Sunday News: Raha Coffee House brings Yemeni culture to Grant and Amherst

East Aurora welcomes Pizzeria Florian, brunch chilaquiles in North Tonawanda, and a serious craving for hamantaschen

Raha Coffee House, 370 Amherst St., Black Rock

For years after No. 1 Kitchen closed at Amherst and Grant streets in Black Rock, passersby wondered if 370 Amherst St. would ever return to life.

After months of suspense, the paper came off the windows last week to reveal Raha Coffee House, a Yemeni operation specializing in diverse coffee and tea blends, and Yemeni pastries. Owners Bassam Harhara and Abdul Qayi Mohamed have developed a light, bright community spot suitable for cards and chitchat.

If you’ve stopped by Lackawanna’s Socotra Cafe, the first Yemeni coffee house in the area, you may have noticed that Yemeni coffee styles by region. Raha offers several distinct approaches, including mofawar (cardamom, cream), rada’ey (ginger, cardamom), qisher (coffee husks, cardamom, ginger). Prices run about $4 for a single, and $12 for a small pot suitable for four.

With a tealight flame keeping the pot warm, it’s an aromatic invitation to sit a spell.

Raha’s interior makes that easy, with an eyeful of decor, including a map of Yemen, and plaques with helpings of educational coffee history lining the walls. Cushy red embroidered settees line one corner, obviously the best seats for a chat cluster.

Chai, tea boiled with spices and milk, is available Aden style, as well as “red tea” – black tea, cardamom, sugar, no dairy. Pastries ($5.50) include bee bites, a diminutive version of Yemeni honeycomb bread, and sabaya, a multilayered pastry rich with clarified butter and sprinkled with black cumin seeds.

Raha Coffee House

370 Amherst St., 716-615-5555

Hours: noon-8 p.m. daily

Black Rock corner went from From No. 1 Kitchen to a Yemeni coffee shop

REVIEW: Pham’s Kitchen gives Western New York a better choice for Vietnamese dining, starting with banh mi on bread baked that morning with housemade cold cuts and pate, for under $8. From grilled pork chop on rice plate to the adjust-to-your-liking beef noodle soup called pho, the epicenter of Buffalo-area Vietnamese cuisine has shifted to Union Road, Cheektowaga.

OPENINGS

Pizzeria Florian, Amanda Jones’ upscale pizza parlor, has opened at 650 Main St., East Aurora.

With support from boyfriend and pizza developer Jay Langfelder, Jones’ place has a tidy menu of pizza, salads, and a cannoli-of-the-month for dessert.

Pies include Calabrian Crunch ($25), of Bianco DiNapoli organic tomato sauce, cup-n-char pepperoni, stracciatella, Calabrian chile crunch, basil, hone, and Parmigiano Reggiano, and the Kale and Speck ($25), with lemon cream, mozzarella, crispy kale, speck, and Parmigiano Reggiano.

650 Main St., East Aurora, pizzeria-florian.com, 716-805-7030

Hours: 4:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, noon-9 p.m., closed Sunday, Monday. (Today, Super Bowl Sunday, is the exception; takeout only, 3 p.m.-8 p.m.)

Adventurous Mexican: In North Tonawanda, El Punto Mexican Cantina celebrated its grand opening Feb. 6.

At 58 Webster St., the Mexican restaurant’s motto is “not your average Mexican cantina,” and the menu bears that out. El Punto’s offerings are not the standard-issue lineup in effect at most Western New York Mexican operations.

Appetizers include fried pork rinds with spicy avocado ranch dip, and gorditas, griddled corn cakes stuffed with braised beef barbacoa. Tostadas ($8) include hot-honey-glazed spaghetti squash. Tacos (3/$16) include carnitas, carne asada, and crispy cauliflower with agave sweet potato.

Sunday brunch includes chicken chilaquiles, tortilla chips simmered with salsa verde, black beans, queso fresco, and sunny-side-up eggs.

El Punto Mexican Cantina, 58 Webster St., elpuntocantina.com, 716-767-8686

Hours: 4 p.m.-midnight Tuesday-Thursday, 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday, Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.

GUEST COMMENT

Chinese Food Math: The Asian Hot Food Bar at Wegmans is up to $15.99 a pound now. At Taste of China in the Boulevard Mall, a combo with two entrees and two sides is $11.99. In the classic mall Chinese food way, everything is already prepared in steam trays. And, as the guy there says, they “load it up!” The container seemed so heavy, I decided to weigh it when I got home. 2.5 lbs. That works out to $4.80 a pound. Or to put it another way, the same amount of food from Wegmans would cost $39.98. – Ryan Lysarz, via Facebook

THE CRITIC ASKS

Here’s two reader hungers I’m trying to help cure.

Are hamantaschen, triangular buttery Jewish jam cookies, sold by any Western New York bakeries?

How about raw vegan menus? The definition of raw vegan is that it’s animal free and none of its ingredients have been heated over 118 degrees or so, which could alter its nutritional value.

If you have a clue to share, please send it to me at andrew@fourbites.net.

More local food reading compiled by Michael Chelus:

This week on the Nittany Epicurean, I wrote about the 2021 Grand Napa Vineyards Los Carneros Chardonnay, the 2020 Aridus Wine Company Cabernet Franc and the 2022 Campo al Mare Vermentino.