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Getting ahead of the daily grind: Two African-American business
owners talk about tea and coffee
Lucy
Chumbley
Staff
Writer
Some like it black, some like it with cream. But African-American business
owners Karl Chen and Kenneth Whiting have one thing figured out – everyone
likes tea or coffee.
Chen is the owner and founder of I Like it Black, a coffee, tea and
espresso bar at 5832 Mapledale Plaza, Dale City, and Whiting is the owner
and founder of the Victorian Tea Room at 9413 Battle St., Manassas.
Both work a hectic schedule that includes holding down another full-time
job – Chen practices corporate law with a telecommunications firm in Reston,
and Whiting is the supervisor of a receiving unit for the Department of
Corrections in Fairfax.
So how did they decide to get into the hot beverage business?
Whiting’s wife, Tonya, was the driving force behind the tearoom. A habitual
reader of the classified ads, she picked up the paper and saw they had a
tea place down in Fredericksburg.
The couple decided to open their own tearoom. They searched for a place
on their days off and started to accumulate furniture. Then one day, Tonya
was out walking in Old Town when she saw a “going out of business”
sign on the door of 9413 Battle St.
The tearoom opened for business last August and was drawing in the customers
even before it officially opened.
“What really made me open my eyes was, we were half-way finished
and some people from Tennessee – five or six people – knocked
on the door. They wanted to see what a tearoom looked like,” said Whiting.
“It’s a new thing,” he said.
The Whitings chose the more than 60 types of teas they serve by asking
people they knew what they liked. “Then you throw in about five or
six kinds you don’t know about,” said Whiting.
Whiting, a native of Stafford County, is eligible to retire from the
criminal justice system after a 25-year career on Feb. 1. But he says he
has been so busy with his two jobs he has not had time to turn in his retirement
papers.
Tonya also works full-time at a dialysis unit at Tyson’s Corner, and
between them they have six children and one foster child; Sherry, 21; Kenny
Jr., 24; Kaynnette, 18; Philip, 17; Korey, 15; Justin, 9; and “the
little one that runs the family,” Nathaniel, 3.
Although serving tea is a far cry from criminal justice, Whiting says
it’s the small things that make it work. He tells of a lady who came in
with a little girl who was too young to drink tea and had to have soda instead.
“I took the soda and put it in the tea pot – you would think
I had given them a million dollars,” he said.
Whiting said some people do not expect to see an African-American managing
a tearoom. “They’ll walk in, they’ll walk past me and ask someone else,
‘Where’s the manager?'” he said.
But Whiting does not let that bother him: “I have always been the
individual that will go out and experience the things you ‘can’t’ do. I
was always the type that wanted to know why,” he said.
He quotes Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.”
vvv
Chen, a native of the Bronx, New York, moved to Dale City from Baltimore
seven years ago. He liked his new community but found that one thing was
missing – coffee.
“I think – as everyone gets – you always have this little bug that
says, ‘I want to own my own business,'” he said.
Chen found a great location within a mile of where he lived, drew up
his own business plan and opened “I Like it Black” in May 1999.
“The term ‘I Like it Black’ is interesting because people are unsure
what it is,” said Chen.
He says it’s a catchy name and logo that describes the way coffee connoisseurs
like to drink their coffee – black.
Some people also see it as a reflection of his ethnicity: “If people
want to reach to that, they’re welcome to do that,” he said.
He said the community has been welcoming: “I don’t have the stigma
of being an African American business owner – I’m a business owner,”
he said.
The store is designed to be relaxing, with lots of jazz, rust and mocha
walls and a cherry wood espresso bar. Paintings by local artists hang on
the walls and are offered for sale.
The store has its own line of coffees from Africa, Indonesia and Central
America. Coffee from Ethiopia is one of the store’s best-sellers. Coffee
was founded in Ethiopia – a little-known fact that Chen plans to emphasize
in a newsletter in honor of African-American History Month.
When the store first opened, Chen’s wife Jill – mother of the couple’s
two children Joal, 6, and Keith, 3 – helped out in the back office. Chen
came in at 5:30 a.m. to open up before leaving for his Reston job.
Things are different now: He has hired an “able and capable manager”
and is taking the store to the next level – expansion.
Short term goals include new events at the store, an espresso cart at
the Dale City Farmers Market and a new store. Chen hopes to eventually create
a regional – and possibly national – chain.
“But you’ve got to start with baby steps before you start running
the marathon,” he said. “I know what it takes to do it.”
Chen and Whiting also know what it takes to keep their customers happy:
coffee, tea and a little bit of love.
In honor of St. Valentine, “I Like it Black” is serving special
drinks – Love Potion No. 9, Smoochy Woochy, Red Hot Love and Nuts About
Love, while Lovers Leap tea tops the bill at the “Victorian Tea Room.”
Whether you like it black or white, hot or iced, you probably have to
have it. Now you know who’s got it, go out and get it.
· The Victorian Tea Room is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Call (703) 393-8327 for more information or to make a reservation.
· I Like it Black is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday,
7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call (703) 583-1818
for more information.
· Contact Lucy Chumbley at [email protected]
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