'Café Chaiwala': Pakistani tea brand outlet opens in South London

LONDON: Two brothers have opened the second branch of a Pakistani tea brand called "Café Chaiwala Arshad Khan" in Tooting, South London in the exquisite Pakistani cultural setting, including truck art and mini library of Urdu books.

Since opening the first branch in East London two years ago, Arshad Khan Chaiwala is going from strength to strength and he's set to open a third branch soon after Ramadan in West London.

The Tooting branch has been opened by two brothers Asif Khaliq and Yousuf Khaliq who are originally from Karachi and have several medium-sized businesses in the South London area including food shops and snooker clubs.

They said: "We have invested over £250,000 in our Pakistani chai brand not just to be profitable but to contribute to the promotion of Pakistani culture and Pakistani brand. Café Chaiwala Arshad Khan perfectly sits in that paradigm."

"He's known all over the world since becoming an internet sensation. He is a brand ambassador of Pakistan. We decided to open the café in Tooting because there is a large, growing and successful Asian community in this area and they were looking for an authentic chai and street food outlet."

Asif and Yousuf said dozens of chai cafes were opened by Indian and Pakistani businessmen in the UK after Khan's story became public in Western and Asian media but many of them stole the concept and didn't give the due credit to the man behind the sensation.

They said this was a Pakistani street tea seller who hit global headlines and made the Chai popular.

The café serves several versions of popular Pakistani and Indian street foods, including parathas, tikka, aaloo [potato] kebab, biscuits and lassi.

Just nine years ago, Khan was a poor teenager selling chai at an Islamabad roadside stall, also known as dhaba, with no prospects of a prosperous and luxurious life given the circumstances he was in.

Not in his wildest dreams he would have imagined that one day he would become a social media sensation at the global level, a fashion icon, a brand and a franchise owner with footprints in a place like London.

The chai seller was 16 back in October 2016 when photographer Javeria Ali made his casual picture while he was serving tea to a customer and she put it on her Instagram with the caption: "Hot Tea".

Khan's striking looks, blue eyes and haunting seriousness on his face shot him to overnight fame.

He found out that he had become a sensation when children, men and women started swamping the dhaba where he worked to make pictures with him and soon he was all over social media, on the magazine covers and television crews started airing his story.

After going viral, Khan, who is originally from a conservative Pashtun family living in Mardan, was nicknamed "Chaiwala" and that's where the brand name comes from.