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.
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.
By my count, you can order sushi in at least six restaurants downtown–Osaka House, Red Sushi Grill, Restaurant Muramoto, Soga, Takara, Wasabi and 
Sushi is divided into special rolls and regular rolls, so I of course chose from the former list. The delicious Volcano roll ($12) is made from tempura spicy tuna and generously topped with red tobiko. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a roll this beautiful. The spicy mayo was a nice touch.
Like Crave, T Sushi does have a robust martini list. I have yet to encounter a bad lychee martini, and the Lily’s lychee martini here is no exception, although it didn’t come with a full lychee in it. A warning that the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake martini is like drinking pure sugar.
