Tea Bar is pouring its last cups of loose-leaf matcha and house-cooked tapioca pearls at 1055 Northwest Northrup Street on Wednesday, September 9, closing the final storefront of a Portland tea brand that once expanded to four locations across the city. Founder Erica Indira Swanson says the business isn't going away — it's shifting entirely to online sales, wholesale partnerships, and franchising.
According to KOIN, Swanson decided against renewing the lease on the Pearl District cafe, which had become Tea Bar's last remaining brick-and-mortar shop after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the temporary closure of its other locations. The company plans to keep selling its products online and says it will share more wholesale partners and pop-up locations in the months ahead, per the same report.
Tea Bar's story began in December 2014, when Swanson opened the original cafe at 1615 Northeast Killingsworth Street at just 23 years old. Portland Monthly reported at the time that Swanson spent two years personally renovating the building alongside her father, real estate developer John Swanson, crafting a Scandinavian-meets-Asian minimalist interior on a tight budget. Her passion for tea traces back to her teenage years traveling in China, according to Market of Choice, and she later returned to Portland after that stint abroad, per KOIN's report.
From Neighborhood Cafe to National Recognition
Tea Bar grew to four locations at its peak, including a shop on Division Street and a now-shuttered Southwest Portland location, KOIN reports. The brand drew national attention along the way, with features in Bon Appétit and Goop, and Imbibe Magazine naming Swanson its 2017 Tea Person of the Year for rejecting artificial powders and pre-made syrups in favor of freshly steeped loose-leaf teas.
The company's growth peaked around 2020, when Forbes reported Tea Bar generated roughly $1.4 million in revenue while expanding wholesale distribution to more than 30 retail locations. Forbes named Swanson to its 2021 “30 Under 30 - Food & Drink” list at age 29, and the outlet reported she planned to expand Tea Bar's footprint across another 100 retail and grocery locations. The Division Street shop, which had reopened after pandemic-era closures, closed permanently in 2023, according to KOIN.
Pearl District Pressures Mount
The closure lands amid mounting commercial pressures on the Pearl District storefront itself. In September 2023, a burglar shot out two 10-foot-tall glass windows at the Northrup Street location in a failed break-in, causing $10,000 in out-of-pocket damage in what Willamette Week described as one of several burglary attempts at the shop. The Willamette Week also notes that Tea Bar's exit fits a broader retail retreat in the neighborhood, where REI closed its 20-year-old store on Northwest Johnson Street in February 2024 and Starbucks shut its nearby Northwest 11th Avenue cafe in October 2022.
Real estate listings tell a similar story about the block itself. Commercial records reviewed by LoopNet show the retail condominium space at 1035 Northwest Northrup Street, adjacent to Tea Bar, was listed for sale at $2.85 million in August, while operating at just 45% occupancy — a vacancy snapshot reflecting the ongoing recalibration of Northwest Portland's commercial real estate market.
A Broader Shift Away From Physical Teahouses
Tea Bar's shutdown also arrives amid a wider contraction of Portland's specialized tea spaces. The Tao of Tea permanently closed its landmark 23-year teahouse inside the Lan Su Chinese Garden in 2023, a closure the company's own history page frames as part of a shift toward rising overhead for physical teahouses relative to online retail.
Before locking its doors for good, Tea Bar leaned into high-profile brand partnerships to keep its name visible, including a “Tea Bar x Porsche Studio Portland” community showcase event in the Pearl District in May 2025 that brought together local food and lifestyle vendors, according to Porsche Studio Portland's event listing. The shop also built a reputation as a launchpad for other small businesses, hosting more than 100 pop-up events over the years for brands including Portland juice maker Drink Mamey and Seattle-based ice cream maker Frankie & Jo's, Market of Choice reports.
What Comes Next for Tea Bar
Tea Bar's wholesale teas — sourced from family farms in Uji, Japan, and Yiwu, China, with monthly shipments of first-flush, single-origin matcha — will continue to anchor the company's online and wholesale business, per Market of Choice's reporting. The brand already has wholesale partners throughout Portland and beyond, according to KOIN, and last year announced franchising opportunities for the first time.
On its company website, Tea Bar says it's seeking owners excited to turn wellness into a meaningful, values-driven business in their own cities, per KOIN's reporting. Whether that vision takes root in Portland again or spreads to new markets, Swanson says the brand hopes to expand to more cities, homes, and communities in the years ahead.
