I went to a tea party today. A friend hosted us to a "high tea" to celebrate her 70th birthday. The last time I had tea with such fancy dishes was at Harrods in London, and there it was just tea, not a high tea. In case you're fuzzy on the distinction, a tea is tea and a sandwich and maybe a sweet roll or cookie. A high tea is all of that in abundance. Today did not disappoint. The place was the Parker Grace Tea House, a beautifully converted old house in Roanoke. When we were taken to our table we saw that it was set with a lovely variety of china cups, saucers and cake plates on chargers. None of the dishes matched but that just added to the charm. The tea was served by letting us select our favorite flavor (I had Earl Gray) then bringing us a cup and saucer, tea bag and large teapots of hot water. This was ok but I would have liked brewed tea better. But the food more than made up for the tea bag tea. There were six of us at the table so they brought out three pyramids of food to be shared. At a high tea the food is served on a three tiered serving device. The bottom layer consisted of cucumber and cream cheese on rye open faced sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches on good white bread cut in a scalloped shape and a really tasty cranberry/orange salad. The friend I was sharing with could 't eat cucumber so I had to bring her portion of those goodies home. So sad. The second level, moving up consisted of delicious fruit filled frosted scones, little corn muffins and tiny containers of butter and jam. The top level held little chocolate cupcakes and sweet rolls. Needless to say we were all quite full when we left there. It was a great place to celebrate a birthday, quiet enough for conversation and fun food to enjoy. I recommend it.
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