Yemeni Coffee Shops in Texas
texasmonthly.com
texasmonthly.com
I find myself needing a very quiet and orderly environment if I really want to deeply focus and get work done.
Yes, definitely.
For me it's that despite the noise, I have complete confidence that none of it is relevant to me, so I can ignore it completely. In offices, tons of things are relevant for me because I'm a popular random-problem-solver. At home, anything could be relevant, even though most of it is not.
The noise isn't the issue, it's the brainpower spent on triaging the noise.
> none of it is relevant to me, so I can ignore it completely.
sir, there is an entire class of developers (including myself) that work remote exclusively out of coffee shops. Its where I can most easily get the creative mojo going.
I am now in the city of Starbucks (Seattle area) and am surprised that many of the Starbucks here (1) don't open late; (2) don't have comfortable seating; (3) aren't sufficiently lit (it's mostly dim, mood lighting -- I can't read paper books in most of them). I wonder if it's because Seattle people like their local spots (that also don't open late) that Starbucks had to optimize their revenue for to-go orders instead of sit-down ones.
This is really unfortunate. Howard Schultz was all bout the "third place".
https://maps.app.goo.gl/UUsVjfy9MPeF3RwT9
There's another 24 hr one in Northgate.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RxT4vwEDsZECTu2k7
So there's 2 in the entire greater Seattle area.
But you're right, there are very few places open late even in the U-district.
Salt Lake City oddly enough has (or had?) 24 hour coffee shops that you could hangout at.
Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.
The labor costs and risks of hosting people within your business, especially at later times, is more and more difficult to offset with revenue. Especially if a sufficiently large portion of the population opts to pay for the lower priced goods at to go businesses.
Where I live, I'm very fortunate to have three local chains that are very sit-down friendly. They all have 3-10 locations, so they cover the whole city without succumbing to corporate bullshit. One of them even has a storefront in their roasting/packaging facility. If you want to see how coffee is manufactured and/or you like loud white noise, that's a good place to go.
A few laptopers hogging a table for half a day in an otherwise crowded coffeeshop can costs them hundreds of euros/dollars in lost sales.
But i guess this creates a maket for shared workespaces, where you could lease a desk per hour.
They don't want to become homeless shelters.
Homelessness has rapidly increased in the last decade, to the point where CoWork spaces becomes a viable business.
If you want to do a project pay 300$ a month to WeWork. Before the explosion of homelessness, back when Starbucks, Coffee Bean, would let you sit around for hours, a 300$ WeWork membership would be silly.
Not sure I see the connection here...?
Homelessness increases --> any place where you can just hang out without paying attracts more homeless people --> there are too many homeless people hanging out for hanging out to remain good for business --> cheap hangouts close --> expensive hangouts like co-working spaces become viable.
We've been seeing that here in my Northern California city for the past few years.
If anything local governments should provide more for these populations, showers at libraries and pop up clinics would do wonders.
Of course the bigger issue would be housing costs going straight to the moon. Rent should be 70% of what it is.
Ideally you'd plug them into housing assistance programs so the overall numbers of homeless go down overtime.
Today, I’m making a commitment: We’re getting back to Starbucks. We’re refocusing on what has always set Starbucks apart — a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather, and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas. This is our enduring identity. We will innovate from here.
... 3. Reestablishing Starbucks as the community coffeehouse: We’re committed to elevating the in-store experience — ensuring our spaces reflect the sights, smells and sounds that define Starbucks. Our stores will be inviting places to linger, with comfortable seating, thoughtful design and a clear distinction between “to-go” and “for-here” service.
First, Starbucks committed coffeeshopicide by targeting local hangouts that were successful, and then spraying their own burnt grounds, driving up real estate and making it impossible for a small, less efficient shop to survive. I saw this happen at several great places in Portland. Then, obviously a career climbing executive at Starbucks tried to get promoted and tightened up hours.
The second wave of late night coffee shop deaths occured with COVID and homelessness (really McKinsey and Purdue opioids, read "When McKinsey Comes to Town") because of safety. No one, big or small, can offer a space and decide which hipster can stay and which has to leave because he is now addicted to drugs and not just Instagram dopamine.
The solution: cities should offer a tax break to a coffee shop that stays open late. And, cities should offer a match where they create a space nearby for homeless people to congregate late night. I'm sure there is a correlation between the number of homeless and soon-to-be homeless creative types.
I'm saddened late night coffee shops have largely disappeared, these Yemeni shops look terrific. And, they bring the social back to meeting places, and I don't mean social media and laptops.
Second one, how come Yemeni coffee shops don't have the issue of keeping out the homeless?
EDIT: Yemeni coffee shops are having the same success in the bay area where these problems are both exacerbated.
Here in Houston, law enforcement is pretty strict on homeless people causing problems. Maybe that's the reason?
R.I.P CoffeePeople
Just goes to show, when a company goes public, you are no longer the customer, the shareholders are.
I read the same sentiment about when publicly listed companies go private.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/private-equity-rol...
Harvard and Kendall Squares in Cambridge, MA are the best examples of what ruthless endowments do. Kendall Square is entirely owned by MIT and is new shiny and totally unaffordable to non-VC/PE crowd and shuts down after dark.
Harvard Square is replete with empty buildings worth billions on HMC's books. The late night 2-story Starbucks with lots of seating and occasional live music is gone and replaced with a tiny one with no seating which closes at 9pm.
The dessert cafes are fantastic. I always tell visitors to the city they they should try one while they're here.
I can't remember how much they charge but I really like this one in Hayes Valley: https://maps.app.goo.gl/P2RC8jN5VDjUctrM9
>The first coffeehouses appeared in Damascus. These Ottoman coffeehouses also appeared in Mecca, in the Arabian Peninsula in the 15th century, then spread to the Ottoman Empire's capital of Istanbul in the 16th century and in Baghdad. Coffeehouses became popular meeting places where people gathered to drink coffee, have conversations, play board games such as chess and backgammon, listen to stories and music, and discuss news and politics. They became known as "schools of wisdom" for the type of clientele they attracted, and their free and frank discourse.
I can't imagine a business closing over it, but having a closing time is a good way to get people to leave maybe?
It was a lifesaver for me when I worked grave, I could go for a sumptuous dinner at 3 or 4 am.
That mostly went away years ago, basically completely died in COVID, and the labor shortages in the service industry never eased up enough to maintain staffing at places that had late night hours. And I do mean not enough people; the housing shortage is so acute that service workers cannot find places to live.
You can trace all kinds of seemingly unrelated problems back to the "housing theory of everything".
If I was a crazy billionaire, I'd open a good pizza place in SLU or somewhere central with pies that cost $20 for a large, open til 3 am. Maybe aim to lose no more than $5,000 per month. It would not be profitable with the crazy high minimum wage, so I would just accept the loss for providing this benefit to the city.
In cities like this people will travel a significant distance for hot food. And there’s always the delivery apps, too.
I think the answer is they are a tighter knit community (potentially a family) than the average coffee shop, so easier to keep the shop staffed late.
Houston has addressed population growth by spreading ever more outwards, because it is flat with few natural barriers. Seattle hasn’t really had a choice other than to grow upwards, since it is hemmed in by lakes and mountains in every direction. But like most American metropolitan areas, most of the Seattle region has until fairly recently been opposed to density.
The resulting housing crunch has resulted in significant demands for wages to pay for housing. Houston follows the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13/hr. Seattle does not have a different payscale for tipped workers so the minimum is $20.76/hr.
The rest of the country is even worse for night people like myself.
Also, things have gotten worse after the pandemic. Low revenue after 9 pm (unless alcohol is involved), high labor costs, and safety issues means the juice is not worth the squeeze for most retail businesses here.
When I used to live in Chicago, the economics worked out differently, so there were many businesses that opened late.
Also, gloomy weather 7-8 months of the year makes you not want to socialize.
Revenue halted overnight, and often turned negative with breakins and general insecurity
Couldn't remember the name but managed to find a reference to it, it was called Accents. Seems like it's shutdown now.
There's a fairly large community in SF in Tendernob near the Yemeni consulate and the Yemeni mosque.
Highly recommend trying the Masoob and Mandi at Yemen Kitchen in Tenderloin.
The Ansar Allah hasn't been particularly sectarian for many years, opting instead for establishing a non-sectarian government and maoist-like people's army, which they've mostly achieved. Due to the imposed starvation policies from the US, UK and allies they also aim to replace qat production with food. There's a lot to not like about them, don't need to make things up.
If you do take the time to read up on this, I strongly recommend you learn how the Imamate worked. It is not an abstract thing, like "the caliphate" so many other Islamist movements seek to restore; it was the governing structure of Yemen until the 1960s.
If I wanted simply to trash Ansar Allah, it would be easy enough to do; they are currently the world's largest employer of child soldiers.
Old Saleh loyalists have during the last year warmed up to the Ansar Allah-led regime as well.
If my homeland was under attack by the US and Janjaweed I'd expect many local kids to join the effort.
What the saudis, americans and british have done in Yemen is much worse than what the Ansar Allah has done. They're repressive for sure and they'll likely never agree with me on issues like queer people, but that's not unexpected after large amounts of colonial and later genocidal violence, it tends to see to it that only the hardest, least compromising people can survive and rise to leadership positions.
The yemeni army under the Sana'a government has managed to drive away US ships, so they very much try to kill americans that are there to protect US occupation and genocide. Eventually they'll likely get good at it, like they got good at building mobile radar systems and taking down MQ-9 drones.
* There is no unified government of Yemen, no central organization controls all Yemeni territory, Ansar Allah continues to fight for territorial control, particularly in Marib and around Taizz.
* There are no Americans in Yemen for Ansar Allah to fight, there are no Israelis there to fight, and the British haven't been in Aden for over 50 years.
* Ansar Allah adopted the Khomeinist "Death To America" chant to galvanize supporters for their Zaydi Rivalist movement, but their actual military targets are all Yemenis inside of Yemen. Far from unifying the different factions in the areas they control, they make government employees sign pledges to support the revival of the Imamate and its Sada caste system.
(also: an MQ-9 is a slow-moving turboprop)
The White House told Congress of boots on the ground in Yemen about a year ago (but the DoD walked that back).
I’d probably not try to argue there are no Israeli or American intelligence or military officers in Yemen.
Whether they are in range of Ansar Allah or qualify as an occupation force is probably a semantic argument where each side can reasonably claim honesty.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/lucky-there-were-no-children-s...
The presence of Mossad spies who I have no knowledge of but I will just assume exist and are trying to find out where the Houthi leadership is or where the ballistic missiles are, so Israel can eliminate them, are an occupying force?
My point is just: Ansar Allah fields an army of roughly 200,000 (including the children). That army does not exist to fight Israel or the US (look at a map). What it's there to do is to take Marib, Taizz, and Aden, and to prevent the secession of South Yemen, which has become the stronghold of the ROYG-in-exile and hosts most of Yemen's extractive industry as well as its largest ports.
The basic idea of Khomeinism, which Ansar Allah proudly patterns itself on, is to institute a centralized authoritarian government managed by religious leaders while positioning the country against western imperialism (as a distraction from what's happening within the country). In Iran, this took the form of picking a gigantic fight with the US before losing a half million of its own people in a pointlessly prolonged fight with Iraq. In Yemen, it's a proclamation that Ansar Allah will liberate Palestine while murdering several hundred thousand Yemenis over the course of 12 years.
The current situation is pretty great for Iran. There's an open debate about how reliant Ansar Allah is on the IRGC QF, which creates some deniability. NATO is flying all sorts of stuff over and boating all sorts of stuff around Yemen, so Iran gets to use it as a playground for their new loitering munitions and anti-ship weapons, but with Yemenis pushing the buttons. If Ansar Allah actually managed to strike any kind of real blow against NATO or against Israel, my guess is that it would take less than a couple weeks for the aggrieved power to hit the Houthis so hard you'd need a HEPA filter to collect what would be left of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
Aside: for anybody not familiar with Socotra: it's an island out in the middle of the Arabian Sea, physically closer to Somalia than Yemen, notable mostly for being a sort of Galapagos of East Africa and a major tourist destination (even during the middle of the civil war, because it's not meaningfully integrated with Yemeni politics). Socotra does not matter.
Is the UK occupied by Russia due to the botched assassination of Sergei Skripal using Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury in 2018?
Is Pakistan occupied by the USA because of the US Navy Seals who killed Osama Bin-Laden in 2011?
I assume US special forces are present in many places from time to time if not continuously, although they are also continuously based in many countries.
I assume all serious countries have spies in every single other serious country. If you exclude small and poor countries, everyone occupies everyone? How is this definition useful in any way?
† Except maybe Socotra? See above.
But Socotra being de facto occupied by the UAE is pretty easy to surmise given the airbase they are building there and the lack of air power capability by the STC.
Given that Israeli or US troops at that base, even as advisors, could be considered occupying. It’s not like it’s a rigorously defined term.
Lots of people might have described Berlin as occupied during the Cold War (on either side) and it wouldn’t be out of bounds.
But it’s mostly not salient to the point you were making, which is the point I was trying to make. Whether there is some cadre US or Israeli soldiers in Yemen or if the UAE has built a base there doesn’t change the fact that it’s a civil war.
I clearly failed at redirecting the conversation…
You don't explain why Ansar Allah officials consistently claim they aren't a movement aiming for an imamate, why? The Saleh government used to say the Ansar Allah aimed for an imamate, but now Saleh and Islah are mostly allied with them. Did Saleh change his mind and now wants the imamate revival? Has the Islah party converted to zaydism?
There are quite a few americans in the Red Sea and probably the Gulf of Aden too. They see a lot of drones and other projectiles coming their way. The Ansar Allah has also fought, rather efficiently, Janjaweed soldiers employed by their neighbours. They also attack Israel, mainly what's currently known as Eilat and Tel Aviv. Yes, it's a repressive movement but it's pretty clear they at times militarily engage distinctly foreign troops.
Since they have sunni allies they clearly aren't fanatically sectarian either. It's likely they learned a lot from Hezbollah, which typically has allied with the christian fringe in Lebanon. I find it very hard to explain the decisions and policies of the Ansar Allah without seeing them through an anticolonial and antiimperialist lens.
"Death to America" isn't a specifically khomeinist slogan, though Khomeini did a lot to popularise it. The Ansar Allah expands on it, and for a mainly sunni hating movement it's surprising it doesn't mention sunnis, wouldn't you say?
Could you share a facsimile of such a pledge or similar source?
I find Isa Blumi's account quite well written: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/destroying-yemen/paper
https://www.saba.ye/storage/files/blog/1667842489_pTyQTA.pdf
You'll find 4o can translate this just fine, though several articles have also been written about it based on human translations.
I'm not so much interested in arguing with you about whether Ansar Allah seeks the revival of the Zaydi Imamate; this is pretty basic stuff. Your own source discusses it, but also: I'm not sure you can read any history of Ansar Allah, the Houthi family, Believing Youth, the Sa'da vs. Sanaa conflict, etc. without learning about this. When you read Blumi's account, keep in mind: the Zaydis are a minority in Yemen (I think they're even a minority in North Yemen.)
The body count inside of Yemen is into the hundreds of thousands. One super useful source on this is ACLED, which tracks raw conflict events around the world; they have an "Explorer" on their site that breaks battles and fatalities down by region and time (for lots of countries, not just Yemen). Dig into that, come back, and tell me the Houthis are fighting America and Israel.
An odd thing about qat is that despite being a stimulant it fills the role of alcohol in Yemeni culture—it's what men blow their salaries on, go on benders with, sometimes even destroy their families over. It's fascinating to see a drug with completely different physical effects exhibit so many of the same social pathologies as alcohol.
Don't chew it too often or it will stain your teeth.
>In the United States (US) and Turkey, the botanical specimen (plant) Catha edulis is not prohibited, but the consumption and distribution of harvested leaves or possession for recreational use is illegal.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/14/from-khat-to-c... / https://www.goethe.de/prj/ruy/en/dos/eco/25379240.html
Personally I don't think I've experienced kratom withdrawal despite daily use for a couple years back when I lived in Florida. I personally prefer it to alcohol. Buuut everyone's different, and no substance is without risks.
Due to the small size of apartments, finding places to work, study, or read outside the cramped family home is a significant challenge. This is also why love hotels exist.
Starbucks, however, has no such policies, making it extremely popular for these activities. I always wonder how they manage with such low spending per occupied seat.
Additionally, Starbucks service quality in Japan is exceptional. The staff is friendly, and regular customers receive incredible attention to brighten their day with a smile.
This is not true. The American's didn't come up with it, the Americans don't drink the most of it per-capita[*], and the Americans don't drink that much of it.
It would be fair to say "decaf is a rich country thing", though.
[*] although in absolute terms, they import more of it than any other single country, but there's a lot of them
edit: I feel like I was ignorant about this and my assumption was wrong and not based on facts. sorry about that.
Indeed, American abundance is legendary
Probably too chain-y but was pretty sweet.
What do they call a quarter-pounder? :) (pulp fiction)
There's just nowhere else open late at night that isn't a bar, period.
Another related fun facts, the now universal European word cafe also come from the same word originally meaning coffee drinking place or shop [1].
[1] Coffee and qahwa: How a drink for Arab mystics went global:
Isn't that pretty obvious? It's literally the French word for coffee.
Also the best hummus, falafels etc.
The irony is that a lot of the english breakfast tea places are all Turkish
Unfortunately Covid completely destroyed all of these spots. I’m really excited these are making a come back.
Flightpath is even older (it was in the flight path of the old airport), though not 24 hour.