Park Slope's Beloved Tea Lounge to Close Saturday Thanks to Mooching Freelancers

After 14 years serving Park Slope parents and office-less freelancers, Tea Lounge, the sprawling cafe on Union Street, has announced it will close on December 14. The space is beloved by locals, due in no small part to its many mismatched couches, chairs, and tables, which make for an ideal place to park a stroller or to set up an office away from home. Unfortunately, all those people working on their novel are exactly the reason the cafe is closing. Owner Jonathan Spiel tells the Daily News that business has been declining because too many people "take advantage" of the space by ordering a cup of coffee and then sitting all day.

That Tea Lounge has been struggling shouldn't come complete shock. The space was listed up for sale way back in September. At the time, the owners denied that they were actually selling the place, telling Here's Park Slope that the real estate listing was "only intended to help sell franchises." But clearly, that turned out to be an evasion.

No word yet on what is moving in, but it's certainly a big space to fill