Open since the beginning of this year, Qamaria Yemeni Coffee (4818 S. 76th St., Greenfield) is not like other coffee shops. The cafe is a franchise – so far the only in Wisconsin – of a company that began in Michigan in 2020. The founders source their coffee beans from Yemen, a country in the Middle East with mountainous coffee-growing regions largely unknown in other coffee-drinking parts of the world.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Qamaria refers to a colored glass window used in Yemeni houses and serves as a metaphor for the business – shedding light on the history of Yemeni coffee. The bright, modern Greenfield cafe is a warm, inclusive community gathering place.
The coffee menu highlights the company’s roasts and blends. I ordered an iced Marib, a medium roast with the subtle flavor of cardamom. Smooth and fruity, with a natural sweetness – which was just right alongside a slice of besbussa, a very sweet and moist almond-coconut semolina cake. This cake was a tough decision – the choices included several different kinds of cake, baklava and Yemeni honeycomb bread stuffed with cheese and topped with a sticky syrup. The honeycomb seemed better paired with a hot drink, maybe a latte made with Qamaria’s dark roast called Gate of Yemen.
A farm dinner is generally pretty straightforward: dinner on a farm, the menu as locally sourced as it gets. What if you could capture that rustic, farm-to-fork feeling here in the city?
That’s the premise behind the Urban Farm series of dinners at The Starling, a Third Ward special event venue. Brazen Standard Hospitality (papa to Tall Guy and a Grill catering) has scheduled three such dinners now through October. Each is themed, limited to 50 guests and, much like a traditional farm dinner, it groups diners around one long, communal table – in this case the table is on the Riverwalk in the Third Ward (102 N. Water St.).
The meal makes use of ingredients from local growers and purveyors and includes two signature cocktails, passed hors d’oeuvres, a family-style dinner and dessert. The theme of the first dinner, on May 10 at 6 p.m., is “Primavera in Italia”; two future dinners are also on the calendar – Aug. 18 (with a summer white party theme) and Oct. 6 (“Fall Harvest”). Tickets are $125 and can be purchased at bit.ly/urbanfarmdinner
“We want to initiate conversations about what happened during the Secret War [the U.S. bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War] and why Lao refugees are here. We’re using food as a medium to open doors for these conversations and to increase our visibility.”
– Alex Hanesakda
a Lao American who hosts local pop-in Lao fusion BBQs under the name SapSap
In March, the Spanish Movida (600 S. Sixth St.) unveiled a new rooftop bar and patio offering $9 sangrias during “Sangria Hour.” • Fans of Space Time’s coffee beans and macabre/sci-fi aesthetic can rejoice over their lavender lattes. Owner Adam Sterr announced he will open a café inside Sip N Purr’s new location set to open at 833 N. Brady St. • The owners of West Allis’ Pho Saigon expect to open BaoBao Cuisine (4624 S. 27th St.) – serving Vietnamese pho, noodle dishes, sandwiches and more – this spring. • Pewaukee’s Wisconsin Avenue has a row of restaurants facing its charming beach. The latest arrival (due this month) is La Tavola on the Beach (161 W. Wisconsin Ave.), serving fresh pastas, pasta flights and Neapolitan pizzas. The same owner operates The Beach House tapas joint right next door.
