Mr. Bear, the Hokkaido cotton cheesecake brand that debuted in Flushing, Queens in February 2025, opened this month at 16970 Focus Loop inside The Hub at Bexley, marking the concept's second US location. The shop lands in Land O' Lakes beside Stillwaters Tavern and Taco Bus, bringing a Japanese soufflé-style cheesecake format to one of Pasco County's more active retail-dining corridors.
The signature product is the Hokkaido cotton cheesecake, available whole or in individual minis, each stamped with a bear's face pressed into the top. The style traces to 1960s Japan and reads closer to a baked soufflé than the dense, cream-cheese-heavy New York variety — same name, substantially different product. Mr. Bear packages the minis for gifting, the boxes labeled MR. BEAR くまさん, leaning into a retail format that has proven durable for Japanese-style sweets concepts: the cheesecake travels well and the packaging is designed to be given.
The drink menu runs to boba milk tea, oolong, and a triple matcha. The Queens original, per the operator's Instagram, also carries ube, coconut, crème brûlée, and a savory pork floss variation — a wider flavor roster that the Land O' Lakes location may or may not mirror as it settles in. Which of those variations cross into the Florida menu is an open question.
The interior is unmistakably branded: orange on nearly every surface, plush bear mascots on the tables. It is a deliberate visual identity, one where color and character communicate the concept before any menu board does. The bear-face cheesecake is similarly constructed — it photographs cleanly and spreads through the organic visual sharing that a specialty food concept depends on when it opens in a suburban market where name recognition does not precede it.
Mr. Bear's arrival in Land O' Lakes follows the brand's February 2025 Queens debut. Whether this represents a franchise expansion, a corporate multi-unit push, or something in between has not been confirmed by the operator. The Hub at Bexley has drawn a mix of independent and regional operators, and adding a concept with a proven New York market footprint shifts the development's tenant profile at least marginally outward.
The shop is open now. The full flavor range from the Queens location — particularly the savory pork floss — is the near-term detail worth tracking as the Land O' Lakes unit establishes its own menu identity.
