Tea and Candlelight by Jan Whitaker

Just before America entered the first world war, Greenwich Village brought America a taste of Paris's Latin Quarter, in the guise of tea shops. They came in all types, ranging from wildly colored "futurist" dens to shabby basements with shawls thrown over exposed pipes to quaint New England interiors with rag rugs and rocking chairs. Paint was the primary decorating tool and color schemes pairing black with bright orange, yellow, or turquoise were very popular. But, whatever their decor, all provided places where the Village's youthful inhabitants and visitors could hang out, meet friends, and eat a simple meal.

Tea shop patrons could order tea or coffee, or something stronger in many cases; quite a few tea rooms were raided during Prohibition. Their cuisine was homey. A favorite at the Crumperie, for instance, was pea soup. Afternoon tea was served in most of the tea rooms, but they were night spots as much as anything else. Because they served no alcohol (officially), tea shops were allowed to stay open quite late. According to a New York Times article of 1917, most served midnight lunches or suppers. Eventually, several tea shopsmorphed into cabarets and night clubs as the 1920s turned the Village into more of a tourist destination.

Most of the Village's tea rooms were run by women, many of whom had migrated from the Midwest, the South, or New England. The first tea room was reputed to be the Mad Hatter, established in 1916 in a basement location on West 4th Street, with "Down the Rabbit Hole" written backwards along the stairs. It was begun by the sculptor Edith Unger, who sold it to a schoolteacher named Jimmie Criswell, after she experienced harassment from old-time neighborhood residents. Criswell married author Hendrik Willem Van Loon, who drew sketches for his book The Story of Mankind on the tea shop's wall.

Tea rooms came to be identified with bohemian atmosphere, largely provided by candlelight and the local patrons themselves. Around 1917, well-known tea rooms included the Samovar, in a loft with exposed brick walls; the Pirate's Den, lighted only by candles, with waiters masquerading as pirates (owned by a man, this became the Village's first night club); the Aladdin Shop, specializing in coffee and Oriental sweets, also candle lit; Will o' the Wisp, a favorite haunt of poets; and the Candlestick, said to be "a little eating place chiefly remarkable for its vegetables and poetesses."

MacDougal Street was the heart of the village, and the street with the most tea rooms. Among them at various times were the Silhouette Shop, T.N.T., the Kopper Kettle, the Wind Blew Inn, and the Jumble Shop (the longest survivor). The Village's clever tea shop names, their female proprietors, and their off-beat decor, became a source of inspiration for women across the country in the 1920s, the decade of the tea room vogue in America.

Jan Whitaker is author of Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn, A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in America, St. Martin's Press, 2002, which contains a chapter on the tea rooms of Greenwich Village, as well as chapters on tea rooms in department stores and hotels, New England roadside tea houses, and metropolitan candy store and gypsy tea rooms.