What Chado Tea Room is known for
Chado opened as a small tearoom on West 3rd Street in Los Angeles in 1990, stocked with more than 300 tea canisters despite having only a handful of tables.
Chado opened as a small tearoom on West 3rd Street in Los Angeles in 1990, stocked with more than 300 tea canisters despite having only a handful of tables. Devan and Reena Shah acquired it in 1993: Devan, who grew up in Coimbatore, India, and summered on a family tea estate before becoming a tea broker and importer, is credited by the World Tea Academy with introducing chai to the United States, while Reena took charge of shaping the tea rooms themselves.
The company has since expanded across Los Angeles — a Farmers Market location that has since closed, plus Pasadena in 2002, Little Tokyo in 2008, Hollywood in 2011, and Torrance in 2017 -- four locations operate today — with longtime employee Tekeste "Tek" Mehreteab, who joined as a cook in 1999, becoming a partner by 2002.
Over thirty years after a husband-and-wife team took over one small West 3rd Street tearoom, Chado's multi-location afternoon-tea culture across Los Angeles still traces back to Devan's plantation-broker background and Reena's eye for the tea room itself.
Best for — Traditional afternoon tea and over 150 curated tea varieties
USA
Where next
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- Kohchosai Kosuga — Kyoto
Hand-curated for ORBIS — official entity link on record · no paid placement
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