Jaja Chen and her husband Devin Li were elated when they signed a lease for their new bubble tea shop, Cha Community. Both Asian-American immigrants (her from Taiwan, him from China), they said it was a struggle to find authentic Asian food in their new home of Waco, Texas. So they eventually decided to host a pop-up at a farmer’s market. Later, they moved on to a food truck. Finally, they opened an actual brick-and-mortar storefront where they could serve customers tea and dumplings.
That was December 2019.
Chen signed the lease and got on a plane the next day to visit family in Taiwan. While there, she began to hear “inklings of COVID.” A few months later, with the couple back in Waco readying their grand opening, pandemic shutdowns hit. Cha Community remained shut for another two months. All told, they lost about $20,000 right off the bat.
