On a recent weekend at the beginning of the month, tables steadily filled at a new Overland Park coffee shop. Customers caught up on studying, or with one another, while sipping Yemeni coffee — many trying it for the first time.
Omar Abdelmoity, owner of Mocha Point Yemeni Coffee, remembers when he was still just a customer there.
While attending Washington University in St. Louis, he spent many afternoons (that turned into late evenings) studying at the St. Charles, Missouri-based coffee shop. For him, he said, it was about more than the coffee.
“Me and my friends, we’d finish our finals at 8 p.m. and it was, without a doubt, ‘OK, we’re going to Mocha Point,’” he said. “It was a lot more than the product. Us going there was about having a hangout spot.”
Now, after graduating this past December, he’s brought the experience back to the city where he grew up. Mocha Point debuted in Overland Park in February — this time with Abdelmoity at the helm.
Mocha Point opened at 8641 W. 135th St.
- The coffee shop opened in a space just off 135th Street and Antioch Road, near Chick-In Waffle and Mediterranean eatery Mr. Gyros.
- A dentistry office previously occupied the space.
- Mocha Point’s regular hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Mocha Point serves Yemeni coffee in various forms
The shop’s coffee is built around beans sourced from Yemen, a Middle Eastern country believed by historians to be the birthplace of coffee as a beverage.
Coffee in Yemen is often dried by farmers on rooftops, a traditional method that Abdelmoity said leads to fruitier, nuttier flavor profiles. From there, the drinks lean heavily into spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger and pistachio.
The shop’s current best-seller is the Yemeni latte, made with cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger and honey. Other standouts include the pistachio and banana cream lattes, as well as Mocha Point’s case full of sweets like Biscoff cheesecake and strawberry tres leches cake.
The ultimate goal with the menu, Abdelmoity said, was to give Johnson Countians something they hadn’t had the chance to find in other local coffee shops.
“There’s a lot more to coffee than what we have been exposed to up until now in Kansas City,” he said. “These are flavors that are not typically seen in this area paired with coffee. That was intentional, wanting to bring out the earthy notes of the beans and pairing them with these spices that give a very unique and flavorful taste.”
The building Mocha Point took over has seen multiple lives. The space had housed a jeweler, then a dentistry office. To turn it into Abdelmoity’s vision of a community hub, he began by wiping the slate clean.
“The first thing is I had the contractor basically create a hollow box,” he said. “We tore down all the rooms, and then I brought in an international architect to design the space. I worked really closely with him for multiple months, planning out different parts of the design.”
What resulted was a large space with nods to the Middle Eastern culture that influenced it: benches along the walls, plenty of arches, and low-to-the-ground seating in the back. The space is also equipped with lots of outlets for students and remote workers.
“I always tell my staff, individuals can come for our coffee and they stay for our culture,” he said. “We wanted the space to reflect the mission we’re trying to bring to Kansas City.”
This marks Mocha Point’s debut in Johnson County
The idea to bring Mocha Point to southern Overland Park came, in part, from Abdelmoity’s own time growing up there.
As a teenager (he graduated from Blue Valley West), lots of late nights with his friends often ended the same way: sitting in a parking lot, wondering where to go next.
“We didn’t really have anything late at night to go do or (places) to hang out that aligned with our values,” he said. “We always used to say we wished there was more to do.”
Outside of Overland Park, Abdelmoity and Mocha Point’s Missouri-based owners have larger aspirations for the brand’s expansion. Though nothing is currently set in stone, Abdelmoity said they’re hoping to bring Mocha Point to other parts of the metro area and beyond.
For now though, he said, he’s focused on reaping the rewards of the hard work he put in to get Mocha Point’s first Johnson County shop off the ground.
“At times the finish line seemed very, very far away,” he said. “Seeing it come to life, and seeing individuals enjoying what we have to offer — that’s what made all the work worth it.”
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