Alexandria’s Tim’s Claims That the Secret to Good Coffee is Love

Somewhere between the rise of millennial self-loathing and the matcha-powered war on caffeine, society seems to have turned on coffee—or at least on loving it too much. Maybe we’ve just seen one too many “Don’t talk to me before my coffee” t-shirts. Whatever the reason, coffee has become a bit of a cliché.

It makes sense. Hardcore coffee lovers are routinely mocked for their devotion to Turkish roasts and pour-overs, while branding teams repackage the drink into a million hollow aesthetics. In the process, coffee has lost its soul.

Muhammad Abdeen, founder of Alexandria café Tim’s, is on a mission to restore it. A true coffee enthusiast, Abdeen once found himself adrift in a world of empty cups—until he rediscovered what made him fall in love with coffee in the first place.

Before Tim’s, Abdeen ran Mugs, a small, cosy café. “Mugs taught us everything,” Abdeen tells SceneEats, “from selecting the right beans to understanding how service, ambience, and human connection can turn a simple cup into an experience. Every lesson, every moment from Mugs, lives on today in every corner of Tim’s. Mugs wasn’t just a business—it was the blank page where every first was written. The first blend tested, the first espresso pulled, and the first regular customer remembered by name.”

But over time, the business took over. The spark dimmed—until a quiet moment on a trip changed everything.

“The idea for Tim’s didn’t come from a business plan. It came from a feeling,” Abdeen says. “It happened during one of my travels; I was sitting in a quiet café in a small corner of a city, watching how people connected over coffee. The light, the music, the way the barista moved with care—it all came together. And then, there was her: the girl behind the bar in Dubai, doing her job with genuine love, attention, and grace. Her passion struck a chord.”

At that moment, Abdeen realised something was missing—not in the coffee industry, but in the coffee experience. He had visited hundreds of cafés, owned his own and lived and breathed coffee for years. But now, he wanted to build something different—something that combined everything he learned with the emotional richness he felt just then.

It was that barista from Dubai who suggested Tim’s name—and became the reason it exists at all.

Everything at Tim’s is built around the emotional core of coffee: connection. From the scent of freshly baked pastries at the door to the mellow hum of warm music, the space invites you to stay. Housed in a sprawling, high-ceilinged venue, especially rare for Downtown Alexandria, the café showcases Tim’s globe-sourced signature blend with an atmosphere to match.

“The music is warm, thoughtful, never overpowering—setting a mood that makes you want to stay a little longer.”

And people have stayed. Since opening, Tim’s has become a magnet for coffee lovers across the city. Its success speaks to the very thing that inspired it: sincere, unpretentious love—for coffee, and the people who drink it.