Sambusas at 1st Cup Cafe
This is my new favorite munchie in Longfellow. Sambusas at 1st Cup Cafe:

It’s a pastry . . . with meat! Love it. Kind of a Somali version of an empanada.
They come in two kinds: Meat & Fish.
1st Cup Cafe is located at 2740 Minnehaha Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, which puts it between Cub & Target in the mixed retail/housing development in the north end of that lot.
They also make a great chai, have Orange Crush (harder to find with Clicquot gone), free WiFi, a meeting room for community events, and a large projection TV.
I imagine this is Longfellow’s largest East African hangout coffee shop. The menu and clientele reflect that. For me, it’s a new experience I’m really digging.






January 19th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Great photo – makes you almost want to reach out and try to eat it through the monitor!
January 19th, 2009 at 11:18 am
I’ve been there! Love it…
January 20th, 2009 at 12:56 am
these are called samosas in uganda. i really like em, though they’re common enough here that you can OD. good to know we can find them when we get back to mpls.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:32 am
Maybe the dough with meat thing is common in eastern countries, because I was just in Thailand and Cambodia, where I had to be careful (as a veggie) to ask if any bread I wanted had meat in it. At least half the bakery products were either dusted with shredded pork or had a juicy helping of meat in the middle.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
[...] block that includes Target and Cub, I passed 1st Cup Cafe and Hiawatha Pizza. 1st Cup Cafe has awesome sambusas and Hiawatha’s pizza by the slice is great if you’re into big thin greasy slices of [...]