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A Casual ‘Tea House and Common Room’ Is Coming to Echo Park Soon

Newcomer Hey Hey brings one man’s vision to life

Hey Hey, Echo Park
Christopher Kwok

Echo Park’s next stop-off for a daytime drink with friends won’t be another sleek coffee shop with wifi, it’ll be a tea house with the playful name Hey Hey. The project comes by way of Christopher Kwok, a former corporate consultant with a high-flying pedigree that was tossed aside in favor of the perfect tea house.

Kwok outlines his path from office high-rise to scrubbing the floors of a boba shop in a new post for The Eastsider. It’s a moving tale of motivation and hospitality, from Kwok’s young dreams to his search for a space to his dealings with the city permitting process. Now it’s all coming to fruition, with Hey Hey’s opening slated for next month. That seems ambitious given the amount of work left, but Kwok is nothing if not a dreamer.

The plan with Hey Hey is to do casual tea and coffee drinks in a relaxed but vibrant setting. There won’t be wifi, just hanging out. As Kwok himself says:

I’ve been dreaming of opening day when guests drink delicious “whet” beverages in a space designed to make everyone slow down and make eye contact. There will be no Wi-Fi. Sorry. But there will be other forms of forgotten entertainment, such as, conversation, laughter and imagination.

Hey Hey will land at 1555 W. Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, across the street from The Lost Knight and down the way from neighborhood favorite Ostrich Farm (which itself is expanding into a new concept across the street). Add in the recently remodeled Gold Room, and suddenly one of Echo Park’s core blocks starts to look a whole lot different than it did four or five years ago.

Hey Hey
1555 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

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