LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Near an undisclosed U.S. Air Force base, two friends hatched a plan for a café set for Las Vegas. This month they are marking the one year since pouring the first batch of sand for their Turkish coffee.
During a 2015 deployment in the United Arab Emirates, Rahim Edwards, a 24-year U.S. Air Force veteran, was given a Malaysian-style coffee bun by a friend who had visited a nearby PappaRoti.
“When I tasted this, I was like, Okay, what is, what is this thing,” Edwards said. “The next day, I said, ‘Hey, where you at? What are those things? Where’d you get them?’”
Edwards called his family and one of his first supervisors in the Air Force and asked if the bun could be recreated, but he said the experiment was a “tremendous failure.”
“[I saw] the military members come on with suitcases of these things,” he said. “There’s something going on.”
A year after learning more, Edwards set out to open a PappaRoti franchise in the United States and called his business partner, and Air Force veteran, Rino Caruso.
The bond between Edwards and Caruso was so strong, Caruso signed on before even trying the famous buns they would soon be serving in Las Vegas.
“We have to take a detour so [Caruso] can try it,” Edwards said. “He had no idea what it tasted like or anything, and the reaction was priceless.”
The pair of co-owners opened in the spring of 2024 at the corner of Tropicana Avenue and S. Pecos Road.
“Opening a business, it was tough,” Edwards said. “And we are at the point where we’re actually getting some time for ourselves and actually pursuing our passions, bringing it to [Nellis] Air Force Base or trying to get set up in a different part of town so the whole city can enjoy.”
Caruso said the team has surveyed areas in the Summerlin neighborhood for a possible expansion and cited the loyalty the team has had to their vision.
“We actually have employees that have been here since day one,” Caruso said. “And that’s just unheard of in this type of business, and they believe in what we’re doing, and they want to see our mission survive. They give us ideas every day.”
Ideas like a spin on a traditional affogato, the mug embedded with ice cream, shots of freshly pulled espresso, pistachio crumbles, chocolate drizzle, and whipped cream. The location even offers specially imported chocolate from Dubai.
“We’re looking, we’re seeking new ideas,” he said. “We’re, thinking outside the box.”
Two things that haven’t changed are the bond between Edwards and Caruso, who encourage each other behind the counter, and the recipe for the original bun which started it all.
“We wanted the bun to be more accessible to people who have had it before, and wanted to share it with their families, with their loved ones,” he said. “And that’s what we’re doing.”
