(Image: Wunderground)

Nobody is accusing Pike/Pine of having grown up but there’s a construction job underway in the middle of it where they’re transforming the neighborhood cupcake shop into a place for grain bowls, bone broth, and adaptogenic mushroom coffee.

Cupcake Royale founder Jody Hall’s launch of Wunderground, her latest food and drink startup dedicated to fusing the “health benefits” of mushrooms like Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps with the daily ritual and the “antioxidant properties” of coffee, is centered on E Pike where the new company will be headquartered in a new Wunderground Cafe, hoped to be open later this year.

You can try Wunderground’s mushroom creations now. The team behind the new venture hosts a pop-up Wednesdays through Sundays inside Chophouse Row while construction continues on the new Wunderground Cafe on the E Pike face of the complex.

“The secret to the world is connection,” Hall said during a visit to the pop-up. “Mushrooms help with emotional calm and well being. It helps make us better.”

Hall stops there — “I don’t want to be preachy” — and turns her attention, instead, to vanilla syrup, suggesting a sweetened, iced cup of Wunderground’s Brainchild blend and its promise of cognitive benefits.

CHS reported here in June on the Capitol Hill-headquartered launch of Hall’s latest venture. Wunderground is only weeks old and has already grown to a seven-person company, Hall says. She is bringing lessons from starting companies like Cupcake Royale and the Goodship edibles brand to the new venture, “building the company of the future” while trying to keep the effort at human scale. Wunderground is a return to her roots for the Starbucks veteran and a chance to work with talented friends from the industry. The new company’s secret sauce might just be a member of the Wunderground team who was instrumental in the Starbucks coffee giant formulating its Via instant coffee product, Hall says. If you’re wondering, yes, Wunderground has launched with instant packet versions of its blends.

Shroomin pic.twitter.com/oPzWIyGO3k

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Another key element is its hookup on pharmaceutical grade mushroom powders from Asia and, Hall says, how Wunderground sources top of the line, high potency, wood grown, fungi.

“The mushrooms are from China and they’re clean and green,” Hall says.

Unlike cupcakes and pot edibles, Hall said the mushroom coffee business appealed to her search for an opportunity to create something she could bring direct to consumers. The major revenue opportunity comes from online sales and growth far from E Pike.

But the E Pike cafe will be a critical component as a HQ for the company, an opportunity to taste and test Wunderground’s creations, and the startup’s face in its home neighborhood.

(Image: Wunderground)

Chef Alyssa Lisle has ambitions for the cafe to stand on its own with healthy options in the midst of the neighborhood’s nightlife zone.

The young chef worked in Chicago and Los Angeles and was pondering her pandemic-era future in Paris when the Wunderground opportunity came her way. A more typical path for someone like Lisle looking for her next culinary step might have been to seek out a new upscale restaurant in search of an up and coming chef. But COVID-19 helped shift her thinking.

“Fine dining is dying and almost meaningless in the grand scheme,” Lisle said. At Wunderground, if nothing else, she’ll be part of something nobody has tried before and there is the feeling of being involved with the start of something that might be huge.

When the first Wunderground Cafe opens on E Pike in the former Cupcake Royale flagship, don’t expect Lisle’s menu to be full of mushroom gimmicks. The plan is for a serious take on grain bowls, fermented foods, broths, and Wunderground-made pastries.

When you stop in the pop-up this summer to give the coffee a try, you also won’t taste the mushrooms in the lattes and cappuccinos. By design, Hall says Wunderground’s blends have been formulated to avoid mushroom-y aftertaste and spongy chunks. If you really want the adaptogenic experience and flavor, mushrooms shots will be offered on the side.

The Wunderground Cafe is hoped to open in September at 1111 E Pike. In the meantime, you can visit the Wunderground pop-up inside Chophouse Row every Wednesday through Sunday, 9 AM to 4 PM. You can shop online and learn more at wundergroundcoffee.com.

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