“Life is short, eat chocolate.” So says a sign in the highly Instagrammable interior of Lily’s Chocolate & Coffee in Vienna, a new arrival from an Iraqi-American brother-and-sister team. The cafe was designed by Saif Alobaidi, a Reston-based civil engineer, who had everything from the swing-style seating to the flower wall constructed to his specifications.
His sister Lily also played a part in the design of the cafe they own together, he says. But Lily Alobaidi’s greatest contribution was to the food and drink. “She’s been very known among friends and family for her good Iraqi tea,” says Saif. Her traditional black tea, enhanced with cardamom, is indeed just right. It’s served in hand-painted cups and saucers made by a customer who has already become devoted since Lily’s opened in July. Coffee is a blend of house-roasted Guatemalan and Brazilian beans from Grace Street Coffee in Georgetown, served both in traditional forms and as dressed-up drinks like honey-cinnamon or pistachio lattes.
But Lily’s (as in both the store and the woman) greatest innovation is applying chocolate to fried dough called lokmas. The bite-sized balls are served with sugar syrup or date syrup back in Iraq, says Alobaidi. Here, however, the dough is filled with a burst of cookie butter or vanilla or caramel cream. He prefers not to disclose the Belgian supplier of the enviable chocolate—with iterations ranging from dark to ruby—that dresses the warm dessert, but he and Lily chose it during a European tasting trip before opening.
In the future, Lily’s treats may expand to include a world of chocolate-topped treats, including Spanish churros, Belgian waffles, and French crêpes. Until then, a luscious taste of Iraq is sure to bring in sweets-lovers.
175 Maple Ave. East, Vienna
Feature image by Mike Ramm
This story originally appeared in our December issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly magazine.
