Kansas City’s Ward Parkway Center will welcome a California-based tea shop to a former retail space.
Teaspoon — a boba shop with locations across the country — will open in the former Claire’s at 8600 Ward Parkway, Suite 2020.
It’s aiming to open the location, its first in the metro, in late summer or early fall.
Franchise owner Leslie Lewis told The Star via email that the company is hoping to open three more stores across the KC metro in the next three years.
“Ward Parkway Center will serve as our flagship inaugural location because of its strong community presence, diverse customer base, and reputation as a gathering place for South Kansas City families and professionals,” she wrote.
A few items on Teaspoon’s menu: Thai tea with cream and honey boba, black sugar assam (assam black tea infused with black sugar boba), double matcha coffee (double matcha foam layered over milk and coffee), coconut coffee (coconut cream topped with coconut flakes), and Vietnamese coffee frappe.
Teaspoon boasts fresh ingredients and housemade flavors. In addition to boba, it offers smoothies, lemonades and other beverages.
The company got its start in Los Altos, California, in 2015. Today, it has more than 50 stores in several states, with six stores in construction and several more in development.
“The stores are intentionally designed as welcoming gathering places for friends, families, students, and professionals,” Lewis said in her email.
Claire’s, meanwhile, said goodbye to Ward Parkway in August amid a bankruptcy filing. The company simultaneously shuttered 290 stores across the U.S., including in Leawood and Independence.
The girls’ accessory brand still has locations in Oak Park Mall, Tanger Kansas City at The Legends and other spots around the metro.
