In my quest to drink less soda–I’ve eliminated about 60 oz. a week–I’ve been drinking more iced tea. However, it’s been disappointing drinking the tasteless iced tea served at most restaurants.
Well for fans of tea–either iced, hot or bubble–we have a new place to quench our thirst: Steepery Tea Bar, which opened on State Street last month. I was invited to tour the store to see how the tea was made and sample some drinks.
The owner told me her goal is to become the next Starbucks. With five other stores (all in Minnesota) and a great product, I think they have a shot.
Any drink can be customized, including by sweetness level. As another example, you can add one of nine flavors of bubbles (called pearls and jellies here) to any drink for 50 cents. The texture of the bubbles is absolutely perfect, as Steepery staff make the pearls every two hours. I recommend adding either the passion fruit or the lychee to a glass of iced tea ($3.30).
On the hot side, I thought the individual tea press (see photo) was a clever approach to serving tea. You’ll have to make the difficult decision of choosing among the more than 50 kinds of fair-trade & organic looseleaf teas and tisanes, but be comforted in knowing there’s no bad choice. A cup is $2.30 and a pot is $3.25.
I did ask about the “bar” in the name, and the owner told me the space (formerly the Taste of Tibet) was unfortunately too small to have a bar set up, like in the other locations. Steepery also sells light fare, all locally sourced.
Steepery Tea Bar is open every day. It plans to showcase local artists and musicians in the near future.
The last time I was inside Forrestal’s in Middleton, which was about four years ago, I was the best man in a wedding. Now the space has been transformed into 
Those garlic parmesan fries, by the way, are not worth ordering. Neither the chunks of garlic nor the big pieces of parmesan stuck to the fries, so you had to use a fork to keep it all together to get it into your mouth. (Look at the photo to see what I mean.)
Shabu-shabu is another term for a Chinese hot pot. It’s like fondue, but instead of a pot of cheese, it’s a pot of boiling water; and instead of dipping bread, you put in meat and vegetables. That’s the obvious specialty at the newly opened 
For appetizers, I tried the fried taro cake ($6.99), except instead of a fried turnip cake found on most dim sum menus, Soga serves a sweet cake. I’ve eaten it before, though I forget the name, but it’s definitely not a taro cake, so be warned.
