Today began my summer goal of visiting new (to me) tea rooms in the Maryland, Virgina, and DC areas.
My husband and I started by going to The Cottage Boutique for Afternoon Tea. Reservations are required and there began the “experience”. The owner answered the phone in a way that confused me. She was yelling at her grandson to get away from the road. Important. But I had to ask if I called the right place. Which I did. With the reservation I had to tell them I wanted the Afternoon tea and not lunch reservations. She also said it’s fine to bring my infant son. So we had a family date!
The building was interesting to get to because it is tucked behind other ones. But we found it. I popped my head into the Boutique only to see a shopping area. Apparently they have about 20 vendors who sell things there. Very appealing. It was a mixture of hand made goodies and small business items. Somehow I managed to only walk out with two loose leaf teas.
Before walking into the tea room upstairs, you choose which tea you want. I love when you get to choose your tea by smelling them. However, I’m used to each person getting their own pot of tea, but we had to share one pot between both of us.
It’s a nice relaxing intimate tea room. There are four tables of different sizes. One of three employees took us to a table and took away a seat for us to bring our stroller near the table.
The cost was $20 per person. Buuuut… There is no food selection (unless you went for lunch). We walked in and our afternoon tea food was sitting on the table (I don’t know for how long). I suppose if you have allergies you need to tell them when you make the reservation. There was 2 scones, 2 macaroons, 2 creme puffs, 2 lemon bars, 4 small chicken salad sandwiches, 4 small cucumber cracker size sandwiches to share between us two. No fruit and only lemon curd for the scones (usually there’s a jelly, lemon curd and clotted creme). Our Peach Lily black tea was delicious and the food wasn’t bad either.
For planning purposes, it’s important to know that a family of 5 was also there for afternoon tea and they only got double of what we got (2 tea pots).
We had a bunch of fun choosing a fancy hat for tea. There was also an area of princess dresses for girls to wear during their tea party. Overall we agree that the ambience was great and our son was clearly enjoying his time as well…
Rory, Tea & Me 