To those who have ever craved Mediterranean cuisine and frozen treats at the same time, Hillsborough Street may finally have the place for you.
Abbes Khelfa opened Amina’s Cafe, 2508 Hillsborough St., at the beginning of the year and runs the cafe inde- pendently, primarily to sell frozen yogurt.
On one side of the cafe, Khelfa sells Mediterranean dishes, such as panini, gyro and kabobs; on the other, frozen yogurt and ice cream. According to Khelfa, frozen yogurt and Mediterranean food pair well and both harbor certain health benefits, so he decided to sell them together.
With students and faculty as his most frequent customers, Khelfa focuses mostly on selling to students as he has the most experience selling to them.
Prior to relocating to the Raleigh area, Khelfa and a partner owned and operated Angora, a frozen yogurt shop near Boston College and Boston University. After its initial success, Khelfa and his partner expanded, turning Angora into a three-store chain.
“Customers who have spent time in Boston often find out the same man who started Amina’s is the one who started Angora,” Khelfa said. “They get excited.”
Khelfa said he hopes Amina’s gains the same kind of popularity. According to Khelfa, people in many states know about Angora.
Success in Boston inspired Khelfa to start Amina’s near N.C. State and, as it’s at the center of a fast-paced, rapidly growing city, Khelfa expects to see the same level of opportunity.
Khelfa started Amina’s on his own, leaving his business partner with the three Angora establishments.
The man behind Amina’s got into the frozen yogurt business after leaving his business selling ice cream in Algeria. He and his Turkish partner started selling frozen yogurt in 1990. Their shop gained popularity, as it was the only frozen yogurt business in the area.
“Nobody sold it, really,” Khelfa said. “I’d seen it around and at the mall, but it’s not the same. [Ours] isn’t like, you know, the soft serve, it’s different.”
Amina’s Cafe joins an impressive lineup of Mediterranean restaurants and frozen yogurt shops on Hillsborough Street. Some students wonder if the cafe will see much success.
“There are already so many restaurants like that,” Josh Poole, a junior in mechanical engineering, said. “There’s Jasmin and Freshberry. It’s like Amina’s is a flower seed that got planted after the rest have already grown and it won’t see much light.”
Poole, eating a small bowl of Nutella-flavored yogurt, said he enjoyed the business for its integration of two popular, healthy food items.
“Hopefully people do go to it,” Poole said. “If not a lot of people, just enough for it to stay in business. It’s a really interesting place and it doesn’t get carried away by its own gimmick.”