Sunday, March 16, 2008

Chandler House Tea Room

My tea-mates and I are always looking for an excuse to go to afternoon tea, and what better an excuse than Steph's birthday - The most exquisitely charming and classy tea lady that I know.

Chandler House Tea Room, which recently held a ribbon cutting ceremony on February 20th to celebrate its grand opening, is located in Bedford, Indiana. The tea room is a historic Victorian era home that was built in 1870. It serves lunch and is open Monday through Saturday, 11am - 2pm.
Although the tea room doesn't serve traditional afternoon tea, it does have a nice lunch menu with items such a soup, sandwiches, salads and quiche. I was delighted with the dessert selections as they were very afternoon tea-like. The teas are quality loose leaf teas with over 20 varieties to choose from.
The inside of the tea room is beautiful. There are three separate rooms, each tastefully decorated with antiques and lots of pretty tea accouterments.

Steph and I shared a pot of tea that came in this pretty brown and white toile teapot. Amy ordered an artisan tea and it was served in a glass teapot. Notice the pretty flowering presentation. Artisan teas are hand-sewn rosettes of fine teas that delicately unfurl when steeped in hot water.
Also notice the pretty teacups. We were each served tea in a unique china cup and it was hard to decide which one was the prettiest.

The food was delicious and we were all happy with our choices. I ordered a vegetable quiche that was served with a salad. Notice the cute little cutout cheese hearts that are on the salad.
For dessert, we ordered a variety of "tea" desserts, scones, tartlets and petit fours. They were all fabulous. My favorite were the petit fours, moist cake dipped in chocolate. Yum!We all had a lovely afternoon and will definitely be back for another visit. The Chandler House Tea Room is worth a stop in Beford. The service was friendly, the atmosphere elegant and cozy, and the tea and food were served hot and tasted delicious.

6 comments:

Steph said...

Mmmmm...I loved reliving this experience through your excellent write-up. Thank you! And I love, love, love the phrase "tea-mates"! :-) Thank you, again!

GRANDMA R said...

Kim, that sure looks like fun, and the deserts and food look excellent! Have you ever been to the one in Glendale? I don't know that it has tea but it is in a Victorian home setting with lunchs for women. We'll have to go there sometime. Looks like fun, thanks for sharing. Love, Mom

Angela McRae said...

Thanks so much for sharing the great review, as well as the photos both here and on Steph's blog. I love the "Painted Lady" color scheme of the house, too. Looks like this tea room is off to a terrific start!

Mad Queen said...

Now that is a place worth visiting. I have heard that the tea room in Elletesville (or is it Bloomington) is awful and the food is worse. Looks like you found a winner. And you are the perfect guest because you appreciate the finer details.

Anonymous said...

hi my mom was surprised when she read your comment. wow you're advertising for us (: I was at school when you came

Anonymous said...

sorry im bevs daughter thats my comment above.