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Six years ago, Santa Clara resident Doreet Jehassi had an epiphany.
“I didn’t want to die in corporate,” she said.
Now, she owns and operates The Ma’lawah Bar, an Yemenite-Israeli cafe along El Camino Real in Palo Alto specializing in jachnun, a lightly sweetened slow-cooked bread, and malawach, a flaky flatbread. Jehassi opened the doors to her all vegetarian, dairy-free and mostly vegan cafe March 20, replacing what had been a Subway.
“‘How can I make a mark in this world and make people happy?’ That’s what motivates me,” she said. “In my heart, I just knew that people loved my food because food is a communal thing. It doesn’t matter your gender, your sexual identity, your ethnicity. We all need to eat. It makes us happy.”
The Ma’lawah Bar is in soft opening, with plans to hold its grand opening in early May. The cafe offers both savory and sweet malawach wraps, baked jachnun, tahini date shakes, salads and dips, and Jehassi plans to launch lachuch (a spongy flatbread), bourekas (a filled pastry), kubaneh (a pull-apart bread), sabaya (a crispy layer cake), Yemenite matzah ball soup and lentil stew for the grand opening.
The secret ingredient for perfect malawach? According to Jehassi, it’s love.
“We’re all energy, and food has energy,” she said. “If you put a lot of love in your food, it will love you back. That’s how I see it. Malawach is flour, water, sugar, baking powder, salt. That’s it. Very simple. But what makes it extraordinary is the time, the love, the enthusiasm you put into it.”
And Jehassi’s enthusiasm for Yemenite cuisine has only grown over the years. Jehassi grew up in New York and learned to cook from her mother, who grew up in Israel with parents from Yemen.
“I was pulling on her apron strings, always watching her,” she said.
At 18 years old, Jahassi moved to Israel and stayed for the next 12 years, learning all she could about the culture and the food.
“It was meant to be for one year, but I fell in love with the country,” she said.
While in Israel, she studied dance and English linguistics and literature and met her husband, who is also an American. They moved back to New York together and eventually came to Santa Clara, California, for the warmer weather. While working in the corporate world, she would make jachnun every weekend for Shabbat.
“I knew that I needed to tap back into my creative side so that I could flourish and feed my soul,” Jehassi said.
In 2018 she left her job and began her cottage food business. Eventually outgrowing her home kitchen, she started operating out of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. Building a community in Palo Alto, she decided it would be the perfect spot to open her brick and mortar.
“I wanted to educate people that there are Jews of all kinds from all over the world and also cuisines,” Jehassi said. “Matzah ball soup and gefilte fish is not all we have as Jewish food. Yes, it’s a part of it in the European world, but there is a plethora of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean styles of Jewish food.”
And Jehassi doesn’t plan on stopping with just Palo Alto. She hopes “to have a Ma’lawah Bar on every corner.”
“I am so excited to see where this could go,” she said.
The Ma’lawah Bar, 4131 El Camino Real, Suite 100, Palo Alto; 408-489-7227, Instagram: @themalawahbar. Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
