Two Best Friends Took Coffee Waves From a Sahel Shack to Cairo Cafe

There is nothing like a cafe where the barista greets you by your name and starts making your order before you even approach the counter. It becomes part of your morning routine, and year after year, a witness to your milestones. Such were the beginnings of Coffee Waves back in the summer of 2019.

18-year-old best friends Nour El Abbassy and Nada Hady were used to the cadence of life in La Vista Bay Compound—sun, beach, pool, coffee, repeat. But that Sahel summer, the fresh high school graduates traded it in for 12-hour shifts in a shack on the beach. Seven seasons later, they opened their first branch in Cairo.

“On the first day of Eid al-Adha in 2019, we opened our booth on the sand made out of a three-metre-long shipping container,” Nada said. “And I don’t know how, but we fit 15 people inside.”

Coffee Waves started small—just a cashier box, blender, and six-beverage menu of frappes and cappuccinos. Nour and Nada were the baristas and cashiers, all in two, using a notebook and the calculator on their phone. And when their friends came to visit, they would take shifts at the counter. It was all hands on deck.

“We didn’t have receipts, so we had to learn everyone’s names, and soon after, we also memorised their favourite orders,” Nour said.

“You’re the Coffee Waves girls, right?” people would stop them to ask. Nour and Nada started getting recognised wherever they went. And each following Sahel summer, when the beaches and restaurants filled back up, the faces they knew and loved would return a whole year older. They watched the community grow and expand from their cafe.

“We’ve been with people through their milestones,” Nour said. “We’ve seen couples get engaged, married, and have their firstborn baby.”

And for Nour and Nada, a lot has happened between the ages of 18 and 24. Coffee Waves has defined their own milestones, from finishing high school, to university graduation, to starting their first jobs—and their own business. Coffee Waves has grown with them and also been a reference point for their own evolution.

They had always hoped to open a branch in Cairo and turn Coffee Waves into a year-round cafe. After years of planning, their idea finally came to fruition in the El Patio Oro compound. Nada was the architect; she designed the building as her first official project out of college.

“People didn’t have a cafe for a quick coffee run in El Patio Oro, so we solved that problem,” Nada said. “In our new branch, we want to elevate our menu and create a community like the one we have in Sahel.”

Here, they bake their own cookies, brownies, and cakes, and they’ve been inviting people in for free coffee and bites to test their menu. And, in Coffee Waves fashion, Nour and Nada always make sure to have a conversation with everyone who comes in.