Tea House and Snegana Gallery
11 Benkovski Str, Sofia
Tel (Tea House): 088/ 843 10 07
Tel (Snegana Gallery): 088/ 510 71 90
Working hours: 10am-11pm daily

Suppose you want to sit in the middle of a classily funky art gallery with a cup of tea, listening to live music and pondering the option to have a light meal, a glass of wine, or something sweet. Too much to ask? Not if you’re in the right place. And that place would Tea House (aka, Chai vuv fabrikata, or Tea in the Factory), and it would also be Snegana Gallery-since both of these places are together, as one, in the same space.

Once you’ve gone through the blue door on the street next to the (somewhat unobtrusive) sign, you’ll see the Tea House entrance, which is the first door on the right (and marked by an additional sign).

The orange, art-accentuated interior will tell you that you are in the right place(s). Comfortable couches and chairs beckon from cosy nooks. Graceful Viennese-style wooden chairs are grouped intimately around similarly dark little wooden tables. Tall windows let in enough natural light to set the walls aglow; at night, hanging paper lamps take over. The feel is that of a 1920s cafe, given an industrial twist by the presence of shiny ventilation pipes running along the high ceiling. A small corridor next to the bar serves as an extension of the gallery space and is painted a warm shade of blue.

The artistry extends even to the WC; various sketches are affixed to the walls within, and the ladies’ and men’s doors are each hung with a large drawing of a seated individual of appropriate gender.

This lovely cafe/gallery opened in 2006 in a building that previously housed a printing factory (a bit of history which is referenced on the sign outside, which reads in part Chai vuf fabrikata, or Tea in the Factory.) Some of the materials left by the former tenant have been given new life here; the bar, for example, is partially constructed from wood found in the main room when work was begun on the cafe.

It’s obvious that artistic hands were involved in the visual aspects of this place. The hands in question belong to Snegana (pronounced Snezhana), the gallerist. She is not only an artist in her own right but also sometimes appears on the canvases of others who exhibit in her gallery. One such exhibitor is Bulgarian painter Vassilka Moneva. The works she recently exhibited in Snegana’s gallery featured several images of Snegana herself. In additional consideration of this unique space, all her pieces were chosen to harmonise with the vibrantly hued walls, so her well-crafted paintings looked very much at home.

Sight is not the only sense to be satisfied here, of course. True to its name, Tea House gives taste and smell equal tribute with more than 40 varieties of tea (organic whenever possible), available by the cup or the pot or even to take home by the package. Tea prices range from 1.50 to 2.50 leva a cup; a pot is five leva.

You’ll find traditional green and black teas from China, Japan and India, as well as a French/Japanese brand called Nina’s, which features black or green teas with different natural flavours added. Those who prefer non-caffeinated tea will discover a staggering array of herbal options, from a simple peppermint or chamomile-with-hibiscus to an extensive menu of Yogi Teas, which use ayurvedic recipes (formulations based on a traditional practice of Indian medicine). Tea House is currently the only place in Bulgaria where this particular brand is available. I tried the Yogi Schoko which lists as its ingredients “Chocolate shells from fair trade (60 per cent), cinnamon cassia, licorice, carob, barley malt, cardamom, ginger, cloves, black pepper (and) vanilla beans”, because it was too intriguing to pass up. It was wonderful, but the flavour is too complex to accurately describe-you’ll just have to experience it for yourself!

There is also coffee on the menu (only a few choices there-this is, after all, the Tea House) as well as hot chocolate, hot milk, iced tea and juices, including several freshly squeezed varieties. A small list of various alcoholic beverages rounds out the drink choices.

If you feel like supplementing your liquid refreshment with a bit of reasonably priced (averaging between three and four leva per item) vegetarian food, you can check out the daily menu, which usually features a soup, one or two salads, a couple of sandwich or pancake/crepe items and a short list of desserts (which are usually about 2.50 leva), all made on the premises. Every Thursday, the focus is on ayurvedic cuisine.

As if this place didn’t already offer enough paths to sensory satisfaction, on most evenings between 8pm and 10pm there’s live music, usually jazz- or acoustically-oriented, performed by musicians both famous and not-so-famous. You can find out who’s playing next by sending a request to artcentrezora@gmail.com to be put on the mailing list.

Early one evening I stopped in to see an exhibit of a painter whom I had recently met, and she urged me to stay for the music that night. The performers turned out to be the well-known Bulgarians Georgi Donchev on the double bass, Rosen Zahariev playing trumpet, percussion and keyboard and Teodosi Spassov, Bulgaria’s most famous virtuoso of the kaval (a wooden flute often used in traditional Bulgarian folk music). Admission for performances is usually five leva; that night, it was more, naturally. I had never before seen Spassov in concert, and it was a treat to have happened upon him in so intimate a venue.

Many establishments try to be too many things and come up short. Tea House and Snegana are proving that it is possible to do several things and do them well. It takes more than one visit to explore all the possibilities there. Go for the tea, the art, the music, a bite, or the orange walls... but go.