Tea Lounge Closing and Unopening
Back in March, it looked like Tea Lounge, the cornerstone of laptop culture in Park Slope and Cobble Hill, was going to birth its third store in Brooklyn Heights, at the St. George Tower at 111 Hicks Street. The Brooklyn Paper reports today, however, that owner Jonathan Spiel has scrapped the idea due to the…
Back in March, it looked like Tea Lounge, the cornerstone of laptop culture in Park Slope and Cobble Hill, was going to birth its third store in Brooklyn Heights, at the St. George Tower at 111 Hicks Street. The Brooklyn Paper reports today, however, that owner Jonathan Spiel has scrapped the idea due to the high demands of the co-op board that owns the building. He also closed the Cobble Hill location on Court Street due to low sales, and he closed the original Tea Lounge on Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope a year ago, due to hikes in rent, even though sales were healthy. That leaves just the Union Street location near Seventh Avenue, where sales are also lagging due to the recession. If he can weather the economy, Spiel hopes to open more stores in Park Slope, Crown Heights, or Brooklyn Heights. We are not where we were a year or two ago, but we’re still surviving, he told the Paper.
Tea Lounge Coming to The Heights? [Brownstoner]
Beloved Slope Coffee Bar Won’t Open in the Heights [Brooklyn Paper]
Photo by Allyse Pulliam/Brooklyn Paper
Sit & Wonder is great. But it’s not close enough to Eastern Pkwy. We need something between Eastern Pkwy & Tom’s. It’s got great foot traffic, especially on weekends with events at the museum & gardens. Take out 2 hairdressers or the mess of who-knows-what on the CH side of Washington between either Lincoln & St. Johns or St. Johns & Sterling and you’ll make a fortune.
Hopefully union site will close too. I always felt there tends to be a correlation between a place that distributes the Indypendent free rag, and the crunchy/icky/crappiness of the place.
And it just felt like they took over a Salvation Army furniture store and started serving coffee.
Cobble Hill location was always filled with laptop jockeys who never bought anything. Not a good way to run a business.
linkin/11217: yes, sit and wonder is at st. marks and washington. and there is also glass shop cafe on classon somewhere around prospect, which serves really wonderful espresso drinks and snacks. but neither has late hours nor booze/light cafe fare, which i think tea lounge does and which i agree would be great somewhere within close walking distance of the museum/library/botanic gardens.
My last girlfriend, we emailed and said let’s meet at the Tea Lounge and go from there. Why is that so weird? I’m not gonna say, meet me at some bar.
Hey- we’ll take them here in CHN. Linkin- you must have been reading my and Montrose’s minds. We’ve been saying that for years.
well, the reasons are outlined in the article. dumb. they haven’t had a paying tenant for years now. what a financial drain.
and while the board does pay too, they are generally people who 1) bought a long time ago and have a low or no mortgage and 2) who aren’t thinking about selling soon so dont seem to care that people in the building are forced to price their places so so low. I think people buy in this place thinking the finances will get under control at some point and then — fast forward 5 years — they discover it’s even worse than when they bought it. I fee for them.
BH76:
When I was looking to buy my place, my agent said to stay as far away as possible from 111 Hicks. (even though I saw what looked like a couple ok listings online). He said exactly what Ringo said above and more…they are known to be a DISASTER in terms of their finances.
They really screwed themselves with this one.
Ringo: I would not be so hasty to castigate the Board on this one. There may be very good reasons they nixed it. And remember, board members pay the same fees as all the other shareholders.