I first came across the Painted Teacup when I was planning for my sister's bridal shower. It's a quaint little afternoon tea and trinket shop in a converted two-story Victorian house. The owner of the shop, Mary, also happened to be one of the women serving us. She took the time to chat with us about how she started the shop and as it turns out, when she first bought the house there was no kitchen because the family who owned it before always went out back to their grandmother's house for dinner!
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| Woman of the hour. Happy marriage, sister. |
A few tips if you do happen to plan a trip to a tea room.
1) Make a reservation - tea rooms, especially the special ones like these, tend to be very popular, and therefore very crowded. Make sure everyone in your party has a place to sit and eat together!
2) Afternoon Tea not High Tea - people are often mistaken to call settings like this High Tea because it sounds better. However the truth is, High Tea, historically has always been for the working class and is also referred to as "Meat Tea". High refers to high noon or dinnertime, and the meal will usually consist of a hot dish with cake and cold cuts later. Afternoon tea is traditionally a bit more decadent and finger food based in its settings.
We had a citrus green tea and a orange blossom rose tea. The service was very, very good. The staff was so friendly and made sure our cups were always filled and they were so accommodating to all of our questions and requests.
One of the things we all were pretty childishly obsessed with, we're these pillow puff sweets that they set out for us. They weren't really much on their own but when you out them in tea they were amazing. They had flavors like vanilla, peppermint, cinnamon, and lemon. You could choose accordingly what you thought would go best with your tea.
How do you like your tea? I had honey and citrus slices in my green tea and vanilla sugar sweets in the rose. Cinnamon sticks and sugar cubes are always nice as well.
The owner, Mary, makes all of these pastries and sandwiches herself. They were all SO good. The flavors were really balanced well and we were all more than satisfied at the end of it. I can't quite remember what the scones and cakes were in order I think it was a raisin scone, lemon square, and a coconut cake, but going clockwise from them, as I can remember, was a pineapple salad cup, savoury sweet ham and gouda sandwich, cucumber sandwich, rye and radish bite, a crescent tuna salad roll, and in the center, a cranberry kale salad.
A few we extra sweets. We were all pretty stuffed by then, it's a shame but I can't quite remember what these were except that they were sweet and delicious.
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| So many teacups! |
The gift shop has a lot of local wares and trinkets, it's hard not to want to stay and examine every little thing because they're all so unique.
The room adjacent to ours. A homier ambiance compared to our garden/parlor room aesthetic.
The is is pretty much the entrance hall way. The kitchen is to the left and the rest of the gift shop and smaller teach rooms are upstairs.
At the end of it all, it was a really good experience, a lovely atmosphere, and the people here were so kind to us. I definitely recommend the Painted Teacup to anyone planning any sort of small get together with their close friends. It's the perfect place to do it.
- 11:34:00 AM
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