Yemen Café & Restaurant is a restaurant that offers patrons sustenance, exotic dishes, and Yemenite hospitality. Established in 1975, the restaurant has been operating as a staple of the local community for decades. Exotic flavors have been drawing in patrons since its opening and continues to do so to this day.
Yemen Café & Restaurant Location
Yemen Cafe & Restaurant was founded in 1975 by Sana and Naim Salah. The restaurant’s name is derived from its location on the corner of 69th Street and San Vicente Blvd in Los Angeles. When Sana and Naim first opened their doors, they had a basic cafe serving coffee, tea, and sandwiches. As time passed by, the owners would add bakery items to the menu such as baklava. This addition helped increase sales in their business. Yemen Café is known for its exotic and well-season flavors. Sana and Naim have been operating their business as a staple of the local community, serving patrons regardless of their religious affiliation or race. The Salah family has been operating Yemen Café ever since its establishment, continuing to provide patrons with the same Yemenite hospitality that they have been providing from the start.
Yemen Cafe’s exotic flavors are season by keeping it a family-owned and operated business. Sana and Naim are two of the four members of the Salah family who started their business together. Sana’s parents opened Yemen Café after Sana married Naim right after high school graduation. When Sana and Naim first opened the doors, they only served traditional foods such as falafel, hummus, and baklava. The two were traine by local Arab chefs in preparing these items to give patrons exactly what they were looking for.
Sana and Naim’s business has expanded in recent years to include the addition of a full-scale buffet. This addition helped to increase menu sales because customers can now enjoy a wider variety of exotic, Yemeni treats. The restaurant has seen steady growth over the years and is still doing so to this day. In 2005, Sana and her sisters opened a second location in Burbank as Yemen Café & Bakery. In 2012, another sister married into the business, further expanding their business operations outside of Los Angeles.
Yemen Café & Bakery has become a staple of the local community, reaching past the borders of Los Angeles and into other states. The restaurant is love by patrons, regardless of their religious affiliation or race. The Salah family has continued to provide that same Yemenite hospitality they first started with when they opened their doors over 38 years ago. There have also been many big time celebrities who have visited Yemen Café & Bakery as guests of Sana and Naim. Sana Salah has also been feature in many ethnic newspapers such as Al-Awst and Al-Sabaah. The media has praised Sana for her delicious food, Yemenite hospitality, and her contribution to the local community.
Yemen Café & Restaurant is a featured restaurant of the month in the food section of the LA Weekly on February 27, 2015. Yemen Cafe is an “as authentic as it gets” Middle Eastern eatery featuring traditional cuisine from all corners of the Arabian Peninsula. Featured are Sana Salah’s favorite recipes including meat and dairy dishes, appetizers, desserts and sweetmeats, local curiosities, and drinks.
Yemen Café & Restaurant Menu
Yemenite food is on the menu of the Los Angeles Times in their edition of Pacific on February 21, 2015. Article is titled “Yemeni Cuisine Offers Variety For Lenten Menu” by Deborah Vankin. “More than a thousand miles from home in Los Angeles, Sana Salah has built a Yemeni community around her restaurant empire.”
Yemeni cuisine for the month of August is feature in the Los Angeles Times on June 25, 2014. “Sana Salah has a passion for cooking that’s evident in the dishes she creates at her Los Angeles-area restaurants.”
Serving Patrons and Exotic Home is the title of the article by Deborah Vankin from the Los Angeles Times on February 25, 2014. Yemen Café is feature in an article about local restaurants for October 2013.
Arab and Middle Eastern culture in Los Angeles is feature in an article titled “The Lure of Los Angeles” by Deborah Vankin for the Los Angeles Times on June 20, 2012. The article reveals that other than Yemeni cuisine there are a lot of different types of food from different cultures around the world.
Sana Salah was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Sana’s parents have been running Yemen Café since 1975. Her father is Naim and her mother is Najlaa. Sana’s father is from the city of Taiz and her mother is from the city of Sana’a in Yemen. Grandfather move to Beirut before she was born but remarriage after she was born in order to stay close to his family, who he considered an important part of a child’s upbringing. Sana’s parents’ restaurant is located in Los Angeles, California. Sana is one of four siblings, three sisters and one brother. Sana has three sisters: Liza, Muna, and Randa. She also has a brother named Samer. Sana is the oldest out of her siblings and the only daughter among them.
Sana married Naim Salah in 1973 after meeting him in high school. Sana’s husband Naim was born two years before Sana in Taiz, Yemen. Naim has been working as her business partner ever since they started the business in 1975. Sana’s husband is a very kind and generous man who lets her take full control of their restaurant business. Sana’s family life is quiet and she prefers it that way. She would rather spend time cooking than socializing with others. Sana’s husband and her three sisters are very close to one another. Naim and Sana have been marriage for over 38 years. In which the two have been living together for almost all of those years. Naim’s education is business administration. Sana has also been a supporter of his career.
Yemen Café, established in 1975, is a popular restaurant in the Los Angeles community which serves not only authentic, traditional Yemenite food but also other cuisines from around the world, notably Middle Eastern and Central Asian.
