Following the long-awaited opening of Crust pizzeria, Spring Street will see a shuffle of its businesses. A new café, Tea and Boba Lounge, will open at 76 Spring St. on Feb. 2. The A Better Community Clothing Sale (ABC), the previous occupant of the space, moved to 30 Spring St.
Tea and Boba Lounge will serve 45 variations of single and loose leaf blended tea, as well as baked goods and desserts. The shop’s owner, Glory-Anne Jones, also owns a tea store in Cohoes, N.Y., and an online tea store called Chocolate is Self-Care.
Jones started her business in Cohoes, N.Y., during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she began producing chocolate blended teas — steeping the cacao hull that is usually discarded by chocolate manufactures with loose leaf tea and other spices.
Jones was inspired to begin crafting boba tea, a Taiwanese drink made from tapioca pearls and tea, while attending the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. After learning about how the popular boba tea chain Boba Guys began its business, she started making boba in a rice cooker to sell at farmers markets in the summer.
She also plans to offer game nights and boba-making workshops. On opening day, for one hour, Tea and Boba Lounge will offer its signature drink — chocolate chai — for free.
The College helped move ABC Clothing Sale to a smaller location on Spring Street to make space for Tea and Boba Lounge.
The College was interested in working with Jones because of her positive attitude and strong motivation. “She is also a high-energy entrepreneur [whose] optimism is infectious and is driven to make her venture succeed; which all redounds to the benefit of students and other Spring Street consumers,” Associate Provost Chris Winters wrote in an email to the Record.
Also new to Spring Street is Crust pizzeria, which opened on Dec. 18. The location on Spring Street is the second storefront for Crust founder Jim Cervone, who opened the original location in Pittsfield. A month after its opening day, Cervone reflected on Crust’s success. “Business has … exceeded expectations,” he told the Record.
Cervone attributes this success to Crust’s organic ingredients, customizable pizza, and fair price. “I think we’re offering a very good pizza at a very good price considering that all of our ingredients are either organic or natural,” he added. “People appreciate good quality food in the Berkshires.”
In comparison to the Pittsfield location, the new storefront sees a far more substantial dine-in customer base: About half of Pittsfield’s customers dine in, he explained, while the Williamstown location sees roughly 70 percent dine-in and 30 percent takeout.
Cervone also noted that the pizzeria in Williamstown has a far greater number of customers paying with their phones. “You guys are all tapping,” he said. “It’s just a different demographic.”
Staffing, which has historically been an issue for businesses on Spring Street such as the now shuttered Smoothie Spot, has not been a problem for Cervone. “We’ve got a really good staff,” he said. “The kids are great, really respectful and very nice.”
Ariella Scheer ’26, a returning customer to Crust, wrote to the Record about her love for the pizzeria. “Crust is fantastic,” she wrote. “It is the perfect bite for a quick dinner.”
“It’s really been a pleasure to get to know this community,” Cervone added.
Even after the new additions to Spring Street, there is still one vacant commercial space: the former home of Purple Dragon Games. The space is slated to undergo necessary renovations.
“We hope to find an entrepreneur for that space who will add additional vitality to the street,” Winters wrote to the Record.
