The Masira tote
The tote from the first Café Masira. Made in small runs and sold at the gatherings.
Masira مسيرةBeity بيتي
Every journey deserves a home.
In Arabic, masira is a journey and beity is my home. Here the two words meet, and the journey is finally given a door to walk through.
Where we come from, hospitality is not a service but a covenant. Coffee is poured before a guest is asked why they came, and no one is ever hurried from the table. That is the standard this café keeps.
By night, Beity is Chef Ryan Fakih’s MICHELIN-recommended Lebanese dining room. By day, the same room belongs to Masira: coffee, matcha, and tea, served with pastries from that same kitchen, Thursday to Sunday.
Signatures
Beity
Fig, burnt honey, sage, espresso, milk.
Named for the house that holds us, and poured like an invitation to stay.
Baklava
Cardamom, wildflower honey, cinnamon, orange blossom, espresso, milk.
The tray passed around after dinner, poured into a cup.
Jaffa
Blood orange, tonic, espresso, over ice.
For the oranges of Jaffa, and everyone who still remembers them.
Jallab Matcha
Matcha, date and grape molasses, rose water, milk.
Ramadan’s evening glass of jallab, slowed down and made green.
It began in an apartment,
with the door left open.
Two friends, a pot of coffee, a door left open. Masira began in Abu and Ramzy’s apartment and travelled through Chicago’s galleries and museums, raising over $30,000 for Palestine, Sudan, and Gaza along the way.
Ramzy, Palestinian and a medical student, composes every drink with a clinician’s precision. Abu, a travel photographer, returned from 27 countries with one conviction: the finest luxury is being made to feel expected.
Pull up a chair. You were expected.
our storyBeity means my home.
Recommended in the MICHELIN Guide, and honoured with its 2024 Exceptional Cocktails Award. Chef Ryan Fakih trained at Le Cordon Bleu and cooked at Alinea before opening Chicago’s first and only Lebanese tasting menu.
By evening, the room is his. By day, his kitchen sends out the pastries served alongside Masira’s coffee.
“My plan isn’t to cook traditional Lebanese food. It’s to reinvent the wheel and provide a fresh view on Lebanese cuisine.”
Things to take home
The Masira tee
First printed for Café Masira in 2025, alongside the tote. Limited runs.
Masira coffee, to take home
The coffee from the counter, packed to take home.
Letters, sent rarely: a new chapter, a new drink, the next gathering.