Mazagi Coffee
Corner of Prospect and Sachem Streets
New Haven
An evil sleepy baby has taken over the city, infecting the citizens of New Haven with drowsiness! Sounds like a job for…
… the Mazagi Man, Amo Omar, AKA 25-year-old Omar Badawi, owner and coffeemaker extraordinaire of Mazagi Coffee, an Egyptian coffee cart stationed across from Ingalls hockey rink (“The Whale”) on the corner of Prospect and Sachem Streets in Prospect Hill.
The evil baby standoff took place in a comic book drawn by Badawi’s 8-year-old niece Mariam, who has been watching her uncle launch a coffee-cart sensation.
Badawi rescues people from sleepiness in real life as well, customer by customer. Since September, Badawi and his team of three have been slinging specialty coffees and matchas from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (soon to be 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the spring) Mondays through Fridays, saving sleepy souls one treat at a time.
I was one of those rescued customers at Badawi’s cart this past Friday. I arrived undercaffeinated, recovering from back-to-back articles and a double taping of a TV show. Badawi fixed me up with a cardamom latte and an iced matcha, promising I’d be jumping by the end of my time at the cart.
He started with a house-made cardamom syrup, which he sprinkled with cinnamon. When I drank the latte later, I suspected this combo might be the source of its powers.
I watched Badawi steam whole milk and prepare a metal cup to collect it. In the future, he hopes to source the milk from local farms; supporting small businesses is personal for him. For the oat milk crowd, Badawi gathers feedback from his regulars, asking them which brands they find tastier than others.
He pulled an espresso shot, then whisked it with the cardamom and cinnamon.
Mazagi, he said, means doing things with passion. At the cart, it’s a passion for making caffeinated creations as well as a passion for enjoying them. He shares Mazagi with his two other friends on crew, who are both Moroccan. He’s known them for the past five years. Their journey began by hanging out at coffee shops in New Haven and staying til close to closing time — sometimes as late as 11 p.m.
“I was supposed to go to school,” Badawi said.
Fate told a different story.
Born and raised in New Haven, Badawi grew up within the falafel walls of Pita Ziki restaurant on Temple Street, which his dad Khaled opened in 2014. Badawi watched as Khaled spent hours there, long after closing time, looking up ways to improve the restaurant.
When Khaled first came to the U.S., he started as a dishwasher. As his sons grew, he urged Omar to use his smarts for law school, not the food industry.
“I don’t think I ever heard him. I just watched him,” Badawi said.
Khaled passed away from pancreatic cancer four months ago, when Mazagi coffee was just getting off the ground (and on its wheels, as it were). Badawi thought about giving up the dream to focus on present realities, but his dad told him to “never give up.”
“He never really felt like a dad to me – he was more like a best friend,” Badawi said.
These days, Badawi said, he’s still learning. Channeling his dad’s work ethic, he puts in time at the warehouse stove where he tests new recipes. The best thing he’s made so far, he said, is his banana bread syrup. When he’s not on his superhero escapades, he’s on his civilian mission to make more of Mazagi’s syrups in-house.
Badawi poured the milk with an expert touch, creating a classic latte art flower. He secured the cardamom latte with a lid and handed it to me across the cart window. Above my head, on the underside of the outstretched window, was a collection of instant film photos of Mazagi regulars – a new cast of characters, perhaps, for Mariam’s comic sequels.
“That’s Dr. Cardamom,” Badawi said, pointing to one of the photos. “She always gets the cardamom.”
Then there was Coffee Man (and his girlfriend, Coffee Woman), as well as Espresso Surgeon, who once fixed Mazagi’s machine when it was down.
I asked Badawi if Dr. Cardamom was really a doctor.
“She’s in the process!” he said. “I saw her go through her MCATs.”
He keeps up with the daily lives of his regulars, inviting them to slow down and chat while they get their coffees.
“Even though I’m just a small cart,” Badawi said, he knows what kinds of exams his customers are going through, and whether they’re having a good day or a bad day.
In the comic book version of Badawi’s new venture, 8-year-old niece Mariam makes an appearance herself as the Mazagi Man’s trusty sidekick Yumi. The evil sleepy baby shares an uncanny resemblance (and name) with Mariam’s infant sister Safiay.
“We have to save the people,” the Mazagi Man says.
“Maybe we can give coffee to all the people and then the town will be awake,” suggests Yumi.
“That’s a good idea but that will be hard to make 100 coffees for everyone,” says the Mazagi Man. How will the super-pair complete their mission in time?
With the help of the Mazagi Man’s brother, engineer Amo Mohamed, a.k.a. “the Gizmo Guy”! Using his innovative gizmo skills, he creates a new coffee machine that can get the job done.
“This bad boy can fill up 100 coffee cups in ten seconds,” the Gizmo Guy declares.
The city is safe … for now.
The coffee Badawi gave me was rich and smooth, with a depth of flavor that turned the pick-me-up into a thoughtful pause.
I complimented Badawi on his “Mazagi Coffee Club” hoodie, asking if it was some kind of rewards program. Nope! Just a club. Badawi had the hoodies made, then gave them out to his regulars.
Back in Pita Ziki’s early years, I remember one surreal day when New Haveners lined up around the block to get a free chicken shawarma rice bowl for the price of a drink, in honor of the restaurant’s birthday. The Indy even reported on the unique generosity of the deal.
“He always taught me to put community first,” Badawi said of his father. Khaled encouraged him to give things for free, “even if you lose a little.” He’s not the only family member to take the advice: two of his brothers are currently in the process of opening a new Moroccan restaurant, Taktoukah, at the former Soul de Cuba spot on Crown and High Streets.
What Badawi was most excited to show me about his outfit wasn’t the “coffee club” part or even the flower illustration echoing the cup of flowers he keeps by the window. It was the words “New Haven.”
He knew he couldn’t make the hoodies without shouting out the city that raised him, where his dad fed thousands with Pita Ziki, and where he now has the sacred duty to protect the city from evil sleepy babies as the Mazagi Man.
