February 21, 2009

Opening a Tea Salon

At one time or another, just about everyone has dreamed of opening some sort of cafe, or tea house or perhaps a bar. There's something to having a drink in your hand that creates a social atmosphere. Lately its been a bit of a tagline for me because I've found it's true that "there's nothing like a pot of tea to keep the conversation going."

Tea for me is not about a personal ritual or alone time so much as it is about entertaining people, continuing the party at the end of the night, having a reason to invite people over and/or keeping conversations going for hours.

My salon would be more like the Madam Potts Tea Lounge.
It would be an eclectic blend of styles and people -- after all, everything I do is about blending. I see couches and lots of velvet, ambient lighting and music. It wouldn't open til the afternoon and would be open late into the evening. There would be a Mad Pot of the Day featuring whatever I was madly brewing or discovering at the time, in addition to the usual line up of teas. In the evenings you could order tea-based cocktails or order a shot of something to go with (or into) your tea. And a tapas type menu to keep in step with the mixing. The music too would be a mix of styles, though predominantly either jazz or house music, perhaps live music and of live DJ sets.

I want to bring tea into the mainstream as something that brings people together. Tea is civil and sophisticated and most of all should be fun to explore.

The answer to "What Kind of Place Would You Open Up..." reveals a lot about the person's personal and social identity. After all you're defining how you would ideally like to spend your time if you had to hang out in a room with possible strangers (aka: possible new friends).

So what about you? If you've never thought about what kind of cafe/bar/salon/tea house/lounge you would open up perhaps this will get you thinking. Either way if you've read this far, you have pulled up a seat to the Mad Tea Party and I invite you to share your thoughts and comments about today's Salon topic: What kind of place would YOU open?

3 comments:

whichendisup said...

I'm not sure that I've ever thought about owning a joint, so to speak, however I have been ruminating on another venture -- of the crafty variety. One that (hopefully) promote inspiration among the different schools of craft. As for joints, your's sounds pretty nifty. I'd def go, sounds very nice and the perfect place to go and chill and get lost in the fumes of a lovely pot. See you Wed night, Jena

Madam Potts said...

you could most certainly knit at the tea lounge! ;)

Anonymous said...

My mum already opened the place of her / our dreams ...
Here it is :
http://www.myspace.com/missmapletearoom

Cozy but not girlie ...
Everyone says that they feel "like at home, or in someone's home". Grannies say that the home baked cakes remind them of their childhood ...
The customers talk together, share tables & sometimes ... cake !

We did everything by ourselves : renovation, decoration, we even painted the walls, thrifted all the furniture in (lots of) garage sales and fixed it all ourselves ...

DIY fever it's been. But it all worthed it !

I'd love to see this Madam Pott's place someday, it's a great project !
___mathyld___