When Bay Vanithbuncha was growing up in Thailand, boba tea was just as much of a daily ritual as coffee is for many Americans.
A boba enthusiast herself, she’d long dreamed of owning a boba tea shop of her own. After she moved with her husband to Kansas City and her daughter reached school-age six years ago, she finally got that chance.
Six years after opening Bruu Cafe’s flagship location in Kansas City, Missouri, the shop is growing even further. Next year, the boba tea shop will open its southernmost location to date, in southern Overland Park.
Bruu Cafe is opening at the Bluhawk shopping center
- The shop is opening a new space just off U.S. Highway 69 and 159th Street in southern Overland Park.
- Pending construction, Bruu Cafe aims to open in the summer of 2027.
- Regular hours for the new store have yet to be finalized.
Bruu Cafe serves boba tea with Asian-inspired flavors
The menu at Bruu Cafe offers a variety of flavors, from taro and brown sugar to honeydew and creme brulee (the last of which, Vanithbuncha said, is a “forever” best-seller).
Though the menu pulls from Vanithbuncha’s own Thai roots, the tea that Bruu Cafe uses is from Taiwan, which she said makes a quality difference.
“Taiwanese tea is famous, and the quality is the best,” she said. “I try to mix all Asian (influences) in our concept.”
It’s not just the menu that’s personal to Vanithbuncha either; it’s the branding too. The house-shaped logo with three parallel lines through the center represents her own family. (The two lines that make up the “roof” represent her parents, and the three lines through the middle represent Vanithbuncha and her two siblings.)
The new storefront will be the cafe’s second location in Johnson County. Bruu Cafe’s shop at Leawood’s Park Place, however, is a franchise and this new shop will be owned directly by Vanithbuncha.
Bruu Cafe is part of a new wave of growth at Bluhawk
Joining the latest phase of redevelopment at the southern Overland Park development, Bruu Cafe will join several other new additions in the summer of 2027 — such as fast-casual eatery Chicken Salad Chick, local healthy eatery Billie’s Grocery, and gelato shop Amorino.
This next phase of retail follows the opening of the AdventHealth Sports Park, which has brought lots of young athletes and their families to the area since it opened in 2024.
Vanithbuncha is well aware of this. Her family lives just a few minutes from Bluhawk, and her daughter and son practice ice skating and hockey (respectively) there.
Growth for Bruu Cafe has been intentionally spaced out, but bringing her boba shop much closer to home and her own community is something she said she’s looking forward to.
Though the Country Club Plaza’s shop’s customer base has seen its fair share of Kansas City tourists (particularly with this summer’s World Cup festivities), at least half of the customer base is regular locals — some who have been stopping in since the shop’s first day.
With a new shop and a new clientele, she said, there are new challenges — but also new opportunities.
“Since we opened, we’ve still got our (original) customers,” she said. “I’ve made more and more relationships with the regular customers.”
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