Title: Lotus Boba Café opens on Gloucester Main Street

Another new restaurant is calling Gloucester Main Street home.

Sarah Netroe and Kiatisak Phaniphat held a soft opening on July 1 for their new restaurant, Lotus Boba Café. The space at 6655 Main Street was previously occupied by Sweet Tooth Café, next to Hair on Main Salon.

The couple had prepared to get their footing with a small number of customers they anticipated showing up on day one of the soft opening. The high turnout of customers eager to try the new restaurant, however, left them surprised—and out of food.

“We’ve had to cut back the menu to just the pho and boba right now because we had more people than we thought we would,” said Netroe. “We ran out of food the next day,” Phaniphat added.

Phaniphat has worked at his parents’ restaurant, Marigold Thai in Mechanicsville, for the past 10 years. “They operate way differently,” he explained. He’s found that the cafe’s food has a much longer preparation time than what he is used to. “It takes eight hours—getting it going, making it taste right,” he explained. After running out of food on day one, the couple decided to close for day two, taking the time to focus on preparing food and adjusting their system.

“We go fishing a lot, we drive through the area, it’s a nice little town, I enjoy it,” Phaniphat explained when asked what made him choose Gloucester as the home for their restaurant. With kids of their own, the couple wants to ensure the café is a family friendly spot that everyone will enjoy.

Phaniphat explained they decided to open a boba and pho place to add something different to Main Street. “There’s not really a spot open here, boba wise,” he said. “And he likes pho,” Netroe added, humorously. He agreed.

“When I was in Thailand, the only thing I would eat every day was just soup, every single day,” he explained. “My auntie next door, she’d do soup and I would go there every day, even though it was like 105 outside.”

Photo Caption: CHEYENNE FENTON / GAZETTE-JOURNAL Owners of Lotus Boba Café, the newest restaurant to open on Main Street, plan to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the coming weeks to celebrate their family restaurant. From left, daughter Sofia Phaniphat being held by her mom, Sarah Netroe, and daughter Sally Phaniphat held by her dad, Kiatisak Phaniphat.