Spoonful, a Korean dessert cafe, has opened in St. Louis County
Spoonful, a newfangled dessert cafe, opened Feb. 17 at 12943 olive Blvd. in the Olive Arcade Plaza in unincorporated St. Louis County, as reported by St. Louis Magazine. The cafe specialize in bingsu, a season shave frosting dessert from Korea, which is made to order .
anterior to opening Spoonful, owner Monica Lee, who was born and raised in St. Louis, worked in public relations in China. While overseas, she could easily find bingsu – her darling dessert. But during visits back home, she noticed the lack of bingsu in the St. Louis area.
“ I would travel throughout East Asia [ and ] Southeast Asia, ” Lee said. “ Everywhere I went, I could always find a cafe that [ sold ] bingsu. I thought it would be great if I could offer the same bingsu cafe setting here in St. Louis. ”
Spoonful serves an categorization of bingsu flavors, such as Strawberry Station, Mango Tango, Blueberry Fields and Fruity Pebbles. Customers can choose from Asian-inspired flavors excessively, namely Matcha-matic and Injeolmi, mochi covered in a roast soy powder.
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“ [ Bingsu ] absorbs any character of season super good, ” Lee said. “ There is a base season : It ’ s like if you melted a rich vanilla ice cream and ran it through a bamboozle machine. But you can add sauces to change the spirit. … The possibilities are dateless. ”
Alongside bingsu, Spoonful brings another asian dessert to the table : taiyaki. This fish-shaped pastry originated from Japan, but was introduced to Korea during the twentieth century. On the away, taiyaki has a waffle-like outside made of dough, while the inside is stuffed with a loss bean filling. “ It ’ s kind of chewy and doughy on the inside, ” she said. “ I have two flavors, sweet bolshevik bean and Nutella, which [ have ] been selling crazy fast. I make the dough to the quality I like. I knew a family acquaintance who sold taiyaki, and I trained with them and [ learned ] the science behind it. ”
additionally, customers have a battalion of beverages to choose from. Lee spent the past year curating a ripple tea choice, including taro, mango and greens apple flavors, to name a few. The bubble teas can be customized to customers ’ liking by adjusting sweet levels or adding litchi jelly or cream caps ( which add a impressiveness to beverages like to cold foam at Starbucks ), in addition to the standard boba drop. Spoonful besides partnered with Blueprint Coffee to bring assorted coffee drinks and lattes to the menu .
The 1,000-square-foot cafe seats roughly 20 people, but will increase seat in April or May once the weather gets warmer, adding about 16 more outdoor seats in front of the cafe. Hours of mathematical process are noon to 9 post meridiem Tuesday through Sunday, but Lee is hoping to expand hours to transform Spoonful into a dawn cafe equally good .
“ Once we get more of our coffee gearing installed, I hope to open earlier in the morning, ” Lee said. “ I want [ Spoonful ] to be warm and inviting for everyone, not intimidating, not ostentatious. ”