Willow Grove’s new cafe and bakery has Yemeni coffee drinks, honeycomb bread, hot manakish — and a drive-through
Mazaj, which began as the Yemeni and Saudi-inspired coffee bar and bakery inside Malooga's Narberth location, has expanded to Willow Grove. Soon, it will have a drive-through.
What started as a halal coffee-and-pastry counter tucked inside a Narberth restaurant has grown into a full-fledged cafe in Willow Grove, with a bakery operation fueled by a mosaic-tiled oven turning out za’atar-topped flatbreads and pizza. And for good measure, the new Mazaj will have a drive-through.
Mazaj, a Yemeni- and Saudi-inspired cafe, opened earlier this month in the former Grandma’s Grotto Pizza on Route 611 near Blair Mill Road.
Owners Mohammed Tashkandi, Mohammed Aqlan, Yousef Muneer, and Omar Alkahily also operate Malooga, the Yemeni restaurants in Narberth and Old City. Mazaj began in March as the coffee bar and bakery inside the Narberth location, where the partners developed its drinks and pastries while spending more than two years searching for a place where the concept could stand on its own.
They deliberately looked beyond the city limits, Tashkandi said. They wanted parking, easy access, and enough room to create the sort of coffeehouse where customers could settle in — without making a quick coffee run difficult.
The Willow Grove location at 2700 Easton Rd., just north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange, is designed to do both. There are sofas and upholstered chairs for lingering, tables lining the windows, and — unlike Narberth — a drive-through for customers who have no intention of lingering at all. The drive-through is expected to open at the end of the month with premade pizzas and manakish that can be reheated in two minutes.
“Two things can be true at the same time,” Tashkandi said. “Our homemade food, locally roasted coffee, and crafted drinks are intentionally chosen to elevate your day, whether you want to spend time in our spaces or grab something to go as you move through your day.”
That dual identity is wrapped into the name. Mazaj — also spelled mizaj or mizaaj — is an Arabic word for “mood,” “temperament,” or “state of mind” that is also used in Urdu and Persian. The partners were compelled to choose it because of the idea that what people eat and drink can change how they feel.
The menu crosses borders. Tashkandi is from Saudi Arabia, while his partners are from Yemen, but they don’t describe Mazaj strictly as a Yemeni coffee shop, an increasingly popular cafe format. They see it as a broader Middle Eastern cafe.
There are Saudi coffees and mutabbaq, the flaky stuffed pastry pockets popular in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, alongside Levantine manakish, honeycomb bread, date cake, and other pastries. The contemporary coffee-shop side of the menu brings espresso drinks, ceremonial-grade matcha, and flavored lattes.
Mazaj’s manakish are baked to order in a Forno Picone oven, a striking, mosaic-covered centerpiece near the front of the cafe. The flatbreads can be spread with za’atar and olive oil or topped with cheese or meat.
And now there’s pizza.
It is the major menu addition in Willow Grove, baked in the same oven as the manakish. A separate commercial deck oven handles the cafe’s pastries.
The expansion has turned Willow Grove into the baking hub for the partners’ other restaurants. The owners are shifting production from Malooga to the new cafe, which will supply baked goods to both Narberth and Old City. The company has also begun laying the groundwork for a wholesale operation to sell pastries to other coffee shops and supermarkets, and the partners say they are meeting with potential franchisees.
Head baker Samar Alasbahi leads a baking staff with backgrounds in Yemen and Syria. The pastries are made in-house, and Tashkandi said leftovers aren’t put back into the case the next morning. Unsold baked goods instead go to employees, neighbors, and others in the community.
The partners have thoroughly remade the former pizzeria. Olive green and cream set the palette, with patterned tile, geometric motifs, Moroccan-style pendant lights, and a long pastry-and-coffee counter. Faux marble tables and caramel-colored chairs dot the narrow, window-lined dining room, while deep-green upholstered chairs and a sofa make up a small lounge. Behind glass near the front sits the new, dark-tiled brick oven.
For all the Yemeni and Saudi influences behind Mazaj, Tashkandi said the idea is deliberately broader: a cafe where Middle Eastern food traditions overlap rather than stay within national boundaries. “We want the menu to reflect that diversity,” he said.
Mazaj, 2700 Easton Rd., Willow Grove, 267-900-3167, mazajpa.com. Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
