Niyyah Coffee Indianapolis opened June 27 at 747 N College Ave Ste B, giving the city its first Deaf-owned coffee shop near the crossing of North College Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. The room has an American Sign Language alphabet painted on brick (Dailycoffeenews) (Dailycoffeenews).
The Mass Ave shop is owned and operated by Talha Tufail, who immigrated to the United States from Pakistan with his family at age 5. His family moved seeking greater access and opportunity for him as a Deaf child. Now Tufail runs a cafe where visual communication guides service, employment and customer habit (Dailycoffeenews).
Why Niyyah Coffee in Indianapolis matters now
Niyyah Coffee Indianapolis is a fully Deaf-owned and operated coffee shop in a city with an active cafe map. It is built around access from the start.
The opening also gives Niyyah Coffee a larger Indiana footprint. The Mass Ave location marked the brand's fourth Indiana cafe and fifth location overall. Niyyah currently has the Mass Ave and Broad Ripple shops in Indianapolis, plus locations in Fishers and McCordsville, with another cafe in Markham, Ontario. A fifth Indiana location is planned for downtown Fort Wayne.
The company began with Shamyl and Torrie Tufail, Talha Tufail's brother and sister-in-law. They founded Niyyah Coffee and expanded it from a coffee cart into a brick-and-mortar retail business in 2023. Talha Tufail joined the venture after working in finance and accounting, bringing the Mass Ave shop into focus as both a neighborhood cafe and a workplace for Deaf employees (Dailycoffeenews) (Dailycoffeenews).
Niyyah means intention in Arabic. At 747 N College Ave Ste B, that word shows up through the way customers order, the way staff communicate, and the way the shop asks hearing customers to slow down enough to point, type or sign (Dailycoffeenews).
Inside the Mass Ave room at 747 N College Ave
Mass Ave mornings move between downtown errands, apartment blocks, offices and the Massachusetts Avenue corridor. North College Avenue catches people moving between downtown errands, apartment blocks, offices and the Massachusetts Avenue corridor. Niyyah Coffee puts its counter close to that flow, near the intersection of North College Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue.
Inside, the ASL alphabet on the brick wall gives the room a working vocabulary. New signers have a place to look before they reach the counter. Deaf staff have a visible marker that communication here begins visually. The cafe also uses varied seating for short stops with a cold brew, a longer sit with chai, or a conversation where eye contact and line of sight matter.
Tufail has said hearing customers have adapted to the visual approach by pointing to menus, typing messages on their phones or practicing basic ASL with employees. Customers can order without fluency in ASL. Customers order by looking at the person taking the order, typing on a phone, pointing to the menu and using the signs they know.
For a cafe, those gestures change the tempo at the counter. A spoken order can become automatic, especially when the line builds. At Niyyah Coffee Indianapolis, the exchange asks for a different kind of pace. Customers participate in the room's communication method. The ASL alphabet sits within arm's reach of the line.
Intelligentsia on espresso, Hubbard & Cravens on cold brew
Niyyah's coffee program splits its sourcing in a way that gives regulars two clear lanes. The core coffee program uses coffees supplied by Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee. The cold brew is made in-house using coffee from Indianapolis roaster Hubbard & Cravens Coffee and Tea.
Hubbard & Cravens ties the glass to Indianapolis, and the in-house preparation makes it the drink most directly connected to the Mass Ave counter's own daily production.
The second order is the house-made masala chai. In a menu that includes espresso drinks, milkshakes, matcha, sparkling and herbal teas, hot chocolate, seasonal drinks, refreshers, nitro brews and cold brews, the phrase house-made matters. The house-made masala chai is a drink the shop builds itself. Chai gives a read on the kitchen-side attention of the cafe.
Pastries and other food come from local vendors. The vendors are part of the practical picture for a morning stop, especially at a cafe with multiple seating types and a location close to Mass Ave foot traffic. Niyyah works as a first stop before lunch because the drink list gives several paths: espresso for the classic order, cold brew for the Indianapolis roaster link, and masala chai for the house-made pick.
A Deaf-owned cafe as a workplace
Niyyah Coffee's Mass Ave shop was designed around greater access, employment and interaction for the Deaf community. That framework changes how a cafe job reads. The counter is a production station, a service point and a communication setting. For Deaf workers, a Deaf-owned and operated shop can remove some of the strain that comes when the workplace treats visual communication as an exception.
Hearing customers are meeting the room partway. Deaf staff are not being asked to carry the entire burden of adaptation.
Coffee shops train neighborhoods through repetition. People learn which door sticks in winter, which pastry sells before midmorning, which barista remembers the cappuccino order, which stool gives enough space for a laptop. At Niyyah Coffee Indianapolis, regulars order with their hands, eyes and screens.
Tufail has said he is working to expand more Niyyah Coffee shops nationwide and more Deaf coffee shops that offer jobs and distinct customer experiences in other cities and states. The Mass Ave cafe is the Indianapolis proof point, and its daily work will show how many customers are willing to make visual communication part of their coffee routine.
What to order, how to visit, and what to watch next
The address is 747 N College Ave, Suite B, Indianapolis, IN 46202, near North College Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. Niyyah Coffee also lists an event booking inquiry through its website, a practical detail for groups that want to gather in the space. For an ordinary visit, the better preparation is simple: use the menu, keep your phone available for typed communication, and learn a few basic signs before you arrive.
The opening gives Indianapolis a cafe where access is part of the floor plan, the wall, the staffing and the customer exchange.