MoQana Coffee, a Yemeni coffee shop, opened Saturday with giveaways, discounts and a football watch party to lines that stretched outside the door at the former Teapioca Lounge location, which closed in 2025.
Norman mayor Stephen Tyler Holman attended the event.
“Small business, sort of local, and on west Lindsey street, which you know has had some challenges over the last few years with businesses … ” Holman said. “Any opportunity to see a new business open in Norman, especially over here, is definitely worth attending and great to see a line to get in.”
Hamza Wosabi, manager for the new location and co-owner of the Edmond location, recalled his experience of the opening day lines.
“For hours, it was just nonstop,” Wosabi said. “The line is to the door, it’s a new layout, it's different to the Edmond location; you’re trying to really figure out how to manage everything, how to remember where everything is. It was tough, but we got through it.”
The opening marks their third location. According to its website, the first location opened in Edmond in 2023 as Mocha House before business partners moved to Tennessee and opened a second location, under the name MoQana. In February, the name was solidified at the Edmond location when it relocated.
Wosabi said the move to Norman came after many OU students visited the Edmond location.
While drinks will be standard across all locations, Norman will have a chef to serve breakfast such as omelets and pancakes — expecting a potential student crowd for breakfast.
“We’ve experimented with (breakfast), but we’re not that close to UCO (University of Central Oklahoma), so we wanted to see how it’ll do in Norman,” Wosabi said.
According to Wosabi, its best-selling item at the Edmond and Tennessee locations is the Adeni chai, a drink Wosabi described as black tea with milk and spices. The drink originates from the city of Aden on the southern coast of Yemen.
“It’s very Yemeni, so it’s more exotic, not commonly known here …,” Wosabi said “For a coffee shop, it’s surprising that tea is the best-seller.”
From local diners to large corporate chains, the coffee industry is highly competitive. Despite the challenges, Wosabi says MoQana offers something different.
“It’s more exotic, it’s Yemeni beans, so that’s not something that’s common in Oklahoma,” Wosabi said. “But other than that, we’re creating an experience. … If you’re a big group, you could buy a kettle, you could share it with little cups. It's a very nice spot and we’re really excited to show Norman what we have.”
Wosabi described the Yemen variant as similar to Ethiopian coffee.
“It’s more on the bitter side, it’s not similar to Colombian, where it’s more on the sour side,” Wosabi said. “It’s strong coffee, it’ll definitely wake you up whenever you need it.”
Although coffee plants originated in Ethiopia, Yemen is considered the home of the prepared beverage. According to its website, MoQana sources its beans from three locations: the Haraz Mountains, Haymah and Bani Matar. Recent conflicts in Yemen have posed danger to coffee farmers, making it difficult for them to export their products, according to reporting from The New York Times.
Wosabi explained that his time in Yemen directly influenced his love for coffee, citing the community and willingness of strangers to help each other.
“People walk in from all different backgrounds from every single profession possible, and it’s just the only thing connecting us more or less is coffee,” Wosabi said. “We bond over that and get to learn about each other and we get to understand each other just through a cup of coffee. That’s the beauty of it. That’s why I love it so much.”
Adding a location to Norman took around six months, according to Wosabi. He also revealed the move is part of a larger expansion throughout Oklahoma, with a potential Tulsa location coming next.
“Right now, we’re just taking it really one location at a time, but definitely the long term plan I’d say is to grow all over Oklahoma and then hopefully branch out to other states,” Wosabi said. “That’s definitely the plan. But right now we’re just focused on Norman. We’re seeing how everything goes.”
MoQana offers coffee, tea, matcha, smoothies, sandwiches, crepes and waffles. They currently offer a menu of fall-themed drinks and desserts for a limited time.
MoQana’s is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to midnight Friday, 8 a.m. to midnight Saturday and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday on Lindsey Street.
This story was edited by Madisson Cameron. Kylie Caldwell and Larkin Bock copy edited this story.
