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Tea ReX Teahouse in South End closed last Saturday after a 12-year run. The proprietor, Wayne Powers, is changing locations and opening Tea ReX Online. But Powers has a small – or, rather, large – problem: What to do with Rex?
Back in 2002, when Charlotte celebrated an origami festival every other year, Tea ReX gained a mascot. Powers considers him one of Charlotte's mini-landmarks: a 7-foot-tall, 91/2-foot-long origami dinosaur dubbed Rex.
Rex is all paper except for a metal bar supporting his neck and the shiny foil lining underneath his paper.
Powers said the origami dinosaur was presented to the teahouse as a “thank you” for sponsoring the festival.
He perched Rex on top of an 11-foot tall antique liquor cabinet so he could overlook the entire teahouse.
Powers said he loved watching children's reactions to Rex.
“They'd look up there and their jaws would drop,” Powers said. “It was just great.”
Powers has three options for Rex: Leave him in storage, stick him in Tea ReX Online's new warehouse, or put him up for adoption.
“It would be a shame for only the people in the warehouse to be the ones to enjoy it,” he said.
He said he'd be delighted if a nonprofit organization were interested in adopting Rex.
“He should be enjoyed because the whole spirit of the (origami) festival was not commercial,” Powers said. “The spirit of the festival was about spreading the simple joy of folding paper. It was about people, not money.”
