Just steps from Northeastern’s Boston campus, a new cafe on Columbus Avenue is serving berbere beef, Haitian hot chicken, curried goat and coconut ginger rice — all halal, all made from scratch, and all rooted in the African diaspora.

Nuba Cafe, an offshoot of Roxbury’s Nubian Markets, sits at 742 Columbus Avenue on the ground floor of LightView apartments. Black Muslim entrepreneurs Ismail Samad and Yusuf Yassin opened it in early August 2026, with a grand opening from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, August 19, according to Northeastern Global News (Cyrus Moulton, Aug. 17, 2026).

From Nubian Square to Columbus Avenue

Nuba grows out of Samad’s Nubian Markets, a grocery, cafe and butchery that launched in Roxbury’s Nubian Square in 2023. The flagship at 2565 Washington Street still anchors that vision: African-diaspora cooking, a halal butcher counter stocked from regional farms, and a grocery shelf that lifts Black and brown producers.

Eater Boston (Erika Adams, May 19, 2023) profiled the Roxbury opening and quoted Samad on why centering African Muslim food matters: “When you think about halal, in general, people are thinking, you know, Middle Eastern, right? That’s just not the reality. There’s, like, over 80 different nationalities of Muslims who eat halal.” Samad, who is African American and Muslim, and Yassin, who is East African and Muslim, built the market to serve longtime Roxbury residents as the neighborhood changes around them.

Northeastern Global News describes Nuba as led by the same pair, still focused on culturally relevant food and restaurants as engines for community. Chimel Idiokitas, Northeastern’s assistant vice president of City and Community Engagement, told that paper the university wanted small businesses like Nuba in new development so campus dining could speak to students from many countries.

What they serve

Nuba’s official site, mynuba.com, states that everything on the menu is halal and made from scratch, with “Nuba Specialties” that braid flavors from different African regions and the Caribbean. The site highlights goat and oxtail, berbere, hibiscus, harissa and injera as traditions Nuba wants guests to taste with their stories intact.

Northeastern Global News sampled the cafe before the grand opening and described signature plates that still appear on Nuba’s Toast ordering menu as of this writing (checked Oct. 12, 2026): crispy chicken over coconut ginger rice with black-eyed pea salsa, jalapeño-lime collards, sweet potato, cabbage slaw and hot honey ($16.45 in that report); a Haitian Hot Chicken sandwich with pikliz, hot honey sauce and lemon-scallion mayo ($15.95); and a berbere-spiced beef stew with shredded injera, roasted vegetables, cabbage slaw and crispy injera ($17.45).

The current Toast menu also lists jerk chicken and jerk salmon bowls, a curried goat bowl, braised oxtail, harissa-braised lamb, a jollof fonio bowl, chickpea peanut stew (highlighting Hapi African Gourmet), build-your-own bowls, mezze platters, and drinks such as spiced hibiscus and a Nuba spiced latte. Northeastern Global News also described sweet and savory hand pies (curry goat, jerk chicken or sweet potato) among new creations at opening; confirm on Toast whether those are still offered. Prices and seasonal items change — check Toast or mynuba.com before you go.

Samad told Northeastern Global News he hopes Nuba becomes more than a lunch stop: a place for community events and poetry. “It’s not just about food; it’s about community too,” he said. “If we can bridge that gap between student life and community life, that’s how we know we’re winning.” Yassin said at the pre-opening event, “We’re excited to welcome everybody.”

Why it matters for Massachusetts Muslims

Greater Boston already has strong Middle Eastern, South Asian and East African halal options. Nuba adds something rarer near a major campus: African-diaspora and Caribbean halal cooking from Black Muslim owners, with an explicit “everything halal” promise on the cafe’s own site. For Muslim students at Northeastern, Berklee neighbors, Longwood workers and anyone hopping off the Orange Line at Ruggles, that combination — halal clarity plus flavors from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola, Haiti and the wider diaspora — is practical, not just symbolic.

The Roxbury parent store remains useful for grocery and meat runs. Nubian Markets lists 2565 Washington Street, Roxbury, MA 02119; phone (617) 608-4940; hours Monday–Friday 7 a.m.–8 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m.–8 p.m., and Sunday 9 a.m.–6 p.m. grocery only with the cafe closed (per nubianmarkets.com, checked Oct. 12, 2026). The butcher page says meats are sourced from regional halal farms; no third-party certifier name appears on the pages we reviewed, so ask the counter if you need a specific certification.

Planning a visit

Nuba Cafe is at 742 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA 02120. Nubian Markets’ kitchen page and mynuba.com list (617) 514-0088 for the Columbus Avenue location. Toast’s ordering page lists Monday–Friday 7:15 a.m.–8:30 p.m., Saturday 8:15 a.m.–7:30 p.m., Sunday closed — but the live status widget on mynuba.com can differ by day, so confirm hours online or by phone before you travel.

The cafe is a short walk from Northeastern’s Boston campus and from Ruggles Station on the MBTA Orange Line and Commuter Rail. LightView is the off-campus housing building at that address; the cafe occupies the ground floor.

Order online at mynuba.com or through Toast, and follow @nubianmarkets on Instagram for Roxbury and Nuba updates. For the Roxbury market, grocery and catering, start at nubianmarkets.com.

Know a Muslim-owned business in Massachusetts with a story worth telling? Write to us at masshalaldirectory@gmail.com.