For Majdi Gaith, co-founder of Jaffa Coffee Roasters, running a coffee shop has been more than just serving coffee.
Jaffa Coffee Roasters was founded by three brothers: Majdi, Sami, and Noor Gaith. They founded the cafe to combine their interests in specialty coffee together with their Palestinian and Californian identities.
The Gaith brothers grew up in Napa Valley, but their family resides in the territory of Palestine’s West Bank.
Gaith explained that his idea for Jaffa Coffee was inspired while he and his brothers were discussing the lack of specialty coffee shops where their family lived.
“We wanted to create a space where we can reflect our hyphenated identity of being Californians, Americans, and Palestinians,” Gaith said.
Their multicultural identity can be seen in all aspects of the shop, from its coffee to the artwork that’s hung across the wall displaying significant moments in their family’s history. Gaith’s family story is heavily ingrained in Jaffa Coffee Roasters through events, food, and artworks. Photos and paintings, including his mother as a school girl in Jerusalem and pictures from his parents’ wedding day in Guatemala, are displayed throughout the shop. Jaffa also hosts markets, community gatherings, and other events. For Gaith, those elements allow the business to be a place of storytelling and cultural pride.
“We love the community that we created,” Gaith said, “Our favorite thing is to see people smiling, enjoying their time when they’re trying our products and they’re feeling our hospitality.”
Creating the environment the brothers imagined has also proven to be difficult due to the typical complexities of operating a small business.
“The most difficult part about running a business is trying to get ahead of all the liabilities and all of the costs of doing business, all the mistakes that you make,” Gaith said, “It’s very hard to turn a profit in this day and age with inflation.”
Despite those challenges, Gaith said his family remains committed to Jaffa Coffee Roasters because of the community that has formed around it.
These experiences have also influenced Majdi Gaith’s decision to campaign for Berkeley District 4 City Council Member. Gaith argues that small business owners offer a perspective that is missing from local government because they directly experience permitting, fees, rising costs and other obstacles to operating in Berkeley.
“I think small businesses are the bread and butter of the city. There’s (many) small businesses, many of which are brick and mortar, and I think we need someone on the council who understands the growing pains of small businesses, and what they have to do just in order to survive,” Gaith said.
Gaith believes that Berkeley should reduce certain business and health fees, and make city resources easier for owners to navigate. One proposal that he discussed was a centralized online portal where businesses could find information about zoning, permits, loans, inspections, and other city requirements in one place, since much of this information is currently fragmented across different databases.
Jaffa Coffee Roasters was designed by Gaith and his brothers to function as a third space — a social hub outside of home, work, or school where people can spend time together. The shop allows customers to stay at tables without time limits, keeps WiFi available on weekends, and welcomes dogs.
Even things such as serving drinks in reusable ceramic cups, requiring additional labor, was purposefully chosen to contribute to the experience the brothers wanted to create.
“This place means more to me than my entire 12 years of career,” Gaith said, “I created it from scratch with my family.” He wants his customers to associate the shop with compassion.
The cafe plans to continues to center its mission on creating a third space for community members and showing off cultural pride.