Hamar Weyne

Hamar Weyne (also styled Hamar Weyne Coffee Shop / Café) is a Somali restaurant and coffee shop inside the Somali Mall (Soma Retail Center) at the southwest corner of Independence Avenue and Olive Street in the Historic Northeast, run by Abdirashidi Baashe and known for a three-dollar breakfast, dollar sambusas, canjeero, and richly spiced chai.¹²³ Its name refers to Hamar Weyne, a historic old-city district of Mogadishu, Somalia.

Description

Hamar Weyne is a Somali coffee shop and eatery tucked inside the Somali Mall — the Soma Retail Center — at the southwest corner of Independence Avenue and Olive Street in the Historic Northeast.¹² Mornings bring friendly conversation and activity over hot black tea, chai lattes, and coffee.¹ Its kitchen is known for sambusas — triangular fried bread pockets filled with meat or fish mixed with spiced potatoes, peas, onions, and lentils — priced around a dollar each, alongside a three-dollar breakfast and canjeero, a fermented crepe-like pan bread sprinkled with sugar and drizzled with sesame oil or melted ghee.¹ It sits in the same Somali Mall complex as Soma Cafe.¹²

Ownership and history

Hamar Weyne is run by Abdirashidi Baashe, who told Northeast News in February 2021 that he had been running the shop for about ten years — placing its founding around 2011.¹ The coffee shop is documented operating in the Somali Mall as early as August 2019, when it served chai tea lattes at the mall’s “Coffee on the Corridor” event.² The restaurant takes its name from Hamar Weyne, one of the oldest districts of Mogadishu, Somalia. Additional ownership detail beyond the single Northeast News interview is not yet independently documented.

Menu

Last verified: unverified · Source: local press + refugee-services directory · URL: https://www.refugekc.org/restuarants.html · Confidence: Low

Somali breakfast and cafe fare. Documented items: sambusas (meat or fish with spiced potatoes, peas, onions, and lentils, about $1 each); a three-dollar breakfast; canjeero (fermented crepe-like flatbread with sugar and sesame oil or ghee); mandazi; chicken suqaar; plus hot black tea, chai lattes, coffee, and bottled drinks.¹²³ Itemized menu and current pricing not captured. menu_status: unverified

Links

• RefugeKC — Independence Avenue restaurants directory (Somali listings)³
• Northeast News — “Somalians find taste of home in Northeast” (owner profile)¹

Sources

Footnotes

1. Northeast News — “Somalians find taste of home in Northeast,” by Abby Hoover (Managing Editor), 2021-02-03. https://northeastnews.net/pages/somalians-find-taste-of-home-in-northeast/ — asserts: Hamar Weyne Restaurant is in the Somali Mall at Independence Avenue and Olive Street; owner Abdirashidi Baashe; owner had been running the shop ~10 years (as of Feb 2021, implying ~2011 founding); three-dollar breakfast; sambusas ~$1 each (meat/fish with spiced potatoes, peas, onions, lentils); canjeero (fermented crepe-like pan bread with sugar, sesame oil/ghee); hot black tea, chai lattes, coffee, bottled drinks. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. Northeast News — “Somali Mall hosts Coffee on the Corridor event,” by Elizabeth Orosco, 2019-08-28. https://northeastnews.net/pages/somali-mall-hosts-coffee-corridor-event/ — asserts: Hamar Weyne Coffee Shop operating inside the Somali Mall (southwest corner of Independence Avenue and Olive Street) as of August 2019, serving chai tea lattes; popular items include sambusas and mandazi; mall houses ~12 businesses. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. RefugeKC — Independence Avenue restaurants guide. https://www.refugekc.org/restuarants.html — asserts: “Hamar Wayne Coffee Shop” at 2323 Independence Ave, Kansas City, MO 64124; phone (816) 659-7161; hours 7 AM - 9 PM; Somali cuisine; serves juices, smoothies, and meals with chicken suqaar/saqaar as a signature; social gathering place. ↩ ↩² ↩³