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Siraj Coffee House, Visalia’s first Yemeni Coffee shop, held its soft opening on April 23.

Owners Omar Abdelkhale and Arafat Arrahimi hosted the event out of their newly remodeled storefront on the corner of West Whitendale Avenue and South Mooney Boulevard.

Local influencers attended the soft opening to promote the new business, including Jeremiah Munoz, who has built an audience of over 38,000 across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube with his jeremiahdawg personal brand, as well as Yvonne Cortez, or doughbabybarista, who creates coffee and lifestyle content for her combined audience of around 15,900.

Siraj Coffee House offers both Yemeni and Italian coffee menus, as well as a variety of low and no-caffeine drinks, like its non-alcoholic Siraj Mojitos, which come in three flavors — lemon passion fruit, pomegranate strawberry and strawberry mango.

Though customers after the flavors of traditional Yemeni flavors purchased brewed coffees, hand-crafted lattes and signature teas made with Yemeni spice blends.

“What sets Yemeni coffee apart is a slower extraction process and the addition of spices,” Abdelkhale said. “Cardamom, cloves, saffron, nutmeg and whatnot.”

Traditional Middle Eastern pastries like Sabaya, which is made by layering flaky pastry with butter and cream cheese-filled honeycomb bread, were also served from its menu of house-made pastries.

Abdelkhale and his business partner Arafat Arrahimi, who is co-owner of Visalia’s Smash Town Burgers, said that they plan to open more Yemeni coffee and tea shops throughout the Valley.

Siraj Coffee House is located at 2145 W. Whitendale Ave., in a brick storefront that once housed The Frosted Muffin.