I don't think I'll be going there anymore lol.
Jenny



JUNE 23, 2004
JACKSONVILLE, FL-
MAN FOUND DEAD INSIDE VIETNAMESE COFFEE SHOP


By TIA MITCHELL
The Times-Union
A man was found dead inside a Southside Vietnamese coffee shop this morning.

The man, whose name has not been released, was inside the Boba Coffee at 7999 Philips Highway. He was scheduled to appear on television from 7 to 9 a.m. to talk about the business.

When he was almost an hour late for the appearance, an owner was called and found the body inside a back room.

WJXT TV-4 photojournalist Mai'Kyl Smith said he waited in front of the store and thought he might have been stood up.

"I set up my live truck assuming no one was here because I didn't see any lights on in the building," Smith said.

Foul play is suspected and there is evidence robbery was involved, homicide Sgt. Scott McLeod said.

PROFILE OF OWNERS FROM ARTICLE WRITTEN JUST ONE MONTH AGO

Thirst for Boba


Two entrepreneurs hope a drink popular in Asia and on the West Coast will become Jacksonville's cup of tea, too.


By DAN MACDONALD
Times-Union food editor
When the computer industry went bust and left two computer technicians without a job, they came up with a new program. They took their shared love of an exotic drink and traded their keyboards for a blender to open Jacksonville's first Boba shop.

At Boba Coffee, 7999 Philips Highway, Hiep Nguyen and Jonathan Gillis have introduced a beverage already popular in Asia and California.


A shared love of Boba tea started a friendship between Hiep Nguyen (left) and Jonathan Gillis and resulted in their opening Boba Coffee.
JON M. FLETCHER/The Times-Union

Boba tea is a drink you chew. Also known as bubble tea, it is a fruit-flavored beverage that combines red tea, ice, fruit flavorings and tapioca balls. It is served over ice or as a smoothie in plastic containers with a large straw.

Nguyen and Gillis call it a tea, but the drinks taste nothing like the iced tea Southerners are used to. There is no tea taste at all. Boba tea comes in several flavors, including apple, banana, lemon, piña colada, bubble gum, avocado, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. The most popular flavors are purple yam and mango. The Boba, or tapioca balls, are sweet but flavorless and have the texture of Gummi Bears. The drinks cost between $3.25 and $3.90.

The partners didn't know each other when they were in the computer business. When a mutual friend learned of their love of Boba tea, they were brought together. After they lost their jobs and were unable to find similar work and salaries, they decided to introduce Jacksonville to Boba.

"We've had customers tell us that they would drive two hours to Orlando to get a Boba," Gillis said.

Nguyen and Gillis put their savings on the line for an exotic drink that most residents here have never tried.

The reason most of us aren't familiar with it is two-fold. First, a sluggish economy has tethered this California fad to the West Coast.

Also, unlike with coffee, few people are going to try to make a Boba tea at home. It is a time-consuming and messy process, Gillis explained.


Boba tea includes gummy-textured tapioca balls for the drinker to suck up in an oversize straw and chew on between sips.
JON M. FLETCHER/The Times-Union

His first at-home experience was a disaster that ended up wasting a pound of tapioca balls. To make the tapioca balls chewy, they must be boiled. As they soften, the water becomes sticky and starchy. The balls must keep moving in the water so that they do not clump together and become on big tapioca rock. Once the balls are cooked, the pot must be cleaned quickly or it will be ruined. Gillis knows; he has had to throw out a couple of pots.

The tapioca then is sweetened in what the partners call their "Oh-So-Good" sugar syrup. The simple syrup is their recipe.

Once the tapioca balls are prepared, red tea is brewed. When ready, the powdered fruit flavoring is placed in a cup with some tea and mixed. About a half-cup of tapioca balls are added, then ice and then more tea to fill the cup. The drink is completed with its unique wide straw.

Make a Boba, and they will come.

Gillis and Nguyen's shop is tucked in the back of Scan Design Plaza, across the street from Ring Power on Philips Highway just north of Baymeadows Road. Nguyen said they chose the name Boba Coffee to help bring the unfamiliar to the shop. While they aren't out to compete with Starbucks, they do serve a selection of coffee drinks, teas and sodas.

In the beginning, the customers were mostly from the local Asian community. But area workers are discovering the chewy drinks, as are college and high school students.

Mornings are busy, and afternoons find young people coming in after school. Nights are when people come to socialize.

The cafe is warmly decorated -- designed and built by Nguyen and Gillis. It has tables with checkerboards, cards and other table games as well as two large sofas. Oriental lampshades hang from the ceiling, and large bamboo fans decorate the walls, reflecting Boba's origins and Nguyen's Vietnamese heritage. A Buddhist monk has even deemed the room to be feng shui.

"Someone asked us who the woman was that helped us decorate. It was just us," Nguyen said.

Diana Roybal is a Fletcher High senior who comes by Boba Coffee for a Boba Smoothie most afternoons before starting her job at nearby John Casablancas Modeling. She was reluctant to try it at first, but one slurp and she was hooked.

"More and more people I know are coming here. It is a far drive. But one night I came in, and 10 people I knew from school were here," she said.

A recent Saturday night saw couples playing Scrabble and chess while sipping Boba drinks. John Stuart brought in several friends to play games and lounge on the couches.

"This is a place to chill out and have a refreshing drink," he said.

Nguyen and Gillis are counting on Boba drinks to become the next Frappuccino. While business has picked up every month since the opening in December, the two friends have no employees, so they split shifts. When not at the cafe, they work second jobs to pay the bills.

"We used to hang out together," Nguyen said. "We went out for one last weekend in Orlando just to hang out before we opened. We knew it would be our last weekend."

WOW!!!! Did the police find the evidence yet??? Do you think who is the person kill that man????...So?? The business is close the door....Dong cua tiem cafe!!!



RH

so far the evidence is inconclusive

This is terrible.

Has the name of the victim been released yet?