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I "grew up" in Missouri, but I've spent a lot of time all over the place - UK for 3 years, California for quite a chunk of years, Pennsylvania for a few, and currently landing myself in Texas, of all places!
When I originally left Missouri, I thought, "Boy am I glad to leave that place behind", and I was sure MO felt the same. Fast forward to a couple years ago, and I found myself back in Kansas City to visit my parents and was so surprised at how much it's changed from the 80s! Lots of great restaurants, Ray's Playpen closed down (and in related news, many sketchy neighbourhoods cleaned up), and a resurgence of art and architecture all over town. Even the library in KC off of the Plaza had a lovely little coffee shop that put Starbucks to shame. Wow. Suddenly, I could see myself back in Missouri.
So I'm thinking about my future and what I'll be doing when I'm forced to retire from computer work and get busy doing something else. I've had a long-standing dream to open some sort of cafe or tea house in my later years. It's undergone a few permutations, but I think I've settled on a Victorian style tea shop / cafe to offer a quiet and comfortable oasis to sit and sip a cuppa or maybe have a snack.
How well received do you suppose such an endeavour would be in Kansas City? Are there any particular areas this may be successful? I'm thinking possibly Westport or Brookside (The Plaza might be too tight to accommodate it). It'd have to be a place with a lot of foot traffic. When I first envisioned the cafe, I thought it would be best in a place with an active "downtown" area, if you know what I mean - plenty of foot traffic and local shops.
I'll be honest - KC isn't the only place on my list. I've also looked into Maine because of the relatively low housing costs and property taxes coupled with LAND and space. In addition, there's the heavy influx of vacationers during the summer months that bolster the economy and bring much-needed income into the area. There's also the low crime and the old world charm of the area, and the idea that a Victorian-style tea shop would be welcome (indeed, there are already a few established ones spread out around Maine and the rest of New England). The downside of Maine is that it's completely new to me. I've never lived there. I have no family there. The infrastructure is weak with regards to electricity and Internet access. Winters are HARSH and long.
On the other hand, I'm used to living in the country - I grew up on a 100 acre farm in Missouri after all. We milked our own cows and made our own butter and cheese. We had a nice garden and fruit trees, and would walk along the railroad tracks down by Missouri City picking elderberries to make jelly (and wine for my folks). But times being as they are, I find myself used to modern conveniences such as cell phone service and high speed Internet. Hey, KC has Google Fiber!
I looked into Colorado, too, but it seems they only have condos for sale or empty lots in the mountains.
I looked around Boston and spread out all over Massachusetts, but BOY are the taxes high there! Not to mention, trying to find a house for under $200k there that isn't water-damaged or "sold as-is, where is" or "Needs title V" is nigh impossible.
So. Wall of texts, MO. Any thoughts on all this?
Victorian style tea shop?
What areas should I realistically be looking into? Hey, it doesn't have to be KCMO, but I'll be pleased to stay away from the Kansas side of things if possible.
Show me!
ugh, not sure what victorian style means, is it a style of tea served back then? I'm thinking "english" with scorns, etc. Or just the building style? Parkville might be nice for it, close to the college, lots of smallish stores there too. To me, it has a "left" behind feel, like it's still not yet 2014 there but a decade or so behind, not sure why but it does. Maybe because of english landing and the oldish trains there?
39th street, art district has tea shops already, would fit in but not sure about the competition for business
But I'm not sure if a lot of KC people drink tea, seems like a coffee town more than tea town. The tea shops I see are mostly asian bubble tea, or shops that serve tea but not specialize in it. I'm thinking of the hot steeped tea variety and not iced sweet tea (southern style)
Funnily enough, I started off with the idea of my tea shop being the Asian bubble tea style, but figured that was a little too niche to truly be successful.
By Victorian style, I am thinking of using Victorian-style decorations - antiques maybe, some nice tea pots here and there, some flowers and lace, and servers in old-fashioned turn of the century maid / butler apparel (Downton Abbey, while more Edwardian and later times, is pretty close to what I had in mind). It would be lovely if the building was older in style as well, but not a requirement. Definitely will be primarily serving varieties of hot teas, as well as coffee. I'm actually a huge fan of coffee, too. Just hoping to have something more...quiet than Starbucks, and offer something for perhaps an older crowd. Might offer a gluten-free variant on the classic Devonshire cream tea (gluten-free scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam).
My mother mentioned there was a tea shop about. I'd definitely do more research on possible competitors - not looking to step on any toes as that does nobody any good.
Parkville...I'll have to check into that. I have no idea why I'm drawing a blank on it. I spent so much time in the Gladstone area (Metro North Mall-rat back in the 80s), but I can't recall ever heading out to Parkville.
Thanks for the thoughts!
EDIT: Just found the Parkville Main Street Association website and some pics. Yeah. You nailed it. That's exactly the kind of area I had in mind!
A tea shop that specializes in european/black tea would definitely get my business. I feel its unique enough to not compete with other tea shops in the 39th street and Westport area, it would be more a matter of it being too niche. That said i feel even offering coffee as an option may be enough. I would love a shop that offered different style of english tea, as well as specialty drinks such as London Fogs. In my circle at least, people who drink coffee, also drink tea. Especially black.
Thanks for the encouragement, brandthom! I used to love Westport, but not sure what it's like these days. Seemed to be nicer than I remember, and less of a party spot.
Definitely will offer hot tea and coffee as I am a fan of both, but I don't want to be "just another latte shop".
I've been cruising around areas I remember and some new areas like Parkville virtually through the wonders of Google Maps. Really helps bring back the memories when you see the streets and buildings, even though it's changed so much.
I spent time in the Gladstone area enough to know that I wouldn't really want to live there now.
Parkville seems like it might be a good place for the shop as would Westport and perhaps Waldo / Brookside.
I'm not entirely sure that Independence is out of the question as I understand it also has a nice downtown...I just don't remember much of what it was like. I had a different focus when I was a teenager, and I'm definitely not a teenager anymore.
So...where else is there a viable "downtown" or neighbourhood shop area in the KC area?
And, the million dollar question, where's a good place I might look for a home? I've been cruising around on Zillow and started trying to narrow it down a bit.
My criteria:
Not too far from my fictional tea house (somewhere near said "downtown" or neighbourhood shop area).
Single family home, preferably with no HOA.
Greenery / trees HUGE bonus.
Low crime.
I see people throwing numbers around a lot, so here's mine: Dream home would be under $100k and move-in ready / livable. With a garage. That's reaaaally stretching it some places for a 2-3 bedroom, 1.5-2 bath house...but I've seen a few here and there. Also hoping the yearly property taxes aren't all crazy $3k+/year like they are in other parts of the country.
Honestly would LOVE about an acre of land (space), but I'm starting to dial back on that number so I can stay a little closer into the city. Saw a gorgeous house in the Waldo area that had just an 8k sq ft. yard and I'd jump on that in a heartbeat if I could.
High Speed Internet available (Google Fibre <3 but will settle for cable).
Cell Phone Service available (I use Sprint and my SO uses AT&T).
Considerate. By considerate, I mean, people don't blast their music at all hours or stand outside and talk to (yell at) their friends all night. I know people have parties every now and then, but I'm in a place right now where it's every single night/day. It makes me yearn for something more isolated, but close enough to the comforts I am used to.
parkville/KCMO (gladstone) still fits the bill, I'm off of 68th and 169 on the KCMO side, other side is gladstone but the houses here are fairly cheap. Not under 100k, but one I'm in is around $120-150k (I think, by what is being sold around), has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathroom and 2 car garage (total about 1200 sq feet with basement). I have a fairly big backyard and front yard, not sure if it is an acre (I don't have a good judge of acre size) but enough to have a decent garden (15x15 feet) and it's still about 15-20% of backyard. I'm about 10 minutes away from parkville's downtown (or take the walking trail to get there if you can walk/bike that far).
The line creek trail is a good biking/walking trail that provides a lot of green scenery (neighborhood has trees too).
Thanks for the info, eyeb! An acre is 43,560 square feet. Most small home lots in the City are around 3-4k that I've seen, with a few larger "double" lots around the 8k mark. I'm seeing the lot sizes in the area you linked are larger than that, and much closer to my target...
However, and I hesitate to bring this up, my one unpleasant run-in with the legal process was in Gladstone! Although I am a law-abiding citizen and consider myself a reasonable person, I was in a car accident there and was ticketed for basically failing to yield to "son of guy who owns town". (There's a bit more to it than that, but it's not relevant to these forums.) That's kind of why I'm avoiding that area. I'm sure it seems strange, and it was almost 30 years ago, but it's still one of the things I always remember about Gladstone. For what it's worth, the "son" was a no-show at the courts and I ended up with a clean record which I still carry to this day (knock on wood).
I'll definitely shift my gaze to that area and have a look-see. Can't wait to check out downtown Parkville next time I'm up visiting family!
And in case you're wondering why I don't ask said family for suggestions, since they're in the area...
I am! But you know, they're a bit biased. My sister would like to tell me about this lovely place right across from her...hehehe
My mother's a bit more reasonable, though, and has been giving me some great "adult insight" into the areas I remember much differently from my youth.
While it is a drive for us, we used to drive to Parkville to have tea at a tea room in the rear of a retail shop. They had a variety of teas, scones, clotted (aka Devonshire) cream, and some great jams. It was not fancy, but it wonderful. I was not a tea drinker until we took a trip to the UK and fell in love with tea, scones, and the clotted cream with jam. The place in Parkville recently went out of business. It was not a good facility for a tea room.
Hey, just wanted to check in and say thanks again for the replies and encouragement!
I've been spreading around my house hunting to scope out areas, and it looks kind of like I may be stuck with what appears to be the Northland suburbs if I want any kind of space and yet still be near Parkville downtown, Waldo, or Westport. Is that about right? Most of the houses I'm seeing are still pretty close together and have that "drive to the mall for everything" still built in. You can see it in the real estate ads where they proudly declare the home's proximity to Zona Rosa or other malls. Am I spot on, or way off base?
Heck, I remember back in the 80s, kids were all about "going to the mall", but I thought that time had kinda passed...
Also, how likely would it be that I could take a house in the city with a reasonable lot size that doesn't have a garage and ADD a garage to the back / side or extend a driveway into the lot? Having never owned a home myself, I'm aware that there are "zoning regulations" and "permits", but I have no idea where to find out about such things.
-T.
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