Groundspeak Portal

Wondering if there would be any interest in Tearooms category?

I like them (eg. the place where this perpetual GC event took place last two years) but if there are any tea experts I'd leave the group leadership to them. Personally I visited tearooms only in the US and here in Czech Rep., the wikipedia entry looks like there should be potential waymarks worldwide.

We have many nice tea rooms in Ann Arbor

For example:

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM4VKF

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM462X

Then, of course, there is the grand daddy of all tea rooms... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Tea_Room

 

 

Tearooms are probably worth looking into but I'd want the category write up to be informative and say what you are and aren't looking for. Teach me something and give examples i.e. http://greattearoomsofamerica.com/   I know we have one British/Victorian Tea Room http://www.theteahouseonlosrios.com/ (others have all gone out of business), but the Asian community near us probably has one on every corner so I would want guidance from the cat owners on what they want and how to define it.  You may want to exclude coffee shops that serve tea, like The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf....

dopeyduck:

Tearooms are probably worth looking into but I'd want the category write up to be informative and say what you are and aren't looking for. Teach me something and give examples i.e. http://greattearoomsofamerica.com/   I know we have one British/Victorian Tea Room http://www.theteahouseonlosrios.com/ (others have all gone out of business), but the Asian community near us probably has one on every corner so I would want guidance from the cat owners on what they want and how to define it.  You may want to exclude coffee shops that serve tea, like The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf....

  So, want a category for them?  It is a popular chain here in Korea!  I've thought about it.

Independent tea rooms are also very common here.  Actually, they are rapidly being replaced by coffee shops, not only North American chains like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, and Krispy Kreme, but chains such as Holly's Coffee, Tom N Toms, and Angel-in-us Coffee, Ediya Coffee and others. (No Tim Hortons yet).

In any case, you will want to be very particular how you define what will qualify as a tea house.  We have cats for independent coffee houses, bubble tea, independent donut shops, etc.

I think that it is a great idea.  I enjoy going to tea rooms.  I would be willing to be an officer.

Tearoom Guide: 

http://www.teaguide.net/

CNN: Five great American tearooms

I had afternoon tea twice at the Dunbar Tea Shop in Sandwich, Massachusetts.  It was quite lovely.  Each time I rode the excursion train from Hyannis where I was visiting for a week.  I also purchased a Paperweight at The Sandwich Historical Society that was made in the tradition of the old Sandwich factory.  It was signed and dated by the maker -- Joe Rice 2001. 

 

Here is a rough outline:

Name

Address

City, State

Zip Code

Phone number

e-mail address

 

Directions

 

Short  Description

 

Long Description

 

Prices with name and description of each service

 

Credit Cards/Checks/Cash??

 

Wheelchair Accessible

 

Watercloset/Location  (that is the term used in a tea rooms locations book)

 

Lot Parking

 

Metered or Unmetered Street Parking

 

Hours/Days

 

Reservations required?

 

Rate the tearoom

 

 

 

rose red:

Here is a rough outline:

Name

Address

City, State

Zip Code

Phone number

e-mail address

 

Directions

 

Short  Description

 

Long Description

 

Prices with name and description of each service

 

Credit Cards/Checks/Cash??

 

Wheelchair Accessible

 

Watercloset/Location  (that is the term used in a tea rooms locations book)

 

Lot Parking

 

Metered or Unmetered Street Parking

 

Hours/Days

 

Reservations required?

 

Rate the tearoom

 

Yikes!  I hope this isn't what you propose for required information for a waymark.  This is way too detailed.  At least I don't see waymarking as a review service like Yelp.  Personally, I think info for a waymark should be limited to a few basic things easily available to the casual waymarker and visitor.  This is true, at least, for commercial categories.  I know I would avoid a category that asked for this much minute information.  I found trying to determine hours of operation almost impossible in many cases.  This is my personal take, of course, but I think you might have a lot of others that would shy away because of this,  "Prices with name and description of each service?"  I don't think so.  And, most of the things on that list are either not applicable or just don't make sense where I live.

But, press on!  It could be a good category,

I'd have to agree with SQ about the overkill. Out of all that, I'd have an inclusive address block, website, and if reservations were: required, recommended, not necessary, don't know.

You have obviously never filled out a form for U.S. National Register for Historic Places.  

rose red:

You have obviously never filled out a form for U.S. National Register for Historic Places.  

Only a few hundred . . .

I think it is a good example, though, of redundant info as nearly all of it is copy and paste from the register.  At least it's info that is readily available.  Since it was started this way, we're stuck with it. 

Then there is my "Municipal Parks" category!  Good grief, what I put in there is way too much.  It was one of my early categories, and I thought it would be cool to put in everything I could think of.   At least very few fields are required, and it does provide an easy way to provide some description.  If I could design either of these categories today, I'd certainly do them differently.  But, neither of these are commercial categories which I think should be kept easy and casual to do.

My main point is not the number of fields, but the fact that they seem to me to require a lot of effort to obtain, and some are trivial or just not universally meaningful.

But, this is my personal approach to waymarking, and others may have other goals that they find meaningful.  I'd still go to Yelp if I wanted this kind of information though.

silverquill:

rose red:

Here is a rough outline:

Name

Address

City, State

Zip Code

Phone number

e-mail address

 

Directions

 

Short  Description

 

Long Description

 

Prices with name and description of each service

 

Credit Cards/Checks/Cash??

 

Wheelchair Accessible

 

Watercloset/Location  (that is the term used in a tea rooms locations book)

 

Lot Parking

 

Metered or Unmetered Street Parking

 

Hours/Days

 

Reservations required?

 

Rate the tearoom

 

Yikes!  I hope this isn't what you propose for required information for a waymark.  This is way too detailed.  At least I don't see waymarking as a review service like Yelp.  Personally, I think info for a waymark should be limited to a few basic things easily available to the casual waymarker and visitor.  This is true, at least, for commercial categories.  I know I would avoid a category that asked for this much minute information.  I found trying to determine hours of operation almost impossible in many cases.  This is my personal take, of course, but I think you might have a lot of others that would shy away because of this,  "Prices with name and description of each service?"  I don't think so.  And, most of the things on that list are either not applicable or just don't make sense where I live.

But, press on!  It could be a good category,

I agree with Silverquill on this one.   This many variables which are not readily available would not be a good idea.  This type and number of variables would only lead to people either avoiding the category or making things up to fulfill the variables. 

I have done only a couple waymarks in the National Register category however now with the Focus site the information needed is available in at least least two locations.

What would be the minimum: Name, short description, and long description??   Photo or no photo??  Web site -- it could give the additional info??

rose red:

 

Rate the tearoom

 

Does this have to be there for the ratings pulldown to show up in the visit log?

Because that's the only place the rating should be, not in the waymark posting.

0ccam:

rose red:

 

Rate the tearoom

 

Does this have to be there for the ratings pulldown to show up in the visit log?

Because that's the only place the rating should be, not in the waymark posting.

Agree... rating should be a visit function, not a creation function.

BQ

What would be the minimum: Name, short description, and long description??   Photo or no photo??  Web site (it could give the additional info)??

rose red:

What would be the minimum: Name, short description, and long description??   Photo or no photo??  Web site (it could give the additional info)??

I would require a photo, waymark without photos are like looking at a phone book.  I think you could have some of the variables you had listed above, just not all of them.  Pick a few that are important to the enjoyment to of the tearoom.

I think that only the name of the tearoom, photograph(s), short description, long description and perhaps the web site since a Waymarker would not need to enter the tearoom i.e. Tearoom Guide:  http://www.teaguide.net/

If the Waymarker entered the tearoom they could put comments (some of the variables) in the Long Description. 

If someone wanted to create the Category, I would volunteer to be an Officer.

rose red:

If the Waymarker entered the tearoom they could put comments (some of the variables) in the Long Description. 

If the waymarker entered the tearoom, they could also post a visit and put their experiences there.

True.  A lot of the info/thoughts could go into a well written log. 

Sorry, I don't go into wm forums that often, just today I saw two strange categories in peer review and went to check if there is anything about them here, and saw that my thread is active.

About variables - I also prefer free approach, almost anything can by included in the text. The posting instructions should include some guidelines ("if you know about any specialties served in the tearoom, please mention it in the description").

Optional website URL would be good - you can post waymarks in plain text and still have a clickable link.
Opening hours would be useful, but also better in the text than as a variable.

The waymarkable objects would be tearooms as defined by wikipedia. Maté and Masala tearooms look ok to me even if it is not exact from botanical point of view. Does it make sense to explicitly exclude cafes, coffee shops, tea and coffee stores where you can't have a tea? Chain/franchise tearooms? I checked the one I know: Dobra Cajovna  - about 20 tearooms across CZ - and found that it has also two tearooms in the US, see http://www.dobratea.com/index.php?toc=tearoom - I don't see problems with franchises like this :)

The group is created, open enrollment turned on, Rose Red invited.

It took some time but Tearooms and Teahouses cat is finally in peer review now, please check it and vote.
I hope the description is clear enough (I like the loose leaf criteria provided by DopeyDuck).
Any suggestions are welcome in peer review comments, I'll post a summary of comments here when the vote is over.

The TeaRooms category was successful, and I'd like to thank everyone for their comments as they were all very constructive. I'll let haggaeus address all the different comments in another post, but I'm sure the category will be fine-tuned based on the feedback (i.e. the GPS in photo part).  This was a collaboration between west coast US, east coast US, and Europe, and we did pretty good despite some language and cultural barriers.

I know there was a question regarding the Japanese ceremonial tea houses. I think they were excluded due to the "ceremonial" aspect, not due to geographic reasons. I imagine there are tea shops/tea houses in Japan that serve tea that are not ceremonial in nature and those would be included. If someone has more insight on the Japanese culture who could help clarify and guide this aspect, PLEASE chime in.

I think the "serving food" portion was to primarily exclude kiosks, carts, and walk-up window places. If they have pastries, snacks, etc, you can sit down to enjoy it, and an extensive assortment of teas (more than just your standard set of tea bags), then we'll likely accept it. And yes, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf would be acceptable.