A Trip to Fatima’s Cafe

I entered Fatima’s Cafe to a warm welcome from the owners, Omar and Fatima. I ordered a Kenyan Chai and a Chapatti. While sipping the delicious Kenyan Chai, I found myself reminiscing about my grandmother’s chai. If you are looking to try authentic chai in Worcester, Fatima’s Cafe is the place to go! If you’re not a fan of chai, there are many other drinks to choose from such as Fatima’s Fruit Juice or mango lassi which are both made fresh by Fatima. Omar quickly brought over a hot Chapatti made fresh by Fatima and suggested that he could drizzle some honey on top which is how he usually eats his breakfast. The Chapatti with honey was subtly sweet and was a perfect snack to have with chai. If you are looking for a heavier meal, the Chapattis can also be eaten with a variety of meat or vegetable stews.

After my meal, I got the chance to chat with Omar.

The Vigornia: When did you open this restaurant?

Omar: We opened about 4.5 years ago. My wife and I are the owners.

The Vigornia: Were you living in Worcester before?

Omar: We were living in Worcester, but I was working. It was a 20-year dream. It wasn’t easy.

The Vigornia: What inspired you to finally start Fatima’s Cafe.

Omar: I was in the restaurant business. I worked for legal seafood for 28 years and I learned a lot about the business and I realized what they’re doing, I can do it too. My wife used to cook for teachers when they had a teachers meal in preschool and they loved the food, so then we figured wait a minute, if people love the food… but everybody was saying “No! It can’t work here. It’s African food. It’s just African food. Nobody eats that food.” Everybody said no. Banks said no. We never got a bank loan so I put my life savings and I got a place by chance. It was really really rough because we don’t have bank loans. That’s what’s the biggest problem with minorities. They don’t have a chance to equal earning. But we survived because of the people. What we found out is everybody was wrong. The banks were wrong. We took classes with Clark Business. We ran the business for 3 years with no business side and everybody found us here with the new technology. We’re on Yelp and TripAdvisor. We’ve been extremely lucky. We’re the first minority business that doesn’t have a demographic. We don’t go through white or black. We have across the board, we have everybody here. People from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe. Most of our business is really out of state too. We’re surprised. Everybody said, “no, no, no, no, no.” We’re surprised. It’sbeen a very rough four years, but it’s been the greatest four years of my life.

The Vigornia: Could you tell me more about the food? Is it from a particular region in Africa?

Omar: We’re Somali’s from Kenya. What I’m discovering now is, this is African food. Everybody who has come to Africa brought something. There’s a lot of Indian influence in our food because we have a huge Indian population. There’s a lot of middle east influence in our food because there are a lot of people in the middle east who have been trading in Africa for the last four hundred years. So everybody brought something, but nobody asked where the food came from. I grew up thinking samosas were African food. We have our African food and we adopted the other food. Even the language Swahili, Swahili is a trade language. We didn’t even know we were vegan. We were just cooking our food and not all African food is vegan. We eat a lot of meat, but this is what my mom, grandmother, and aunts used to make. All the veggies they made, they were not using butter, cream, or dairy. So we’re serving everybody. The vegetarians have their options, vegans have theirs. If you love meat, you got your chicken, you got your beef, you got your goat meat. Everybody is a winner here.

The Vigornia: Is the meat halal?

Omar: Absolutely! 100%. I love halal meat because the quality is better.

Fatima’s Cafe is located at 43 W Boylston St, Worcester, which is just a quick 10-minute drive from WA’s campus. The menu features all-day breakfast options, sandwiches, sides, entrees, drinks, and desserts, all of which are made fresh to order. The staff is extremely friendly and accommodating of any dietary restrictions/preferences. Fatima’s Cafe is not only delicious but also very budget friendly; my total came to just $4.15! I will definitely be returning to Fatima’s Cafe frequently and I would recommend it to the WA community.

Check out their menu: http://www.fatimascafe.com/menu/