Tea Drop Brewing Change
By Owen Morris
So I can't figure out how to connect this new darn-fangled camera to my computer to show the pictures but I went to the Tea Drops party last night. While I meant to just take a couple of pictures and grab a few quotes, I ended up staying for more than two hours.
That's because I had a very serious talk with new owner Robert Bloom, who bought the store with his wife Janet. Bloom, who is best known for his 20-some-years as owner of D'Bronx, admitted that it's been an information cram the past four weeks as he's trying to learn about tea and the tea business. He's dead-set on becoming an expert — even talking about making his own blends some day — and is convinced he can make tea the next big thing in Kansas City.
Bloom believes that he can sell you and your Lipton-drinking grandmother high-quality tea, and hearing him get excited about the possibilities, it's difficult not to get excited too.
Janet Bloom said they signed a "pretty strict non-compete" agreement when they sold D'Bronx three years ago, and Robert is adamant that nothing at his new restaurant will compete with his former restaurant's hoagies and slices. "Look around," he said. "Does this place look like a competitor?"
That was an understatement. The pastel walls are covered with jars of loose-leaf tea as opposed to graffiti. Instead of chairs or old tables, there's a continuous black-cushioned bench running along the wall. It's almost all serene, which is exactly what Robert says he's going for. "Tea is relaxing. It doesn't have the acidity or bitter flavor of coffee. The flavors are very subtle. This business is really for breaks, calming intervals."
Family-friend Jane Booser-Gorman says she's known Robert since he was five years old and thinks it's great that he bought Tea Drops. Of all the people I met, Booser-Gorman was the only one who had a personal history with tea going back more than a few weeks. She acted as the emcee of a Japanese tea ceremony. "I used to do it quite a bit years ago. It's very meditative. In a real ceremony you don't sit on a bench, you sit on the ground but it was still relaxing... For a minute there I was able to forget the crowd and get into a meditative state."
Booser-Gorman was right. The tea did have a calming effect, but it was no match for the amped-up excitement amongst the Blooms and their well wishers. But now the party is over and the real work begins. While Janet says she wants to "keep it the same -- same everything," Robert is already talking about ways that he'd like to expand into businesses like coffee-catering companies once did.
The Blooms may not be fanatic tea drinkers but they are motivated business people and that may just be what Tea Drops needs.
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