Mokhtar Alkhanshali and David Eggers are titans in their fields. Alkhanshali in the specialty coffee industry, where he is one of the leading voices contributing to the re-emergence of Yemeni coffee, and Eggers is an award-winning novelist. The San Franciscans previously worked together on The Monk of Mokha, Eggers’ book about Alkhanshala.
The duo collaborates again. This time for a café and art space called Art + Water.
First reported by San Francisco Eaterthe modern, massive 70,000-square-foot space is located on Pier 29, just off The Embarcadero, near Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. The nonprofit arts organization will offer free studio space for artists and have a 10,000-square-foot gallery.
Alkhanshali will handle the coffee side, but not his own Port Mokha. Instead, it will be an as-yet-unnamed modern coffee brand that it calls “the first luxury coffee company.” There’s little information on exactly how much it will cost, but Alkhanshali tells Eater that the drinks will be accompanied by food similar to “an afternoon tea or omakase-style service.” The cafe draws inspiration from the 18th centuryvol and 19vol century coffee shops in cities around the world like Sana’a and Cairo and even Boston.
“[Eggers] he noticed that there was no coffee in the entire area,” says Alkhanshali. “He could employ 1,000 people there and open a coffee shop there. But what he wants to build will be his own world.
Currently, Art + Water’s expected opening date is next summer or fall.
More information about Art + Water can be found at: read Eggers’ article in McSweeney’s explaining his cockiness.
