Israel’s coffee carts: Brewing memories of those lost in the war

There always were modest coffee stands here and there in Israel, but the coffee cart trend took off during the COVID pandemic when cafés and restaurants closed down during lockdown. The outdoor coffee carts provided convivial places to get coffee and sweet rolls, to meet friends and sit outside (which in Israel is possible nearly year-round).

In order to obtain operating permits, coffee carts must have wheels and thus are movable, even if they have awnings and table and chairs. While most outdoor coffee carts now serve sandwiches, pastries, and sometimes salads, they’re not the same as food trucks. Food trucks are also a growing phenomenon in Israel, popping up in or near major cities. But these are actual [i.e., self-propelled] trucks or vans and serve full meals.

Until recently, anyone driving or biking or visiting new places would just hope to encounter a friendly coffee cart. However, now a comprehensive online guide called Coffee Trail provides nationwide real-time information. Looking for a nearby coffee cart or one on your route? One that’s open on Shabbat? Is the food kosher? Are there vegan or gluten-free options? Is there Wi-Fi or electrical connections? Users are able to enter their own filters on the site to find the best coffee cart for them.

The Coffee Trail portal is the brainchild of Michal Sapir, a self-described long-time lover of good coffee. The idea was born five years ago, when she was mid-career and on maternity leave.

“I loved the idea of being able to go to one of the coffee carts, be in the open air, meet people, and not worry about the children, who could run around,” she told The Jerusalem Report.

“I loved the concept. But when I went to look up information about other coffee carts in the area, I couldn’t find anything, and I found it frustrating.”

There was some information online about food trucks but not coffee carts.

“There weren’t that many coffee carts when I started,” she said. “It was something new, and the local councils didn’t know how to deal with them. It was hard to get permits, unlike today.”

So she began the work of mapping and getting a team together to design the website.

“Everyone I approached was enthusiastic; and once the site went online, I got lots of requests to join,” she recounted.

Each coffee cart has its own page on the site, with detailed descriptions of locations and maps, menus, hours, and, of particular interest, the backstory of the owners.

“So just as there’s a Hummus Trail in India, there’s now a coffee cart trail in Israel,” she joked.

“After the shiva, friends and acquaintances of Amit’s got together to think of something to honor him, something that would match what he was like,” recounted his mother, Liat Friedman.

“Every Friday, he’d go hang out with his friends in every café in the area. He was a happy kid with many, many friends,” she said.

Or Yehuda Mayor Liat Shohat offered the municipality’s support and proposed refurbishing an old coffee truck.

“I didn’t know how to do that, but it became a sort of community project. A group of people – some I didn’t even know – pitched in,” said Friedman, a human resources official at Mercantile Bank.

Amit’s Friends’ Coffee, with a large poster of Amit, is open every Friday and hosts community events.

Just inside the main gate in Rehovot’s Hahadarim Park is Café Mika. Established and run by two 20-something women – professional cake maker Sean Bar Shlomo, and graphic artist Hadar Doron – the coffee cart is in memory of their two best friends, Maya Chaim and Karina Pritika, who were murdered at the Supernova music festival on October 7. The four women had been close friends, working and serving together. The name “Mika” is a combination of their friends’ names.

Opened in June, the café has access to a large area under an olive grove on the park grounds, where dozens of tables and benches are set up. Several male peacocks patrol the area. The menu is surprisingly rich.

“We were trying to find a way of memorializing and honoring Maya and Karina and thought of a coffee cart, even though we didn’t know anything about running one,” related Bar Shlomo.

Though neither lives in Rehovot, when the city posted a tender for a coffee cart, they made a bid for it and won the rights. The logo for Café Mika is a hot air balloon.

“Both Maya and Karina had tattoos of a hot air balloon,” explained Bar Shlomo, who shows that both she and partner Doron now also have the same tattoos. Even the Japanese lanterns hanging from the trees are in the shape of hot air balloons. Café Mika is open daily, except Shabbat.

A large number of the coffee carts in the country are owned and run by army reservists. Many have done 200 to 300 days of duty, and the coffee carts are a solution to lost businesses or are an emotional and/or physical outlet.

Coffee Trail’s Michal Sapir offered two suggestions of coffee carts run by reservists in the South.

If you’re looking for a place in the northern Negev that’s open on Fridays and Saturdays, Café Falha in Kibbutz Lahav is a good choice. Founded and run by veteran kibbutz members Guy Amrani and Matan Adin (whose wives are sisters), the cart is named after one of the kibbutz gates, Sha’ar Falha, which leads to the kibbutz’s field crops.

Amrani works in hi-tech, and Adin is an El Al pilot. The idea to open a coffee cart was born before the current war. But the war changed their plans, as both men were drafted into reserve service and the dream almost vanished. But on their return, they decided to go for it.

Since very few eateries in the area are open on Shabbat, Café Falha attracts not only members of neighboring kibbutzim but also visitors from the entire region, such as Kiryat Gat and Beersheba. The menu, which is varied and fresh, includes homemade pastries and specialty breads.

The cart employs young people from the kibbutz to prepare and serve, and Adin and Amrani also work in the cart.

“We’re not just managing it, that’s part of the fun,” laughed Amrani. “You can’t get rich from one coffee cart, but it does make money.”

Café Geula is located in Tkuma, a religious moshav in southern Israel, northwest of Netivot, seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from the Gaza border. Brothers David and Nitzan Boyman are both in active reserves.

A few years ago, inspired by a trip to Australia, where they saw coffee carts even in isolated places in nature, they opened a coffee cart in the family vineyards.

“Geula” is named for their grandmother, a central figure in the family.

“Grandma Geula was a special woman, who raised not only her own children but also 10 foster children, and always made sure that not a single child went hungry,” related Nitzan.

Though Hamas terrorists passed by the village gate on October 7, they didn’t enter; Like other Gaza area communities, the moshav was completely evacuated for a year.

Today, the scorched vehicles piled at Tkuma’s western edge, gathered in a makeshift memorial in the fields, have become a site of pilgrimage for visitors to the region. When the Boymans returned to their homes, they reopened the coffee cart.

Open from Monday to Friday, the cart has a kosher menu that focuses on fresh ingredients, such as vegetables and fruits from the neighboring farms.

Though not all the coffee carts in the country are listed on the Coffee Trail site, more are added every week. Sapir says that in addition to providing information, “I see the site as a contribution to the economy, since it supports small businesses, and reservists, and tourism. Everyone loves these places. And you don’t have to reserve a place ahead of time.”■