Greenwich Village GazetteTEA ROOMS
Some Tea Rooms grew into larger restaurants, like The Jumble Shop, which survived on MacDougal Street well into the 1960's. Others bowed to Police harassment and added the illegal alcohol of Prohibition that made the "protection" payments necessary. Now all gone, their spirit lives in the many tiny restaurants that dot the Village landscape. The Tea Rooms attracted other bizarre businesses and personages such as Sonia The Cigarette Girl. She ran a tiny shop a few steps from Sheridan Square at 184 West Fourth Street. She sold her hand rolled cigarettes from there, and would often take her wares from tea room to tea room, selling cigarettes to the patrons.
By the early 1920's the "village atmosphere" had already become a commodity sold by landlords. Sonia was a welcome sight, her wild curly hair and bright red lipstick, her body in bright batik smocks and her feet in sandals. She would always flash her Slavic eyes and cry about her poor family in communist Russia, and everyone buckled under. When pressed, she admitted to being Sonia Bright, but it turns out she was actually Ella Breistein from east 10th street. She left home at 16 and started up as the Cigarette Girl. One of six children, she never saw her family again. Sonia died suddenly in 1923, on May 19th. Her memorial was well attended. Even the Post Office accepted letters for her marked only "Sonia, Greenwich Village". Sonia The Cigarette Girl is another Legend of Greenwich Village.
|
|||
