Late in 2019, Society Bakery owner Roshi Muns reached out to tea sommelier Emily Cassady. The pair were longtime friends. Their children went to the same school, and Cassidy was a regular at Muns’ popular Lower Greenville bakeshop. When Muns called, “I thought she was just gonna ask me ‘what teas to put on my menu,’” Cassady says. “Instead, she was like, ‘I have this idea. Do you want to go in on it?’”

That idea was to add a full-blown tea service to the bakery’s offerings. Within a few months, they had it up and running, and last December, the friends-turned-business partners went all in with a brand-new bakery-dining-tea-room at the Skillman Live Oak Center in East Dallas called Society Bakery and Tea Room.

Muns started Society Bakery out of her house in 2003. After noticing all the repeat customers, she opened a brick-and-mortar on Lower Greenville. Over the years, the bakery gained popularity with East Dallas locals and national notoriety, making an appearance on Food Network’s Dallas Cakes in 2018. As the bakery grew, Muns moved to a larger location at 3610 Greenville Ave. in 2014.

And as Society became more popular, people began asking to host parties at the bakery. “That was the missing piece of the puzzle,” Muns says. She knew pastries, of course, but drinks and teas were a totally different story. So she called Cassady, who’d recently donated a tea party in their school auction. “I needed more brain power,” Muns says.

The pair launched their new tea service in January 2020. When the pandemic hit a few months later, Muns took that time to continue perfecting her recipes. They also packed up to-go tea party boxes, which proved popular with customers.

Last year, Society was coming to the end of its 10-year lease on Lower Greenville, and Muns and Cassady knew they wanted to move. They needed more room to host tea parties and to set up a dining room along with the bakery. The 3,069-square-foot space on Skillman was a perfect fit, Muns says. It was still in East Dallas, near their customer base. It was a corner shop, and it had two entrances already—one for the bakery and one for the new dining room.

But the space, which had formerly been an emergency room clinic and had a giant fish tank in the area destined to become the event room, needed extensive renovations. They tore up everything and built out a kitchen. They hired interior designer Deborah Walker to help them give their moody, elegant new dining room and bar, plus the sunny, airy event room, a French-inspired feel. After about nine months, but what “felt like 500 years,” says Cassady, Society Bakery + Tea Room officially opened just a few days before Christmas last December. They didn’t do much to broadcast the opening, however. Instead, Muns says they wanted to grow their business organically, work out the kinks, and flesh out the tea and lunch menus.

The lunch menu is mainly soups, salads, and sandwiches, like their popular chicken salad. They plan to add additional items, including a quiche and more salads, Muns says. Their classic afternoon tea, priced at $70, has three courses: sandwiches, scones, and desserts, plus two tea pairings. They plan to add more tea service options, including cream tea and dessert tea services. Many of the bakery’s longtime favorites, like the petit fours and M&M cookies, are still on offer, natch. But they have new offerings including a triple berry cake and a chocolate chip cookie dough croissant that Cassidy begged Muns to make.

They opened with the idea of becoming a party space, and now they’re booked out through the end of May with bridal showers, baby showers, and graduation parties in their event room. (Because of all the events, on the weekends it’s best to make a reservation on Resy for lunch service, but walk-ins are welcome, Muns says.)

And Muns and Cassady have more events in the works. Society Bakery will host a ticketed Mother’s Day brunch in partnership with the Swiss Avenue Historic District Home Tour> May 12. They also plan to develop themed tea events with specialty menus. Earlier this month, a Taylor Swift-themed event, called Swift Tea (a play on what the popstar’s fans call themselves, “swifties”), sold out. “They really seem to resonate with people,” Muns says of the themed teas. The whole experience of a tea service, she explains, is meant to be “a sense of escapism and to slow down.” Just like the bakery.