At Sip of Silk, a Salvadoran-Palestinian café near the University of Minnesota campus, coffee and community come with the flavor of two cultures — and a compelling back story.
The café, owned by Alejandro Soto Bonilla, Hanan Wazwaz, Ahmad Abuhadid and Danya Wazwaz, held its grand opening Nov. 2 after a couple of soft openings.
Soto Bonilla and Hanan Wazwaz, married since May 2022, said people have been flowing in to support their business.
“It’s been a journey so far and things are moving a little fast, but it’s been great,” Wazwaz said.
She said she came up with the idea for Sip of Silk in November 2023 in the wake of the war and civilian suffering in Gaza. She and Soto Bonilla wanted to create a coffee shop that those boycotting brands that did business with Israel like Starbucks and McDonald’s could support.
It was also an opportunity to proudly honor their Salvadoran and Palestinian backgrounds in a place that would represent those two cultures, Soto Bonilla said. And last but not least, Wazwaz said, it was a way to represent the couple’s love.
“We really wanted an opportunity to share the most positive parts of our cultures,” Soto Bonilla told Sahan Journal. “We felt like a place where you can come and share a drink with a friend or do homework was a fantastic space to share our culture.”
Starting the business was difficult, but with the help of Wazwaz’s father and the rest of their family, it came to fruition.
“A lot of people think that it’s just one license that you’re supposed to get and that’s it, you’re good to go,” said Abuhadid. “It’s multiple and you have to apply for it, pay for it, and see if you’re going to be approved or not. There’s a lot of information that you have to relay, and even after all of that, it takes weeks just to get approved, and anything can happen.”
Danya Wazwaz, Hanan’s sister and a co-owner who has designed social media posts and promotional resources and helped with Sip of Silk’s visuals and interior design, said she also received help from her dad in investing as a co-owner.
Hanan asked her to become a co-owner when the business’ opening was delayed for a time.
“If it wasn’t for my dad giving me that push, I definitely wouldn’t have been in,” she said. “But the three of them [Hanan Wazwaz, Soto Bonilla, Abuhadid] really helped make room for me so that I can jump in with them, splitting responsibilities and the good that comes out of the business.”
A third space, a sheltering place
Hanan Wazwaz said the idea for the café came before the current Yemeni coffee shop craze, and focused on creating a third space where people could hang out outside of work and school. The café’s late hours, design, prayer space and fusion with Latino culture make it different from other Arab cafés and cafés in Minnesota, she said.
Zeynab Adam, a student at the University of Minnesota and new customer, discovered Sip of Silk through TikTok.
“We don’t find a lot of places on campus that are open really late, so it’s super helpful,” Adam said.
Jelane Elamo, another student and frequent customer, said she enjoys the vibrancy and consideration Sip of Silk has for people of color and for Muslims.
Elamo, who is of Oromo origin, said the owners want to hear customers’ opinions.
“They’re out there in the community,” Elamo said. “The owners, especially [Hanan Wazwaz and Soto Bonilla], talk to the customers and try to get their opinions and change things, whereas other coffee shops, I haven’t really seen that.”
Elamo also said that the menu items, such as the matcha and Salvadoran panini, keep pulling her back.
Wazwaz said customer feedback has been important in the development of menu items. It led the cafe to add chai to its menu, get larger ice cups and drop pistachio-flavored drinks from the menu.
“Most of our syrups we make in-house, so in the beginning, we were doing the same thing with pistachios,” Wazwaz said. “But we learned through talking to people that the pistachio doesn’t come through in coffee. So no matter how much stronger I made it, it started to become too much product.”
Current work shifts are split among the four owners, but they plan to step back and expand the business in the future, Wazwaz said.
“We’re still learning as we go,” she said. “We just want to make sure we don’t stretch ourselves too thin and collapse too fast.”
Sip of Silk, located at 333 Huron Blvd. near the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
