Near Southside tea shop wants you to unplug and leave your cares behind
For more than a year now, Tina Howard has been showing up at Near Southside events such as Arts Goggle and Open Streets, as well as pop-ups at such spots as HopFusion Ale Works, promoting Leaves Books and Tea Shop, which has been under construction for months not too far from South Main Street..
This week, the shop — on St. Louis Avenue a couple of doors down from the Collective Brewing Project — is in soft-opening mode, with limited hours leading up to the official grand opening on Sept. 1.
Howard, who founded the store with her husband, Todd, is aiming for a quiet hangout, so the store is WiFi-free. It’s more about quiet conversation and relaxing with tea, a book, or both.
The “Leaves” theme goes beyond how the name can apply to both tea and to the pages of a book. The pickup counter is decorated with a painting of leaves, and there’s a book “tree” in one corner made by Brandon Pederson of Fort Worth’s Brothersisterdesign.
And there are lots of tea leaves in canisters. More than 40 varieties, served hot or iced, and a couple of on-tap “sparkling teas” including a sarsaparilla that has that touch of root-beer nostalgia you want from a sarsaparilla.
Savory snacks from Fort Worth personal chef Callie Salls’ Meyer & Sage and pastries from Stir Crazy Baked Goods, Robbie Werner’s Magnolia Street bakery, were available at a media preview Monday and both businesses will provide food for the tea shop.
Matcha teas and tea lattes (available with dairy or non-dairy milks) are also available. Hot teas are $3; most other teas are $4 with a $1 charge for turning any drink into a latte.
The book selection emphasizes quality over quantity — this is more a tea shop with books than a bookstore with tea — with about 250 books in the store, arranged by topic and sometimes almost by mood: art & creative, social media/tech, identity, mindfulness, immigration, etc.
Many of the titles are familiar: Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief,” David Sedaris’ “Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002); Andrew Sean Greer’’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Less”; Robert Ludlum’s “The Bourne Identity” (filed under, appropriately enough, identity); and more.
Tina Howard says she hand-picked every book in the store’s initial order. “I have since solicited feedback from the Near Southside neighborhood in order to create a ‘community recommendation’ section,” she says in an email comment, “which I hope serves the dual purpose of showing how diverse our community is and provides an eclectic mix of books to explore. I also asked a lot of my entrepreneur friends for recommendations to help fill our entrepreneur section.”
There is also some cool book-related decor, such as a card catalog from North Texas State University — pre-dating the University of North Texas days — that the owners found on Craigslist.
The shop is part of Dickson-Jenkins Lofts and Plaza, whose other tenants include the new location of longtime Fort Worth vinyl store Record Town, which had to leave its University Drive location this year after more than 60 years in that spot. The new location is expected to open in a few weeks.
Leaves Books and Tea Shop is at 120 St. Louis Ave. No. 101, Fort Worth, 682-233-4832. During the soft-opening period, it will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday through Aug. 31. It will officially open Sept. 1, with hours from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday; closed Sunday and Monday.
For information, visit http://www.leavesbookandteashop.com