From the moment you step into Muri, you experience an unofficial visit to Eastern Kurdistan without having to leave San Diego.
Muri Coffee & Cake is located in North Park, a Kurdish-influenced coffee shop that opened just a few months ago in May of this year at 2528 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92104.
This place was established by Soran Artin and his friend Anvar, both born and raised natives of the Kurdistan part of Iran. Their homeland of Kurdistan is geographically divided between Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. This is something that Soran makes it clear from the very start, as he prides himself on being an advocate for separatism from the Iranian government.
Soran and his business partner migrated here as political refugees just over a decade ago, and now they are both PhD students at UCSD. Soran says he took a semester quarter off to focus on the launch of this new aesthetically pleasing coffee shop in North Park.
However, it wasn’t always an optimistic path for Soran from the very beginning. From having to face language barriers to meeting new demographics, and learning about the American economic structure, it was a challenge on every end of the spectrum for the founders of Muri Coffee and Cake.
“My English was really bad when I moved here,” Soran told ChulaVistaToday. “More people are leaving their places of origin with the ongoing wards, poverty, and economic issues, so it was tough to navigate this adaptation. However, I am very happy I came here because it’s through this process that you grow, you become a different person, learn a new language, meet new people, and it’s very exciting despite being very painful at the same time.”
This transition was not only a personal hurdle for Soran but also a professional hurdle that was not easy to overcome. He comes from a blue-collar family and is the son of a man who has worked in farming throughout his life. The lack of business experience in his family put Soran in a position where he had to discover what the business world was like from scratch.
“We don’t have an entrepreneur background,” Soran said. “My father was a farmer, so now that I am in business I have learned new things that you cannot measure with just money. You learn a lot about people, about the value of money.”
Many coffee shops in San Diego have a similar aesthetic to each other, but Muri has a different presence in the city, with a level of authenticity that is not equivalent to this North Park establishment.
One of the demographics that the owners of Muri have formed good relationships with is the Mexican community. Whether it’s through similar vibrant colors both cultures share, the love for good coffee beans, or conserving traditions, Soran sees the local Mexican community as a demographic that blends in perfectly with what Muri Coffee & Cake has to offer.
“I think our food is similar, the way we talk, we are very open, very traditional. We also think culturally and not quite individually as many other cultures do. When you walk in for the first time, you feel like you’ve been here before even if you’ve never been.” It’s a place where you can relax, socialize, work, have family time, and have a date here. We don’t do customer service here, but rather, we treat our guests like our mothers would treat us in our culture. We don’t pretend anything, it’s how we are.”
As for the future, Soran is focusing on evolving its cuisine at Muri Coffee and Cake. The Kurdish business owner says that their culture has underrated cuisine in general, but even more so their cheese options that most people are not aware of. And this is something he is determined to change in San Diego.
“We have a great plan for breakfast,” he said. “We want to introduce our cultural breakfast sometime in the future. We have so many unique meals in our culture’s cuisine, including amazing cheese much better than Swiss or French cheese, so we want to introduce it to people here.”
For more information on Muri Coffee & Cake, visit muricafe.com.