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Baba’sCoffee Corner
Baba's Coffee Corner storefront on E Katella Ave — the charcoal 'baba's coffee corner' sign, plaza patio tables and an A-frame menu board under a clear blue sky.

Our story

It started arounda table.

A family-run corner for specialty coffee, ceremonial matcha, and Levantine flavors — in Orange, California.

A corner named for baba.

Coffee, the way baba makes it.

Baba's started the way most family things start — around a table, with someone insisting you try one more cup. The cardamom coffee, the cinnamon-honey milk, the knafeh nobody could stop eating.

When the corner unit in the Katella plaza opened up, it stopped being a kitchen habit and became a counter. The espresso machine went in against a hand-tiled wall. Olive branches went on the shelf. An entire wall went up in clippings from Arabic newspapers.

The menu didn't change much. Baba's Latte is still brown sugar and cinnamon shaken with espresso. The Knafeh Latte still gets a real fistful of toasted crunch. It just gets poured a little better now.

Inside Baba's — the hand-tiled espresso wall in green and terracotta, a chrome espresso machine, a long communal table and warm plaster walls.
A black-and-white keffiyeh folded over the counter beside the oxblood 'baba's x Olive' menu board and a mason-jar tip jar, next to the espresso machine.

The keffiyeh stays on the counter.

What the corner runs on

Family, first. Everything else follows.

01

بيت — Home

Every recipe on the board came from a kitchen table before it came from a café. Knafeh, cardamom, cinnamon-honey, fig — flavors we grew up on, not a trend deck.

02

عائلة — Family

Baba is usually here. So is bint baba. It is a small counter run by the people whose name is on the sign.

03

مهارة — Craft

Single-origin espresso pulled to order, ceremonial-grade matcha whisked by hand, syrups and cold foams made in the shop every morning.

04

ضيافة — Welcome

Long tables, olive branches, an Arabic-newspaper wall, a keffiyeh over the counter. A room built to be sat in, not passed through.

How it grew

From the table to the board.

  1. At home

    The table

    Cardamom coffee after dinner, cinnamon honey warmed in milk, knafeh on the good plates. The menu, before it was a menu.

  2. Opening

    The corner unit

    A small plaza space on E Katella Ave becomes Baba's Coffee Corner — hand-tiled espresso wall, olive branches, the newspaper wall.

  3. The board

    Knafeh Latte lands

    Knafeh syrup, sweet-cheese cold foam and toasted crunch go on the board. It becomes the drink people come in asking for by name.

  4. Today

    4.9 stars

    A near-perfect rating, a wall of regulars, and baba still on-site most mornings.

Behind the counter

A room built to be sat in.

Three Baba's drinks and a kraft pyramid bag on a wood table, a deep-red Afghan rug hung on the wall and an olive tree behind.
Two of the family holding an 'I ♥ BABA' tee, wearing 'Call Me Baba' sunglasses, against a terracotta wall with olive branches overhead.
Baba's Arabic-newspaper wall — a whole wall papered in clippings — beside a potted olive tree, an olive-green leather sofa and an embroidered cushion.
Two hands raising an iced matcha and a layered strawberry matcha together, soft cafe lights blurred behind.

Come taste the table version.

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