Like the country it is named after, the Russian Tea Room in New York City has seen its glory days and stark failures.
The Tea Room’s opulent settings entertained some of the biggest names of the modern day before closing down and being mothballed in 1995 and then again in 2002. The closing was tragic for many New Yorkers who shed nostalgic tears at the demise of the hallowed institution.
Today, they have something to cheer about.
$19 million dollars in renovations later, the Russian Tea Room is back on its feet and ready to assume its historic role as a high-end eatery and tea room. New investors have dolled it up like an old Czarist residence complete with samovars and a selection of blinis, borscht, and caviar.
According to an AP article by Verena Dobnik, the Russian Tea House began life as a place to eat chocolate and sip tea for the city’s Russian expatriate crowd in 1926. Today, if investors have their way, it will be a place to down $350 dollops of caviar.