May 2019
In my search for good coffee in Duhok, I eventually ended up at Cafe au Lait. Among all the coffee shops I had tried, it became my favorite. WMF, my bartender bestie, told me that one of his regular customers, Mustafa, had opened a coffee shop with his Filipina wife. Mustafa was Iraqi Arab and lived in Duhok. He had met his wife while she was working on a contract there. They were a very interesting couple to say the least. I was still in Duhok when they had their first child, Skyy.
Most unfortunately, the shop (near Buon Gusto) [see: Buon Gusto, Duhok] was another "strip mall type" location. Actually, it was half the size of Buon Gusto, but the interior was funkier. They also used unique beans from Sicily (Caffè Moak, licensed according to Mustafa). The coffee was excellent, although the cakes were not. They made everything themselves and Mustafa's wife thought she was a far better chef than she actually was. No worries though - the place was popular and Mustafa was an ebullient Arab who wanted his customers satisfied. I always had a good time there.
I ran into many more people I knew in that cafe than in Buon Gusto, so I had to time my visits more carefully. The best thing about Cafe au Lait was that it opened early on Friday mornings! Having abandoned the expensive Rixos for Friday morning java [see: Friday morning coffee], I moved to the Dilshad Palace Hotel [see: Dilshad Palace Coffee]. Their espresso machine eventually broke down just around the time I was introduced to Cafe au Lait. WMF and I often met at Cafe au Lait on Friday mornings for some heart to heart chats followed by walks through town just as Duhok was waking up [see: long walks and long talks]. I have some good memories of the place.
Alas, Mustafa had a dark side (which I never saw, but was reported to me several times by credible sources). Once he and his wife had a tiff and, in a rage, he threw all the customers out of the shop and closed it for the day. Some people I knew were patrons on that occasion and it took a long time for them to return. Who wants to go to a place where you may be told "get out. we are closing" unexpectedly? Additionally, Mustafa chewed through his staff. One barista, Abdullah, who was a student in Duhok, told me after he left that Mustafa was impossible to work for. Apparently he flew off the handle out of the blue. I never saw it - but again, it was reported to me by several former employees. I assumed it was true. Even WMF told me that he would not have minded abandoning the bartender job and becoming a barista somewhere, but he would never work for Mustafa because he was "a little crazy".
To his credit, Mustafa did his best during the closures of the Coronavirus Pandemic to follow the rules and stay as "open" as possible. Those rules changed DAILY in Iraqi Kurdistan for a few months. Mustafa opened and closed and opened and closed, then only had take away and then only outdoor seating (and opened and closed and opened and closed). I was happy that he was trying so hard - his cafe was literally the only place I could get coffee for a time across the whole city. All the other places had simply given up and closed (including the expensive Rixos).
Cafe au Lait persists - they keep a strong presence on social media. I remember its good coffee and the great conversations with WMF as he, over time, told me his life story. It ended up being my favorite coffee shop in Duhok, I guess?