New Hey Bear Cafe at Kern's Food Hall serves bubble tea and a taste of Asian culture

Begun as a pop-up inside Vicky Shyr's family business, Hey Bear Cafe now sits inside the newly renovated Kern’s Hall.

Shyr, a Taiwan native, wanted to bring a taste of home to Knoxville and her family. As a result, she opened a small boba shop inside Sunrise Supermarket on Kingston Pike and sold on the weekends while working in the produce section during the week.

Bubble, or Boba, tea originated in Shyr’s home country. The drink allows people to have fun and be creative with more than 100 flavor combos.

“In Taiwan, we would find places to hang out and drink bubble tea,” Shyr said. “Instead of saying ‘hey, let’s drink some coffee,’ most of the time we’d say ‘hey, let’s have some bubble tea.’

“I really wanted my kids to learn different cultures like mine. They were all born in America, and they don't know a lot of Taiwanese culture. So I really feel like the history is really important.”

Awareness and public support from the community grew for her start-up shop, and she decided it was time for an upgrade. With the help of her mother-in-law, she found a two-acre property on Middlebrook Pike with a building that used to function as a hair salon.

While two acres seemed like a lot, and a former hair salon was hardly a place for a cafe and a kitchen, Shyr recalled the food truck parks that she had seen when vacationing in Hawaii. Families hung out there while kids played and enjoyed numerous food options. That was the vision for her new property, which opened in 2019.

Hey Bear provided the drinks, and the food trucks provided the food. Her innovative business model is what help sustain the business amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If at that time I had a 1,000-square-feet bubble tea shop, I wasn't going to survive,” Shyr said. “But at that time people were going out and eating outdoors. Even though we didn’t open for a couple of months, I was letting food truck people park there for free and helping them.”

As she helped the food trucks stay in business, they also drove traffic to the Middlebrook Pike location.

On the heels of Hey Bear’s success at Middlebrook Pike, Shyr was approached to be a part of the renovation of Kern’s Bakery into Kern’s Food Hall. Similarly to her other location, she saw a place where people could gather in a casual setting and have a good time.

When Shyr first moved to the the United States, she lived in Georgia where food halls are more common. She had already seen the vision in action and wanted to be part of it.

Shyr is looking forward to growing Hey Bear alongside the food hall, and she wants the space to be enjoyed by vendor and customer. She has dreams of collaborating with vendors such as Irvey’s Ice Cream to make new and fun bubble tea creations.

“I want to show other tenants and the other people who are interested in renting space that there is so much potential,” Shyr said. “It's gonna be fun.”

“You can do the nail shop and have a girls night out. Maybe a husband and a friend drinking outside while the kids play at the grassy area. Mom or friend doing the nail shop. Have some herbal tea, have some beers. There will be lot of things they can do here once everything opens.”

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Hey Bear Cafe at Kern's Food Hall serves bubble tea and Asian culture