Mochi Doughnuts, Malasadas, and Ice Cream Team Up for San Diego Expansion

Two specialists in sweet treats that are already a hit in the Los Angeles area are headed to San Diego where they’ll be pairing up inside a new food hall currently in the works for a fall debut in the Sorrento Valley area.

Both businesses are owned by Jason Tsai and Avis Tao, who founded Fika Fika Creamery in 2019. Inspired by flavors that might be found at a boba shop, its lineup of handmade ice cream incudes boba brown sugar milk tea, lychee, young coconut ube, Thai tea, melon, and more. The frozen treats can currently be found at Fika Fika Coffee, Tsai and Tao’s cafes in Arcadia and Pasadena, as well as at Stanton’s Rodeo 39 Public Market.

The same year, the couple also launched Dot & Dough, which now has five outposts throughout Southern California and earned a spot on Eater LA’s list of Los Angeles’s 15 most delectable doughnut shops. Offering trendy ring-shaped mochi doughnuts in flavors like white chocolate matcha, rainbow sprinkle taro, and salted egg yolk, it also specializes in malasadas, yeasted doughnuts filled with custard flavored with Belgian chocolate, earl grey tea, vanilla, and caramel. Cream-filled versions of mochi doughnuts will also be available.

Conveying all these treats to San Diego is local resident Kathy Mangiapane, who tells Eater the ice cream parlor and doughnut shop will have side-by-side stalls at the food hall. And she may be opening separate storefronts from each brand to other neighborhoods in the San Diego area. Magiapane is also one of the local franchisees of Teaspoon, a national boba chain that’s she’s bringing to 4S Commons Town Center and might expand to Encinitas.

• All Coming Attractions on Eater [ESD]