Tea Lounge

raw

Subject: Meet me at Starbucks

I used to be a huge Tea Lounge fan, I swear, but after three bad experiences in a row, I've been driven to post the following.

I CANNOT STAND THE TEA LOUNGE’S TEA-SERVING STAFF.

Just to clarify, I mean specifically the three clowns standing behind the coffee and tea section. I am not speaking about the GOOD female bartender, who serves beer and wine on Saturday nights (she was working around 10 PM on 8/12/2006 to be exact), has her act together – offers good service, treating the customer respectfully, with a good personality.

To you three clowns serving TEA and COFFEE at Tea Lounge, I’d like to now scream at you – at the risk of sounding like an anti-drug crusader – DO NOT SMOKE POT OR EAT HAPPY PILLS BEFORE OR DURING YOUR SHIFT AT TEA LOUNGE. I’ve had enough of your giggles, confusion over how much cash is in your hand, inability to prevent a spoon from falling on the floor before you stick it in my cup, and SLOW SERVICE.

Tonight, I had to tell one of the staff members to hand me my cookie, which he was just holding for two minutes as he chatted and laughed with a co-worker behind the counter. I even had to remind the guy to take my cash. There were at least seven customers in line and three staff memebers behind the counter, but only one staff member was actually working, while the other two staff members were cracking jokes. I don’t know what these "servers" were on, but I’m so pissed off right now about having to wait in line for 15 minutes for a transaction that typically takes 2 minutes, that I could sure use some of it.

I thought Tea Lounge's staff was standing behind the cash register to take orders and money, but after trying to purchase food from them, I felt as though I had interrupted an intimate social gathering that just happened to be in a space that resembled a café counter. Don’t these people get paid to take money for coffee, tea, and food they eventually hand over to us?