The magic of coffee.
Naji Specialty Coffee is not just a coffee. For its founder and dedicated barista 12 hours a day, seven days a week, Naji Specialty Coffee it is a dream come true and it is “like a home”. “It is a second home for my clients, where they know they will always be offered the highest quality and treated with the utmost care and respect,” says Naji Alasil. “It is a place where you are happy, It is my best definition of coffee”.
Naji had been working in different coffee shops and in the hospitality world for more than 15 years, learning, working hard, accumulating experience and then applying it to his ultimate goal, which was to have his own coffee shop. “In these 15 years I have worked in very interesting coffee shops, chains and boutiques, and I have learned something from each one. Always keeping in mind to set up my own”, he says and is convinced that this training and continuous learning has made it possible for make your cafe a place that reflects your personality. “When I already knew who to work with, how to do it and what to offer, that's when I put all my energy into building this project. I think l to humility, culture of effort and pursuit of excellence that my parents have instilled in me since I was little also have a lot to do with this project”.
Naji Specialty Coffee, Chamberí smells like good coffee.
Iraqi by birth, he came to Spain for the first time as a child because of his father's work and returned later for love. He studied Hispanic Philology and here he has developed his career in hospitality and His relationship with coffee has matured. “It has always been my drink of choice, and when I started discovering specialty coffees a whole new world opened up before my eyes.”
Naji Specialty Coffee not only bears his name, but also his aesthetic taste because he designed the space with that cozy and functional industrial touch, with iron and wood, in which the absolute protagonist is the great roaster Caravan Coffee Roasters, "that can be seen from any corner" of the premises.
Coffee wizard.
And, of course, Naji Specialty Coffee is an exhibition of his good coffee knowledge. “The menu includes a selection of the best coffees in the world, each with its own character,” he explains. “The secret of a good coffee is the raw material. We are obsessed with bringing the best product to the cup, and that is why we only work with the best roasters”.
A level of quality that extends to the brief but well thought out food menu. “The specialty is the pistachio financier and the Naji cheesecake. The financier is a French recipe that has a very special flavor and the tart is a recipe adapted from the original from my land”, he reveals. Desserts, breakfasts, brunch menu you can eat everything at the time that the client wants. “People can order some toast for breakfast first thing in the morning, at noon for brunch or for dinner, as they feel like it”, he says.
Green breakfasts.
Whatever time it is, the breakfast toasties are always sourdough bread Y the special one has Agadir cream, argan oil, crushed almonds, honey and fresh cheese. And it is also already famous in this corner of Chamberí that of avocado with sesame. "It gives it an exotic touch," says Naji.
Although the most exotic and unique of the entire menu are the two drinks that Naji himself has created and for which he already has many admirers: the iced pistachio latte / and in its hot version the pistachio latte and the lime espresso. “Although, without a doubt, the pistachio latte, both cold and hot, are the ones that really hook you,” he says. “I wanted to do this drink as a tribute to my origins in which the pistachio in the sweets is almost mandatory. the recipe is secret but I can tell you that the essence of it comes directly from Iraq”.
Pistachio latte, a Naji creation.
Address: Cardenal Cisneros Street, 39 See map
Telephone: 699 04 28 41
Schedule: Monday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.