Grow, a unique new business offering a bar, plants for sale, a DIY space, is opening soon
A unique new business that’s part trendy plant shop, part bar will open next week in Wichita, and its owner is preparing for big crowds.
Back in March, entrepreneur Heather Giesen announced plans to relocate her Grow plant shop from a 500-square-foot space at Cleveland Corner to a 3,200-square-foot space on the ground level of Fidelity Bank’s new RISE Car Park on Market between Waterman and English. Since then, social media has been buzzing about it.
Now, the shop is nearly complete: It will open to the public on Thursday, June 23, and Giesen is predicting plant pandemonium based on how quickly tickets went for a sold-out grand opening party happening on Sunday. She posted about the event a couple of weeks ago, she said, and within nine hours, all 350 of the $30 tickets available were gone.
“I’m not going to lie: there is nothing else like this,” Giesen said of the shop. “It’s a completely unique attraction.”
Grow has four main areas.
The south side of the shop holds a retail section that’s overflowing with live plants for sale plus colorful, often whimsical planters in shapes like a roller skate and the Venus de Milo statue. The retail section also includes plant-themed jewelry, plant accessories, plant food and more.
One of Grow’s main draws will likely be its bar, which is in the center of the space. It serves plant-themed adult beverages that were created by Giesen’s staff mixologists, and the menu offers six martinis and seven cocktails. One of the martinis, called Tillandsia, is served in a vessel that includes an air plant that customers get to keep.
The bar also offers a rotating beer, wine by the glass or bottle, prosecco on tap and kombucha, and Giesen said she was insistent that it also offer a list of non-alcoholic cocktails. The mixologists came up with eight different “sober-licious” drinks, all of which are designed to look just as attractive as the full-strength drinks.
“Something we noticed is that there’s a huge crowd of sober, but there’s not a lot of options,” Giesen said.
Eventually, the bar will also offer “munchies” made by Viola’s Pantry, Giesen’s old neighbor at Cleveland Corner. People who order drinks at Grow can enjoy them at one of six stools at the bar or on the spacious Market-facing patio, accessible to the indoors by large garage doors. People are also free to wander the store with drinks in hand.
One of the big draws of the shop, Giesen predicts, will be its DIY bar. The north end of the store has six tables where people can design their own terrariums by first choosing a container from a wall filled with uniquely shaped clear glass vessels then filling them at the table with provided sand, stones, moss and soil. The price on each vessel includes those items, and people can pay extra for specialty plants, crystals and other fun items for their terrariums. “Plantologists” will be on hand to help people who are unsure of their own artistic ability.
The DIY bar will be first-come, first-served, Giesen said, though in the future she’ll likely offer ticketed classes where people can make things like succulent wreaths and Staghorn fern mounts.
Finally, Grow has a large lounge area that eventually Giesen will rent out for private parties and events. That room, which is on the east side of the space, also will be where she puts on classes with names like Plant Parenthood 101. As long as no events are happening in the lounge, it will be open for people to sit and enjoy their drinks.
Giesen, who for now still lives in Pratt, said it’s been a grueling three months getting the shop put together. Her husband and craftsman father have built most of the fixtures in the place, and her team of about 15 employees have been integral to the process.
She’s now excited to get people in and see what they think of the shop.
“Grow is all about the experience that you have here,” she said. “It’s no longer just a plant shop. There’s so much more to coming here. It’s a community. It’s a safe space for people.”
Grow’s hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. The shop will be closed on Mondays.
Botanic at GROW bar menu
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 2:43 PM.
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