KHAB Tapioca Empress, known as "Hoops", is a bubble tea shop in Winnipeg, Canada, designed by Design Shop with principal designer Debbie Golub. The interior mixes the busy feel of street markets and the social side of boba culture with a strong basketball theme. The studio is at design--shop.com.
A route from order to pickup
The shop is small, but the layout is planned with care. Customers move in one direction from the order point to pickup, along a wall of semi-transparent pink plexiglass. Through it they can see the busy back of house.
Curved black lines on the pink panels trace the markings of a basketball court.
Gym references, softened
Softer details balance the sporty theme. Padded pink wall sections recall gym mats, and tiled grids and window decals hint at the mesh of a basketball net. Mirrors bounce light and movement around the room and make it feel deeper.
Lockers that do the storage
Epoxy floors, locker-style storage and simple benches borrow from a gym changing room. Rather than hide stock out of sight, the designers placed it in full-height lockers with numbered doors, where it doubles as a display.
A ball cage holds branded basketballs, and a ladder lets staff reach the upper rows of lockers.
Small details
Menu images hang from coach clipboards. A pink neon sign brings in the glow of night markets, and screens styled like scoreboards add to the court theme. Peach basketballs with cartoon faces line the upper walls, in keeping with the kawaii side of the brand.
Theming a small shop
As a general point, a single clear theme can make a compact shop memorable, as long as the themed pieces also do practical work, such as storage, display or wayfinding.
Project credits
- Project: KHAB Tapioca Empress ("Hoops"), Winnipeg, Canada
- Client: KHAB Tapioca
- Interior design: Design Shop
- Principal designer: Debbie Golub
- Photography: SOCIAL x Design Shop
- Source: Contemporist