A Yemeni Chai Ritual Arrives on the Delmar Loop

"Having grown up here, I feel like St. Louis is the best city in America," says Shamaas Nyazee, who opened MOTW Coffee at 6509 Delmar Boulevard in University City on August 22. Inside, light-blue mosaic tiles catch the morning sun and Turkish lanterns hang low over handcrafted wooden tables. The smell of cardamom, crushed fresh from pods rather than poured from a bottle, drifts from behind the bar. The shop is something the Loop hasn't had before: a coffeehouse built around Yemeni chai tradition and deliberate slowness.

The space is sectioned with intention. One side offers quiet tables for study and focus. The other holds a cozy corner with board games, designed for lingering. Moss walls bring an organic texture to the bright interior. Founder Sajjad Shah designed custom espresso machines and commissioned murals by artist Jules Muck for each location. The St. Louis mural features the Arch and a cardinal perched on a coffee cup.

The Chai That Anchors the Menu

MOTW serves espresso: cappuccino, cortado, americano, specialty lattes in vanilla-lavender, hazelnut, and English toffee. The beans come from Hubbard & Cravens in Indianapolis, small-batch roasted to a darker profile that co-owner Shamaas Nyazee describes as bringing out "the richness and profile of the beans."

But the signature is the Yemeni chai. A milky black tea brewed fresh daily with spices, it belongs to a tradition slowly gaining recognition in St. Louis. Qahwatea Coffee opened in Ellisville in 2025, and Mocha Point Yemeni Coffee has served Main Street in St. Charles since 2023. MOTW's version includes what Nyazee calls a "secret ingredient," one of the primary components that many other shops omit.

The house-made syrups tell a similar story of care. Cardamom, date-cardamom, and rose-cardamom all start with whole pods, crushed in-house to retain the delicate oils and flavor complexity.

Food as Multicultural Welcome

The menu extends beyond beverages. Halal empanadas (chicken, beef, vegetables, spinach and feta) offer something heartier. The sweets draw from Yemeni tradition: honeycomb bread filled with cream cheese, soaked in honey syrup, and topped with black sesame seeds. Baklava, date cookies, and milk cakes in flavors like tres leches, pistachio, Biscoff, and Dubai chocolate complete the offerings.

A Mission That Started Online

The name MOTW comes from Muslims of the World, an Instagram page Shah started to share stories of everyday Muslim life. The page grew to over 600,000 followers on Instagram and more than a million across all platforms.

In 2022, Shah translated that online presence into physical space. The first MOTW Coffee opened in Indianapolis. Now there are more than 20 locations across the United States, from Pennsylvania to Texas, California to Illinois.

Nyazee, who grew up in Town & Country and graduated from Parkway West High in 2009, met Shah after moving to Indianapolis in 2016. He'd studied Islam overseas for six years and was looking for someone who shared both his American upbringing and his deep interest in religion. Eventually, he bought several MOTW franchises in Indianapolis before bringing the concept back to St. Louis.

Shamaas Nyazee

"If people break bread and sit down with each other, they see we have more in common than uncommon."

A Space Designed for Pause

The Delmar Loop location operates seven days a week: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to midnight on Friday, 8 a.m. to midnight on Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday. The extended weekend hours signal what kind of space this is: not a grab-and-go counter, but a place where you might stay for hours.

Nyazee sees MOTW as a gathering place for students from Washington University, Saint Louis University, and the broader community.

The cafe's stated mission is to be "a safe, inclusive environment for everyone, regardless of race, religion, or other affiliations." On Delmar Boulevard, a street known for its cultural diversity, that mission finds its natural home.

What MOTW offers is a model for how a coffeehouse can be designed around pause rather than throughput, around ritual rather than convenience. The space is sectioned for different rhythms of city life.

Nyazee has his own history with this stretch of Delmar - fond memories of hanging out on the Loop with friends in high school - and the house he grew up in is a fifteen-minute drive away.