A new specialty Yemeni coffee shop called ERTH is preparing to open inside The Hotel @ The Lafayette in downtown Buffalo, with plans to pour Yemeni red tea, Arabian coffee and pistachio lattes alongside a menu stretching from turkey pesto to traditional Yemeni specialties. Co-owners Amr Al Museki and Essa Abdul are aiming to open in about three weeks, tentatively running seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with breakfast service until 2 p.m. and weekend hours still subject to change.
The concept comes from Buffalo Rising, which reports that ERTH will serve mango lassis and coffee made with ingredients sourced from Yemen, alongside a food menu featuring chicken ciabatta, tuna salad and a veggie stack. The space is also expected to feature items and arrangements available by custom order, giving regulars a reason to come back beyond the daily menu.
Design-wise, the outlet reports ERTH will lean into lush murals, sophisticated interior design and custom furniture, plus one or two large flat-screen televisions for sporting events, including soccer. Al Museki, who has a wife from Buffalo, said ERTH will help bring a lively coffee crowd to the hotel, according to the same report. He and Abdul have told the outlet that operations are running smoothly and final touches are underway as the opening approaches.
A First Taste Before the Doors Even Open
Christa DiFiglia, executive director at Tappo Restaurant who spent 13 years working at Hotel Lafayette, said she was the first customer to try ERTH coffee at its new Buffalo location, per the Buffalo Rising report. She described the coffee as the best she had ever had. The owners have said they want customers to feel relaxed and comfortable while experiencing Yemeni culture through a coffee house built around attentive service.
Buffalo Rising also reports that ERTH will hand out free coffee samples Saturday at the 2026 Witches Ball, giving curious locals an early taste before the shop's doors officially open. It is a modest but telling preview for a concept the owners have been quietly building toward for weeks.
A Contested Address Inside the Lafayette
The Hotel Lafayette space ERTH is reported to occupy has a tangled recent history. Buffalo Rising describes it as a space formerly occupied by Public Espresso, which announced in the spring that it would cease operations at its three cafés on April 4, citing the changing landscape of operating a small business, according to wivb.com. That café had operated on the first floor of the hotel at 391 Washington Street for 13 years before it closed.
But the same former Public Espresso footprint has also been reported as the planned home of a different business entirely. The Buffalo News reports that Saba Coffee House is set to open in the longtime former location of Public Espresso inside The Hotel @ The Lafayette, a claim corroborated separately by bizjournals.com, which noted Public Espresso closed its ground-floor café space in early April after a decade in business.
Joining an Already Crowded Yemeni Coffee Scene
Whatever shakes out at the Lafayette, ERTH would be entering a city that already has a deep well of Yemeni coffee culture. Buffalo is home to more than half a dozen local Yemeni cafés serving coffee and tea rooted in Yemeni tradition, according to the Buffalo News. Many of those shops use beans from family farms in Yemen and stay open into the evening, offering drinks like spiced coffee, cardamom tea and qishr, a lightly caffeinated beverage made from coffee bean husks.
That existing scene sets a high bar for a newcomer promising murals, custom furniture and soccer on the big screen. For now, the opening date and final hours remain tentative, and it is still unsettled whether ERTH will be sharing the Lafayette's ground floor with a differently named concept or stepping into a space all its own.
