Afternoon tea in town
A number of Washington hotels and museums offer afternoon tea, with sandwiches, cakes and tartlettes. Reservations are necessary. For a meal whose basic ingredients are cheap, tea can be very overpriced.
Four Seasons Hotel, 2800 Pennsylvania Ave NW, 202 342 0444
Mon-Sat 3-5 p.m., Sun 4-5.30 p.m.
Henley Park Hotel, 926 Massachusetts Ave NW, 202 638 5200
Daily 4-6 p.m. (An eatwashingtonian writes that he has recently found this "a great disappointment. The once adroit service has declined terribly and some of the foods tasted 'packaged' or stale, the menus were soiled.")
Hillwood Museum and Gardens, 4155 Linnean Ave NW, 202 686 5807
Open Tues-Sat. (The same reader calls this "a tea of sorts - quite inexpensive, tasting and filling but, for real tea - the substance - connoisseurs, a little below the general requirement as the tea is not brewed.")
Jefferson Hotel, 16th and M Sts NW, 202 833 6206
Daily 3-5 p.m.
Madison Hotel, 15th and M Sts NW, 202 862 1600
Weekdays only, 3 p.m.
Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, 202 347 3000
Mon-Sat 3-5 p.m., Sun 3.30-5.30p.m.
Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City, 1250 South Hayes St, Arlington, 703 415 5000
Daily 2-5 p.m.
Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner, 1700 Tysons Blvd., McLean, 703 506 4300
Mon-Fri 2.30-4.30 p.m., Sat-Sun 12 - 4.30 p.m.
Ritz-Carlton Washington DC, 2200 M St NW, 202 835 0500
Daily 3-5 p.m.
Swissôtel Watergate, 2650 Virginia Ave NW, 202 965 2300
Daily 3-5 p.m.
Willard Hotel, 1401 Pennsylvania Ave NW, 202 628 9100
Groups of 10 minimum.
Washington National Cathedral, Massachusetts and Wisconsin Aves, NW, 202 537 8993
Following 1.30 p.m. tour, Tues-Wed
Strathmore Hall, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, 301 530 0540
Tues, Wed 1 p.m. Advance payment necessary.
Farmhouse teas
The Tea Cosy, 119 S. Royal Street, Alexandria, 703 836 8181, does what's also called 'high tea' - more of a meal, with Cornish pasties, shepherd's pie and other hot dishes. (Authentic Shepherd's Pie is so-called because it is made with ground lamb mince, Cottage Pie with ground beef mince. But ground beef mince is more commonly used, however the pie is named...) They also offer the traditional kind of afternoon tea.
The English Tea House also serves high tea as well as a light tea and a cream tea, Sats and Suns, 2-6 p.m., 4513 College Ave, College Park, 301 887 1777.
Normandie Farm Inn does an all-you-can-eat buffet tea that provides, on top of sandwiches, scones and cakes, a selection of things like pate, salmon mousse, cheese, and egg salads. Twice a month, at 10710 Falls Rd., Potomac, 301 983 8838.
In Chantilly, about 2 miles west of South Riding on Route 50 (Lee Hwy), is The British Pantry/Blighty Cafe. There are few tables, so reserve ahead on 703 327 3215.
In Warrenton, on Main Street, is Yorkshire Dales, 540 349 0300, which holds regular 'high teas', as well as selling English wool, clothing and foods.
Reviews of The Pink Bicycle Tea Room in Occoquan, VA, 303 Commerce St, 703 491 5216, can be read on http://www.catteacorner.com, perfectly placed for a resuscitation after a day spent at IKEA - or anywhere else in Potomac Mills.
The difference between tea and high tea
Horace Freeland Judson writes to explain the difference between English tea and high tea): “Tea, the meal consumed about four o’clock in the afternoon, is middle class and upper class, and may include bread and butter, thin sandwiches of, say, smoked salmon on brown bread or of cucumber on white; scones (pronounced something between ‘skahns’ or ‘skawns’ in England, never ‘skOHns’) which are small and light, exactly like our baking-powder biscuits; fruit cake, tiny tarts or petit fours or, in December, mince pies, which are always small, two-crust tarts about an inch and a half to two in diameter. ‘High tea’ is not a fancy version of the other, but always denotes a working-class early-evening meal the family eats when the man of the house comes home from the mine or the mill, in other words an early supper, and may include, say, grilled kippers or toad-in-the-hole or sausage and mash, canned baked beans, fish pie (shepherd’s pie made with fish in white sauce), and so on. I’ve lived in England for years and was for much of that time a correspondent for Time magazine; once a colleague wrote a story that mentioned that the Queen had ‘high tea’ at the palace – which caused hoots of laughter among the natives in the news bureau, before an urgent message to New York to fix the error.”
Tots' teas
Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner, 1700 Tysons Blvd., McLean, 703 506 4300, does teddy-bear teas for small children two Saturdays a month, and the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City, 1250 South Hayes St, Arlington, 703 415 5000, does teas for tots at Easter and Christmas.
For an impressively comprehensive list of tea rooms locally and nationally, log onto http://www.catteacorner.com. It’s an amusing site, with tea dance piano music and it also lists places serving bubble tea.
Serious about tea
For those who consider tea as complex and varied as wine, Teaism is the tea house. With branches at 2009 R St NW, 202 667 3827, 400 8th St NW, and 800 Connecticut Ave NW, 202 835 2233, it offers 45 different teas, along with an interesting menu of light Asian dishes.
Alternative tea
For tea all day, with snacks like dumplings and five-spice peanuts, or light dishes of mustard miso salmon or curried chicken, try Ching Ching Cha, 1063 Wisconsin Ave NW, 202 333 8288, Tues-Sat 11.30-9 p.m. Sunday 11.30-7 p.m.
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