Good Tea House on the Upper West Side?

[Tristram]

Can anyone recommend a good place to sit, sip tea, and converse quietly on the upper west side? Any and all tips much appreciated.

[dippedberry]

Unfortunately, the UWS is not a great area for tea. There's Alice's Tea Cup, on 73 St, but while they offer a moderate afternoon tea option and lots of tea choices, their brewing is less than ideal and the many children there makes the atmosphere less than tranquil.

You can also try Le Pain Quotidien or Sarabeth's, and there is a tea shop I've heard of near Columbia U. called Tealuxe.

Are you looking for afternoon tea or are you looking for more of a cafe/hang with my laptop kind of place? And are you willing to go outside of the neighborhood?

[Tristram]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, dippedberry. (Great SN, by the way.) For now, I'm mainly looking for good place to sit and have a conversation, preferably with nice, well-brewed tea as a stimulant. (I'm hanging out with someone for the first time, in non-romantic circumstances, but still it'd be nice to have a pleasant environment.)

Thanks for your help!

[olia]

Unfortunately Tealuxe has closed a while back -- it was indeed nice and cozy and had great selection of teas and treats.

[dippedberry]

That's too bad. Unless there's a place of which I'm unaware, I can't think of a single place on the UWS that correctly brews a good cup of tea. The closest I can name off the top of my head is the Mandarin Oriental at Columbus Circle. For your purposes, probably Cafe Mozart has the ambience that will fit your needs.

[Tristram]

Thanks Olia and Dippedberry. We ended up going to Alice's, which, as predicted, provided a cute atmosphere and a poorly brewed pot of tea. Pity. The tea menu is quite good. You just wish they knew how to brew the stuff.

Will try Mozart next time. Thanks for the input.

Cheers.

[Ora]

Tealuxe had nice teas--but it closed all NYC locastions long ago.