Koolfi Creamery Opens Neighborhood Scoop Shop

After much anticipation, and accolades from Plate, What Now SF, Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and more, San Leandro-based Koolfi Creamery is in soft opening at its new brick-and-mortar store at 599 MacArthur Boulevard.

Kulfi is a traditional Indian sweet treat, a bit denser and creamier than regular ice cream, and with flavors such as rose, mango, saffron, cardamom, and pistachio.

Proprietors Priti Narayanan and Mads Anji have been operating Koolfi Creamery as a pop-up for several years, actively looking for a location to open up a proper scoop shop, and during the pandemic, they acquired 599 MacArthur Boulevard and began improvements to convert a portion of the space into a dairy kitchen and scoop shop.

Priti and Mads partnered with the City of San Leandro via the Business Incentives Program to refresh the exterior of the building and is currently working on leasing out the adjacent space for a cafe or restaurant use.

In its soft-opening phase, Koolfi is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 4PM until 8PM, offering 10-12 scoop flavors as well as pints to go. Flavors range from traditional mango lassi, rose, Indian coffee, and cardamom to cookies and cream, salted caramel, and pumpkin pie. Customers can choose between cups and cones for their sweet treats.

The shop sees steady walk-in business, most likely due to its close proximity to single-family residential neighborhoods, but hopes to see visitors from all over town. Koolfi also caters events, a form for which is available on their website.

Currently, Koolfi is looking for a Production Assistant, and interested job-seekers can apply directly on the website.

When the weather warms, the scoop shop will have seating on the patio to allow customers to enjoy their sweet treats al fresco. But whether the outdoors are warm or cold, Koolfi is a refreshing burst of creamy goodness that will make you smile. Stop in and find out for yourselves!