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Cha Street Food is returning to its tea-shop roots while making room for coffee drinkers with the launch of Cha Cafe at Tysons Corner Center.

The Pakistani restaurant will officially debut the cafe menu Thursday with a DJ and free drinks for the first 50 customers beginning at 7 p.m. The rollout comes as the business approaches five years at the mall.

The expanded lineup combines South Asian flavors with specialty coffees, updated chais and lemonade-based refreshers. New choices include pink Kashmiri, ras malai and pistachio cream lattes, along with mango dragon fruit fizz, a lychee mint refresher, strawberry tamarind lemonade and a mint sparkler.

Saba Kamran, a partner who leads Cha’s food and beverage development, said the restaurant wanted to create something new without losing its cultural foundation.

“A lot of the flavors are still the South Asian flavors,” Kamran said, adding that the menu also introduces refreshers, coffees and new versions of the restaurant’s traditional chais.

Cha’s signature chai blends can now be served hot or iced, with cold foam available as an option. The selection also gains a pistachio flavor.

Other additions include mango lassi matcha, milkshakes and two desserts. Kulfi affogato pairs the frozen dessert with coffee, while falooda combines rose-scented milk, pistachio kulfi, strawberry jelly, vermicelli and basil seeds.

Kamran highlighted the ras malai latte and the coffee interpretation of pink Kashmiri chai as drinks that are especially representative of the business. Ras malai is a South Asian dessert traditionally made with cheese balls soaked in milk and flavored with cardamom.

A return to the original vision

Although Cha Cafe is a new name, the concept brings the restaurant closer to what its owners initially envisioned: a chai-focused shop inspired by dhabas, the roadside stalls found across India and Pakistan that commonly serve tea and snacks.

The business began in 2020 with two food trucks at Springfield Town Center under the name Cha Tea House. It opened its brick-and-mortar restaurant at 8056 Tysons Corner Center in December 2021.

It later became Cha Street Food because some customers mistook the original business for a boba tea shop. Its Pakistani-influenced meals also grew to become as central to its identity as its drinks.

Kamran said the cafe launch was needed to reconnect Cha with the idea that first inspired the business.

The restaurant’s food menu will remain unchanged. Diners can still order chicken tikka, shammi kababs, alou tikki, tawa chicken and other dishes, many of which are available as sandwiches, wraps or bowls.

Coffee joins chai as a gathering drink

Customer demand helped drive the decision to expand beyond tea. Kamran said groups often arrive with a mix of tea and coffee drinkers, leaving a need for more choices.

The growing popularity of coffee in Pakistan also influenced the menu. While chai has traditionally served as a social drink, Kamran said younger generations are increasingly gathering over coffee.

For now, Cha Cafe will be available only at the Tysons restaurant. If customers respond well, the menu could expand to Cha Street Food’s newer locations in Sterling and Capitol Hill.

The owners are also considering whether Cha Cafe could eventually become a standalone business serving drinks, desserts and light bites without operating as a full restaurant.

“We tried really hard to bring something new for people that they’re not getting elsewhere in terms of the flavors offered,” Kamran said.