Cuples Tea House and its sister shop, Vinyl & Pages, a tea shop meets bookstore and record boutique tucked into Harborplace, are closing at the end of the summer. Owners Lynnette and Eric Dodson say they are not sure what comes next and plan to use their remaining weeks to host events, celebrations, and a kind of long goodbye. Their departure will remove another small, Black-owned storefront from the Inner Harbor's retail lineup.
As reported by WMAR, the Dodsons shared the news on Instagram, writing that "we don't know what the future looks like for us so we're gonna celebrate our wins every day until the end of the summer." According to WMAR, they also told followers they had made "the difficult decision" to close both Cuples Tea House and Vinyl and Pages at the end of summer 2026.
What the Harborplace shop offered
Since opening their Harborplace outpost, the combined businesses have sold loose-leaf teas alongside a curated selection of books and vinyl and regularly hosted community events, from book clubs and author readings to album-release parties and DJ nights, according to Vinyl and Pages' site. The hybrid of tea service and a small independent record and book shop was promoted as part of a BOOST Boutique effort to bring locally owned, Black-operated retailers into the Light Street Pavilion.
Short run, big ambitions
Vinyl and Pages originally launched in 2023 as an extension of the Cuples brand, per the business's own About page. The Harborplace location was billed as a new downtown boutique, but the pavilions at Harborplace have been in flux as management and redevelopment plans reshape tenancy and storefronts, according to project updates from OurHarborplace.
WMAR notes that the owners have not given a specific reason for the shutdown, and the report says the exact timetable beyond "the end of the summer" was not spelled out. Vinyl and Pages lists its Harborplace retail address as the Light Street Pavilion (301 Light Street) on its site for customers looking up hours or event details.
The closure means the loss of a small cultural venue that Visit Baltimore has highlighted among the city’s independent bookstores and community spaces. For now, the Dodsons say they are focused on celebrating what they built and letting the coming months decide what their next chapter looks like.
