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Smaller Park Slope Tea Lounge to Close Soon
By
John Del Signore
Published May 23, 2008
Modified May 23, 2008
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By
John Del Signore
Published May 23, 2008
Modified May 23, 2008
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Brooklyn Paper has it that the smaller, funkier Tea Lounge in Park Slope, on Seventh Avenue and Tenth Street, is to close at the end of July. And you’ll never in a million years guess what the reason is! Turns out an obscene rent hike is forcing the neighborhood hang-out to move along and make room for, most likely, a Corcoran real estate office. Where have we heard this tune before?
And so the tumbleweeds of Park Slope’s Seventh Avenue ghost town drift further south. Opened in 2001, Tea Lounge initially signaled the neighborhood’s growing gentrification; now, like Saturn devouring his young, that insatiable gentrifying beast has come home to feed. Owner Greg Wolf tells the BP his landlord wants to double the rent: “At the price our landlord wants, we would have to sell a coffee to everyone in the borough every single day.”
It’s too bad, because with its funky, mismatched furniture, shameless Grateful Dead soundtrack and wide array of teas, the lounge was the only place in the area offering that communal, West Coast coffee house vibe. You just don’t get the same ambiance in a Duane Reade, but at least the bigger Tea Lounge on Union is still open… for now.
Photo of Tea Lounge exterior during a stroller gang rally courtesy Kansas Liberal.
Tagged
brooklyn
closed
closing
gentrification
nyc
park slope
real estate
rent
Seventh Ave
tea lounge
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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