Struggle for HMB coffee and chai shop continues

posted by Barry Parr on Jan 29, 2007 at 08:11 pm in  Business
2 comments • Click to email this story

The Chronicle has a nice story on the struggle by customers of Coastside Gourmet Coffee and Chai to save a local Coastside institution.

“He makes the best chai this side of Jaipur,” said Kathy Rehm, referring to India’s fabled Pink City. “You ain’t going to get the likes of that at Peet’s, I tell you that.”

Teens from Half Moon Bay High School throng the shop after class, hanging out, doing their homework and seeking advice from Bechar and his son, Raj, a teacher at nearby Cunha Intermediate School. A local hardware store worker and an aging surfer swap tales with techies and real estate types under Tibetan prayer flags and the watchful eye of the Dalai Lama, whose photo is perched above the counter.

More than a dozen customers have vowed to appear at next Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Comments

Comment 1 by Kevin S. McWilliams  on  Jan 30  at  10:30am  •  All my comments • 

CALL THEN BOYCOTT IF THAT DOESNT WORK. There are three choices. Since Peets can’t take over starbucks location in HMB lets communicate to their pr agency in san francisco it is their responsabily not to display the same preditory example starbuck emulates. petes has never displayed anything of this sort in thier 35 year history and the more people that call them the better. the same goes for new leaf in thier 10 years of exisgtance. the landlord isnt going to care about Bechar. please call these small responsable retailers with my ideas or your own.

1 relocate Bechar somewhere else in the community

2 let him stay

3 peets should buy the recipe from Bechar for chai and have it replace thier chai in all thier stores.

Please contact Peets:

1-800-999-2132

New Leaf:

831-466-9060

Comment 2 by John Lynch  on  Feb 06  at  7:19pm  •  All my comments • 

I’d much prefer to post my comment on Coastsider, rather than the local newspaper, about the closing of the Coastside Gourmet Coffee and Chai.

There have been many posts in that paperand their comments are all over the lot. People are talking about boycotting the New Leaf Community Market. For the life of me, I can’t understand why”?

New Leaf has done everything by the book. They didn’t work through Mike Shami, owner of Albertsons. Mike Shami may be the owner, but he is not the leaseholder. The leaseholder is SaveOn, who purchased the Albertson’s chain.

New Leaf worked through SaveOn’s leasing agent. They were directed to The Food Partners (www.thefoodpartners.com/) who had been hired evaluate and vet the applicants who wanted to take over the Half Moon Bay location.

Throughout all this folderal (sp) New Leaf have been the “good guys”.

John Lynch


Add your own comment

Please Register and Log in to post a comment.

 

Get your story or comment on Coastsider. If you're a member, log in to submit a story. Not a member? Please register to submit a story.
Search Coastside and San Mateo County media.