MOTW Coffee & Pastries: The Weekly Wave #01
Welcome to The Weekly Wave, a weekly newsletter highlighting the amazing local coffee shops in Indianapolis. For our first issue, we're introducing you to MOTW Coffee & Pastries!
Meet MOTW Coffee & Pastries
MOTW Coffee + Pastries is one of those places that you don’t truly realize how magical it is until you actually go there. Since their first location on 38th Street opened in 2021, MOTW has become a staple in the local coffee scene in Indianapolis and for so many great reasons. In that short time, they’ve also gone on to open two new locations—one in Fishers and one in Castleton—and potentially more on the way. 👀
Amenities
3 Indianapolis locations
Open late!
A DRIVE-THRU (Castleton location only)
Lots of working space
House-made pastries, desserts, and snacks
The kindest, most caring staff
What to order
You all know that I'm a black coffee kinda guy, but when I go to MOTW, I can't help but to order a chai, a traditional Yemeni chai that is creamy, smooth, and the right amount of spicy.
On March 1, MOTW is rolling out FIVE new seasonal drinks! Here’s the rundown:
Vanilla Lavender Latte
Rose Cardamom Latte
Pistachio Cream Latte
Samoan Latte (yes, the Girl Scout cookie!)
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Latte (Released for Valentine’s Day)
Regardless of what you order, you’re destined to be delighted. The MOTW team loves making coffee and they love making it fun. Bonus: they serve Tinker Coffee.
The food
The full name of MOTW is ‘MOTW Coffee + Pastries,’ so we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about all of the treats to expect.
The diverse staff at MOTW hails from around the world, and they make sure to reflect that in the treats they offer. Favorites include: traditional French mille-feuille, Yemeni honeycomb, beautiful baklava, macarons, danishes, and so many others.
Our absolute favorite right now is the za’atar and Labaneh toast (pictured above), which is toasted rye sourdough bread (though sometimes they switch it up) topped with a Labaneh Middle Eastern tangy yoghurt and a popular Middle Eastern za’atar herb blend. It is finished with a sprinkle of sumac and a drizzle of olive oil. We go out of our way for this snack.
The locations
All three MOTW locations have plenty of parking, and the Castleton location has a very convenient drive-thru!
West Side
4873 W 38th St, Indianapolis, IN 46254
Castleton
6706 E 82nd St, Indianapolis, IN 46250
Fishers
8235 E 116th St Suite 215, Fishers, IN 46038
More to love about MOTW
Before MOTW Coffee & Pastries was one of our favorite local coffee shops, it was a popular Instagram account called @muslimsoftheworld. Sajjad Shah, who owns MOTW with his wife Fatimah, started the Muslims of the World account to share stories from the Muslim community from around the world. The Instagram grew rapidly and eventually turned into a book (it’s beautiful, and you should absolutely pick up a copy).
Muslims of the World is also a nonprofit that does incredible work around the world. A quick scroll through the @muslimsoftheworld feed shows the real work they’ve been doing for years. In each café, there are also stories along the walls and in the conversations from the massively impactful outreach they’ve done.
When Sajjad and Fatimah first opened MOTW Coffee & Pastries, it was meant to be an extension of the community they’ve been building online (and across the world), but it has done so much more than that. MOTW has created a safe space for the Muslim community in Indianapolis, but they’ve also created a safe space for everyone. Their mission—of love and acceptance—is reflected in everything they do.
Personally, I am beyond grateful to have MOTW as part of the Indianapolis community, not even just the coffee community. If you’ve been in any of their shops, you know exactly what I mean. And if you haven’t been yet, I guarantee you’ll feel it, too.
OUR INCREDIBLE SPONSORS
Last but not least, I’d like to thank our wonderful sponsors who make The Weekly Wave possible! I love Maywright & Yeahright Type, so make sure to give them some love for loving local coffee.
MAYWRIGHT PROPERTY CO.
Maywright Property Co. is an exceptional Indianapolis real estate brokerage serving clients and central Indiana neighborhoods. They're fully local and women-owned, too. I’ve loved working with Maywright as sponsors for Batch, and I cannot recommend them enough.
Meet Maywright
YEAHRIGHT TYPE STUDIO
You already know how much I love Yeahright Type Studio. I’ve been using their hand-crafted typefaces on all of my design projects since I first fell in love with them. They have a wide range of beautiful typefaces, and they’re all designed right here in Indy.
Check it out