At Chayakada in San Jose , chai baristas juggle a meter-long stream of tea through the air like master waterbenders , effortlessly filling each cup to the brim with hot, frothy chai.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, the shop was buzzing with late-2000s pop hits while friends sipped chai huddled around tables loaded with egg puffs and boardgames. Open since June, the cafe takes its name from the chaya kada, a kind of small tea shop or tea stall found in the state of Kerala, India. Chayakada claims to be the first one in the United States — a small slice of South India tucked away in a South San Jose strip mall.

Owner Aleena Thomas got her start in the food business in 2023, when she quit her job as a program manager at Meta to open Bread Bae, a San Jose–based ghost kitchen operation

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