Trendy downtown business adds coffee, now aspires to be one of Wichita’s busiest shops
It’s been almost one year since entrepreneur Heather Giesen opened a downtown business that was a new one for Wichita.
An upscale plant shop, the business at Market and Waterman called Grow Giesen Plant Shop, had a fancy bar in the center of the 3,200-square-foot space. It featured high-end, eye-catching cocktails, both alcoholic and non, and soon Grow was doubling as a hip shopping venue with a build-your-own plant bar by day and a stylish (and crowded) downtown hangout by night.
Now, Giesen has added another unexpected arm to her business: coffee. In mid-March, she introduced a menu full of coffee and tea drinks, both classic and offbeat, and she’s hoping that over the spring and summer months, Grow will become downtown’s next must-visit coffee shop.
“When I thought of this concept, I always thought of coffee,” Giesen said. “I knew that at some point, we were going to add coffee.”
Starting off with it, though, would have added too much chaos to an already chaotic opening, Giesen said. When Grow opened on June 23, 2022, it was wall-to-wall and stayed that way for a while. It took her staff some time to learn their jobs — and it took Wichita some time to figure out exactly what the new business was.
Now, though, Giesen said, coffee makes more sense. In fact, she needs the shop’s bar to be up and running during the morning hours to justify its existence, and obviously, not many people are ordering cocktails in the morning.
But her shop already has the infrastructure that many popular coffee shops have, including a large garage door that opens to a shady front porch area, a coffee bar and lots of seating, both inside and out. Giesen says she hopes people will start bringing their laptops. claiming seats, and using the plant shop for work meetings and social meetups.
“We have great parking, and now we have these morning hours, and we’re in a space in Wichita that there hasn’t really been a coffee shop,” she said. “We are close to a lot of businesses within the downtown area. I do want to be seen as a place for people to get their morning coffee, as a coffee destination.”
Mushroom latte, anyone?
When Giesen and her staff, including manager Samantha Scott, started dreaming up their coffee menu, they decided they needed to offer classic drinks like Americano, cold brew, espresso and drip coffee. They even hired Wichita’s Reverie Coffee Roasters to provide their coffee and machinery.
But they also wanted to create some “on brand” drinks that played into their earth-centric, botanical mission.
One of the most talked-about and ordered drinks on their new menu is a mushroom latte — an invention that people have long been making at home but that no other coffee shop in Wichita is serving, Giesen said.
The shop uses two brands of mushroom latte base, made by companies Mud\WTR and Joey. The staff has been working on perfecting the lattes, which are made by mixing the mushroom latte base with things like milk and flavored syrups. When it’s done right, it tastes a lot like a traditional latte. When it’s not, the drink can be a bit chalky, Giesen said.
“We are really working on perfecting it and treating it just like a latte,” she said, adding that mushroom-based coffee drinks are all-natural, caffeine-free and quite healthy.
The non-mushroom menu features four signature latte drinks, including the Botanic Brew made with white chocolate, butterfly pea flower and choice of milk, and the Blossom, made with honey, Jasmine and choice of milk.
The menu, which can be seen below, also features iced tea, kombucha and milk and honey teas. A small food menu offers croissant sandwiches and sausage rolls provided by Paradise Donuts, pastries by Coca Dolce, hummus by N&J Cafe, and focaccia bread by Viola’s Pantry.
People can visit Grow now as early as 7 a.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. on Saturdays to enjoy coffee and spring air. The new hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays; 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays; 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays; 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays; 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
Grow coffee menu
.jpg)