Overland Park’s Inspired Play Cafe is expanding.
Owner Bianca Sisillo-DeFries plans a mid-November opening of her second cafe in Merriam Town Center, 5640 Antioch Road in Merriam. It will be near the new Betty Rae’s Ice Cream shop.
Just like her first Inspired Play Cafe, the new Merriam play cafe will be open daily, offering meals, healthy snacks, smoothies, espresso and coffee, along with a children’s play area.
There are 2-hour play periods daily, and customers are able to reserve spots on the website. Walk-ins are welcome if spots are available. Day passes, punch passes (five discount play passes that do not expire), and membership options are also available. There are monthly classes and events led by educators and others.
Inspired Play Cafe also is available for private events including birthdays, baby showers, and church and mom group gatherings.
Sisillo-DeFries graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in applied behavior analysis and psychology, and then worked as a registered behavior technician, mainly for military families. She is a lifelong Overland Park resident, married with three boys – including two step-children (or bonus children, as she calls them), and a girl on the way.
She opened the first Inspired Play Cafe nearly three years ago in The Fountains, 6527 W. 119th St. in Overland Park.
She funded the business with savings and a loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration. PB&J Restaurant Group consulted when she was a start-up. Now she is consulting with other play cafes locally and nationally.
Her husband, Robert DeFries, owns 3 Co., a commercial electrical company, and is supervising the build-out on the Merriam location. Merriam Town Center is just north of the IKEA center.
“I truly felt the Lord led me to this space in Overland Park and now Merriam,” she says. “I believe that my purpose in life is to love everybody like Christ loved and to be a safe place for everyone in the community to enjoy and have their needs met.”
