Abdulla Awad, visual and food artist, Yafa Bakery & Café
How to love what you do and also feed a community: Best of Boston’s best new bakery
Abdulla Awad, artist and visionary behind Yafa Bakery & Café in Somerville, MA, told me he learned at the best culinary school in the world. Culinary Institute of America? No. Le Cordon Bleu? Nope. YouTube star Babish? Uh-uh. Abdulla smiles and with all the love says his culinary education was in his mother’s kitchen. Of course. I also learned at a similar school, so I understand. His mother cooked every day for their large number of family and friends where they lived for generations in the Beit Safafa Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem.
His parents impressed upon Abdulla a sense of hospitality and generosity and the joy of sharing good food with others. That’s one of the driving forces behind Yafa Bakery & Cafe. Many of the recipes for the bakery and café treats originate from those created by his mother and his family. Abdulla loves what he does, which is combining culinary art and visual art with fostering a community in this Somerville neighborhood. He designed the airy interior of the café, the logo, and the packaging, and he painted the art decorating the café walls. The art beautifully reflects his upbringing in a part of the world divided by conflict and his desire for peace.
Café visitors are greeted with smiling counter staff who are friendly and used to indecisive customers who want to taste everything and don’t know where to start and then where to stop. The array of artfully displayed sweets is impressive. There are platters of cookies, elaborate pastries that only the most dedicated home baker would attempt, six types of baklava (classic, chocolate, and “Yafa” with both walnut and pistachio versions), and stuffed dates—the recent count was 17 different types, and one that incorporated edible 24K gold.
The savory options are plentiful too, with a flatbread topped with za’atar, a spinach and cheese “snail,” Jerusalem bread, and more. Then there’s coffee, a zesty citrus drink that will give you an energy boost, and multiple types of chai with just the right amount of sweetness to play off the cardamom and other spices.
Yafa Bakery & Café was just named best new bakery in Boston magazine’s 2023 Best of Boston issue. Here’s my recent conversation with Abdulla, plus a look behind the scenes in the Culinary Art Lab.
Tell me about Yafa.
The slogan of the business is “Artfully Delicious.” We are combining food, which I love making, with an artistic perspective. I like the saying, “your eye eats before your stomach.” The café is named after Yafa, one of the oldest cities in the world that’s 45 minutes northwest of Jerusalem [it’s a port city on the Mediterranean Sea].
“Yafa” literally means beautiful in the Aramaic language. I think about not just the food being beautiful and the taste of it being beautiful, but also the spirit being beautiful. My mom always said, “If you love what you make, it will be reflected,” and that’s what we are trying to do here. But it’s not just about the taste. It’s also about the service.
My goal is that when people enjoy a bit of something sweet or savory, they leave having experienced kindness, love, beauty, and joy that will stay with them, and hopefully spread kindness and love.
Yafa has been open for just over a year. How has it gone?
When I found this space, I jumped at it and didn’t have a second thought. It's been an amazing journey since we opened. We've established a good community of repeat customers.
We have been able to spread kindness through our food, our service, our environment, and our ambiance, and it's been absolutely amazing. Business has been great, thanks to customers and supporters who are now part of the Yafa family.
Tell me about the peace sign painting.
It shows watermelon, orange, citrus, and kiwi, so it’s sweet and sour, and that’s what life is. Opposites: death and life, sick and healthy, poor and rich. We come from different backgrounds, different religions, and unfortunately, we are divided. To achieve peace in life, we have to ignore our differences.
There’s a word in there, “salam,” which means peace in Arabic. I used the leaves of the orange tree for a simple reason; the city of Yafa is known to produce the best oranges in the world. I also reflect on something earthy. No matter how many years we live, eventually we die and go to the earth. It’s not worth it to fight over our differences. Let’s live in peace.
I do think that food can build bridges and bonds between people and help them get over differences.
That's true, and food can help people learn about other cultures. Here, about 70% of our recipes are Jerusalem recipes and the remaining 30% come from the Mediterranean. [He points to cookies on a plate and says the corresponding recipes are French, Italian, Moroccan, and Tunisian].
Some of our products are named after cities in the Mediterranean known for making specific sweets. For example, the Qairawan sweet is named after one of the oldest cities in Tunisia, so we use almost the exact recipe that has been followed for hundreds of years.
How are you balancing tradition with innovation? It seems you're putting your own spin on some items.
Sometimes I add a different flavor, or change a texture, or make the appearance more special. Look at the logo. I chose to make the Yafa logo green and orange. I chose orange to represent the oranges grown in Yafa and because orange means creativity and inspiration, which reflects what we are doing here and the positive energy we want people to feel here.
Many people who come here become friends, and people often say that we’ve cheered them up with a pastry. The logo is in the shape of an orange, and the As are the bite sizes. The green leaf is to convey the health benefits of our ingredients. Even though we serve sweets, every item except the sugar has health benefits: orange blossom water, black seeds, cardamom, almonds, pistachios, and walnuts.
You’ve been described as a serial entrepreneur. Are you working on other projects?
I also have a clothing business. I learned the entire process of making garments from A-Z and manage the entire supply chain for the clothes. I print my artwork on clothing that’s sold in retail outlets and on Amazon.
You serve drinks that I’ve never tried before. Tell me about the lemonada.
It’s traditional to have lemonada made with fresh mint and lemon juice. The ginger and orange blossom water are our twist on that drink. Also, we add whole lime, including the skin, blended.
I noticed two women sharing some mezze—small dishes that can make up a meal—but I didn’t see it on the menu. Do you have a secret menu?
It’s not a secret. We’ve been serving mezze for the past few weeks and will officially launch it very soon. It will include shakshuka, falafel, hummus, and tzatziki. We will serve it all day on the weekends, and at breakfast time on weekdays.
We have other savory foods: the Jerusalem bread, the spinach with feta and ricotta cheese savory pastry, and the safayeh, which is a flatbread that’s fluffy with toppings such as za’atar or cheese.
Tell me about the stuffed dates.
These have been very popular for the weddings, baby showers, and other parties we cater. We started with nine different fillings and now we have 17 different fillings, with three more to be introduced soon. The pistachio one, which is my mom’s recipe [he smiles], and the coconut saffron one, are particularly popular.
Tell me about the tree painting that you created and that’s on the café wall near the kitchen.
[He shows me a map of Israel to show that the tree is in the shape of the country] It's an olive tree. Why an olive tree? [That region] but more specifically Palestine, is known to grow olives, and some of the best olives you will find are in the Mediterranean. An olive tree is mentioned in the bible, the Koran, and the Torah. It is a symbol of peace and friendship.
An olive tree is a holy tree, and the message here is to convey the Holy Land from that perspective. Also, half of the object (olive tree) is made with deep roots; if an olive tree has deep roots, the age of that tree is several hundreds of years old. Palestine has been in existence for thousands of years.
The birds are flying in, not out. They never sit on the ground. They are seeking peace. The fact they are flying in, it indicates that they are in peace (or feeling peace). There is hope for that peace.
Who are the creative people that you admire?
I’m inspired by my father because he was firm, genuine, down to earth, wise, ethical, truthful, generous, and kind. In terms of creativity, I admire my four children [They range from 3 to 17, and the café is named after his youngest daughter, “Yafa”]. Each one of them is creative in how they act, how they talk, how they live their life, and especially when they interact with each other.
What's the most memorable meal you've ever had?
With my family at home when I was growing up. My dad loved food and never wanted to eat anywhere else. One special meal would be roasted goat meat over rice.
What's your favorite piece of art that you own?
I’m fascinated by calligraphy and I love horses. I think of these seven words in relation to horses: beautiful, strong, powerful, elegant, majestic, fast, freedom. This piece has the letters that make up those words in Arabic.
What’s the most captivating museum experience you've had?
Museum of the Future in Dubai.
Where to find Yafa Bakery & Café
594 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA
What a way to explore peace and community, place and culture and life! Thanks, Amy!
The absolutely perfect place!