Two Arab American Businesswomen Sweeten Up a Rough Ramadan With Knafeh Shots
Updated: Aug 12, 2020
It's a Friday the 13th that Shahira Marei won't forget anytime soon.
The Egyptian American businesswoman behind the Dirty Cookies had recently clinched a vendor deal to supply her celebrated shot-glass-shaped snacks to the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. With a corporate clientele including major movie studios and beachside resorts, as well as catering events like weddings, business boomed since deciding to close her Tustin storefront at the District in December 2018.
And then the coronavirus pandemic hit, ravaging small businesses, like dine-in restaurants and caterers, which rely heavily on social gatherings to survive.
The Dirty Cookie started to crumble.
Read more on my latest Los Angeles Times feature online now and in the Times OC section in Sunday's newspaper: