BY MICHELE MILLER
What’s What New Port Richey
Published April 22, 2021
She brews tea. He brews beer. As partnerships go, it’s an “ever the twain shall meet” story for Kelly and Bryan Hackman, a local couple who are working hard to make a go of it in downtown New Port Richey.
Kelly, a certified tea sommelier, recently celebrated her fifth year as proprietor of the White Heron Tea and Gifts on Grand Boulevard. The tea room is one of a handful in the Tampa Bay area that offers a high-end experience. It attracts a niche clientele of purists, some willing to travel for a dainty luncheon of in-house sandwiches, over 100 brewed teas, imported macrons and locally sourced pastries and goodies from Mmmm Delicious Cupcakes and Chocolates by Michele.
Then there’s the homemade Devonshire Cream.
It’s to die for.
It’s beer, ales, IPAs and the like for Bryan, who still has a day job as an associate electrical designer for an engineering firm in Tampa. In 2018 he followed a hobby into a proprietorship of the Cotee River Brewing Company with Kelly at his side.
The Main Street haunt offers a rustic feel inside and patio seating out front where there’s often a food truck parked. There, Bryan makes it a point to brew on Sundays so patrons can get a whiff of what’s to come.
“Things are picking up with the warmer weather,” he said. As is the live music calendar.
It hasn’t been easy and there’s been a ton of stress this past year. But there’s also a sense of better days to come.
More people are venturing out since they have been immunized. The recent stimulus looks to boost small, local operations such as theirs. The city recently rolled out a savvy marketing program and website, and is doing a fine job of promoting downtown events and businesses.
So maybe things are looking up?
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The Hackmans are riding a positive and almost defiant outlook while taking ownership for what comes next.
They grew up in Pasco County. Went to school here. Worked here. For a few years Kelly organized the city’s largest non-profit annual event: The Chasco Fiesta.
The two met through a mutual friend and started dating in 2008 after meeting up at the Cotee River Bike Fest.
“Even back then we were brought together over a community event. That was our interest,” Kelly said.
Having lived a few chapters of the small city’s fabled story, the Hackmans know the history. It’s a well-worn, local yarn weaved in fits and starts from the 1920s “Hollywood of the South” expectations that never came to fruition, to the 2007 recession, and most recently the pandemic that landed just as things felt like they were really taking off again.
“We’ve seen that every time it goes up in New Port Richey, it comes down,” Kelly said. “Not this time. We’re not going to let this happen to our town again. Our town is on the map.”
As business owners, they have had to pivot to meet the recent challenges.
The early days of the pandemic took a real toll, Kelly said.
“When everything shut down, I shut down. It was physically exhausting not knowing what my business was going to do – what was going to happen. In those moments, not just business people, but people in general, have a choice to make.”
Kelly started offering a “to-go” menu, something she swore would never happen. It ended up filling a timely need for lonely patrons who could use a pick-me-up at home, she said.
“We had one customer who had a virtual tea party with her granddaughter using our to-go package,” she said, adding that that service will likely remain.
The Hackmans also melded events, selling a limited amount of tickets to a beer, cheese and meat tasting held in the tea room while the brewery was shut down for in-dining service.
That sold out quickly, Kelly said, showing there was an appetite for those kind of offerings.
The brewery also started running “to-go” growlers. A silver lining that had Bryan finally rid of the cases of growlers he over-ordered when he first opened the brewery.
“We weren’t using them. They were just in storage. And lo and behold we were sold out,” Bryan said, adding that he had to place three more orders from his supplier in St. Augustine.
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Now the entrepreneurs are poised to expand – in a couple of ways.
April 29 will mark the grand opening for the Riviera Room, a fine dessert, wine and tea lounge housed at the White Heron Tea and Gifts that will be open Thursday through Saturday evenings. (Locals can check out a preview at the Downtown New Port Richey Wine Walk on Thursday, April 22.)
The linens will change along with the atmosphere, and there will be live music on the agenda as well, said Kelly, adding that patrons will be able to order tea or wine flights, a nod to the brewery’s flights of beer.
“I’m really excited about that because that is one of the good things that come out of Covid,” she said. “People can come and have dessert and wine before they go to the theater. Take an after-dinner walk, then come in for dessert. That gets them out walking and exploring and we want to drive traffic downtown.”
The Hackmans are also working on the build-out of a new business venture. The Coastline Salt Room, set to open in May, is located just a few doors down from the Thai Bistro Restaurant on Main Street.
The idea is one they picked up while vacationing in other states, Bryan said.
Along with therapy rooms, the Coastline Salt Room will also have a retail shop stocked with spa amenities, such as fluffy socks, eye pillows and other sundries.
The Salt Room is just another thing the city could use right now, adding to the other new businesses that are cropping up throughout the city, Kelly said.
“We’re changing the perception of this town. When we started 5 years ago with the tea room – it was so small. In the beginning people were saying, “A tea room? That’s never going to work in New Port Richey.”
The couple has been utilizing some New Port Richey City grants to help with the construction, Bryan said, noting that the Coastline Salt Room will help extend the downtown business sector footprint.
“We just have to keep thinking outside the box and we have to think that this is not the end of the world,” Bryan said. “The main thing is to keep seeing our town grow.”
