Hidden in an alley in West Dearborn customers whisper sandwich orders into a makeshift window until 3 a.m. On a weekday around midnight, there are no open seats at a coffee shop. And a renowned restaurant, which typically closes for the month, is open for the first time.
Coffee shops and food spots in metro Detroit are buzzing well into the night with extended hours for Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims refrain from eating and drinking from before sunrise to sunset, pray at the mosque and give to charity. Increasingly, over the last decade, businesses are expanding their hours to create more options for those observing the holy month. But patrons and owners say it’s more than just the coffee and the food — it’s about community.
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“[Ramadan] is the purification of the soul more than the body and at the same time, it allows people to spend more time together because when you eat you, you gotta eat at the same time,” said Tawfiq Almoaish, co-founder of Whisper, a new food pop-up for Ramadan.
Dearborn is home to a large Muslim population.
“Come here at night during Ramadan – the city comes alive,” said Bilal Hammoud, executive director of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, the largest American-Arab business organization in the country according to its website.
He said the number of late-night food options has “exponentially” grown in recent years, not just in Dearborn but in broader Southeast Michigan.
“We’ve seen an increase in nonalcoholic spaces for our Muslim brothers and sisters and in late night hours during Ramadan and … a lot more recognition of the culture in those different spaces,” Hammoud said.
The shift, he said, seems to have happened over the last ten years. His friend, Mohamad Chahrour, age 28, agreed.
“It started off with one hot dog stand in East Dearborn,” Chahrour said, referring to A1 Dogs on Warren Avenue, which was open until around 4 a.m. before morning prayer. “After that, just one stand after the other.”
Whispered sandwich orders in Dearborn
On a recent weeknight, Whisper took its last order right at 3 a.m.
The pop-up is operating out of Amazing Subs, a restaurant offering halal hamburgers, sandwiches, subs and more, which has shut down its restaurant for the 30-day Ramadan special. Customers have to go up to a lattice window in an alley, whisper their orders and a hand appears to take payment. Then, their sandwich is handed to them by a server, who also whispers.
“It’s really important for the community to have all these late-night options open,” said Almoaish, adding that it’s important for businesses to keep making money even when people are fasting during the day.
Last year, Almoaish’s marketing agency, Agency Spades, did a Halal Korean BBQ pop-up during Ramadan in Dearborn Heights, which “took off really well,” he said. This year, the agency approached Amazing Subs about a Ramadan special and the owner was “crazy enough to do it,” Almoaish said.
For Noor Alshara, 24, Whisper was the first stop before a nighttime visit to the mosque. After that, coffee.
Food options are now plentiful, she said: “It builds more of a community.”
It’s a shift Alshara noticed right before the COVID-19 pandemic, during the Ramadan Suhoor Festival — a late-night event featuring food vendors that got started in 2018 and attracted tens of thousands of people to celebrate. This year, the festival was canceled.
Her friend, Hanen Sobhe, 24, said the expansion of late-night food is especially nice for people who have converted to Islam.
“A lot of [converts] don’t really have family that they can relate to or break their fast with so when you come out and see all these Muslim people just like you breaking their fast or having suhoor it creates a sense of community,” she said. Suhoor is the pre-dawn meal eaten before beginning the fast.
Whisper’s menu is simple, with three meat sandwiches and a dessert sandwich, The Lil Chio, made with pistachio spread on a brioche bun, topped with vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of Frosted Flakes.”
It’s not just small restaurants and pop-ups changing their hours for the holy month.
Lebanese restaurant and James Beard food award semifinalist AlTayeb has late-night hours for the first time this year in response to customer requests. In the past, the restaurant, which serves falafel, fatteh and pan-seared meats among other items, has closed its Dearborn location completely during Ramadan.
“We’re trying, we’ll see how it works,” said Ousama Awad, a cashier at AlTayeb. “If it works then we’ll start opening every year. People ask a lot ‘why are you guys not opening’?”
The restaurant in Dearborn was empty just after midnight on a Thursday night, Awad said, likely because people were used to the restaurant being closed for Ramadan.
Coffee shops for fasting customers
During Ramadan, Jabal Coffee House in West Dearborn is open well past midnight. Around 400 people walk through the doors after 7:30 p.m. – for iftar, the meal that breaks the daylong fast – to closing time, according to co-owner Saqr Waza.
“From right after iftar until about 2 a.m., we get slammed,” Waza said.
The crowd is mostly made up of young Muslims, he said. The motivation behind the extended hours was to fulfill a community need, he said, but Jabal Coffee House gets customers throughout the day, too, including those who want to study or work even though they are fasting.
Jabal Coffee House is for everyone, but for Waza, he said it’s meaningful to run a business where a majority of the patrons are Muslim and of Arab descent, like himself.
“Our support comes from the community. Our success is from the community,” he said.
The popular cafe, which opened its flagship location last November, features traditional Yemeni tea, coffee, lattes, refreshers and pastries. This Ramadan, Jabal Coffee House is slated to roll out new items, including a mixed berry hibiscus refresher and Yemeni-style knafeh — a Palestinian dessert of pastry and soft cheese — and other traditional Yemeni desserts for the month.
Even before Ramadan, it was hard to get a table at Jabal Coffee House, said Nasir Fiaz, who was visiting with friends on Thursday night. Now, it’s even harder.
“It’s impossible to get a table,” Fiaz, 25, said.
Ezzo Alabsy, 17, was also out with his friends at Jabal Coffee House Thursday at midnight.
After Jabal Coffee House, Alabsy planned to go to New Yasmeen Bakery, a Dearborn bakery open almost 24/7 during Ramadan. He planned to be out until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.
“It gathers everyone, that’s what I like about this,” he said.
Alba, a coffee shop in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, is opening on Fridays throughout Ramadan until 11 p.m. with coffee and tea, gelato and pastries, to expand options for Muslim customers.
“There’s a few spots in Hamtramck and Dearborn that already do things like this [for Ramadan], but not a lot of options in Detroit,” said Alba owner David Valdez.
Haraz Coffee House in Warren and Dearborn is also open late for customers coming back from late-night prayers at the mosque who want to enjoy coffee with friends, said Hamzah Nasser, chief operating officer of Haraz.
The coffee shop is not just about the coffee. It’s a community space, he said.
Over at Kitab Cafe and Bookstore which has extended hours at both its Detroit and Hamtramck locations for Ramadan, the most popular item during the month is the adeni – a spiced and milky Yemeni tea. The peak hour for the coffee shop is typically lunchtime, but now there is a second peak — especially at its Hamtramck spot — that happens around 11 p.m., after iftar, said Kitab co-owner Asma Almulaiki.
Customers who don’t fast also take advantage of the late-night cafe, she said.
“We want to go that extra mile of meeting our customers where they’re at. That’s why it was important for us to extend our hours during Ramadan because we wanted Kitab — the books, the pastries, the coffee, the vibe — to be available to our Muslim customers once they have broken their fasts,” Almulaiki said in an email.
Almulaiki said that is what she wanted growing up. By the time she would end her fast, everything was closed, she said.
“We’re excited to continue this tradition in the years to come,” she said.
LATE NIGHT OFFERINGS DURING RAMADAN
Here are some of the places that are offering special hours and options during the holy month.
- A1 Dogs and Burgers: 5624 N Telegraph Rd., Dearborn Heights; 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Sunday-Thursday; 10 p.m.-4 a.m., Friday and Saturday
- Alba: 2124 Michigan Ave. Detroit; 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Friday
- AlTayeb Dearborn: 15010 W. Warren Ave. Dearborn., 4 p.m.-7 p.m., 12 a.m.-4:30 a.m., Monday-Sunday
- New Yasmeen Bakery: 13900 W Warren Ave. Dearborn;Monday-Sunday (except 7:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m.)
- Whisper: 1035 Mason St. Dearborn; 9 p.m. -3 a.m., Tuesday-Sunday
- Jabal Coffee House: 1031 Mason St., Dearborn; 10 a.m.-2 a.m., Sunday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-3 a.m., Friday and Saturday
- Haraz Coffee House: 13810 Michigan Ave., Dearborn; 32766 Ryan Rd., Warren; 7 a.m.-1 a.m., Monday-Sunday
- Kitab Cafe and Bookstore: 2727 Holbrook Ave., Hamtramck; 7 a.m.-12 a.m., Monday-Thursday; 7 a.m.-2 a.m., Friday and Saturday; 7 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday; 422 W Willis St., Detroit; 6:30 a.m.-12 a.m., Monday-Thursday; 6:30 a.m.-2 a.m., Friday and Saturday; 6:30 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday