Stephanie L. Smith '98 has been a Tealuxe regular since the Brattle Street teabar first opened its doors in December of 1996.

Last Saturday evening, Smith was at Tealuxe pondering her Japanese history paper and sipping her Gyokuro Japanese green tea.

Pointing to the store's antique typewriter she remarked, "I wrote my Let's Go application on it last spring."

But nowadays Smith is finding a lot of company--a trend that could bring her typing days to an end. The slow pace of tea-sipping academics is running into conflict with the financial demands of a growing business.

"We love our students, but it's a fine line to walk between people staying here and our conducting business," the teabar's manager, Sean Kenneally said, pointing to the room packed with tea-lovers.

"It's tricky...we want everyone to feel welcome but we can't have people camping out here and doing their homework," he added, explaining that Tealuxe only has ten tables and no bathroom.

Tealuxe is part student hangout, part intellectual den and part tourist stop. A mixture of quirkiness and stylishness, there is nostalgia in the 20s and 30s jazz music wafting in the air, accompanying the retro first-half-of the 20th century decor.

Saturday evening, as Smith was deep in the world of tenth-century Japan, the line was stretched several people long, and seating was impossible to find.

Because of nights like Saturday, Tealuxe has begun to tighten up its seating policy. Although the teatenders welcome customers to stay when there's room, some regulars say you need to buy a whole pot of tea in order to sit down on tighter days.

Craig Crouch, a graduate student from the Graduate School of Education, said he feels that Tealuxe's special aura is disappearing due to developments such as this. A former regular, he assailed the "gentrification" that he said Tealuxe has undergone as a result of its commercial success.

"Most students [at Harvard] are on financial aid, it would be nice if there was a place where we could just spend $1 on tea and read a paper. What are [Tealuxe's] priorities? Is it just profit, or serving the community it's embedded in? They need to take into account all the people in the community," he said.

"The teatenders used to know me by name," said Crouch, who has not returned to Tealuxe in a month.

But despite criticism from the likes of Crouch, Tealuxe has had phenomenal success. Bruce Fernie, owner and chair of Consumer Retail Inc., whose business includes Tealuxe, is aiming for large-scale expansion.

There are two more Tealuxes scheduled to open in Boston later this year, with additional teabars planned for Chicago and Washington D.C. Fernie says he hopes to create 80 to 100 Tealuxes in urban areas nationally.

Fernie, however, insisted he doesn't take business tips from Starbucks.