Luxor Cafe will host guests until 2 a.m. during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins Friday and ends March 29. It was during Ramadan last year that Abdelrahman Hassan finalized the deal allowing him to open the Luxor, a place evocative of cafes in Egypt.
The shop at 148 Mount Auburn St. in Cambridge’s Harvard Square had been the flagship location for the coffee shop chain Darwin’s Ltd. for more than 30 years.
Gone are Darwin’s yellow and red walls. They are now the color of sand, the floors a deep stain of brown. On the biggest wall, etched hieroglyphics run in rows, with a scarab beetle in the center. The downstairs seating doubles as a prayer space, where ornate lanterns cast warmth on the mosaic tables and cushions that Hassan’s parents stuffed into suitcases from their last trip to Cairo.
Luxor’s menu is halal, foods allowed by Islamic dietary laws – a mix of Darwin’s signature sandwiches and Egyptian classics added by Hassan such as kibda, a fried liver dish, and hawawshi, a pita stuffed with minced, spiced meat. Many items are named after a loved one, such as the Baba sandwich (turkey and avocado) and the Sahra (turkey with hot honey).
The cafe hosts soccer watch parties, poetry slams and comedy, “Jeopardy” and trivia nights. Hassan’s favorite part is the community that blossoms daily in the cafe.
Places to gather, watch sports and meet people in the United States tend to be bars, Hassan said; his goal was to cultivate a community space detached from alcohol, like the cafes he recalls from Egypt. “I wanted something to bring people together,” he said. “You finish work and you come here, you play board games, you vibe, eat, whatever it is.”
The month of 2 a.m. closings were requested because during Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food, drink and other things from dawn to sunset – and though a meal called Iftar follows, first comes a recommended prayer. “That prayer starts around like eightish and ends at 9:30, 10, maybe later,” Hassan said.
“If you go to Arab countries or Muslim countries, that’s the time that people go out,” he said, which is why a 2 a.m. closing might not be late enough for some. “We could definitely go longer, but at the end of the day, people need to sleep,” Hassan said.
Changing directions
Hassan had saved $80,000 and set aside four years for dental school. Realizing dentistry wasn’t for him, he told himself instead, “I have four years to build something.”
Real estate was his next idea. A family friend and mentor, Ibrahim Ibrahim, owner of the Black Seed Halal Grill and Cafe 26 in Boston, recommended he begin with a cafe rather than flipping houses. A cafe could be Hassan’s “bread and butter,” something he could grow.
After looking at more than a dozen potential locations – where the storage spaces were too small or the headspace too low – he found the Mount Auburn location.
Ibrahim’s business advice, and the handful of shifts Hassan worked at Cafe 26 to learn the business, saved Hassan from his original vision of a sterile, all-white interior for his eatery. The look would be reminiscent of the Crumbl cookie stores – an aesthetic Hassan likes. “This is not a hospital. This is a cafe,” Ibrahim told him.
During renovation Hassan would work until 4 a.m., sleep in the cafe, go into the city at 8 a.m. for anything Luxor needed, then start on remodeling again at 6 p.m. — “rinse and repeat,” he said.
“It was tough,” he said. “It was really tough. When I look back at it, I don’t even know how I was able to do that.”
Every day since, Hassan is in the cafe. Some days, he’s there for 20 hours, he said, overseeing the installation of new fixtures or testing out new menu items with friends.
Late-night Luxor
Mount Auburn Street is a quiet, residential stretch of Cambridge.
In May, neighbors worried about noise were upset that Luxor petitioned for 10 p.m. closing times and 11 p.m. closings on Fridays and Saturdays. Granted, Roust – Darwin’s fleeting successor – used to close at 3 p.m.
Hassan’s bid was approved by the License Commission in May in a 2-1 vote. He was “really worried” about coming back to ask for Ramadan hours. “If we’re applying till 2 a.m., what are they going to think?” he asked.
“Hamdillah, we’re on really good terms with the city,” Hassan said, using a phrase of praise for god. “Like, the city loves us, and there’s a lot of people in the city that are Muslims too, like the old mayor.” City councillor Sumbul Siddiqui, the first Muslim mayor in Massachusetts, offered via Instagram to help after hearing about Luxor’s permit application for Ramadan hours, he said.
While waiting for an email from the commission to set a date for the hearing, Hassan instead got an email that his request had been approved 3-0.
“Ramadan just has barakah,” he said, using a phrase meaning “blessing.”
“More than a village”
Hassan keeps expanding Luxor’s brand and menu with the help of friends, family and customers. A friend laser-cut Luxor’s logo, a coffee bean-bodied scarab beetle, into dark wood for his new coffee cart. Hassan’s twin sister and younger brother work at the cafe, and his parents come in two or three times a week. Hassan’s dad often goes straight to the kitchen to fix himself hawawshi or kibda, his way.
Hassan said his biggest thanks is owed to his family, who give him feedback – whether he asks for it or not.
“I don’t think I thank them enough,” he said.
Hassan also asks every employee their opinion, even for a new lamp, said Sahra Ahmed, a Northeastern student and one of the first baristas at Luxor. After working at Tatte, where operations feel “corporate and strict,” Ahmed said she preferred the Luxor, where she can create. “It’s like contributing to something. And I feel like I have such a say in things,” she said.
“Amazing” people from the neighborhood come in, and she has made many friends. “I feel like there’s not a lot of spaces where young, Muslim people can meet outside of the mosque or your MSA or things like that,” said Ahmed, referring to a Muslim Students Association.
College groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine often meet in the cafe. There may be some hostility toward Luxor Cafe from its public support for Palestinian liberation, Hassan said. A friend ordering food recently told Hassan that on his way in, a neighbor parking a Range Rover had confronted him, yelling, “Fuck Luxor! We don’t support terrorism here!”
If he had thought about all of the negatives of opening Luxor, he said he would have panicked and backed out. He learned as he went, and credited wide community’s support.
“I mean, looking a year back, it’s crazy, like, Alhamdulillah, and so blessed to make it this far and for such a strong community,” Hassan said. “You know, like, it takes a village to raise a child? It takes a village for a cafe – more than a village.”
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SIGH. It’s going to be hard to replace beloved Darwin’s. And the fact that Hassan is drawn to the corporate aesthetic of Crumbl is worrying and, to me, a real bummer. Good luck with all that.