Dubai: Kutubna Cultural Center, Dubai’s newest independent bookstore and cultural center, recently opened its new café.
Located within the center’s premises in Madina Avenues, Nadd Al Hamar, Café Kutubna offers a blend of literary charm and specialty coffee.
Kutubna Cultural Center launched in 2023 and is known in the community for its curated book selection and diverse cultural events. With the addition of Café Kutubna, new experiences are now brewing for Kutubna’s patrons.
Inspiration
The café draws inspiration from famous coffee shops in Chicago with their inclusive community spaces for art, music, and enlightening discussions for book lovers and coffee enthusiasts.
Café Kutubna serves a variety of coffee and tea beverages as well as fresh juices and mojitos. Coffee beans at the café are roasted by Emirati-owned Cazador Specialty Coffee Roasters. Currently, the café’s espresso-based beverages are brewed from Ethiopian beans, a naturally processed heirloom variety grown in Yirgacheffe. Arabica coffee grown in Yirgacheffe is spicy and fragrant and often rated as one of the highest-quality coffee types in the world. The decaf coffee on the menu is supplied by Falcon Coffee Roasters.
Tea lovers
Tea lovers can enjoy single origin specialty tea sourced by woman-owned Hambin, based in Qatar. Hambin trades with tea farmers in Amoy, Fujian, the hometown of traditional Chinese tea and talented tea producers who still use traditional craftsmanship to make the finest tea and matcha. The snack menu includes brownies, chocolate chip cookies, lemon cake, and fruit. Kutubna organizes many events for families and children, and kid-friendly items like cheese boards with fruits, babyccinos, and hot chocolate are also featured on the menu. The café is open daily from 10am to 10pm.
Coffee making workshops
In addition to coffee tasting events, Café Kutubna also offers espresso making workshops to teach people how different types of coffee beverages are made: Lattes, flat whites, cappuccinos, etc. Participants can learn about different types of coffee beans, the role of grinding in producing delicious coffee, and how to get the best taste out of different beans. The workshops are affordable and created with accessibility in mind so people of different backgrounds can participate.
Inclusive communities
Shatha Almutawa, Emirati founder and director of Kutubna Cultural Center, said: “One of our goals at Kutubna is to build inclusive, creative, and intellectual communities. Café Kutubna is a space for people to read books and discuss them with others. We want people to attend meaningful events at the center and reflect on these events with friends at the cafe.
The coffee shop is a gathering place where friendships are built, ideas are tested, and where folks can come out of the isolation that busy lives and screens impose on all of us. We also want it to be a place where inspiration is ignited or re-ignited. We have seen people revive writing projects they had started but were too discouraged to continue in the past. Seeing them write with new vigor is exciting for us, and we hope to keep seeing more people find inspiration and hope at the center and Café Kutubna.”