Web Feature: Tbar

In March 2007, sisters Susan Chu and Julia Rugg opened Philadelphia tearoom Tbar with the goal of offering high-quality tea in a non-pretentious environment. Fresh Cup interviewed the sisters for a “Café Crossroads” profile in the May 2008 issue that focused mainly on starting the business. Now more than a year and a half later, we checked in again with Chu to discuss braving the economy, expanding the menu and much more.

Q: Tbar is located in the Midtown Village neighborhood of Philadelphia’s Center City. When we talked before, you said the neighborhood was up-and-coming; has it continued to move that way?
A: Yeah, I think the neighborhood continues to evolve. There’s a rug store next door to us, and then a couple other retail stores within our same building complex. We have merchants spanning the block now. And then across the street we have a new Italian restaurant coming in. It’s happening, but because of the credit crunch that a lot of businesses faced this past year, we didn’t see businesses moving in as fast as we probably would have liked.

Q: Has the busy neighborhood helped you stay successful during the poor economy?
A: I don’t want to say our location is recession-proof by any stretch, but we are close to a major hospital and a major university— Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital—and we’re in a very touristy location. We’ve felt the impact, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Q: From the beginning, Tbar’s menu has been divided into three parts: Steep, Shake and Fizz. Have you changed the menu much, or have you stuck with that concept?
A: Well, that’s our core line. We have the variety of loose-leaf teas (Steep), our tea lattes (Shake) and our Fizzes (sparkling water infused with tea). We still have all of that, but we’re doing other things as well. We’ve started a Tea of the Month Club. And we’re expanding into wholesale to other restaurants and other businesses that want to carry our teas. We just continue to offer different specials. Over the summer, we featured a couple of new beverages that our employees concocted, and they were a hit. So just like any business, you can have your core menu, but I think it’s really important to always offer something new and different—especially for your regulars. I think we have to continue to introduce new and fun types of beverages to get people to come back in.

Q: Now that you’re into your third year with the business, what do you think the future holds for Tbar?
A: The way I view it is that during year one we were just learning to run a business—you open the doors and just try to figure things out. Year two is getting your operations down because you’ve been around for a year, and you start getting into a groove. And then for us, year three is about growing and expanding our business. And that’s really what we’re going to focus on. I think a lot of small businesses—and we’re no different—end up focusing so much on the cost side that you don’t take the time or the money to invest. So you think, I shouldn’t really invest in that because I have to pay down this debt. But you’re always going to have to pay it off. If you don’t invest and put the money into growing the business, you’re not going to grow the business. So for us, year three is about growing the business: expanding into wholesale, expanding our customer reach and creating more channels for people to buy our products.

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Purchase the January 2010 issue (does not include this web-only article)

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