San Antonio has a new destination for fresh-roasted coffee and Middle Eastern sweets. Alzer's Roastery opened at 9871 I-10 W, inside the Colonnade shopping center, offering what it calls a one-stop shop for coffee, nuts, and sweets under one roof.
The shop is being billed as San Antonio's first mahmasa, or Middle Eastern roastery, according to CultureMap San Antonio. The word mahmasa shares a root with mahmas, the long-handled metal pan traditionally used to toast coffee over open embers, and the concept centers on coffee ground to order to each customer's preference. Shops like it also typically carry mkassarat, the seeds and nuts considered essential to gatherings, and the outlet notes such roasteries see especially high demand during Ramadan and Eid.
Alzer's menu leans into that tradition while also chasing newer cravings. The shop sells kunafeh, gourmet chocolates, specialty teas, and halal gummies, and it has a counter set up for on-the-go iced drinks for customers who just want a quick caffeine fix. KSAT 12 featured the shop on its SA Live program, spotlighting its traditional Turkish coffee alongside viral food trends like Dubai chocolate, as reported by KSAT.
A Ribbon-Cutting and a Growing Corridor
The opening also drew formal recognition from the city's business community. The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce hosted an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening, offering complimentary samples of the shop's freshly roasted coffee, nuts, and sweets, per the chamber's event listing.
Alzer's sits within the Silk Road Cultural Heritage District, a designation the city's Historic and Design Review Commission made official on December 18, 2024, marking it as San Antonio's fourth formal cultural heritage district. The designation covers the Wurzbach Road corridor in Northwest San Antonio and was initiated by Councilmember Manny Pelaez in 2022. San Antonio created its Cultural Heritage District program back in 2005 to celebrate corridors with distinct community identities, a list that also includes Jefferson Heights, the Historic Highway 90 Corridor, and Hockley-Clay Cemetery.
The roots of this particular stretch of road go back further than the recent designation. The Wurzbach Road international business district traces to 1999, when Ali Baba International Food Market opened in International Plaza and became an anchor for refugee and immigrant-owned businesses in the area. That plaza later served as a focal point during the COVID-19 pandemic, when local organizations distributed thousands of free meals there.
Serving a Deeply Rooted Community
The demand for culturally specific coffee and sweets in this part of town isn't a coincidence. Northwest San Antonio's Medical Center and Wurzbach corridor is home to an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 resettled refugees from countries including Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia, supported by organizations like the Center for Refugee Services, according to Texas Public Radio. That population grew further following federal resettlement programs such as Operation Allies Welcome in 2021.
Municipal and nonprofit investment in the corridor has picked up alongside that growth. In March, the City of San Antonio's Economic Development Department, its Office of Historic Preservation, and the nonprofit Culturingua co-hosted the Inaugural Silk Road District Festival near I-10 and Wurzbach Road, featuring marketplace vendors, performances, and artisan crafts from Middle Eastern, North African, and Asian cultures to support small businesses and cultural tourism.
Riding a National Wave of Middle Eastern Coffee
Alzer's arrival also taps into a broader national trend. Industry research firm Technomic reported that the number of cafes run by major Yemeni-style coffee chains grew by 50% nationwide in 2025 alone, with spiced brews like qishr and Adeni tea rapidly expanding across major metro areas. San Antonio has felt that wave directly, with Yemeni cafes rising in popularity across the city, per CultureMap, alongside concepts like Qatra Specialty Coffee, Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co., and Haraz Coffee House.
Alzer's distinguishes itself from those Yemeni-style cafes, which tend to focus on brewed spiced drinks and social seating, by combining coffee roasting with in-house nut roasting and bulk sweets. The shop also maintains a fully halal product selection, including verified halal gummies, specialty chocolates, and roasted products, according to Zabihah.
The corridor has seen turnover alongside its growth, too — Hoodline previously reported on the Bill Miller closure along the same Wurzbach stretch. Alzer's Roastery is now open Monday through Thursday from 10 am to 9 pm, Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 10 pm, and Sunday from noon to 8 pm.
