, Alsafari continues to recommend unique flavors to visitors — from the pistachio latte, which features a bold, nutty sauce imported from Turkey, to qishr, a decaf drink made from coffee husks, ginger and other traditional spices.
Bun Chai’s drinks are flavored with Yemeni spices including cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Alsafari said importing ingredients like their coffee beans directly from Yemen is what makes Bun Chai stand out from other chain cafes.
“Our coffee is imported from Yemen direct,” Alsafari said. “It’s organic, single source, single origin. We get them directly. We roast them ourselves … so we can control it from the farmer to your coffee. That’s the beauty of what we have.”
Mark Loyzer, a software engineer from Seattle visiting Bun Chai for the first time, told The Daily he found the cafe through a local friend’s recommendation and enjoyed both the cafe’s more popular drinks as well as the qahwa, a traditional Arabic coffee with ties to hospitality and generosity.
“So for the matcha, it’s nice,” Loyzer said. “I like the sweetness level on it. … The other traditional brew coffee was delicious, though. It envelops your mouth, so it was very nice.”
Bun Chai also offers seating on two different floors, with a chattier upper level and a quieter basement. Alsafari said this was an intentional choice.
“The community really appreciates what we have, and we kind of built a place for campus,” Alsafari said. “We have a basement study-hall area for the students, and upstairs is what it is. It looks beautiful, and everybody enjoys coming in for their drinks.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA sophomore Simran Kaur said she appreciated the cafe’s atmosphere and felt it contributed to Bun Chai’s appeal.
“My favorite thing about this is honestly the ambiance,” Kaur said. “I really like their furniture. They have nice couches and statement walls. I think that really draws people in.”
Kaur also said the cafe’s menu and location helps attract new customers.
“They have good drinks, and their specialty is Yemeni coffee,” Kaur said. “I think that does make them stand out a little bit from the local shops, and their location (is) right on State Street, so (it) definitely draws everybody in for that.”
Alsafari said he and his business partner Dr. Ali Luqman opened Bun Chai in Ann Arbor because of its coffee culture and diverse community.
“We both like the community of Ann Arbor in general,” he said. “We know it’s a coffee hub, but we looked around and we knew that campus didn’t have anything (like this) yet. And what better way to bring it to the world than (to) bring it to the Ann Arbor campus, which is a representation of the whole world.”
Daily Staff Reporter Anuttara Lath can be reached at anuttara@umich.edu.
