Former bubble tea shop space for rent on 3rd Avenue

A for-rent sign arrived last week in the window at 110 Third Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street, marking the official end of One Zo. 

The bubble tea brand from Taiwan debuted here last fall... and had been open as recently as late June.

While One Zo decided to close, several other bubble tea brands continue to try the neighborhood, including the April arrival of Gong Cha on St. Mark's Place... with Xing Fu Tang coming soon to the northwest corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place.

[Updated] Another bubble tea chain setting up shop in the East Village

One Zo, a bubble tea brand from Taiwan, is opening an outpost here on Third Avenue between 13th Street and 14th Street...



And what might set One Zo apart from the other recent bubble-tea establishments to arrive in the East Village of late (here and here and here and here and here, for starters)?

Per the One Zo website:

Since the invention of bubble tea in the 1980s, it spread all over the world and became the most popular Taiwanese drink. Before One Zo was established, every bubble tea shop would only serve one type of tapioca pearl, the honey black boba, a prepackaged tapioca that can store for 8 months or longer. We wanted to break this tradition and show our creativity and passion in boba, and that was when One Zo was found.

We came up with the idea of making boba in our own store so everyone could experience how fresh boba tastes. Although it took countless trials and failure to create different boba flavors, we became the world's first bubble tea brand to make fresh boba in-store. While our boba does not have the typical long shelf life, we hope you will feel our passion and enjoy our boba.

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Updated!

The shop is now open...



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So much bubble tea! The Wall Street Journal recently explored the ongoing bubble-tea bonanza:

Bubble tea is hardly a new phenomenon. The drink traces its roots back to Taiwan in the ‘80s, according to those in the industry, and made its way to New York City at least a decade ago.

The current growth in bubble-tea shops reflects the increasing interest in Asian food and beverages, observers of the culinary scene said. As for why so many chains are coming up with new twists on the drink, it speaks to the need to differentiate in a more crowded market, said observers.

“It’s looking for that competitive edge,” said Stephen Zagor, an instructor and former dean at the Institute of Culinary Education and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.

But some wonder if the bubble will burst, so to speak, and the interest in the drink will diminish. Then again, Danielle Chang, founder of LuckyRice, a lifestyle brand that promotes Asian food events, said the same could have been said of Starbucks Corp. and the gourmet-coffee trend of decades ago.

Ms. Chang is convinced that bubble tea, in all its variety, is here to stay. “It’s a sign of Asian cuisine going mainstream,” she said.