Theodore H.
Yelp
After making plans to catch up w my friend, she suggested we meet at a tea shop near her apartment. I'm ALWAYS up for a new tea place and made my way over. All my friends know about my tea obsession, with dozens of teas in my cabinet, and one of my favorite travel memories is having a formal tea ceremony in Shanghai.
I walked in and was immediately transported to tea heaven. R hadn't arrived so I studied the menu while waiting for the people in line to finish their purchases. I settled on a Thai roobois to drink and a few others to purchase for home. I told her my order and explained that I'd also be purchasing loose teas and would hold on to the menu. I sat down at the small table and R walked in a few minutes later. She approached the woman behind the counter with money visibly in her hand and ordered her tea. The woman didn't take her money so R assumed payment was made after finishing, the same assumption I'd made.
After about 45 minutes, two men walked in, ordered, and said ( to each other ) that they'd wanted to sit but it didn't look like there were any tables. The woman behind the counter overheard them and leaned over to us and loudly asked " Are you two almost finished? " I was astonished. Why had she asked us instead of anyone else in the place, and why so rudely? I took a breath and evenly and calmly said: " No, we're not finished ". We continued talking but I was so livid that I couldn't concentrate. Was it because I'm African-American and R is Indian?
While paying I asked her, in a respectful tone that she hadn't given us, why she'd talked to us like that. Her answer" Oh well you two said you were getting tea to go and those tables are for guests drinking here." I hadn't noticed until then that our tea was in to go cups and everyone else in the shop had actual cups. But neither of us had been to the shop and although she then claimed to have asked us, she did not. I most definitely would have told her that we intended to sit.
Also, it makes no logical sense why, if she'd had that imaginary conversation where we told her our tea was to go, she hadn't then taken our payment. Also, I'd told her that I intended to purchase loose tea after drinking my roobois. Did she think I was going to drink it on the sidewalk in the cold, then walk back inside to buy the tea?
So I'm obviously not returning but more than anything I'm bummed that I don't get to try all those teas and that incidents like this still happen. Maybe some of you will have a wonderful, great experience at this tea place. That wasn't the case for me.