Entrepreneur expands offerings to open Marshall boutique

They say you can’t go home again, but don’t tell that to Nicki Saini.

Her places of residence after growing up in McCandless stretched as far as 10,000 miles away, to Melbourne, Australia, the hometown of her husband, Harvey.

Now, they live nearby in Franklin Park, with Nicki running a business with a named inspired by the Land Down Under.

Despite opening during the covid-19 pandemic, Koala Coffee and Tea House has flourished in its location along busy West Ingomar Road, prompting Nicki to add another dimension: Koala Boutique.

In the summer, she offered a “pop-up” selection of clothing and accessories, “because that is my true love.” That, too, was a success, and she decided to make the boutique a permanent fixture on the third floor of her building.

“If you’re going to get coffee, you might as well go upstairs and check something out,” she said. “Then I was thinking: We need more space.”

She’ll have plenty of it — more than 3,000 square feet, on two sizable stories — at the full-fledged boutique she plans to open April 12 on Wexford Bayne Road in Marshall, about half a mile west of the Pine Township line.

With the increased space will come additional fashion lines, plus household wares and children’s apparel.

“The feedback I’m getting is that we don’t have anywhere cute to get our kids’ clothes,” Nicki said, referring to stores that have gone out of business since her teenage son and daughter were youngsters.

For women, offerings will include Kendra Scott jewelry, Kut from the Kloth denim wear, HOBO handbags and wallets, and Judy Blue Jeans.

And from Australia comes FRANKIE4 Footwear, a line designed by a female podiatrist with the stated purpose to “help alleviate, cure or prevent foot pain for many more women.”

The new location won’t serve coffee, but the original Koala continues to provide plenty of beverages, taking after the café culture of Harvey’s native city.

“We loved that about Melbourne,” his wife said. “Everybody goes out for coffee. It’s a common thing. And you typically drink a ‘flat white,’” basically a stronger version of a latte without extra foam on top.

Harvey missed such a drink, so it ended up on the Koala Coffee and Tea House menu, along with treats from locally based businesses such as SweeT b Sweet Shop in Richland and Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream in Homestead.

Nicki stresses the importance of serving preservative-free, “clean” food, and many of the products are safe for consumption by people who have hypersensitivity to dairy, gluten, nuts or other ingredients.

“At the coffee shop, there is something for anybody with an allergy,” she said.

A graduate of North Allegheny High School and the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in business management, Nicki was hired into the management program at the since-defunct department store chain Lazarus after completing her studies.

She later moved to Maryland, where she met Harvey, and they eventually settled for three years in Melbourne, to be close to his family.

“It’s definitely a different culture. They’re much more laid-back and much more family-oriented,” she observed. “They didn’t, at that time when we lived there, expect you to be working weekends, expect you to be working nights.”

With its location in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia starts summer in December.

“Christmas never felt like Christmas,” Nicki said. “Santa Claus would be in shorts, and they would have Christmas barbecues. And they put Christmas lights up, but it’s not dark until 9:30 or 10. So it’s not like here, where it’s dark at 5 and you enjoy the lights.”

Back in the USA, she celebrates Harvey’s country with an Aussie Food Fest every three months at Koala. The next event is scheduled for May 3-5, featuring fare such as hand-sized meat pies, Australian chocolate and savory sausage rolls wrapped in puff pastry.

In the meantime, the boutique will continue to operate in the coffee and tea house while the larger version launches within the school district that Nicki Saini, then and now, calls home.