The Ground dishes coffees, croffles, and cacti from a cafe near Rittenhouse Square

During the early days of the pandemic, Seattle-born Michelle Miller was doing marketing and design work for the Gotham, a new mixed-use development at Second and Norris Streets in Kensington, when she began coming up with ideas for a cafe in the ground-floor retail space.

The ideas kept coming as her friend, Louisiana-born Molly Kiriacoulacos, got on board. The cafe would serve coffee drinks and two dozen flavors of bubble tea, like coconut custard pie, rose pistachio, and chocolate cake mocha, made with organic syrups.

The floor-to-ceiling windows would lend themselves to showcasing plants, one of the pair’s shared hobbies. The sweet side of the menu would feature a croffle (a croissant-waffle hybrid) and house-made pastries. Miller would summon her mom’s Korean heritage for an umami-packed menu, including a croissant breakfast sandwich called the Oh, Mommy, with gyeranjjim, the egg souffle. Kiriacoulacos and Miller would collab on the Oh, Daddy, a Cajun-inspired turkey-sausage sandwich on a croissant topped with gochujang, and on a deviled egg sandwich on challah, seasoned with smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, pickled jalapeño, sweet relish, Colman’s mustard, mayo, and rice wine vinegar.

All this, and bone broth, too, because what’s a cafe these days without bone broth?

The Ground at the Gotham opened in May 2022. Tucked away in Kensington, with light daytime foot traffic, they say it’s been mostly a neighborhood destination.

For their second shop, which opened last spring, they chose a spot just off the corner of 18th and Sansom Streets in Rittenhouse, one of the city’s busiest retail corridors. The Ground Rittenhouse is just as green as the original — from the counter to the cacti to the calatheas — but there’s so much more of it. There’s green in the packaging, too: Bubble tea straws are made from dragon fruit, while coffee straws are made from coffee beans.

Where the Kensington location has a modern look, “for here, we were just thinking of ‘turn-of-the-century French cafe,’ like the classic scene you’d see in the late 1800s and early 1900s, mix and match,” Kiriacoulacos said. The Ground Rittenhouse, at 120 S. 18th St., seems to fit well with its next-door neighbor, the Dandelion, modeled on an old-time British pub.

The Ground’s shelves are stocked not only with plants but with curios such as votive candles, books, and mugs. Tucked behind floor plants in the rear is a cute seating area with marble tables.

The food is as bold as the surroundings. You know about minimalism?

“I would say we’re maximalist, for sure,” Miller said.

Food prices are on the low side, by Center City standards. The egg salad sandwich is $8.50. A “Yo Give Me a Beet” wrap, with spicy roasted beets, Asian-inspired coleslaw, carrots, avocado, hummus, arugula, and a bit of feta, is $10.

“I think this mix of things speaks to a lot of people,” Miller said, hinting at an expansion.

“As long as we’re able to stay true to our vision, which is making really tasty things and being able to have great employees and a great staff, hopefully one day we’ll make a little money on it,” Kiriacoulacos said.