Building a Third Place through Tea Service | Cierra Lober of Cha House

About this episode

Cierra Lober discusses her journey in creating Cha House as a community hub centered around tea service.

What if the reason you opened a business had nothing to do with profit? In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Cierra Lober, founder of Cha House, a community hub centered around a tea house in Avondale, Birmingham. Cierra did not set out to open a tea shop. She set out to build a community center, and she chose tea as the method — specifically the traditional Chinese practice of Gong Fu Cha, where small pots of loose-leaf tea are steeped again and again, slowing you down and making you present with the people around you. Cierra talks about why she started Cha House, how five years of pop-up events led her to a brick-and-mortar space next to Beloved Community Church in Avondale, what it felt like to have four strangers volunteer to work for free because they wanted the space to survive, how she manages a seven-day-a-week event calendar, what she has learned about training staff for a community-first business, and what it actually takes to build a real third place in Birmingham. Whether you are running a traditional business, a mission-driven business or just someone who wonders what it would look like to build something around community first, this…

People in this episode

Host: Carrie Rollwagen

Guest: Cierra Lober

Topics covered

• community building
• tea culture
• entrepreneurship
• Gong Fu Cha
• event management

Keywords

• Cha House
• community center
• tea shop
• Gong Fu Cha
• Birmingham

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cha House, Beloved Community Church

Places: Avondale, Birmingham

More episodes of The Localist with Carrie Rollwagen

• The Bookstore Dream Is Real (and the Margins Are Terrible) | Kristen Iskandrian of Thank You Books · June 9, 2026 · 1h 8m
• A Practical Guide to Part-Time Help: From Virtual Assistants to AI Tools · June 2, 2026 · 41 min
• Growing a Business Without Losing What Makes It Special | Golden Age Wine · May 26, 2026 · 57 min
• Is Your Website Losing You Customers without Your Knowing It? | Pam Darden of Infomedia · May 19, 2026 · 55 min
• Why Your Small Business Marketing Isn't Working: And What to Fix First | Laine White · May 5, 2026 · 49 min
• A Practical Guide to Influencer Marketing for Small Businesses | Laine White · April 28, 2026 · 53 min