Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/92590
REGIONAL UPDATE NORTHWEST Meadowlark Tea Room and Antiques Vancouver, Wash. Sharon Harbeck, owner of Meadowlark Tea Room and Antiques in Vancouver, Wash., is British, so she grew up drinking tea. But she had fallen out of the habit aſter many years of living in the United States when she was beckoned back to England a couple of years ago. "I lived back in England for 11 months, and when I came back I realized there were no tearooms here, into the habit of drinking tea when I was in England, and decided to start a tearoom here. the Uptown Village neighborhood of Vancouver. However, the building was far larger than she needed for just a tearoom. "I previously had run a tea shop with country antiques and craſts in Nebraska, so I started thinking about how we could do the same thing here, Harbeck found an ideal building for her new venture in " she says. "I had gotten back " tearoom is a cozy space that reminds tea lovers of a typical, high-tea dining room, and 25 independent antique dealers rent out the rest of the space to display their wares. Visitors can enjoy their tea and traditional comestibles before or aſter an hour or two of browsing among the vintage wares. If shoppers don't find an antique to their liking, they can shop in Meadowlark's British-themed giſt shop, which features English baby clothes, chocolates and groceries. Meadowlark serves more than 50 teas. Most customers The result: Meadowlark Tea Room and Antiques. The " Harbeck says. Chicken Salad and other comfort foods. Bruce doesn't run the business alone, however. Her daughter, Molly Fries, is on the team, too. Their website boasts "Each day you'll find Beverly Bruce, together with her daughter Molly Fries, working side-by-side to set the table for a truly different dining experience. in the food business. "My family was in the grocery business, and my dad got old, like we all do, and the grocery business is hard so we sold our family store and all went our own ways," Bruce remembers. "Well, I had not had quite enough punishment so I opened a giſt store. I had always been around food, so it was just natural to add food to my business, so we basically turned a closet into a kitchen and opened a tearoom." Great food is the focus of Country Keepsakes Tea Room, but the tea is top notch, too. The tearoom serves teas from Republic of Tea and Tea Forte, both high-quality providers. Top sellers are ginger peach tea from Republic of Tea and Raspberry Nectar from Tea Forte. The tearoom is a warm and relaxing space that does not focus on the cutesy decor many tearooms favor. "We are not too feminine, don't drink just tea, though; they also order one of the classic aſternoon tea meals. The Meadowlark Tea, for example, starts with a sorbet to cleanse the palate, followed by a cup of soup, and completed with a three-tier platter of tea sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream, and desserts. Harbeck is pleased with the success of her one-year-old business. "There's only been one month where I've been biting my fingernails," she says. MIDWEST Country Keepsakes Tea Room Belton, Mo. their stock in trade. But really good food in tearooms is harder to find. One tearoom that aces the combination is Country Keepsakes Tea Room in downtown Belton, Mo. Owner Beverly Bruce cooks all the food herself, and the Good tea can be found in many tearooms; aſter all, that's Celebrations Gallery, Shoppes, and Tea Events Pomfret Center, Conn. All dining establishments need more than a beautiful location to survive, but setting up a tearoom in a gorgeous Queen Anne Victorian mansion built in 1885 certainly would help any business. The Celebrations Gallery, Shoppes, and Tea Events in Pomfret Center, Connecticut has that advantage. The home, where owner Jean Barton also lives, is so big that Barton devotes 10 rooms to the business. As the name suggests, Celebrations is more than a menu goes far beyond the traditional teahouse fare. She focuses on in-season ingredients, so the menu varies each month. September's menu, for example, featured a Mexican quiche, a tuna-stuffed tomato, Salisbury steak, Granny's 32 " Fries says. "Men feel perfectly comfortable here." NORTHEAST The tearoom grew out of Beverly's childhood experiences " tearoom. The rest of the business includes a bona fide art gallery that exhibits and sells original art, including paintings, sculpture, pottery, hand-blown glass and other items. The giſt shop sells a variety of art- and tea-related products, including fancy teas, hand-dipped candles and glass creations.