Teany
Closed as of Jun 19
Coffee/Tea/Juice
Hours
Profile
Teahouse and cafe
Closed in June 2009 due to a fire. May re-open. Teany is co-owned by the famous vegan and musician, Moby. It has an extensive variety of unusual tea and coffee drinks and some light food. Note that it is cash-only.
- Outdoor Seating
Added by sarah on Mar 30 03 (updated Nov 4)
Reviews
Teany offers an extensive tea and juice menu with light snacks and desserts. I wasn't that impressed with their chocolate vegan cheesecake ($5) (it was served as room temperature, instead of cold), but I liked their smooth ice tea ($3) and the absolutely delectable "teanychino," which I had with almond milk ($3.50). It was light years ahead of every day chai lattes in terms of taste and refinement. Their chai latte ($3.50) was extremely understated and good, but paled in comparison to the teanychino. This is, in the end, a good place to get a late afternoon snack or drink, but be warned that it is cash-only and gets packed quite easily during peak hours, and especially during the weekends. It's a small place and not good for groups larger than 2 or 3. Your best best is to go on a weekday after 2 p.m. (you might combine it to a trip to the nearby Tenement Museum).
Modern, if slightly worn, décor livens up this very small café. Good selection of standard vegetarian fare and a huge selection of teas (hence the name I guess). I enjoyed the chicken flavour tofu on toast and the fruit shake. The great atmosphere was the real winner for me; the other patrons were having a good time (even if they were spilling out into the street) and the staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful.
The takeaway version next door is good option if you have to wait for a table in Teany.
This is the kind of place I would visit again and again.
we actually met moby. as he was leaving, he gave us his table and made some recommendations. yay! the sandwich was good, but nothing special. the deserts were amazing. we had strawberry shortcake and chocolate cheesecake. both favorites. i think it was the best vegan cheesecake i've had, though very rich. the tea is also very yummy. especially liked the flavored teas. they put bits of the flavor in the actual tea, rather than just a syrup. both the almond and raspberry were good.
I haven't been here, but Moby is one of the owners, probably why there are pics of him everywhere.
The strawberry shortcake was delicious, as it well should be for $6 a slice. But I guess New Yorkers think this is reasonable.
The prices are a bit on the high side in my opinion, but the food is quite good and the tea I had was excellent. It wouldn't hurt them to turn the music down a bit. Yes, it's hip, but it's a small space and doesn't need to be quite so loud.
if you are in the east village and have a late-night hankering for cake, you will be very lucky if someone knows that this teahouse has a good selection of vegan desserts, in addition to about a thousand different kinds of tea, and soups and sandwiches too. the teas looked very exciting, but the best ones cost as much as six dollars a cup, and that was the same price as a slice of cake! so it was very simple to decide upon vegan strawberry shortcake, which was wonderful with delicious strawberries and ersatz whipped cream in abundance if i recall correctly. my friend got a kind of strawberry rhubarb crisp or cobbler, which he didn't like too much, and it was kind of sad having to look across the table--peering over my towering cake bejeweled with strawberries--at the half-eaten cobbler and the sad face of my friend! so don't let your friends buy a bad dessert, because if they do you will have to reluctantly let them eat some of yours when in fact you want every forkful for yourself. i also ate a sandwich here, following the cake. overall i give it two paws up, although the atmosphere and music playing was kind of silly (lots of robots) and there are pictures of moby everywhere as if he was their mascot.
Teany's menu looked pretty good, but I was only in there for tea. I had the pumpkin Teanychino and it was really good. It was smooth, nicely spiced, and I loved the froth on top. While they have a nice menu and huge tea selection, I was disappointed that they offered the usual Vegan Treats cake and brownie selection that every other veg restaurant also offers instead of making their own desserts.
I must say, however, that I found Teany to be awfully pretentious. Everyone there was young, white, and stylish, and it just didn't seem to be my vibe. Nobody was rude, they just felt much more self-absorbed than my usual crowd.