The Milk Shop: Aisha’s Story

The first quarter of 2024 came with endless possibilities, new resolutions and vision boards. Millennials and Gen Z’s alike were pumped on dream fuels to achieve their set goals and more than anything vowed to make this year their best year yet.

However, come May we come face to face with the cold slap of reality and its cascading underwhelming truth. 

If you are in Abuja, congratulations, you made it through the dry spell, the maddening heat and the undeniable desire to plant more trees.

Here is what you need as the cold begins to settle in while the rest of the world prepares for summer. 

It’s the poshest cheapest life hack, you need a proper cuppa.

In one of the most tear jerking romcoms ever “Me before you”, Emilia Clarke, “Louisa” says “there’s not much that can’t be fixed with a mean cup of tea”. If you are in doubt, dash by the Milk Shop at IBB Boulevard, the CAN’s park Maitama for a kettle of Rosehip tea. It’s all the reassurance you need that all will be well, with hails falling from the sky.
If you believe tea drinkers are a bunch of sorry sobs and coffee is the way to go, no one does donuts better than the Milk Shop, and they are the best accompaniment for coffee, undebatable and tested.

For our day dreaming Parisians, think big fat croissants with the option to go plain butter, whipped cream, strawberries, cheese, herbs or chocolate. The ambience offers the ultimate French Chic Instagram worthy coffee and croissant pictures to match Mara Lafontan or get the nod of approval of none other than Emily Cooper. 

Food feeds the stomach but sugar fuels the creative soul, and whimsical spaces can be the little spark you need to finish a project. 

The Milk shop was birthed by a girl who had her nose in the pages of Harry Potter just like most of us, believing pumpkins can turn into carriages and secret godmothers with magic wands appear just when you need them. Our little dreamer and believer is Aisha. 
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Aisha Abubakar Iya had gone on to study Law at Lancaster, England and while chasing a corporate career never let go of her Peter Pan syndrome.

She became an excellent litigator and whilst honing her tough side with five million naira, she began her pastries project.

She learned to bake and slowly built an organic bakery selling confectioneries which feels like home, warm, cozy and simple.

She has been able to understand that her niche is the breakfast market, but her smoothies, shepard pies and Lasagna are staples for dinner as well as lunch. 

She designed the space with two architects, Muktar Alkali and Abdulmajid who worked on the renders. The idea was to make the most of a rough space, it couldn’t be something refined as such they aimed for a green house which could look like it sprung out authentically. A hide away which was comfortable enough to relax. 

She was inspired by the romcom “P.S. I Love you” to create a place where you can come with someone you love and be able to write a little note or make a token to the space which can be added to the bits and bobs already hanging from its ceiling.

Customers, even children, still feed this narrative and are able to leave things as a way to say “the Milk Shop has changed my life in this way and I would love to leave this token”, some of which are Origamis.  
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From the outside through glass doors, green potted plants serve as a form of a fence.

The ceiling is highlighted by little things Aisha considers whimsical, she has little newspaper planes dangling next to dried roses and a number of random items.

The Milk Shop is more than great food and a cure for your worries.

It is a space for the great readers of Abuja and a small but growing art community because while Aisha has to handle the business side of things such as filing tax forms she encourages readers and artists to come find simple observed moments which call at us to be noticed.

The entire park where this little gem is housed is themed to be a sustainable, eco-friendly park, the businesses such as Mambaah Cafe next door were pushed to buy inverters and explore solutions to electricity. The design of the CANS was to drive eco-friendly solutions to building, which connected with her thoughts on incorporating plants. 

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The trees in the park have been there for years, they intentionally did not cut down a lot of the trees and now those trees shade the Milk Shop from the sun and house a number of bats which she describes as pretty. They have a recycle front where they take their plastic bottles to and are a part of the CANS recycle fest every year. 

A part of this cafe’s wall is lined with books, emotive books, Islamic texts she brought back from Lancaster. A lot of her literature is from her research into understanding what it is to be a woman and a muslim.

There is a “to buy” section on the top shelf, the others are free to read. She wanted to create a Cafe where you could come and read and through a donation link people were able to donate books like Twilight. 

The space is very transformative which allows for an occasional sunday art exhibition such as “Midsomer with Aldebaran and his Pleiades” a solo art exhibition which opened in June 2023 and on its Island are handcrafted earrings. The side of its wall is known to rotate the works of emerging artists and photographers, predominantly  pictures by Wanderer’s Parade of Il de France and Paris. 
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This little Greenhouse is often missed and ignored and only discovered by those whose hearts are open to secret wonders, calm soothing tea and treehouses.

Aisha would like to take the Milk Shop to the level of her favorite Korean bakery chain, a franchise which dispenses little tiramisu, which is automated and healthy. She hopes to be able to ship off little pastries to further parts of Abuja which are organic and just as delicious. 

Aisha did find her fairy godmother who manifests in the person of Halima, who just like a god mother steps in when you really need her. 

As the pregnant Abuja clouds droop towards an intense rainy season and walls get cold with thick moths making damp corners almost unbreathable there is a little art cafe with yellow light bulbs, hot pies and glass walls to help you reconnect with the beauty of rain and trees. 

The Milk Shop is essentially Aisha Iya Abubakar’s love letter to Abuja. 
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