2 days ago
New Johnson County Asian bakery and coffee shop that fans ‘raved' about opens
Chocolate buns, strawberry cheesecake, caramel iced coffee with sea salt cold foam — customers ordered these treats and dozens more at the opening of 85°C Bakery Cafe in Overland Park.
The Taiwanese chain — which entered the U.S. market in 2008 — just opened its first Kansas City area location Wednesday.
It has a presence in California, Texas, Utah, Washington, Hawaii and beyond.
From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., customers flowed in and out the former Red Shoes space at 12061 Metcalf Ave., with lines spilling out the door at times.
On one side of the bakery, customers lined up with plastic trays and slid past rows of individually packaged pastries: jumbo guava cheese strudels, milk butter puff pastries, cocoa-dipped Danishes, pineapple cake and more.
More patrons gathered at the front counter to order drinks, like brown sugar oat lattes, milk tea with coffee jelly, strawberry matcha and frozen marble taro smoothies.
A pastry case held specialty full cakes and slices. Flavors include tiramisu cheesecake, macchiato cream cake, strawberry chocolate mousse and ube cream.
First-time customer Jennifer Her brought her family in after seeing the excitement over social media and hearing about it from others.
'We've had friends that have gone, and they've raved about it,' she said while her three little girls happily sipped their smoothies. 'It's really fresh and tasty. I've had my Vietnamese coffee, and it's really good.'
Trinh Huynh has been to the location in Los Angeles and was excited to see it had opened in the Kansas City metro.
Her favorite item? The miniature lemon cupcakes. Since the store is still in its soft opening phase, the cupcakes weren't available Wednesday. Huynh is anxiously awaiting that treat.
'I'll keep coming back ... until they have it,' she said.
85°C Bakery Cafe was founded in 2003 after Cheng-Hsueh Wu visited a cafe in a five-star hotel and was taken aback by its expensive prices, according to the chain's website. He sought to create something of similar quality that was much more attainable. (A medium iced latte at the Johnson County cafe, for example, is $4.55. Many of the pastries are under $3.)
Its name comes from what Wu thought to be the perfect brewing temperature for coffee.
Meanwhile, South Korean cafe Paris Baguette is quickly moving toward opening its first two metro locations at 11137 W. 95th St. and 15895 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park. Exact opening dates for both locations were not immediately available Wednesday, though construction for the Oak Park Mall location appears to be moving steadily along.
Last year, partner Mike Issa said he's hoping to open more Paris Baguette spots in the metro.
International bakery Tous Les Jours, on the other hand, has been open in Overland Park for close to a decade at 10348 Metcalf Ave. It, too, hails from South Korea.
Japanese discount store Daiso opened a week ago at 14673 W. 119th St., offering home goods, snacks, beauty products and more.
