Casbah Could Close

The Casbah Teahouse may be pulling up stakes after 13 years at 628 N. Fourth Ave.

Citing the economy, rising food prices and slowing business due to construction on the Fourth Avenue underpass, the eatery’s owner said she is currently looking for ways to keep the doors open, but will close at the end of the month if none are found.

“Right now, the whole world economy is really struggling, and The Casbah is a microcosm of the macrocosm,” said owner and operator Carol Ann Krueger. “We’re just looking for a way to change ourselves to keep up with the times.”

Krueger said she has scheduled a closing celebration from 7 to 11 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 28. She is currently seeking investors, partnerships or ideas from the community in an effort to continue on.

If a solution is not found, Krueger said she may move the business to Boulder, Colo., where an investor has expressed interest in helping continue the Casbah’s legacy.

The Casbah Teahouse opened at its current location in 1995 and employs about 10 people. Known locally for eco-conscious attitude and vegetarian fare, the eatery closes each summer and opens up shop at dozens of West Coast festivals, where it has a loyal following among festival-goers as well.

Call 740-0393, or visit www.casbahteahouse.com for more information.

This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2009.

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the 13th year of the Tucson Casbah Teahouse.

In June of 1991 I met Wild Bill at the Harmony festival in California. We hooked his wagon to my truck and the Traveling Teahouse was formed. Bill had created a huge canvas Bedouin-style tent from drawings of a Moroccan tent in The Shelter Book. Together we began to travel and set up the tent at gatherings and festivals.

Our first tent setup was in the Santa Cruz mountains, up Logan Creek Road. We went to the Southern Oregon Barter Fair, we traveled to the Okanogan in Washington state. We went to the String Cheese shows at Horning’s Hideout, to the camp ground outside the Country Fair, Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, High Sierra Music Fest, Hog Farm Pignic, Reggae On The River, Trinity Tribal Stomp, the Gathering of the Tribes, Earth Dance, Health & Harmony Festival, Seattle Hemp Fest, Conde’s Hi-5 Hemp Festival, Flow Motion Summer Meltdown, Northwest String Summit, Beloved Sacred Art & Music Fest, Family Affaire, Redwood Mountain, Vashon
Island Festival, Love Family Garlic Festival, Good Medicine, Monterey Bay Reggae, Christmas Star Gathering, Fairie Worlds Festival, Michael Franti’s Power To The Peaceful event, Trillium Gathering, Ashland Summer Music, Mystic Garden Party, many Rainbow Gatherings. And we catered many special events and parties too.

Wherever the “family” would gather, we would come and set up the tents, fill them with carpets, pillows, brass trays, set up a stage and create an ambient comfort zone of shade and shelter—Where the sweetest music and beautiful dancing would emerge, coalesce, converge, and spontaneously combust into the most ecstatic memorable moments. The smells of Chai and curry coming from the kitchen, which kept everyone supplied with good healthy food and drink.

We had a booth at the Shoreline Grateful Dead Shows for 7 years, 14 shows in a row. At intermission, Bill would play his Dumbek, magical rhythms from his fingertips evoking the Goddess, all the lovely ladies dancing, unfolding all their glory. The energy would collect on that corner like nectar—Absolute Fullness of Being.

After Jerry died, I could see the change in the traveling scene, so I rented the building on 4th Ave in Tucson in December of 1995 and set up shop with the Creative Spirit Gallery up front and the Tea House in the back.

For 13 years we have continued the cycle of running the 4th Ave teahouse and traveling north in the summers. In 1999 Wild Bill road off into the sunset on his Harley with a bellydancer, leaving me holding the tent. I gave him back his old tent, made a new one from 100% Hemp canvas with Hemp ropes, and kept moving forward.

In 2002, I met Salik David, who has been my most helpful partner—much respect for helping carry the weight! We built a Gypsy Wagon Kitchen, assembled a crew and went on this long journey bringing the Casbah experience to thousand and thousands of people; slipping them some plant proteins they may have never eaten, like Tempeh (soy protein) or Seitan (wheat protein). We also made many thousands of gallons of Chai and Gypsy Stew over the years.

Every fall we would return from the caravan back to Tucson, gather a crew and run the 4th Ave teahouse. The peak moments being the Street Fairs and the Gem Shows, where people from around the world have come and enjoyed the Casbah vibe. I have accomplished what world leaders should—having Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Buddhists, Jews, pagans—the full spectrum of humanity—all sitting together under one tent drinking tea and being at peace.

Now in these tough economic times, it has become impossible for me to keep it all going. The Teahouse is struggling to pay its bills, needs to be revamped to be in accordance with the times, and 4th Ave construction has hurt business for everyone downtown.

Here is what I think I need:

For a business to survive and thrive economically, you have to have what people want. In this capitalistic system we are in (consumerism), what is wanted by the people succeeds and what isn’t falls away. My conclusion is that 97% of people in Tucson want meat and alcohol. Trying to run a purely vegetarian restaurant with no alcohol has been a huge financial struggle. Something needs to change.

I am out of resources; so, we need a serious investor/partner to help purchase the building, gut it and rebuild it into an ultimate “green” Casbah. This would be 5 stories high (each level stepped back a bit more from the street), with apartments, office, rooftop garden, solar panels, street-side dining, etc—what you would imagine to be the ultimate Casbah design.

This all needs to be done now, so the Casbah reconstruction takes place at the same time that the downtown Tucson street re-construction is happening. The underpass and the new tracks are being laid, so if the Casbah were to be rebuilt at the same time, then the Casbah would be ready to reopen just as the new electric street-cars begin to run. This would create a successful, viable
business and community center for many years to come.

Without this sort of investment, we cannot continue to struggle in the inadequate situation we are in. If I cannot find an investor/partner soon, I have decided to close the doors February 28th 2009 and dissolve this 4th Ave location. I will maintain the caravan, catering, and tent rental aspects of the Casbah; and you will see us somewhere on the road at the festivals or at our own upcoming festivals, productions, and events.

I would like to rent a field for the next year’s Gem Show, where we could set up the tents and kitchen and create a vendor village—where the gem Show crowd could still find a bit of the Casbah experience every year.

So I put this out to the Universe. if you are able to help take the Casbah to the next level—rebuild, get the liquor license, make this a viable business as well as a community center, a cross-roads of the nations—if you can share this vision and have some money, time, energy, and restaurant skills—then please step up now.

I believe Tucson would miss its Casbah and I don’t really want to see it disappear. I need help to continue providing this space—or someone else to buy the place and run it their way.

It’s been many great memories, bunches of hard work, hard challenges, much growth, an amazing education, AND A REALLY GOOD TIME!

love & peace,
Carol Ann

4 replies on “Casbah Could Close”

James Reel says:

February 11, 2009 at 7:38 am

It’s very convenient for merchants to blame construction on the underpass for poor business, but how many people *really* approached Fourth Avenue from that direction? That was always very inconvenient. There are still several other, better ways to get to Fourth Avenue. The problems lie elsewhere–mainly in the other two issues Krueger cites.
dxg_ says:

February 11, 2009 at 11:48 pm

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the 13th year of the Tucson Casbah Teahouse.

In June of 1991 I met Wild Bill at the Harmony festival in California. We hooked his wagon to my truck and the Traveling Teahouse was formed. Bill had created a huge canvas Bedouin-style tent from drawings of a Moroccan tent in The Shelter Book. Together we began to travel and set up the tent at gatherings and festivals.

Our first tent setup was in the Santa Cruz mountains, up Logan Creek Road. We went to the Southern Oregon Barter Fair, we traveled to the Okanogan in Washington state. We went to the String Cheese shows at Horning’s Hideout, to the camp ground outside the Country Fair, Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, High Sierra Music Fest, Hog Farm Pignic, Reggae On The River, Trinity Tribal Stomp, the Gathering of the Tribes, Earth Dance, Health & Harmony Festival, Seattle Hemp Fest, Conde’s Hi-5 Hemp Festival, Flow Motion Summer Meltdown, Northwest String Summit, Beloved Sacred Art & Music Fest, Family Affaire, Redwood Mountain, Vashon
Island Festival, Love Family Garlic Festival, Good Medicine, Monterey Bay Reggae, Christmas Star Gathering, Fairie Worlds Festival, Michael Franti’s Power To The Peaceful event, Trillium Gathering, Ashland Summer Music, Mystic Garden Party, many Rainbow Gatherings. And we catered many special events and parties too.

Wherever the “family” would gather, we would come and set up the tents, fill them with carpets, pillows, brass trays, set up a stage and create an ambient comfort zone of shade and shelter—Where the sweetest music and beautiful dancing would emerge, coalesce, converge, and spontaneously combust into the most ecstatic memorable moments. The smells of Chai and curry coming from the kitchen, which kept everyone supplied with good healthy food and drink.

We had a booth at the Shoreline Grateful Dead Shows for 7 years, 14 shows in a row. At intermission, Bill would play his Dumbek, magical rhythms from his fingertips evoking the Goddess, all the lovely ladies dancing, unfolding all their glory. The energy would collect on that corner like nectar—Absolute Fullness of Being.

After Jerry died, I could see the change in the traveling scene, so I rented the building on 4th Ave in Tucson in December of 1995 and set up shop with the Creative Spirit Gallery up front and the Tea House in the back.

For 13 years we have continued the cycle of running the 4th Ave teahouse and traveling north in the summers. In 1999 Wild Bill road off into the sunset on his Harley with a bellydancer, leaving me holding the tent. I gave him back his old tent, made a new one from 100% Hemp canvas with Hemp ropes, and kept moving forward.

In 2002, I met Salik David, who has been my most helpful partner—much respect for helping carry the weight! We built a Gypsy Wagon Kitchen, assembled a crew and went on this long journey bringing the Casbah experience to thousand and thousands of people; slipping them some plant proteins they may have never eaten, like Tempeh (soy protein) or Seitan (wheat protein). We also made many thousands of gallons of Chai and Gypsy Stew over the years.

Every fall we would return from the caravan back to Tucson, gather a crew and run the 4th Ave teahouse. The peak moments being the Street Fairs and the Gem Shows, where people from around the world have come and enjoyed the Casbah vibe. I have accomplished what world leaders should—having Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Buddhists, Jews, pagans—the full spectrum of humanity—all sitting together under one tent drinking tea and being at peace.

Now in these tough economic times, it has become impossible for me to keep it all going. The Teahouse is struggling to pay its bills, needs to be revamped to be in accordance with the times, and 4th Ave construction has hurt business for everyone downtown.

Here is what I think I need:

For a business to survive and thrive economically, you have to have what people want. In this capitalistic system we are in (consumerism), what is wanted by the people succeeds and what isn’t falls away. My conclusion is that 97% of people in Tucson want meat and alcohol. Trying to run a purely vegetarian restaurant with no alcohol has been a huge financial struggle. Something needs to change.

I am out of resources; so, we need a serious investor/partner to help purchase the building, gut it and rebuild it into an ultimate “green” Casbah. This would be 5 stories high (each level stepped back a bit more from the street), with apartments, office, rooftop garden, solar panels, street-side dining, etc—what you would imagine to be the ultimate Casbah design.

This all needs to be done now, so the Casbah reconstruction takes place at the same time that the downtown Tucson street re-construction is happening. The underpass and the new tracks are being laid, so if the Casbah were to be rebuilt at the same time, then the Casbah would be ready to reopen just as the new electric street-cars begin to run. This would create a successful, viable
business and community center for many years to come.

Without this sort of investment, we cannot continue to struggle in the inadequate situation we are in. If I cannot find an investor/partner soon, I have decided to close the doors February 28th 2009 and dissolve this 4th Ave location. I will maintain the caravan, catering, and tent rental aspects of the Casbah; and you will see us somewhere on the road at the festivals or at our own upcoming festivals, productions, and events.

I would like to rent a field for the next year’s Gem Show, where we could set up the tents and kitchen and create a vendor village—where the gem Show crowd could still find a bit of the Casbah experience every year.

So I put this out to the Universe. if you are able to help take the Casbah to the next level—rebuild, get the liquor license, make this a viable business as well as a community center, a cross-roads of the nations—if you can share this vision and have some money, time, energy, and restaurant skills—then please step up now.

I believe Tucson would miss its Casbah and I don’t really want to see it disappear. I need help to continue providing this space—or someone else to buy the place and run it their way.

It’s been many great memories, bunches of hard work, hard challenges, much growth, an amazing education, AND A REALLY GOOD TIME!

love & peace,
Carol Ann
tracie says:

February 19, 2009 at 1:27 am

Did I read….Trinity Tribal stomp! Reminds me, Adam Borowitz, write your wife.
SolarBob says:

May 10, 2009 at 11:03 pm

I love you Carol Ann and all that you have meant to the spiritual life of desert mystics. Divine Casbah survives. Light force sees all people here now, compassionately. The Casbah has been attacked on a dimension that defies explanation. So it goes and life is too short. Let the music continue.

Best regards,

SolarBob, sage of divine light investigations and Sustainability Lecturer