Highlandtown has a brand-new reason to wake up early. Qaffee House just opened its first brick-and-mortar coffee shop at 328 S. Highland Ave. — and this is no ordinary café.
The menu is full of Middle Eastern-influenced drinks like cardamom lattes and karak chai, plus a signature snack you won’t find anywhere else: “qroffles,” croissant dough pressed in a waffle maker and topped with everything from orange blossom glaze and pistachios to savory options.
The story behind it is even better. All three owners are Muslim, and they started the business two and a half years ago during Ramadan, bringing coffee to local mosques as worshippers broke their daily fasts. What began as a coffee trailer in Columbia has now grown into a real East Baltimore storefront, with all pastries baked in-house.
And they’re thinking big: the team says their inspiration is to be “a competitor to Starbucks,” with plans for more locations across Baltimore and the state. Baltimore’s coffee scene just got a lot more interesting. Source: The Baltimore Banner