Tea, Lace, and Roses
I recently went with two friends to the Victorian teahouse called Tea, Lace, and Roses, located in the historic district of Culpeper, Virginia. It was about an hour and fifteen minute drive from Reston, located in Fairfax County.
When we arrived, there were ladies dressed in Victorian garb who apparently sew all their clothes and meet for a monthly luncheon there. Our table was already set for us, three settings with a bread plate, silver, and three different tea-cup and saucer sets, in the Lilac room, which of course, had lilac colored walls. There were three small rooms in total, as well as a tiny gift shop that overflows into the upstairs rooms of the square building.
On the table was a "sniffing station," which were racks of small jars with a few teaspoonfuls of tea leaves in each one, so that customers can smell the teas before they choose one. The selection was extremely wide, with everything from the traditional Earl Greys and Darjeelings, to exotic blends called "Once Upon a Tea" and "Wedding Tea." I decided on the "Rose Petal" which was a traditional Rose Congo, a black tea scented with rose petals and a very nice floral flavor over Chinese black tea. Lauren chose "Cheeky Peach," a peach flavored black tea, and Jessica went with the Darjeeling. Our tea quickly arrived, and we each had our own extremely generous sized pot, which held probably about six cups of tea. The tea had already been steeped and filtered, and the waitress poured out for our first cup, and then we were allowed to serve ourselves after that. My favorite touch on the teapots was the little paper drip catcher on the spout. We were all satisfied with our teas, and I found the Rose Petal to be steeped to perfection, not requiring the slightest bit of sweetening, although we were offered a choice of cubed sugar or artificial sweeteners.
There are many levels available in terms of food accompaniments, from a salad tea of crudites and fruits, to the full English tea, which had four courses. The waitress recommended the English tea for first-time visitors, and we took the suggestion.
The first course was a scone course. The offerings change from day to day, and the scone of the day was a cherry scone with cherry curd on the side, as well as an in-house clotted cream. The scone was hot from the oven, and just soft enough, and the curd (available in the gift shop) was the proverbial icing on the cake, especially with the clotted cream. It was absolute perfection.
After we had finished with our scones, a three-tiered tower was brought out to us. On the bottom plate was the finger sandwich course. It included a chicken salad sandwich on a half-croissant, an open face cucumber sandwich with dill-wasabi spread, and a mini filo dough pastry shell filled with strawberry ham salad. The chicken salad was absolutely delicious, but my favorite was the cucumber sandwich. The wasabi was very light, and did not make it spicy at all, simply lending it a little je ne sais quoi. It was a very nice twist on the traditional tea fare, as was the strawberry ham salad. I would not have thought to put the two ingredients together, but the berries gave it just the right amount of sweetness.
The second tier held the savories. The first was a slice of cucumber with dill hummus and sweet peppers on top, which was divine, and a filo dough pastry filled with hot spinach and melted cheese, which was the hands down favorite of the savories and sandwiches. The third item was a cheese and sausage ball, which while good was not nearly as impressive as the rest of the food, being slightly dry and bland in comparison.
The third tier was the dessert course, with a white chocolate cake, a nut bread made from a house recipe called "Neiman Marcus Cake" and a Russian chocolate swirl cake, all of which lived up to the rest of the meal.
The service was delightful, the other patrons friendly, and a unique atmosphere. Perhaps what made it quite unique was the dress-up room, which contained boas, hats, gloves, and long pearl necklaces for customers to dress up. It appeared that almost all customers, from child to adult, took advantage of this. We certainly did!
And we enjoyed the experience so much that we plan to go back at a future date.
A few other bits of information: Rooms can be rented, and with at least 72 hours notice, a Royal Tea can be given, which includes champagne, caviar, salmon, and other options not usually available. I would recommend reservations, as it is quite a busy little shop, and it becomes more so towards spring, according to the staff.