A new coffee truck serving cafe classics and Nepali specialties has opened outside a gas station in Cherrydale.
Located at 4019 Langston Blvd, Coffee Libations has been open for about a month. Owner Anshu Bhusal, a long-time coffee shop employee, told ARLnow he’d been looking for an opportunity to bring customers both authentic Nepali recipes and brews of his own creation.
Currently, the truck is only serving drinks, including a fizzy, soda-based americano, a strawberry matcha soda (using strawberry syrup made in-house) and chyia, the Nepali version of chai tea. The last drink is the truck’s specialty.
“Most chai that I’ve seen at coffee shops — and I’ve worked in a lot of coffee shops — it’s a lot of, like, powders or concentrates versus like actually making the tea itself,” Bhusal said. “We just do it like they do it in Nepal. … You boil the milk with the spices, and things like that.“
The truck operates on weekdays from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. and offers online ordering. It has a small seating area with three outdoor tables, which can comfortably seat about eight people at one time.
In addition to drinks, Coffee Libations will be adding a limited food menu in the coming months, Bhusal said. That will include dishes like a kalo chana (black chickpea) protein bowl and momo, a Nepali dumpling with meat and vegetables.
Amrik Singh, the owner of the Langston Blvd gas station, is friends with Bhusal’s uncle, which is how the two business owners got together, Bhusal said. Singh had been looking for a food truck to operate out of his gas station.
“I was really wanting to start a coffee-centered thing, and I wanted to be closer to D.C. or Arlington,” Bhusal said. “So it seemed like a perfect opportunity to try to set up something small and easily manageable over here.”
Bhusal said he hopes to expand the business someday and get the community involved — hosting things like catering and espresso events, or working with local artists to paint the truck.
“The neighborhood is just fantastic,” Bhusal said. “They’ve been very supportive and just have come down, [left] reviews, put us on email lists and things like that. It’s amazing that this neighborhood is so welcoming, and amazing to see that there’s such a strong community here that cares for each other.”
