Maureen Wallenfang
Appleton Post-Crescent
Published 7:30 AM EDT May 24, 2019
Downtown Appleton will get its first tea bar June 7.
Fika Tea Bar leased 207 W. College Ave., which is in the same block as Home Burger Bar and Cleo’s.
Fika, pronounced fee-ka, is a Swedish word that tea bar co-owner Alyssa Jones said doesn’t have an exact English translation.
“It means taking time out of your day to have coffee, tea or something sweet with friends,” she said.“It’s not about people being by themselves and working. It’s about socializing and conversing.”
“Fika means break time,” said co-owner Colleen Bies. “It’s not a place to bring a laptop and work for hours on end. We don’t encourage working here.”
Jones is also owner/designer of Alyssa & Anna Fine Jewelry based in Oshkosh, which will open a store in Appleton’s RiverHeath in 2020. Bies is a photographer with a downtown Neenah studio.
The two friends have traveled together and discovered high tea in London, English tea houses set up like lounges and West Coast tea bars.
“Tea is the second most popular drink around the world, after water,” Jones said. “Colleen and I were wishing there was a tea place here. We really wanted one here for ourselves.”
Fika is set up like a modern lounge with couches, velvet chairs and window seats. They want to cater to all generations.
Jones says Fika isn’t a competitor to Copper Rock across the street because Fika won’t serve coffee other than iced coffee with house-made coffee jellies.
It will have more than 40 loose-leaf teas that are steeped to order. It has hot and iced drinks plus bakery and snacks.
Its boba drinks are also called bubble tea or pearl milk tea. They have a tea base, milk, flavorings and tapioca pearls.
The shop is on the first floor of a High Victorian Gothic building built in 1885 as a harness maker’s shop. It’s topped with a horse head sculpture. After 45 years as Great Army Navy Surplus, it was remodeled in 2005. Bold Salon operates on the second floor.
Info: Fika Tea Bar on Facebook
Contact Maureen Wallenfang at 920-993-7116 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @wallenfang.
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