At age 10, this North Texas girl opened a restaurant. Now she’s moving downtown
Arlington’s little success story is making a big move.
Olivia Huynh, 13, is moving her smash-hit Rocketbelly bubble tea cafe to Front Street in downtown Arlington.
She closed the doors at the current location May 4 to move her chicken tenders-and-tea restaurant after three years on West Pioneer Parkway south of UT Arlington.
The new Front Street location will serve only self-service bubble teas with milk and tapioca pearls, and maybe some small food items.
The Huynhs still hope Olivia can reopen a larger restaurant somewhere and relaunch her “Rocket Chicken” tenders or popcorn chicken.
Already a child star acting in TV commercials, she’s become a celebrity teen entrepreneur.
She’s the host, counter attendant, floor manager and cashier, with mother Mary Huynh on hand to help.
Olivia grew up watching cooking shows, and even launched her own YouTube videos under the name “DIYWithOllie.”
Rocketbelly is a rocket ship full of tea and toys
She’s always wanted to go to space. So her Rocketbelly shops are a space-themed playland full of NASA memorabilia, intended to seem like a crew capsule of a space launch.
“I imagined a huge rocket ship with a restaurant inside its belly,” she said in a 2024 Star-Telegram interview. “And I thought it would look cool with lots of white, silver, and neon lights to make it very futuristic.”
She first opened in Irving. Then, in 2022, she settled into a shopping center at Pioneer Parkway and South Center Street near Kowloon Chinese Seafood Restaurant.
“I was a little bit scared that it wouldn’t be popular,” she said on her last weekend in the restaurant.
“But it grew and grew.”
That lease was up May 4, so she left the neighborhood near UT Arlington with a weekend of discount food, drink and merchandise sales.
For the moment, it was the last chance to have her chicken tenders, panko-breaded and lightly fried like chicken katsu.
The popcorn chicken bites come atop french fries and topped with mozzarella and Japanese curry, her twist on poutine with curry fries.
If the chicken is irresistible, so are the honey-butter french fries.
But the new location at 400 E. Front St. is too small to serve food. So, it’ll keep Rocketbelly’s distinctive wall of flavor — more than 40 flavors of teas and toppings, with 10 flavors of milk and small cups, so you can sample each tea.
The favorite on social media is the purple yam-coconut milk tea. But customers can literally try all 40 combinations of black or green teas before picking one.
To Arlington, the little bubble tea shop is a big deal
That’s the kind of attraction Arlington wants downtown, in a new shop across Front Street from Cane Rosso near a new Breakfast Brothers.
As a young business leader, Olivia Huynh has been celebrated by Mayor Jim Ross at business luncheons and visited by a long line of celebrities and national reporters.
But there is no question which guest meant the most.
“When Chris came!” she said, referring to retired astronaut and U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Cassidy, chief executive of the National Medal of Honor Museum, 1861 AT&T Way in Arlington.
Cassidy visited a year ago, giving Olivia the same advice you might give a preteen who wants to play pro sports.
“Statistically, very few people will end up in the same uniform,” he told her, according to a WFAA story. “But that doesn’t mean people should stop trying.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
