Coffee roaster opening two new eateries, including at a prominent Fresno corner
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Rumi Baklava bakery opened May 1 at 2767 W. Shaw Ave. selling Syrian pastries and kunafa.
- The owner will open Rumi Coffee at Alluvial and Fresno, hiring about 20 people.
- He shared his path from Yemen to Fresno, including working for the U.N. and Fabiano Coffee
What started as a local coffee roaster at a central Fresno farmers market is blossoming into something much bigger — and sweeter.
Fabiano Coffee Roasters has already opened its own bakery.
Next up, it’s planning a new Mediterranean cafe in the former Lewis Diamond Co. spot at Alluvial Avenue and Fresno Street in northeast Fresno. (The jewelry store recently moved to The Row at Heritage Grove at Shepherd and Willow avenues).
While work continues on transforming the jewelers into an eatery, Rumi Baklava is open at Shaw and Marks avenues. It’s at 2767 W. Shaw Ave., behind Outback Steakhouse, in the former Araz Bakery spot.
Owner Hamed Alghazali opened it May 1, selling racks of baklava made with pistachios, walnuts and cashews. There’s also “crown of the king,“ a round pastry filled with nuts covered in a shiny, sweet glaze.
There’s the top-selling kunafa, a dessert made with cheese.
Behind the scenes at Rumi Baklava
Most of the pastries are Syrian. That’s because the pastry chef, Anas Hamad, is from Syria.
Like so many Fresno businesses, there’s a lot going on behind the storefront; a winding backstory of the owner’s path to this bakery, along with the stories of the diverse people working in the kitchen.
Rumi Baklava is named after the 13th-century Persian poet.
On a recent morning, employee Nargiz Pogosyan is busy making lahmajoun — sometimes called Armenian pizza — spreading ground beef on flattened dough. She’s a holdover from the previous bakery, which specialized in savory Armenian baked goods.
Ask her where she learned to make it and the answer is buried so deep she can’t really tell you.
“I don’t learn,” she said. “My whole life, I make it.”
Owner Alghazali is from Yemen. He moved to the United States when he was 16, and went back to Yemen to live a few times.
He was there for the Arab Spring, the pro-democracy uprising that swept through the Middle East starting in 2010.
“There was a lot of excitement, a lot of hope,” he recalled.
But civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014. Alghazali left for grad school on a scholarship at the Toulouse School of Economics in France, one of the top economics schools in Europe.
After trying his hand at food importing back in Yemen, where things were getting increasingly difficult, he moved to New York. He worked as a policy advisor for the United Arab Emirates at the U.N. Security Council (and that’s still his day job, though he works remotely).
During the pandemic, he packed up the wife and two kids and moved them to Fresno to be closer to family. He bought Fabiano’s from Karen DeSousa in 2023.
Rumi Coffee coming soon
Now, he’s focused on sharing the food and culture of the Middle East, especially in the new location that’s still in the works.
“We will train our team to be hospitable, generous, try to showcase the culture, our tradition, and be unique,” he said. “The food items you’ll find, you won’t find it anywhere else.”
He’s hoping to open the new location at the end of June.
Alghazali has been working on it since he signed the lease back in November, ordering custom furniture and redoing everything inside.
“I like to say it’s a stay-and-linger cafe; it’s not a grab-and-go,” he said.
He’s looking to hire about 20 baristas.
Fabiano Coffee (yes, he dropped the “s” from the name) will be served at both Rumi Baklava and the new cafe, which will be called Rumi Coffee.
He continues to sell the coffee at the Vineyard Farmers Market near Blackstone and Shaw avenues. Several Fresno-area coffee shops also carry it, including La Boulangerie, Collect Coffee Bar, and On The Edge and the Parisien in Clovis.
So far, the bakery has provided a satisfaction that’s different than his career in public policy, Alghazali said.
“Here, every day you see people come in, enjoying the items you make. You’re accomplishing something.”
Details: Rumi Bakery is at 2767 W. Shaw Ave. Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
