The venerable Temple Slug shop turns 40 years old in April (and was better-known in the 1970s as a hippie head shop than its current incarnation as a stylish futon dealer). The folks who own it also own the little farmhouse at 4309 Jefferson Street, but it's taken eight years to turn the building from a tiny rental home into a combination teahouse and coffee house called
The Teahouse & Coffeepot. The inspiration behind the business was tea-lover Keith Buchanan, the stepson of Temple Slug's owner, who naturally prefers tea to coffee: the British-born Buchanan is half English, half-Chinese and all about converting coffee-loving Americans into tea enthusiasts.
"We can't convert a coffee drinker if you can't get them into the door," says Buchanan, explaining why the cozy little venue sells both French press coffees and teas.
Getting customers into the door doesn't seem to be a big problem -- but getting too
many through the door might be. The Teahouse and Coffeepot is very, very small. There are two petite rooms on the first floor with barely a handful of tables. The walls are painted a bright pistachio green and the windows are big and sunny, so it doesn't seem cramped, although barista and tea brewer (and musician)
Nick Holt's idea of hosting a regular open-mic night in the building seems too fantastic to be possible.
So far, the venue has only had one open mic night and, according to
Buchanan, only one participant showed up to perform. "And even then, it
was a few minutes before we closed."
The upstairs space is just as small: one room with four comfortable futons, perfect for sipping tea while reading a good book or maybe taking a quick nap. (The futons are floor models from Temple Slug, and they're for sale.)
The place where Nick Holt brews his beverages is small and cramped too, so it makes sense that there isn't a kitchen. The teahouse does, however, have a resident baker, Jennifer Scanlon, who makes excellent cookies and scones (which Buchanan pronounces correctly as scunz instead of rhyming it with stones); the recent array included a Drunken Rum Raison scone, apple cinnamon scones and a savory tomato basil scone. There are soups and other savory snacks too.
Comments (0)