This ‘Tiny Town’ just opened on Spring Hill’s Main Street; here’s how it’s connecting kids growing up in KC’s urban sprawl
December 13, 2023 | Nikki Overfelt Chifalu
SPRING HILL, Kansas — Two sister companies on the edge of the Kansas City metro are now offering a scoop of ice cream with a drizzle of imagination on top.
Nana’s Tiny Town; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News
Three years ago, Dale and JoAnn Romano opened Pop’s Sweet Shop on Main Street in downtown Spring Hill, a nostalgic ice cream parlor that also serves up homemade fudge, cannolis, and cotton candy.
In November, the couple launched Nana’s Tiny Town next door — bringing a hands-on, children’s play center to the Kansas community.
“The hope is that they’ll come in, they’ll have ice cream, and they’ll play,” JoAnn Romano said. “That’s why we did really affordable memberships because we wanted them to be able to do all the above and not have to make a choice between one or the other.”
Pop’s — which boasts a second location that opened in 2022 in Old Town Lenexa — became Dale’s retirement passion project, she shared, and now Nana’s fills the same void for JoAnn.
“He figured he wanted to do something happy,” JoAnn Romano continued. “We both have a heart for kids. We’ve always been in service one way or another. We did foster care for years. Our kids are still foster care parents. It’s an overflow of our hearts to love on children.”
When a space initially opened up next door to Pop’s, she said, she asked her two daughters what kind of place would pair well with their existing business — and fill a need in Spring Hill.
“They said, ‘We really need a place for kids to get together and socialize,’” Romano recalled. “Especially since Spring Hill is experiencing that urban sprawl. It’s just all houses and a lot of people are not from around here. So this gives them an opportunity to meet each other.”
Nana’s Tiny Town; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News
With their past experiences in construction and interior design, the Romanos — Long Island natives who moved to Olathe in 1994 to raise their daughters — designed and built a child-sized main street. With its own Pop’s Sweet Shop, a school, a theater, a vet’s office, and a mechanic’s garage, the space aims to inspire play and creativity for kids 6 months to 7 years.
“The need is very obviously there,” she explained. “Technology being introduced so young and so dominant now — not that technology is bad, but an overabundance — they don’t develop brain synapses for critical thinking without imaginative play.”
It’s cool to see the kids gravitate towards their passion, shared Romano, who noted Nana’s Tiny Town is working on its nonprofit designation.
“We’ve got the showman that’s in the theater and they’re doing their song and dance routine,” she continued. “Then we’ve got the little servant-hearted ones that go right here to the diner or the ice cream shop. At the school, they’re the ones that get a group together and they sit them in the chairs in there; they’re the leaders. In the mechanic station, there’s a couple of Little Tikes engines in there that they take apart and put back together. There’s scientific thinking in doing that.”
Nana’s Tiny Town
Nana’s Tiny Town
The space also includes a Bub Hub for babies and a back room with board games and Legos for older kids, she noted.
“I love — first of all — the joy on their faces when they come in and they see it,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Wow, this is so cool.’ Honestly, I think it’s seeing them in their own element.”
But it’s not just about connection for the kids, Romano added.
“I love seeing the moms make new friends,” she said, mentioning that she’s watched adults play board games and knit together at the picnic tables. “The connectivity piece is really amazing to watch with the adults, as well as the kids.”
For open play, Nana’s Tiny Town offers several play pass options, including $10.99 for a day pass and $29.99 for an unlimited-play, annual citizen’s pass. Romano said they are adding enrichment programs, clubs, art days, parent-nights out options, plus birthday party packages with Pop’s Sweet Shop.
“There’s something here for every interest,” she added.
Featured Business
2023 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KC nonprofit wants to change the face of tech (without leaving its students in debt)
Editor’s note: The following story was sponsored by Resiliency at Work 2.0 Career and Technical Education, a Kansas City-based organization focused on creating and increasing equitable opportunities through education and training for careers in the technically skilled workforce. Dr. Joy Vann-Hamilton set out to close the diversity gap in the tech workforce; her work through…
Proof is in the spending: CEO-to-CEO Challenge yields results in diversifying supply chains
Editor’s note: The following story was sponsored by KC Rising, a regional initiative to help Kansas City grow faster and more intentionally, as part of a campaign to promote its CEO-to-CEO Challenge on supplier diversity. When she started researching the institutional knowledge at MMC Corp. about working with diverse suppliers, national purchasing director Kelli Fraas found the process was…
Her new role is reenvisioning one of KC’s most iconic events for entrepreneurs; how Callie England is shaking up GEW
Callie England misses the life of an entrepreneur, she shared, but her new role with the UMKC Innovation Center — and GEWKC — allows her to stay in the game without being on the field. As of January, the veteran Kansas City startup founder is responsible for managing the branding and marketing initiatives of the…
Plaza retailers concerned for employee safety after recent shootings, upticks in thefts, harassment at iconic KC shopping district
No business owner should have to deal with ongoing incidents that threaten the safety of their employees and customers, Tyler Enders shared, but that’s the reality for some entrepreneurs on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza. Employees at Made in KC’s marketplace location on the Plaza were closing up for the night Sept. 2 — the…