Having taken up residence on Greenwich Avenue almost 30 years ago, it’s been a difficult time for Manhattan institution Tea & Sympathy’s owner Nicky Perry, who swapped Blackheath Village for Greenwich Village when she moved to the Big Apple in 1990.
Nicky opened Tea & Sympathy as two separate outlets 28 years ago – an English tea shop and restaurant – both selling tea related gifts ranging from Toby jugs, teapots and assorted ceramics to tea strainers. A third shop, A Salt & Battery, sells very British fish and chips.
However, despite an ‘A’ List clientele that includes actresses Joanna Lumley, Judi Dench, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cameron Diaz, Nicky has been forced to launch a crowdfunding appeal to raise money to survive in the face of escalating property taxes and rents which total some $28,000 each month.
As well as a haunt for film stars, Tea & Sympathy has always been the place that the New York media go to too, when the big stories break in the UK. “Around the time of the first Royal Wedding, when Prince William married Kate Middleton, I sold more gift china that I ever had in my life, and when Kate was about to give birth to Prince George the media camped on my doorstep for two days,” Nicky told GiftsandHome.net
Fortunately for Nicky, customers have been fast off the mark to donate money to stop the shop from closing its doors. “We can survive because of our loyal customers, the legacy that Nicky has built, but we just need a helping hand,” shop manager Molly Carew told the Daily Telegraph’s Rob Crilly, with Nicky determined to fight on. “I’m doing it. I’m British. I have the Dunkirk spirit in me,” she told the newspaper.
Top: Greenwich Village institution Tea & Sympathy is fighting to stay in business.
