You may recall back in September 2018, BHB announced that Alice’s Tea Cup was opening a location on the corner of Hicks and Middagh, across the street from P.S. 8. Ever since then, locals, especially sleep-deprived parents in need of caffeine, have been asking when, when, when? You may also recall that our writer-in-chief Claude Scales posted a photo in an open thread last month, of the grin of the Cheshire Cat peeking out of the storefront, signaling that it was soon.
Well, this past week, I ran into Alice herself, all grown-up and much wiser but still blonde and pretty, outside the storefront. Actually, her name is Lauren Fox, and she and her sister Haley Fox opened the first two locations of Alice’s Tea Cup in Manhattan where they were born and raised. When I saw Lauren, she was directing an employee, Carolina, on perfecting the painted signage on the windows, while workers were still constructing the interior. “It’s been a lot,” she said, barely containing the angst. The first question was, of course, when are you opening? Next week was the answer.
Why this location? Lauren said that she and Haley plan to model the business more towards a take-out café and open in more cities. Also, in their Manhattan locations, which are full service restaurants, customers for years have been suggesting they open in Brooklyn. So, they searched and saw the listing at Hicks and Middagh, and fell in love with the windows. “I mean, where do you ever see this kind of storefront display?” Lauren asked. They also loved that the location was across the street from an elementary school, since Alice’s Tea Cup has always cherished and catered to their very young clientele.
When asked how they came up with the concept for Alice’s Tea Cup, Lauren said, “From our love of tea. We grew up going to tea with our parents. And the story of Alice in Wonderland. Our godchild’s name is Alice and we both babysat her when she was little. We’d read her the book, constantly. So the name and concept was a nod to the book and her.”
Alice’s Tea Cup will seat about 12-14 and serve coffee, tea, scones, cupcakes, oatmeal with mix-ins, to-go sandwiches, picnic/lunch boxes, and made-to-order cakes. Also, what will likely become my new favorite breakfast – scuffins. What’s a scuffin? If a scone and a muffin had a baby….
For more info on all their locations, click here.
