A Decade in Tea

I had the good fortune to stumble upon an incredibly cool teahouse chain in operation long before there were such entities in Canada and the US. It was in Prague in 1997.  I had been to Vienna for a wedding and the groom had suggested I take off to the Czech Republic to see the sights.  My second day there I discovered Dobra Cajovna tea house- Prague's definitive answer to a thirsty tea lover.

If you have ever had the chance to visit one, it will leave an indelible impression on you - tea drinker or not. The memory & ambiance of those shops stuck with me long after leaving the old city.  Within 6 months after my return to Edmonton, thoughts of those incredible Prague teahouses would inspire me to pursue the opening of my very own tea lounge. In November of 98, after leaving the Alberta Oil patch, I wrote the business plan, raised the remaining capital, found a location and completed the interior renovations by the first of May in 1999.  On the 3^rd, I opened the doors to Steeps - the urban teahouse on 124^th street in Edmonton, Alberta. That very first summer of my existence in the world of retail tea, I damn near never made it.  The dusty city was engulfed in a heat wave that would drag on for weeks.  My little shop had no air conditioning - an easy oversight in classically frigid Edmonton, but now with the mercury hovering around 32-33C every day outside, it was at least 42C inside.  The few customers that braved the heat and stepped into my shop did an almost immediate about-face.  I hardly had the chance to blurt out a hello, let alone a goodbye, as I saw them scurry back out the doors.

By September, I was cooked -from the heat and financially. I had no capital left, and no revenue to speak of.  The few regulars I had, thoroughly enjoyed the lounge and did promise to bring friends - in October though, when it cooled down. One day in mid September a gentleman walked through the door.  There was no one (as usual) in the shop, and it was around 4:30 pm.  My regular twice-weekly food delivery had just arrived and was on display in my cooler and under the cake domes.  The oh-so-decadent double chocolate gateau was front & center and not one piece had been cut thus far.  The gentleman was interested and showed curiosity about my venture. He asked about the origin of the tea, who designed my shop and where in the world did I find such a gorgeous chocolate cake.  Within minutes he was out the door with a cup of tea and a wedge of the gateau.

I thought that was the last I would ever hear from him.  I remember thinking to myself that I did the best I could-hand holding him through the world of loose leaf, explaining to him my urban tea lounge concept and suggesting that I was trying to be like the Starbucks of tea. He had to know I was teetering perilously on the brink, it was clearly evident in the lack of customers and probably a little in my over-zealousness to please him.

An hour after he departed, I was out on the sidewalk handing out samples of iced tea when the phone rang. The guy on the other end of the line asked to speak to the owner.  "You are speaking to him" I said.  He went on: "My name is Michael Moriarity and I just had the best cup of tea and piece of chocolate cake that I have had in decades.  I am a food writer and critic for the Edmonton Journal and I would like to do a story on your tea shop.  It is unique and timely". A week later my spirited smile appeared on the front page of the food section in the Edmonton Journal.  The title of the piece? "I'd like to think of it as the Starbucks of tea"

Today, I now realize that I was too far ahead of the curve, hell - there was not even a curve then, it was a completely straight line in 1999. Fortunately though, the review saved my butt from shutting the doors. Steeps the urban teahouse was one of the continents first dedicated tea-only cafés.  It would have been a shame to see it go down.