Tuesday 25 September 2012

A Spot o' Tea....

    I enjoyed a day out with my very dear friends at a new tearoom that we have been wanting to try for a few months now - Chadwick's Antiques & Tea Shoppe in Ridgeway, ON. 
   
    Two beautiful old storefronts open into adjoining shops, Chadwick's Antiques & Tea Shoppe and Lemon Serbet's Sweet Shoppe. Each shop is filled to the brim with antiques and imported treats from Britain.  The building housing these shops is circa 1890 and is very charming...
    We decided to go into the Lemon Sherbet's Sweet Shoppe first where a Harry Potter fan would delight in all things wizarding: wands, scarves, cloaks, owls, chocolate frogs, and Bernie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.  Alongside all these whimsical items are shelves stocked with British treats: Tavener's fruit/mint candies in travel-size tins, Curly Wurly, Double Decker, Frys Turkish Delight, Sherbet Fountains, Catherine Wheels, Flake, Frys Chocolate and Orange Cream as well as a variety of loose sweets: lemon sherbets, rhubarb and custard, chocolimes, and much, much more.  Note: all the loose sweets are sold by the dozen and to the Chadwick's family a dozen means 14!  Woo-hoo!!  
   
    One of the tea tables nestled amongst the antiques
    
      The tearoom is actually a shared space with the antique shop.  Tables of varying sizes are dotted throughout the shop - each creating a little vignette in and amongst the many antique displays.  It made for non-stop conversation as we all looked around and reminisced about our parent's and grandparent's houses that held the same or similar items...

A place setting on the table we chose...

    I don't know about you but I love the approachable-ness of mix and match fine china.  I love that every place setting had a charger, two plates and a matched set teacup and saucer but the nothing else matched - it's just plain friendly.
   
    We all ordered the same lunch: Chicken and Mushroom pie, an mini pie (perfect for a lunch) made of puff pastry and a delicious chicken/mushroom filling, alongide a fresh salad of greens, sliced strawberries, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, and fresh mushrooms drizzled with an imported Salad Cream (this Cream tastes like a dressing made with mayonnaise and just the perfect amounts of white vinegar and sugar - similar to what you would put on a fresh broccoli salad). I asked for a scone because I think a good tea room is determined by it's scones - and I'm happy to report that theirs reminded me of the scones my Mom made when I was a kid - so they definitely get the thumbs up from me!  Overall, we thought the food was tasty and priced well!
   
    Now for what I bought in the Lemon Sherbet's Sweet Shoppe:
   
Walkers 'Mega Monster Munch'
"Massive hunks of ROAST BEEF flavour baked corn snack"
Verdict? They are pretty good!  Huge crunch factor with a beef bouillon-y essence.
Buy again? Probably not... but worth the buy if you simply love to try new flavours.  



Cadbury 'Picnic'
"A feast full of peanuts, caramel & raisins" 
Verdict? This was the BIG winner!!
Tastes like an 'Oh Henry!' bar with a couple Glossette raisins along for the ride - so good!!
Buy again? Definitely!!

  We are now on the hunt for another tearoom we have not yet tried....
I'll let you know when we have found one!

Cath-



2 comments:

Kim Rempel said...

Okay - It's now on my list. YUM! And a visual feast too : )

Cath- said...

Kim, you will love it! The food is lovely and like you said it's a visual feast too! So much inspiration to be had in an afternoon!! : )