Tea Lounge Heads East...WAY East

Left image via www.streetlegalplay.wordpress.com

In early May, we learned that Park Slope coffee & baked goods-slinging breeder/freelancer hangout The Tea Lounge (who've seen themselves go from three locations to a single one on Union St over the past decade), have plans to start franchising the Tea Lounge name. Owner Jonathan Spiel, who has built The Tea Lounge into a "community" since opening a dozen years back, feels he has a unique franchise model in a café that engenders this community spirit, with entertainment as a healthy part of the mix.

Last week, we finally learned of the first franchise location in the expanding Tea Lounge empire. Where would it be? Willyburg? Perhaps an up & coming NYC neighborhood like Sunnyside, Queens? How about someplace hip on the West Coast: Portland or Olympia, perhaps?

Nope. Not even close, Maynard. Instead, The Tea Lounge is pulling a lil' Sex and The Shitty II & heading to the Middle East! That's right. As was first reported last week, Mohammed al Arbash, a Kuwaiti businessman, will be opening the first Tea Lounge franchise in a Kuwait City mall. OBVIOUSLY.

While there's a handy operations manual that comes with each Tea Lounge franchise, there'll definitely be a few changes at the Kuwait City locale. For one…IT'LL BE IN A MALL. Malls in Kuwait City are FUCKIN' NUTS. Of course, there'll be no ham or alcohol on the menu, and I'm going to go out on a limb here & assume that there will be positively no public breast-feeding at this locale but still...TEA LOUNGE.

Of course, Kuwaitis love their coffee & tea. The Tea Lounge does that right. Still, I’m not sure how Kuwait City is a perfect fit for The Tea Lounge but hey...if "Brooklyn" becomes cool in Kuwait City, that'd be fuckin' hilarious. I guess if nothing, it's better than another Starbucks moving in. I mean, Kuwait City has ten of them already.

Read way more from Shawn at eatdrinksnack.com & eatdrinktaco.com.