Daily Archives: May 24, 2019
Afternoon Tea At The Chesterfield Mayfair . . .
Today, Jan and I had Afternoon Tea at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel in London, something Jan had always wanted to try.
Looking at the guidebooks there were a number of places supposedly well-known for their Afternoon Tea, but figuring the locals would know better, I asked around at the hotel, and 3 for 3, they said the Chesterfield Mayfair. And since it wasn’t being flacked in the guidebooks, we had no trouble getting a reservation, so off we went today.
OK, you know you’re at a snotty British hotel when you pull up in your Uber and this guy greets you.
And it was just as elegant inside as you might expect.
Glad we dressed up.
And the dining room was a beautiful, sunlit, glass-enclosed atrium.
And though we could have ordered an afternoon meal, here was our Afternoon Tea menu.
And here is what you get for your £80.
You’re supposed to start at the bottom and work your way up.
It would probably be gauche to mention here that it’s actually all you can eat. They will just bring you an entire new stand, or you can ask for a couple more of your favorites like we did.
Needless to say, this was our meal for the day.
And, of course, there’s tea with your Afternoon Tea. And not tea bags like us uncouth colonials use. But loose tea, a strainer, and a big pot of hot water.
And you can try a lot of different teas, just like the selection of tidbits.
Now, though this was Jan’s first Afternoon Tea, I had Afternoon Tea with the Duchess and Lady Samantha (Sam, to me) a number of times. In fact the very first time I met the Duchess was for Afternoon Tea, and that’s also when I found out that the young British girl I had been hanging out with was a future duchess, and actual royalty.
I’ve blogged about this several times in the past, but if you missed it, here’s where you can catch up and find out the rest of the story
Robbing Peter To . . .
It’s down in the blog post after our visit to the Tower of London.
Anyway, I remember asking the Duchess one time, noting how fancy it all was (in fact I think hers was probably fancier than the hotel’s), just how fancy was ‘High Tea’?
I mean, ‘High’ is better, right?
Like High Mass and Mass in the Catholic Church. But No.
The Duchess just looked at me and said, “Oh, we would never have High Tea.” and left it at that. But later Sam explained it to me.
But this graphic probably does it better.
Basically it’s a working man’s after-work meal where you sit around a tall counter in high chairs. Hence, High Tea.
See, the things you learn reading this blog.
