Boba shop comes to USC Village this fall

USC Village will welcome a new boba shop in Fall 2023, owned and managed by Cafe Dulce founder and USC alum James Choi. 

Yoboseyo Superette will take over the 1,400 square feet venue that Kaitlyn Clothing occupied before closing in Spring 2023 at its lease’s end. 

Upon learning that he will be taking over such a large space — he said he considers around 800 square feet to be the perfect size for a boba shop — Choi decided to fuse his boba store concept with another store model he’s already implemented in Little Tokyo, where a shop of the same name sells Korean snacks, coffee, tea and home goods from local Asian-owned businesses. 

Choi expects the shop to open its doors in late September or October, depending on the length of the city approval, inspection and construction processes.

“We’re really trying to be prepared,” Choi said. “We don’t wanna just rush to open and then fall flat on our faces. This is obviously a new business model for us in terms of boba. … We also want to do boba right by people who love boba. We’re working with a company that makes boba here in the [United States]; it’s based in Hayward.”

Yoboseyo Superette will join 16 other restaurants and cafes nestled in the USC Village. While the new shop would be the first to specialize in boba — a Taiwanese tea-based drink that contains tapioca pearls — it’ll compete with nearby boba shops Pot of Cha on Figueroa Street and It’s Boba Time on Vermont Avenue. In USC Village, Starbucks Coffee and Dulce dominate the cafe scene. 

Namratha Kasalanati, a sophomore majoring in music composition and economics, said she wants to learn more about the store’s business model. 

“How are they gonna make their boba as authentic as possible and how are they going to fight against competition from their Dulce Cafe and Starbucks and also the other boba shop that’s a couple of blocks away?” Kasalanati said. 

Choi acknowledges that as a business owner who sells food, baked goods and drinks, he “competes with everybody.” He feels that Yoboseyo Superette’s hospitality will set it apart. 

“The thing that differentiates us is, you can’t please everybody, but you can be hospitable to everybody,” Choi said. “You can be nice to everybody and so, for us, when we opened [at] USC I was like, ‘Guys, this is such an amazing opportunity. Every year we have thousands of new students that come in at a really pivotal moment in their lives … This is our opportunity to show people what hospitality can and, hopefully, should be.’”

Alex Flores, a sophomore majoring in public relations, said he has some reservations about Cafe Dulce’s owner entering the boba market but is, on the whole, optimistic about it. 

“This is a venture that they’re going down,” Flores said. “I don’t necessarily know if it’s the right venture. It’s definitely really interesting to think that the people who are in charge of [Cafe] Dulce are doing boba. It might be a perfect job for them.”

Choi himself — who has been brainstorming names, concepts and brand identities for a boba store with his wife — said opening a new boba shop comes with the burden of satisfying varying tastes and preferences. 

“The thing that’s scary about opening up a boba store is people are very opinionated about what boba is the best or what boba they like and what’s good boba,” Choi said. “I know we’re gonna piss off a ton of people, we’re gonna disappoint so many people … How do we have communication with people that says, ‘Hey, we’re new, and we’re developing, and we’ll get better?’”

Flores said he feels that the addition of Yoboseyo Superette will fit right in with USC students’ varied tastes. 

“It definitely fits the culture,” Flores said. “We have so many traditional coffee shops around us and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it’s just really great to see an outside cultural and, at the moment, super relevant thing like boba come into USC.”

Kasalanati said the new boba shop is a good start toward increasing the diversity of cuisine in USC Village, but she’d like to see more.  

“There need to be more Asian flavors or more diversity in general with the cuisines [in USC Village],” Kasalanati said. “There’s quite a few sandwiches, tacos and not as many other types of cuisine.”