Looks like Janam Indian Tea, formally of 353 Grove St, made it to the Big Apple.

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High Tea on the Lower East Side

Neighborhood Joint
By LISA M. COLLINS SEPT. 26, 2017

Above a burger place, brassy swing tunes filled a private room located behind a vault door and up an old staircase, left over from when the building was a bank.

Along the bar, in front of the booze, sat a line of orange ceramic teapots and jars of dark leaves.

?This is from the highest-altitude tea garden in north India,? said Amy Dubin, 44, as she grabbed one of the jars from the bar to show a group of men in golf shirts and button-downs. ?These are handpicked leaves.? Tea is different every year and every season, she explained.

?It smells delicious! Look at the color!? said Alex Chan, a teacher from Queens ?in his 40s? and a member of the New York Tea Society, which meets here on a semiregular basis.

By night, this parlor, Victorian in d?cor with gold wallpaper, purple velvet benches and a stately little library, is Garfunkel?s, a speakeasy-style cocktail lounge at 67 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side. By day, it is the home of Janam Tea, which is run by Ms. Dubin and offers a proper tea service with cucumber sandwiches, scones, clotted cream and unlimited tea.

Ms. Dubin visits India regularly to select tea from private growers. Janam serves Indian tea exclusively.

It?s a favorite spot for the Tea Society, which until recently was called the Men?s Tea Social. The group changed its name to welcome all tea lovers.

?Gay men who are into tea, that?s kind of huge,? said the group?s founder, Roy Lamberty, 49, the executive chef of Fatty Fish, a restaurant on the Upper East Side.

Afternoon tea is dismissed as a ladies? thing, Mr. Lamberty said. ?I don?t feel we should stick to stereotypes.?

Nearby, a group of women in satin dresses sat against the windows, chatting in Russian at their bridal shower. They watched the bride-to-be, Alexsandra Lerner, 24, of Manhattan Beach, as she pulled a lace-trimmed short silk kimono from a box.

Reading a card, tears fell down her cheeks. ?I should get married every year,? Ms. Lerner said.

Back at Mr. Lamberty?s table, Mr. Chan inquired about the provenance of the green tea.

?The state of West Bengal is basically shaped like Idaho. At the very top is Darjeeling,? Ms. Dubin said. ?Due to some, let?s say, civil unrest, to get tea from this area is very difficult.?

The bridal shower selected the unlimited Champagne option, an add-on to the regular tea service, which costs $35 per person and includes the delivery of a tiered tray stocked with treats like smoked-salmon sandwiches, buttermilk cupcakes and blood-orange frozen yogurt.

?Besides the jam and scones, I made it all myself,? said Ms. Dubin, originally from Cleveland.

When it comes to clotted cream, she instructed, ?Don?t dab; be decadent.?

Mr. Lamberty said he hopes for a tea revolution. He does not drink coffee or alcohol. ?Tea gives you that clearheaded awareness, without the jitters,? he said.

Benjamin Wagstaff, 25, was seated nearby. He wore orange leather slip-on shoes and an open shirt. He lives down the street and visits often.

Touching a silver necklace, a gift from his British grandmother, Mr. Wagstaff, a tech entrepreneur, reminisced about afternoon tea with her. ?It was definitely something to look forward to,? he said.

?I like the idea of stopping what you are doing and having conversation,? Mr. Wagstaff said. ?There?s a brunch culture in New York. Why can?t there be an afternoon tea culture? It?s not easy to find somewhere comfortable that wouldn?t rush the process.?

It was 3:30 p.m. and Mr. Lamberty?s group, having arrived at 1, was preparing to leave.

?The greatest thing about tea is that I can drink a lot of it, and drive,? said Mr. Chan. ?And not get arrested.?


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/nyr ... -east-side-speakeasy.html

It would be great to have something like Spices & Tease in Jersey City, but I'm not sure if there is a big enough interest in the neighborhood to make ends meet in a business like that.

I remember Spices & Tease in the flea markets in NYC years ago. They built up quite a following before opening the store...

Janam tea house closed, AMT is moving! What is coming in that space, I wonder ?

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Newark street is unpleasant because we don't have enough hip and interesting places to go. But the foot traffic of commuters is huge and people are just waiting for something interesting to get started there....

sounds good, also serve some good juice. All the crap from cosi/donking donuts are nothing but sugar. Have a real juice bar with 100% squeezed fruits.

I think the Bright/York area could do well since you have a decent amount of foot traffic with people coming from the school, Pathmark, Van Vorst Park, Liberty State Park, and the hospital. I know several people at JC Medical that wish there were more places in the area.
Legal Grounds is on a very quiet section of Grand and has horrible hours. Every time I head that way the place seems to be closed. I am sure a location on Newark would do just as well, but of course I am partial to the Bright/York area

I vote for Van Vorst Park!! Newark Street is unpleasant. But I have to agree, I don't see much demand for bubble tea in this area. I think Bubble Tea would do better in Pavonia Newport where there is a larger Asian population - although they already have a bubble tea house.

I vote for Van Vorst Park!! Newark Street is unpleasant. But I have to agree, I don't see much demand for bubble tea in this area. I think Bubble Tea would do better in Pavonia Newport where there is a larger Asian population - although they already have a bubble tea house.

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I like bubble/boba tea, but I don't think it would do very well in this area. FYI, Legal Grounds on Grand (3-4 blocks from the proposed place for this teashop on Bright/York) offers bubble tea. I think they probably sell one cup every 2 weeks. Maybe it would fare better on Newark Ave though, who knows.

VVP area needs a place for bubble tea, vegan and vegetarian snacks!

If it's a tea house and the tea is fantastic all the time. The food is fresh and good all the time (even if you run out because you'd rather make less and keep it fresh than make more and try and sell it a day later....) and the price point is not shocking (again, I go back to another coffee house where I try and support the goodies and I am thrown off on cost vs. size/quality) then people around here will come. I will always walk a little further if there is consistency. This coffee novelty knit place is only 2 blocks away and I'll walk 7 blocks to Basic instead because they are open and the coffee is fresh. I tried, and I tried to support the other place but my personal experiences for food and coffee being consistent weren't provided (although they are fantastic community contributors and a great addition to the neighborhood, they weren't my cup of tea, pun intended). Newark would be IDEAL! That area needs a clean up desperately and I'd welcome anything en route to the PATH train....

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Oh, of course.

I'm getting my sweets confused.

So, that's what your teahouse needs.

Tarts and strumpets and the very "kind, gentle, welcoming" staff Jersey City establishments are known for.

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I think you were thinking of "strumpet". Crumpet is a non-judgemental term similar to nubile.

A woman of loose morals can also be a "slag" but I definitely wouldnt eat that.

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I thought a woman of loose morals was a "tart".

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I would love to see you open right on Newark Avenue! You'll get a lot more foot traffic as people go to or from the PATH - just sit for a while near each place you are thinking about and just watch the foot traffic.

Huh.

I thought that it was a woman of loose morals.

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It was a play on words.

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All my life I assumed this was a crumpet, but with the American spelling.

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Here don't bother going save A trip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumpet

I'd go if you served crumpets with the tea but only once, mainly to find out what a crumpet is.

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What's wrong with Lipton? I think it's a good deal for the size of the box & amount of teabags...

For the love of god, please have decent tea and you will have my eternal gratitude! Bagged is fine for people who don't know any better but the loose leaf is better by far. The closest "real" tea place is in Montclair so you'd have a corner on the market. (It's called Cha Ma Gu Dao, I strongly suggest check them out). There is a forum called teachat.com. They have a subforum for people who are operating or thinking about opening tea places. The folks there can probably direct you towards some great wholesalers.

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No.

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+1

I'm in the VVP section and would definitely go there. If you make crepes (one word: Nutella), Mr JCI and I will be your best friends.


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are you by any chance either emo or a goth kid?

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Really? I found her to be pesky and annoying.

she also spent year(s) in India and went back a few times and was a teaologist.

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Yeah, liss54 & daphne, it sounds like a good idea. But keep in mind that part of Janam's success was that the tiny girl who owned/ran Janam was so sweet. Also, small businesses are very risky. But if you open, I'll go.