BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A new café just opened its doors in Buffalo's Black Rock neighborhood.
Raha Coffee House is located at 370 Amherst Street in what was once a Chinese take-out restaurant.
Two friends from Yemen, Abdulgalwi Mohamed, and Bassam Harhara, have spent months renovating the space and turning it into the kind of place they loved to go to in their native country.
"What makes this place special? The smell of cardamom," said Harhara. "As soon as you walk through the door, you'll smell the cardamom and the cinnamon. It's just different; it feels like you're back home."
Mohamed and Harhara are planning a grand opening in a few weeks, after the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
"I love seeing smiles on people's faces. It's beautiful," said Mohamed. "It makes me happy. It makes my co-owner happy too. We love it."
The café was packed with customers on Thursday. Among them was Rana Elhusseini, a student from Dearborn, Michigan, a large Arab-American population.
"We have a ton of coffee shops like this back home, so when I heard about this place and saw how it looked, it made me feel like I was back home," she said. "So I just find a way to get out here and be here as much as possible."
Another customer, Madiha Quraishi, says she enjoys the ambiance.
"The architecture, the interiors, and the collection of coffees. Very unique," she said.
