Angela Mallett is opening a second location of her popular herbal teashop, HoneyBee Sage & Apothecary, in the Third Ward in mid-September.
But she owes her ambition to expand and possibly franchise the business to a movie about a 1940 hamburger chain that eventually became a fast-food empire under businessman Ray Kroc.
“Watching the movie, ‘The Founder,’ is what really sparked in me that I wanted to create something that would be worthy of replicating or duplicating,” Mallett said. “But I wanted — like the McDonald brothers — to keep the integrity of our practices and quality of our products.”
The 2016 movie is a docudrama about how Kroc forced the McDonald brothers out of their namesake hamburger business.
Mallett’s second location — in the Third Ward’s Marshall Building, 207 E. Buffalo St. — aims to test the scalability of HoneyBee Sage without the cutthroat business practices.
Tentatively called HoneyBee Sage Express, the new restaurant is housed in the former Sweetly Baked space. It’ll be a scaled-down version of her flagship store, at 1819 N. King Drive. The smaller retail footprint will allow Mallett to focus on the café side of her business.
“We pride ourselves on the sit-down options, but we are testing a couple of different theories and models with this location,” Mallett said.
The 500-square-foot space will offer a selection of grab-and-go items, including sandwiches, soups and salads. The restaurant has the option to use the lobby for seating, increasing its capacity.
HoneyBee Sage’s signature brewed teas and alcohol-free craft cocktails will be available. It will also offer tea accessories, packaged teas and honey, but won’t have apothecary services. It’ll still carry several of the vendor items found at the King Dive location, including mushroom coffee; Mosi Chi, a chai tea concentrate; Fit 4 U Lavender Lemonade; and Soul Brew Kombucha.
Mallett first opened HoneyBee Sage when she moved back home to Milwaukee in 2017. But she always knew she wanted to scale her business. She often joked she wanted to be both Kroc and the McDonald brothers.
“I wanted to see the forest and the trees — expand the vision and the footprint of HoneyBee Sage all the while maintaining its integrity,” Mallett said.
She described Kroc as “roguish” in the way he helped the brothers expand their business. But Kroc, she noted, ended up owning the proprietary rights to the brothers’ systems in his efforts to franchise them.
Mallett wants to expand her business without that ruthlessness.
She hopes to create the franchise model, the documents and systems needed to put HoneyBee Sage on the market as a franchise opportunity by the end of next year.
But she admitted the new location isn’t a franchise. Mallett still owns it, but she’s studying other business models, such as a licensed location to expand HoneyBee Sage’s footprint.
“At this moment, I am calling it a franchise for lack of a better word,” she said.
Ideally, she said, people would buy into her HoneyBee Sage business model. Proprietors would source the teas from Mallett and receive mentoring from her corporate leadership team. Mallett would remain at the helm of the parent company.
Mallett’s desire to scale her business stemmed from her own journey in herbal medicine. When she visited apothecaries and herbalists over the years, Mallett often encountered people who didn’t look like her.
“Most people in the industry have open arms,” she said. “But there are some places you go, and it doesn’t feel as warm and welcoming. And the folks are not as friendly or willing to educate.”
And when she shared elixirs, herbs and teas on social media for her own homeopathic needs, friends and relatives often asked where to buy them. Mallett knew a need existed for a culturally competent space for people to learn and purchase herbs and teas.
HoneyBee Sage aimed to be that space to share knowledge as well as a business prototype for other entrepreneurs interested in herbalism.
Mallett was feeling out the market to see if expansion was viable. That’s when the opportunity at the Marshall Building arose. A friend informed her of the vacancy.
“I was not looking at any place in particular at the time. The Marshall Building did kind of fall in my lap,” she said.
After speaking with the owner, Mallett said the dollars and cents made sense. The building has a built-in customer base. The owner wanted to keep the grab-and-go options previously offered in the space.
“It felt like something that was an easier lift for us,” Mallett said. “So, I hopped on it.”
Opening the second location happened at the perfect time. Recently, Mallett appeared on “Project Pitch It” where she won the highest prize in her category. She announced then she wanted to franchise her business. Mallett used the $10,000 prize as startup capital for the second location.
Mallett got creative with financing her expansion. She applied for a Building Bridges grant from Milwaukee County, which supports establishing or expanding businesses. She also applied for a low-interest loan from the African American Chamber of Commerce.
Funding challenges often hamper business growth and expansion. Mallett has been lucky in that regard.
“We strategically planned for a growth year,” she said. “But we’ve had the basic challenges that come with expansion.”
Mallett is excited about this next chapter in her seven-year-old business. It will allow her to employ more people and serve a larger market.
“It’s pretty magical and exciting,” she said, “to see the possibilities of it coming to life.”
La Risa Lynch is a community affairs reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at llynch@gannett.com
This tea shop and cafe is opening a second location in Milwaukee's Third Ward – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
