"That question, I love it so much. Hopefully when you ask me in five years, I’ll say yes."
-- Loai Kader
The question — asked during a lull in customers filling bags with fancy chocolates, requesting a taste of thick, steaming Turkish coffee and selecting from assorted baklavas — did not appear to insult Loai Kader.
Actually, it made him smile.
His fledgling shop, called Roasted! and tucked in a strip mall near a Mexican restaurant and a health food market, sells tastes of the Middle East in sweets, candies, nuts, seeds and spices. Inside, the store is strikingly bright, sleek and modern, something that might pop up in a big city instead of a sleepy suburb of Tampa.
So here’s the inquiry: Is this place a franchise?
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