Cairo Café Bisou Wants Your Coffee to Feel Like a Kiss to Yourself

In her university years abroad, Samia Fahmi was entering cafés she never wanted to leave. "I was really inspired by cafes that had a lot of personality and warmth," she says. Upon returning to Cairo and completing her studies, she decided to make one of her own.

She named it Bisou, a French word for a kiss. "The whole concept was built upon the idea of a kiss to yourself," she says. Getting coffee is nothing extraordinary, yet, according to Bisou’s founder, we often underestimate such things. "We tend to overlook small routines, such as getting a coffee or a matcha, but this is actually a moment when you make a choice for yourself." Fahmi wanted to give her customers Bisou so that they would get their moment of peace, either before the chaos of the day started, in the middle of it, or afterwards.

“I think Cairo already has great coffee and matcha, but I still felt there was enough room for personality," she says. “I wanted to move away from that very modern edge that sometimes feels a bit empty, and create a place that actually makes people feel something. With Bisou, I wanted to bring specialty drinks, warmth, design and character together in a way that feels personal, not just like another polished modern space.” Hence, she decided to go the other way and to create Bisou as something that is cozy, playful and somewhat nostalgic, where everything had its own special touch of personality.

Behind the counter, it goes deeper than the atmosphere. Fahmi personally designed the menu of her café, and to do that, she had to learn the trade from the inside out. "I actually became a barista so that I could understand the drinks properly and design the original menu myself," she says, though she insists her baristas are "the star of the show," and the whole team taste-tests new ideas together, "because five brains are better than one." The house leans into cold foam and maple, sea salt maple, brown sugar butter, a line of matcha drinks, a short but deliberate run of pastries. "Everything on the menu has to feel specific, special, and very Bisou."

Fahmi’s favourite Bisou drink is the salted maple latte. “I think it perfectly represents the Bisou vibe. It's comforting and familiar because it's still a coffee, but the maple and the salt make it feel more special and a little unexpected. That's very Bisou to me."

The opening of the café at the Drive 2 taught Fahmi the unglamorous half of the dream. "It was a real reality check," she says of the first day when her curated brand was exposed to customers, staff, schedule, and timing all at once. What she guards now, above everything, is the intimacy such as baristas who know the regulars by name, their drinks, their milk preferences. “Anyone can sell coffee, but I want Bisou to give people an experience, a vibe, and a level of care they can't find anywhere else."