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| - IMPORTANT NOTE
As some of you may have noticed, I've unplugged from reviewing on Yelp completely. This has been due primarily to a lack of personal time. That said, I am making an intentional (though severely temporary) move out of hibernation to update my review on Tea & Toast Co.
It has been almost a year since my original review, and a lot has changed (for the better). You deserve to know about it, and the business deserves the accolades it has worked so hard to earn in the time since my first review of its service.
So without further ado...
AMBIANCE
It's 10am on a Saturday morning in the dead center of a sweltering Arizona summer. Beside you, by your feet, reclines a backpack filled with notepads, pens, and your computer. Opened before you, in your hand: a book that sets against a buzzing Downtown Phoenix scene.
Behind you all the sounds of morning business accumulate in fluctuating waves: someone pours a bucket of ice into an oversized water container; an espresso machine rattles and hisses and screams as a barista steams her milk; silverware and glasses clank in almost-musical accord.
Upstairs, dozens have gathered with their mats and comfy clothes to practice yoga on the mezzanine. Natural wood trusses span the open space above their heads. Their synchronized expressions are flanked by walls bestrewn with regular rotations of this city's local art.
THE HISTORY
Underneath the mezzanine, Allison DeVane moves with the clarity of intention at a hundred miles an hour: organizing the Tea & Toast workspace, checking in on supplies, greeting customers, and training her baristas.
It wasn't long ago that this successful business existed as little more than an idea in her head. In actual fact, it began as a bicycle-cart contraption and loads of time and work and complimentary handouts.
Nowadays, Tea & Toast Co. represents the first brick-and-mortar face of Allison's ingenious TEASPRESSA enterprise, introducing methods of preparing concentrated tea blends in forms more often associated with coffee.
THE MENU
So step up to the counter and order yourself a tea latte, tea mocha, tea americano, etc. Or take your pick off the specialty beverage menu (every one of which is utterly delicious). OR order a typical coffee beverage - that's always available, too.
Jumping back to the patented TEASPRESSA tea preparations, you cannot BELIEVE how titillating these are until you've experienced them yourself. Truly - these tea beverages match the coffee consistencies you've become familiar with while still maintain the health benefits of tea and introducing flavor profiles you simply will NOT be able to get enough of!
And FOOD! There's food on the menu, too, including (much to my pleasant surprise) Noble Bread (a well-known local option) as a primary feature. On this last visit, I enjoyed a breakfast of fresh, thick-cut Noble toast slathered in smashed avocado and topped with hardboiled egg, a dash of pepper, and shavings of sea salt.
(Had my stomach allowed me, I'd have eaten 5.)
IN CONCLUSION
My initial prognosis of this business had it worthy of 4 stars: it was interesting-though-not-inspiring and somewhat overpriced. In the time since, Allison has done a LOT of work to legitimize her brand and add value to her offerings.
The prices are more achievable (beyond fair, in fact) and the DeSoto space in total has grown up, too - adding any number of inspiring elements to the mix, ranging from features of architecture & design to local art and even regular (free!) events.
Most inspiring of all, of course, is the story of this young woman bent on building something absolutely NEW and UNEXPLORED: bootstrapping a literally-never-before-thought-of concept into a functioning, successful business all her own.
NOW YOU GO!
So if you haven't been, I want you to fully disregard my too-hasty summary of initial impressions. Tea & Toast Co. is dynamic and it is utterly unique. It's different than I thought at first and it's improving every day. I can't recommend it highly enough. Go say hi to Allison and tell her it was Tim's review that sent ya. ;)
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