Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Tea for two?

If you think sipping a spot of afternoon tea is a luxury reserved for only the uppitiest of the upper crust ...

Think again.

Teatime is catching on all over the country, as regular folks flock to ritzy hotels and quaint neighborhood tearooms to engage in this old English ritual.

But this isn't just some soggy Lipton tea bags stewing in lukewarm water in those drippy, restaurant-style pots.

This is the real chamomile deal -- imported, aromatic tea leaves precisely infused in preheated porcelain pots and gingerly poured into antique china cups. One lump or two?

Meanwhile, there's fresh fruit, delicate cucumber sandwiches, flaky scones and pretty pastries to politely nibble on.

But teatime -- be it afternoon tea between 2 and 4, or high tea, featuring slightly heavier food courses served later in the day -- is as much a social and emotional experience as it is a culinary one.

"It is something that one does in a quiet, reflective mood," explains Donald Wallis, head master of the ultra-exclusive American Tea Masters Association, based in San Francisco.

Teatime, he says, has shifted away from the "European experience" of tea drinking as a daily activity. The American focus is more on the fancy frills that go along with it.

"More people are really interested in the linen, the lace, the service, the food, and it's a beautiful way to spend an afternoon," he says. "But the tea is not the most important facet of that."

At Tricia's Teas, a Victorian-themed tearoom tucked away in the Red Rooster Antique and Gift Mall at Western Avenue and West Charleston Boulevard, ambience is just as important as its high-quality, tasty tea and goodies.

Once inside the softly lighted, potpourri-scented room, owner and hostess Patricia Schell helps guests step back into their childhood by playing dress-up with the more than 300 vintage hats, shawls and jewelry she's collected. "People want to go back into time, when it was a gentler, more quiet time. It's an escape to the yesteryears," she says.

Schell, a former nurse, opened the tearoom four years ago initially to host tea parties for children (5 years and older, please). "I wanted to create for children the experience of going to tea, doing something special and creating wonderful memories."

That's exactly what sisters Rene, 7, and Simonne Curila, 10, got when they celebrated their birthdays together there recently.

Seated with a few of their friends around an Easter-themed table, the girls giggled between bites on petite peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sips of "bunny juice" (a.k.a. apple juice).

The party was much fancier than the kind Simonne, a Beckley Elementary School fourth-grader, hosts at home for her dolls. "When I have play tea parties, I usually have regular cups and cookies and stuff," she says. Here, "you have china plates and stuff."

After all, Schell reminds, "If you're going to play tea party, you must play tea party right."

The hostess plays along, too, donning a persona suitable for each party's theme. At kids gatherings, she goes by "Mrs. Teapots," a refined Victorian woman with an aristocratic tone, whose tone is tinged with a high-hatted demeanor.

Adults (men and women alike), however, comprise most of Schell's clientele. They reserve bridal and baby-shower teas, birthday and anniversary celebrations and "lots of no-reason teas," which range in price from $12.50 to $20 per person. She also hosts special holiday and themed teas.

There are welcome-home teas, too, like the surprise party hosted there recently by family and friends of visiting San Franciscan Alicia Crawford.

"I didn't even know you could do something like this in Las Vegas," says the 25-year-old florist, sporting a Roaring '20s era red-plumed hat.

Tearooms are hot spots in the Bay Area, she says. "They do a high tea in a lot of the hotels, which is very famous and it's costly, and then there's other little tea houses that do dainty things like this. This is great. I love this."

No matter what the age, Schell educates her guests about the history of the beverage and proper teatime etiquette, entertaining them with old-time parlor games (Who says balancing a spoon on your nose is rude?) and lively stories.

"You can come here and not only have a properly brewed cup of tea," she says, "but I will teach you how to make it yourself."

No wonder the tearoom has "been successful beyond my wildest dreams," she says, noting that she's already booked parties through May.

"People have said to me that (tea parties are) just a trend, it's just a fad. I think that tea will never stop" being popular.

Janice Williams wouldn't argue. She opened her tearoom, Simple Pleasures, located inside the Sampler Shoppes Antique and Design Mall on West Tropicana Avenue, four years ago.

Business at this cozy, antique-filled restaurant is booming. Williams guesses it's because hers is the only tearoom in town open all day long -- no reservations needed to stop in for afternoon tea.

You'll have to call ahead, though, to attend "Victorian Tea" ($13.95 per person), the eatery's version of high tea, featuring sandwiches and desert, or its "Simple Pleasures" scones and desert tea ($6.95).

Afternoon tea "is the perfect opportunity to escape the hectic pace of life and just stop and be throughly charmed and delighted and entertained," Williams says, "not only by the taste but by the presentation, by the service, by the idea that it's something different to a lot of Americans because it's not a part of our culture."

She makes all of the sandwiches, salads and deserts on Simple Pleasures' menu from scratch and boasts its huge selection of teas, including a Russian blend called Chainaya, served with a dollop of sour-cherry jam in the bottom of the cup.

"You'll get that discerning tea palate that comes in," she says. No surprise, though, that "most customers don't have a preference." Many ask for tea bags.

But if it's a truly authentic cup of English tea you want, the Best of British market on South Decatur Boulevard may be your best bet.

That's because owner Joan Zourek grew up on the stuff back home in Britain. "As soon as we got home from school in the afternoon, we would have tea around 4 o'clock," she recalls.

The market's tiny cafe features a high-tea menu ($9.50 per person), which includes the standard cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, homemade scones and jam, shortbread and biscuits.

Zourek also offers a selection of other traditional favorites, including shepherd's pie, authentic pickled onions and her "special" salmon and tomato sandwiches.

"Americans are more curious what a high tea is," she says. "They love it."

So does the place's solid clientele of transplanted Brits (even "EFX" star Michael Crawford has been spotted there incognito) who swear by its brew.

Afternoon tea is "more than just a habit or whatever," explains Jean Gordon, a former nurse from Wales who's lived in Las Vegas for 25 years. "It's a whole way of life."

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