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Tea Lounge is closed! Writers, idlers depressed and in need of coffee

By Ben Muessig
The Brooklyn Paper
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The Brooklyn Paper / Ben Muessig
The Seventh Avenue branch of the Tea Lounge closed on Friday — six days before the popular Park Slope coffee shop was scheduled to close.

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For South Slope coffee drinkers, the glass isn’t half empty — it’s totally gone.

The original branch of the legendary coffee house, the Tea Lounge, closed on July 25 — six days before the java hut was scheduled to shutter due to a rent dispute with its landlord.

Owner Greg Wolf told The Brooklyn Paper in May that he opted to close the Seventh Avenue location of his three-lounge chain when his landlord doubled the rent.

But the early closing hit caffeine-craving Slopers hard last Friday morning.

“It was an important place for the neighborhood,” said Patricia Plumette, a regular. “They were such nice people.”

The popular spot, known for its dingy couches and sassy baristas, drew a wide swath of South Slope mommies, daddies, post collegiates, and laptop-toting writers alike.

Now the shop’s dedicated clientele are looking for new places to find their fix.

“It’s just sad,” said a woman who gave her name as Caroline. As she spoke on Friday, she sipped a coffee purchased at a nearby bodega while sitting on one of the outdoor benches that were still outside the Tea Lounge. Before the Friday closure, she said she bought a Tea Lounge coffee most days on her way to work.

“I guess I’ll just have to get my coffee in the city now,” she said.

Other Tea Loungers have already turned to Naidre’s, a café on Seventh Avenue between 11th and 12th streets, a barista at the eatery said.

The other two Tea Lounges — one on Union Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues in Park Slope, and the other on Court Street near Kane Street in Carroll Gardens — will remain open.

Wolf’s landlord, Georgina Tufano, told The Brooklyn Paper that the Tea Lounge’s closing “had nothing to do with a rent increase.” She said the closing related to “other terms” on the lease — but she declined to say what those terms were.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper

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