A Japanese tea and matcha cafe known for drinks that look more like desserts than beverages is putting down new roots in Carrollton. La Maison Bleue is finalizing renovations at 2700 Old Denton Road, Suite 112, inside a mixed-use development that also includes the View Carrollton condominiums, with a health inspection still pending before it can welcome guests.
According to CultureMap Dallas, co-owner Jay Cho has not yet set a firm opening date but is aiming to begin a soft-opening phase in a week or two. The cafe is already interviewing baristas and bake staff as it prepares the space for its debut, and Cho said the team will post opening updates on Instagram.
The Carrollton location marks a new chapter for a business that started small. La Maison Bleue began as a farmers market stand before founder Anna Cho and Jay Cho grew it into a brand built around Japanese teas, matcha drinks, and presentations artful enough to resemble works of art. The company operated in Fairview for six years, running a location inside the Revolving Kitchen food hall there until it closed the month before CultureMap's report.
From Pop-Ups to a Permanent Storefront
Before landing a full address, La Maison Bleue built its following through smaller footholds around North Texas. The business started with a series of small pop-ups at Mitsuwa Marketplace in Plano along with catering gigs, according to the Dallas Observer. SMU's Hughes Trigg Student Center became one of the first places to regularly carry its drinks, followed shortly by BIRD Bakery in Highland Park.
As demand grew, the Chos took over a retail food court space within Mitsuwa Marketplace, and Anna Cho rented a small commercial prep space there to increase production capacity, the Observer's reporting notes. The outlet also reported that the team had been in discussions with independent beverage bottlers that could package their drinks in ways that extend shelf life, since the teas carry an expiration date of about 14 days or so. The Chos had hoped their products could land on the shelves of bigger stores and retailers toward the end of that year, though that expansion was described only as a hope rather than a confirmed plan.
A Menu Built Around Seasonal Ingredients
Anna Cho has said she saw chic, high-quality coffee and boba or matcha tea shops throughout Dallas but did not see a quiet, intentional Japanese tea experience built on real ingredients, as she told NBC5. That gap is what the Carrollton menu is designed to fill, with this year's seasonal sakura cream matcha made with real sakura from Japan and finished with pink cream.
Other menu items include the azuki red bean matcha zenzai, which Anna Cho makes with all-natural and thoughtfully sourced ingredients and tops with toasted mochi dango, along with the kuro mitsu hojicha, made with Japanese black sugar, matcha or roasted hojicha, and the cafe's signature cream. The lineup also includes a strawberry latte made with fresh strawberries, milk, and signature cream, a raspberry yuzu tea, and a biscoff cream latte built on an espresso base with biscoff crumble.
On Instagram, the brand has described its approach simply: “Pure Ingredients. Simple Process.” The account's bio has tracked its footprint across North Texas, from SMU's law school to the now-closed Revolving Kitchen in Fairview, closing with a teaser familiar to longtime followers: “where next?” That question now has a tentative answer in Carrollton, even as the exact timing of the opening remains in Jay Cho's hands.
