SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — A boba café that popped up last month in Arden-Arcade could soon mean several more for the city and county of Sacramento.
Teaspoon in Loehmann’s Plaza opened in August. Its grand opening is scheduled for 11 a.m. Oct. 19, according to the shop’s co-franchisee Ahmed Farag. Farag and his partner, Hady Abou ElKheir, oversee three shops in greater Sacramento with the opening of this location; others shops include those in Folsom and Davis.
“We signed an agreement with teaspoon, the franchising corporation, (at the) end of 2022. It was the first multi-location agreement they ever had,” Farag told ABC10. “We signed an exclusive right to open and increase the brand's existence in the greater Sacramento area, so we have an exclusivity on Sacramento, Folsom, Elk Grove (and) that surrounding area.”
The Loehmann’s store was built from scratch, he said.
After the pair opened their first regional location, which was on March 19, 2023, along Riley Street in Folsom, they eyed spots closer to Sacramento proper. The student demographic is key in selling Teaspoon’s beverages, Farag said, so Loehmann’s two-mile proximity to Sacramento State University also factored into its selection.
Their Davis store along F Street was an existing location Farag and ElKheir acquired. They hosted its grand opening after refurbishment in January, Farag said.
“Our plan is to maybe open six to seven stores around the region,” he said.
Farag said he could not speak to any specific negotiation details but mentioned inquiries into two more Sacramento locations and another in Elk Grove.
Going into business
After spending roughly 20 years in tech, Farag and ElKheir wanted to switch careers around the time the pandemic started, according to Farag. They looked for investment opportunities and craved learning the food and beverage business.
Teaspoon stood out because it’s a beverage company, and it might be an easier product to start with than launching a full restaurant, Farag said.
“They're kind of unique in terms of their menu. It's all in English,” he said. “It's very easy for any customer here in the U.S., who (is) not really familiar with boba, to get into boba. The menu is small. It's not really complicated. It caters to all different types of ethnicities and groups, not only Asian, which is traditionally what boba will tend to.”
Farag said he also believes in the product that doesn’t contain food coloring and uses organic fruits and local produce as much as possible.
Teaspoon’s menu offers boba tea, dairy and non-dairy beverages, coffee and dessert snacks.
Farag said his participation in the food and beverage business wouldn’t be doable without ElKheir.
“You have to be there. You have to be with customers. You need to be often in those locations to understand the problems that you know employees have,” Farag said. “Those stores tend to run for more than 12 hours because a lot of the boba-goers, they like to go late at night. But then, you also want to cover the early shift, so it's just very challenging to have one person to be able to attend to all of those businesses and make them successful.”
Farag and ElKheir do not operate the Teaspoon along Town Center Boulevard in El Dorado Hills because its opening process began with different franchisees before the business duo’s exclusivity agreement was signed, but all area operators have a collaborative relationship with each other, Farag said.
The pair plans to facilitate giveaways at their Oct. 19 grand opening of the Loehmann’s Plaza store, and during his interview with ABC10, Farag said options include boba for a year and an Xbox.
Teaspoon was originally founded in 2015 in Los Altos by Amy Lai, a Chinese-born American and University of California, Davis, alumna, according to the company’s website.
