Dreary tea sold improperly close to cafe (8)
I believe the answer is:
desolate
'dreary' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'tea sold improperly close to cafe' is the wordplay.
'improperly' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen this in other clues).
'close to' indicates one should take the final letters (the close/ending of).
The final letter of 'cafe' is 'e'.
'tea'+'sold'='teasold'
'teasold' with letters rearranged gives 'desolat'.
'desolat'+'e'='DESOLATE'
(Other definitions for desolate that I've seen before include "Utterly wretched" , "extremely sad" , "Forlorn and unhappy" , "Lay waste, despoil" , "Bleak, dismal; wretched" .)