(WXYZ) — There are only a handful of tea sommeliers in the United States and one of them lives right here in Detroit.
Her name is Kimberly Elise and she's the owner of Lily’s & Elise, a teahouse on 7 Mile and Livernois in Detroit.
When she bought the space in February 2020, Elise dreamed of bringing the ultimate tea experience to the Avenue of Fashion, but three weeks later— COVID hit.
And now with inflation, she worries that the business will shut down before it ever opens.
“I never thought it would take this long or cost this much for me to get open,” Elise says.
Elise has poured $270,000 of her own money into the teahouse just so it can stay afloat. She was also hosting fall afternoon tea fundraisers, applying for grants, and doing pop-up shops.
And then the unthinkable.
“The first week of September we had a power outage that lasted the entire week and all of the products and ingredients we had safely stored were destroyed. I haven’t been able to get back up since then,” Elise says.
Now, as the price of goods continues to go up, family, friends, and her personal finances have tapped out.
“For years the number one challenge has been lack of available workforce, but this year it’s been eclipsed by rising costs and inflation,” Elise said.
Brian Calley, the CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan, says factoring in inflation is equivalent to losing a months worth of revenue—a particularly hard pill to swallow for a business that hasn’t opened yet.
Elise says she will need $100,000 to make her dreams come true.
To learn more about Lily’s & Elise or to purchase a teabox, click here. To donate to her GoFundMe, click here.
