Smash Hit Japanese Café Brand %Arabica Opened Its First U.S. Location In Brooklyn

Smash Hit Japanese Café Brand %Arabica Opened Its First U.S. Location In Brooklyn

%Aarabica's founder Kenneth Shoji was taught by his Japanese father: Never go into a business that you will have fun with. But he did. He opened the first %Arabica café in 2013 and now has 90 locations worldwide. On June 11, its first U. S. location opened in Dumbo, Brooklyn. "The world has changed and the idea of work as only hard work and struggles has proven outdated," says Shoji. But his new business also came out of the changing environment. As the third generation of a printing material manufacturer, he had to come up with a viable future plan, as the digital world steadily obliterates the industry. Coincidentally, after the Tohoku Earthquake wiped out his house in Fukushima Prefecture in 2011, he moved to Hong Kong. Then Shoji, an avid coffee lover, realized two things: there were no decent coffee shops in Hong Kong and coffee was the second most traded item after crude oil in the global market. He saw an opportunity. As soon as he decided to start a coffee business, he went to Hawaii and purchased a coffee farm. "I thought it would be imperative to own a farm if you are serious about coffee." He