Retro House, Ybor City’s new coffee shop and Asian eatery, soft opens with to-go food service

A new cafe and fast casual restaurant soft opened today, dishing out homemade dumplings and loaded noodle bowls out of a unique location in Ybor City.

Retro House is now open at 934 E Henderson Ave. out of the former China 1 location, near Salem’s and the Tampa Bay Sun FC practice facility, joining the myriad of locally-owned concepts on the edge of Ybor City including Flan Factory, La Sétima Club, The DoughJoe and Los Chapos Tacos.

Two power couples own the eclectic Ybor City concept: Corrinne Liou and Paul Venghaus—who also operate both locations of Felicitous Coffee in North Tampa—and Meishan Lu and Joseph Hixon of Heritage Dim Sum, who have been slinging their dumplings and bao buns throughout the greater Tampa Bay area for the last few years.

The four business owners spent the last two years looking for a space for Retro House, eventually landing on a small plaza on the outskirts of historic Ybor City, in the shadow of the old Tampa Park Apartments. They acquired the space just two months ago and are excited to start building their customer base, starting with to-go food service only while they finish building out its dining room and coffee bar.

They describe their new business endeavor as having “coffee house vibes with elevated Asian eats,” offering to-go and take-out services for the time being.

Lu and Hixon run the kitchen, dishing out a variety of dumplings, rice bowls, crab rangoon egg rolls, noodles and a variety of fluffy bao buns, while Liou and Venghaus will operate the coffee shop portion of the business.

For now, online orders can be placed directly through retrohousetampa.com or by calling (813)-812-5025. Venghaus tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that their eats will be available through UberEats and DoorDash sometime next week.

The newly-opened fast casual spot slings dumplings and other handhelds that Heritage Dim Sum is known for—with Lu incorporating her family’s 100 year-old recipes throughout Retro House’s menu with small bites like ube baos, shu mai, lemongrass chicken dumplings, pan-fried pork baos and mango shrimp wontons. A few entrees are offered as well, including char sui fried rice and crispy noodle bowls with customizable proteins.

She told CL Tampa Bay back in June that her mother, her grandparents and great-grandfather were all professional dim sum chefs in her family’s hometown of Guangzhou, China. Her and Hixon launched their dumpling pop-up a few years ago, and met  Liou and Venghaus while vending at one of the night markets at Felicitous Coffee.

“It’s so much easier cooking in a kitchen instead of doing a pop-up when you’re constantly moving and breaking down your equipment. It allows us to keep our food consistent and high quality,” Lu tells CL.

While Retro House’s food is only available on a take-out basis, customers will be able to enjoy its spread of Chinese and Asian-inspired eats from its dining room and cafe this fall.

“We decided to go with the retro, ’60s and ’70s-themed look to honor vintage Hong Kong tea houses and dumpling shops,” Venghaus says. “When we realized that this building was constructed in 1965 and still had its original terrazzo floors, we knew we really had to lean into the theme. We’re also going to continue the Felicitous tradition of showcasing local art each month.”

Venghaus—who also roasts the beans for both of Felicitous Coffee’s locations—is excited to launch Retro House’s coffee bar complete with an Astoria Gloria espresso machine and a Mahlkönig grinder this fall. It will soon offer a variety of expected lattes and coffees, plus a few Asian-inspired options like milk tea.

His wife Liou will bring her baking and dessert expertise to Retro House, too, focusing on Asian sweets and gluten-free options.

Head to @retrohousetampa on Instagram for the latest updates on Retro House’s soft opening and its fall 2024 expansion. Later this year, its owners will also start hosting weekend dim sum brunches and night markets with local vendors.

Until its grand opening in a few months, Retro House will be available for online and to-go orders from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. This fall, hours will expand to early mornings for all of the coffee drinkers, and stay open a bit longer for anyone looking for late-night Asian eats.

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This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2024.