Three years ago, Bianca Sisillo-DeFries set out to provide a new resource for mothers and their children.
A mother to a 3-year-old herself, at the time, she’d wanted to find ways for her and her son to both get out and about. But it was difficult to do so with a small child, she said, and she knew she wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
Then she learned about the concept of play cafes — an indoor space for children and their caregivers to grab a bite to eat and play at the same time. There was nothing like it in the area, so she created her own.
This month marks the third anniversary for her concept, Inspired Play Cafe in Overland Park. And now it’s expanding further.
Sisillo-DeFries will open the play cafe’s second location in Merriam in early December.
Inspired Play Cafe will be at 5640 Antioch Road
- The play cafe will occupy a space at the Merriam Town Center shopping center, just off Johnson Drive and Antioch Road.
- There, it will operate near the Lakeshore school supply store and ice cream shop Betty Rae’s.
- Once it opens, Sisillo-DeFries said the Merriam location will likely operate under the same hours as the Overland Park location — though she is considering expanding the Merriam location’s hours.
Inspired Play Cafe offers education-inspired entertainment
On the food and drink side, Inspired offers items like breakfast burritos, salads, wraps and coffee drinks.
Sisillo-DeFries partnered with Overland Park-based PB & J Restaurants, who served as consultants for the cafe side.
In the back of the center, past the cafe seating, sits a large entertainment space where children and their caregivers can play with various toys.
Those toys and the layout of the room shifts every couple of weeks, Sisillo-Fries said, so that regular customers can feel like they’re visiting somewhere new.
Parents and children can book play sessions for up to two hours, every day of the week.
Inspired Play Cafe also offers memberships and punch cards for frequent customers.
“We really make it a point here to have a lot of opportunities, because everyone’s schedules are different,” Sisillo-Fries said.
The Merriam space will offer new features
Sisillo-DeFries said the Merriam space will offer twice as much cafe seating as the Overland Park location — along with a new art station and lounge space with comfy couches and chairs.
As a registered behavior technician, Sisillo-DeFries previously worked with military families and children with autism. This work shaped her approach when she created the play cafe, she said.
“All of our therapy was embedded in play,” she said. “I got really good at selecting toys and figuring out what motivates children.”
In addition to providing entertainment for children, she said, she wanted Inspired Play Cafe to be a beneficial space for the adults that accompanied children to the play space too.
“My goal was to create a space for young families in our community to come together that catered as much to the caregiver as it did to the child,” she said. “(The adult) is making the choice to come, so if you’re not comfortable there, you might come every now and then, but you won’t make it a part of your routine.”
Becoming a reliable part of a busy parent’s routine is ultimately the goal, Sisillo-Fries said — a “home away from home” of sorts.
Looking forward, she said even more locations could be on the horizon for Inspired Play Cafe — along with continued partnerships with other local businesses.
“I think it’s really incredible that (Inspired Play Cafe) has been so supported in three years that I was able to independently open the second location, even in today’s economy and market,” she said. “(The expansion) will allow Inspired Play Cafe to touch and reach other parts of the community.”
It’s not just the potential for new customers that’s exciting to her; it’s also continuing the relationships with the parents and caregivers she has come to know as the Overland Park play cafe’s owner.
As a mother herself to one child and a stepmother to two step-children (with another baby on the way), she said, she has loved the opportunity to bond with the parents that come through her doors and watch them bond with their children.
“I get to hear people’s stories, and they share their life with me, the good and the bad,” she said. “And it’s so fascinating to watch (kids’) brains move. It’s such an open-ended space where there’s no right or wrong way to play with anything.”
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