The South Side Has Always Deserved a Tea Room. We’re Still Waiting for One Built for Us.

I started the Chicago Afternoon Tea Society on November 1, 2025, with three people in a room.

I want to be honest about that because I think it matters. There was no launch event, no press release, no packed waitlist. Just a small group of people who said yes — yes to slowing down, yes to something intentional, yes to a type of experience that, if we’re being real, the South Side has never had a dedicated home for.

Eleven events later, 83 guest have sat down at tables I helped set. They’ve sipped. They’ve laughed. They’ve lingered longer than they planned. And every single time, someone says some version of the same thing: I didn’t know we could have this.

That sentence lives in my chest and mind. Because it tells me everything.

What’s Actually Missing — And Why It Matters

Let me be specific, because “there are no tea rooms on the South Side” sounds like a complaint, and what I’m trying to do is name a real gap.

Afternoon tea — actual afternoon tea — is a structured, ceremonial experience. Tiered service. Finger sandwiches. Scones with clotted cream. A thoughtful selection of teas steeped at the right temperature, presented with intention. It is not a mimosa brunch with a tea bag on the side. It is not a “tea-themed” menu at a café that also serves avocado toast. Those things are lovely, and they have their place. But they are not the same thing.

What we have on the South Side right now are brunch concepts borrowing the language of tea culture. The events exist because the desire exists — people here absolutely want these experiences. But because there is no dedicated space, no infrastructure, no establishment that knows how to do it properly, what gets created is the best version of what someone could build without access to the real thing. I don’t say that as a criticism of anyone building something. I say it as an indictment of the gap that makes those workarounds necessary.

We are not a community without sophistication or appetite. We are a community without access.

The Timing of What’s Coming

This week, news broke that Han Cha — a Korean-inspired high tea salon created by entrepreneur Heiji Choy Black in partnership with artist Theaster Gates — will open June 5 at the Stony Island Arts Bank on 67th Street. Two weeks before the Obama Presidential Center opens on June 19.

I’ll be honest: my first reaction was excitement. Seven minutes from my house. An elevated tea experience I don’t have to drive 45 minutes for. That is genuinely something.

And then I sat with it a little longer.

The Stony Island Arts Bank is a real institution. Theaster Gates has poured decades into this neighborhood when others weren’t paying attention. Han Cha sounds beautiful — a two-hour prix fixe Korean-inspired experience, intentional and elevated. I plan to visit. I want it to succeed.

But I also notice the timing. A Korean tea salon opening the week before an international presidential library draws a global audience — that programming, however wonderful, is partly designed for the visitor economy that’s coming. The tourist. The transplant. The new resident arriving in the shadow of the Obama Center.

I’m not here to criticize that. I’m here to ask a different question alongside it: Where does the South Side professional go for her birthday celebration? Where does the book club of retired educators gather for something that honors their history? Where does a young woman bring her grandmother to an experience that feels rooted — in Black tradition, in this neighborhood, in the culture of the people who have always lived here?

That place doesn’t exist yet on the South Side. 

That’s what I’m building.

Why I’m the One Building It

I didn’t come to this as a business opportunity. I came to it as someone who had to leave her neighborhood to have the experience she wanted.

My first real tea house experience was in Chinatown in 2014 — a birthday tour, a beautiful little shop, an oolong I still remember. Years later, my friends and family gifted me an afternoon tea service for my bridal shower. Tiered trays. Cucumber sandwiches on rye. Pretty tablecloths. I was overwhelmed by how right it felt.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I kept thinking about my grandmother. About the Saturday gatherings she and my great-grandmother held — the good dishes, white tablecloths, pound cake, small bites, and real conversation. Those women built community around a table with intention and care. They just didn’t call it a tea society.

I am the continuation of that tradition. I just finally stopped waiting for someone else to build the space.

What 83 People Have Already Told Us

Eleven events. Eighty-three attendees. Sellouts. Repeat guests. Post-event surveys that tell me, in their own words, what this community has been hungry for.

This isn’t a vision I’m asking anyone to believe in based on faith. This is documented, measurable demand — from South Side professionals, from people who drive past a dozen coffee shops to attend something that finally feels elevated enough to be worth their time.

The gap is not speculative. The need is not a projection. The community is already here, already showing up, already asking when the next one is.

I’m building toward a permanent answer to that question.

What’s Next

The Chicago Afternoon Tea Society will continue hosting curated tea experiences across the city — our next gathering is a Juneteenth Hibiscus Tea Celebration on June 13th in Bronzeville. We are growing a community, building partnerships with South Side businesses and artisans, and creating the proof of concept for what comes next: a dedicated tea room, rooted in South Side culture, designed for South Side people.

Not a brunch event with a teapot on the table. Not a prix fixe experience priced and positioned for tourism. A real third space — warm, intentional, ours.

The South Side has always deserved this. We’re getting there.

Follow our journey at chiafternoonteasociety.com or join the community on Facebook: @ChicagoAfternoonTeaSociety.

Next event: Juneteenth Hibiscus Tea Celebration — June 13, 2026. Tickets: chiafternoonteasociety.com/event-details/juneteenth-hibiscus-tea-celebration-tasting