Pop-up location brings frozen Indian dessert treat to downtown San Francisco
An unusual business has opened up a pop-up shop in downtown San Francisco this week as part of the city's Vacant to Vibrant program offering free rent for three months and help getting through the permit process.
Koolfi Creamery has a unique take on ice cream taking the flavors of India and a traditional dessert from that country but serving a creamier version like the American favorite.
"My nostalgic flavor that brings me joy is all the days I walk with friends and family to have kulfi in Bombay, my hometown," said Priti Narayanan, the co-owner of Koolfi Creamery and the Chief Ice Cream Engineer.
Narayanan worked in San Francisco before starting this business with her wife. She dreamed of coming back to the city, but hesitated to start the process. The high cost to rent and the intimidating number of permits required kept her from going through with the idea.
"Even though it was a deep-seeded wish, I never talked about it," she told KPIX.
Originally from India, she moved to the U.S. in 2001 to get her master's degree in civil engineering on the east coast. When she settled in the Bay Area, she worked as a traffic engineer and project manager before an accident kept her at home.
During that time, she thought about what else she might want to do and start a new career involving food. Narayanan wanted to make her own kulfi.
Kulfi is slow-cooked to become similar to cream with nuts and spices added. It's not churned but frozen like a milk popsicle. It dates back to the time when India did not have the same freezing capacity needed to make traditional ice cream, according to Narayanan.
Kulfi also doesn't have air added to make it more like ice cream. It is usually a different texture that is denser with flour to thicken it. But Narayanan decided to learn how to make kulfi from scratch and then modify it into ice cream keeping the flavors she grew up with in India.
"There needs to be a decadent, rich, you know, high-quality kulfi. And I saw that that market had not been tapped and was missing," Narayanan said.
Her first store is located in San Leandro. She and her wife are pleased to see the sense of community they have built for South Asian and LGBTQ families in the East Bay. The business enjoys plenty of traffic from visitors coming home from the Oakland Zoo.
San Francisco's Vacant to Vibrant program provided the needed combination for Narayanan to achieve her dream of returning to work in the city.
Not only is the initial rent covered, but grants also help with the startup costs of opening a new location in an empty space. Most of all, she said the team supporting the businesses were like therapists helping to guide her through the permitting process, so it wasn't as overwhelming.
She hopes that her business along with the other shops in the program will give residents and workers in the city the chance to connect on a level that she did when commuting into San Francisco for work.
"In the afternoon, after work, you know, happy hour, we would go out with my colleagues. And that's how I came to know them, not just as coworkers but, you know, as people," she recalled.
There are about 20 locations participating in the program right now across San Francisco. Pop-ups are in the East Cut, Financial District, and Yerba Buena neighborhoods. Businesses, community organizations, and local creatives' workshops all make up the group.
It's a partnership among SF New Deal, Mayor London Breed, and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Nine businesses were part of the initial group to launch the program last fall. Seven of the first cohort signed long-term leases, according to the program.
It's too early for Narayanan to know if she will be ready to extend her lease but just a few days into the new endeavor, she says feedback has been great from residents in her neighborhood.
"We're very excited. The last few months there have been a lot of businesses that have opened, we want you to be here, and we want you to thrive," Narayanan said customers shared with her.