An Erie favorite gets back on its feet as it reopens for business

Erie Reader
Date: August 6, 2020
By: Hannah Wyman 

Bubble tea, boba, pearl milk tea. Since its opening last May, Andora's Bubble Tea Shop has successfully landed this popular Taiwanese beverage on Erie's radar. Located on the corner of State Street and North Park Row, customers are welcomed into the breezy, local-art-clad café and offered a variety of freshly brewed teas paired with their choice if tapioca, chewy jellies, or popping juice-filled boba. Yet, like many other local businesses, owners Andy and Rora Steinmetz are grappling with the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has left in its wake. 

Erie natives Andy and Rora found themselves back in the 814 after years of traveling around the country. What the two also found upon their return was a craving for boba, a drink popular in their previous home of California, that was left unmet. Thus, Erie's first bubble tea shop was conceptualized. 

"We just wanted to create a place that didn't exist for us when we were younger, a place that was just fun and modern, a place we'd want to frequent," Andy explained. "I think we've done that, being a unique cafe place…It was just a place people came and hung out, or grab drinks and walked around the park, and I guess that's what we always saw it as. Well that and making bomb boba, that's clearly the most important part, making a product we personally crave every day."

After securing their current location in the fall of 2018, the owners said that the process was pretty much a straight shot to introducing Erie to bubble tea. What followed was a montage of redesigning, rebuilding, securing equipment, finding suppliers, and hiring employees until the final unveiling of Andora's Bubble Tea Shop on 516 State St.    [FULL  STORY]