Bitterness Brewing at Main & South Grove

The few times I’ve been in a Teavana store, I have to admit I liked the place. For those who don’t know, Teavana is a chain of gourmet tea shops. Often located in malls (Galleria is the closest near Buffalo), Teavana sells a variety of unique, imported, and exotic leafy concoctions just waiting to be steeped in boiling water.

In addition to loose leaf teas, stores also have a cart of free samples parked out front and plenty of expensive pots and other steeping equipment for serious steepers of tea.

Unfortunately, I visit Galleria maybe once or twice a year at the most. Buffalo’s den of all things material is just too crowded, crazy, and far away for me to be a regular. Suffice to say, I don’t frequent Teavana.

Imagine my interest when I heard that an exotic tea shop is looking at setting up in East Aurora. Right on the edge of the Roycroft Campus, Roycroft Tea Co. seeks to sell exotic brews in the little yellow raised ranch that once housed the chamber of commerce. Entrepreneurs Michael and Maryna Caputo envision a second-story teahouse with administrative and fulfillment offices in the downstairs for their Web-based tea sales business. According to the report first seen in Sunday’s Buffalo News, the shop would also sell a mix of merchandise including tea accessories and local baked goods.

I like the idea. It’s fitting in a village like East Aurora to have an artsy place like a gourmet tea shop. Unfortunately, this venture is not without controversy.  For once it’s not the town impeding progress for the sake of preserving the historic feel. Those at the adjacent Roycroft Campus on South Grove St. feel the name is trademark infringement. Roycroft is not a name that’s just up for grabs they say. I can certainly see their point; Roycroft has come to define more than just an era of furniture and art making. It was a movement and today it’s an inn, restaurant, and arts community.

Caputo says he’s ready for battle royale in the courts. He’s also an experienced public relations practitioner and is currently working with “Mad as Hell” Carl Paladino’s campaign to overtake Albany. Obviously the guy is a marketing guru, and playing on the Roycroft namesake is great marketing in East Aurora.

The teahouse (whatever it’s name may end up being) has a target opening set for late May. It’ll be interesting to see what transpires with this over the next month. There’s already a placeholder website set up at roycrofttea.com. It’s furnished in the arts-and-crafts typeface that seems to decorate many businesses’ signs in this town. (Perhaps the Roycroft folk should’ve licensed that font long ago—they’d be wealthy off the royalties!)

Naming issues aside, I hope the business goes forth. If Teavana can survive in the malls, there’s no reason why a business like this can’t survive in artsy East Aurora. The village desperately needs something to fill the glut of vacant retail space. Plus, it'd just be urbane to sample fine exotic teas.

ROYCROFT GROWING—At the corner of S. Grove & Main a serene park has taken shape. It reflects the vision of the original Roycrofters and replaces an asbestos-laden A-frame that previously occupied the site. Will a teahouse also become part of the near-Roycroft landscape?