Tuesday Tea Time: Tea & Sympathy

I love tea! And in honor of my good friend Allie Pleiter, who has an amazing knitting blog called Destiknitions, featuring all of the cool knitting places she visits on her trips, I'm going to celebrate and highlight all the great tea shops I visit.

Tea & Sympathy

During my New York trip, I had an amazing time visiting all sorts of wonderful tea places. Today's tea place is a wonderful spot called Tea & Sympathy. Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't tell the story of how we actually found this little gem.

Danica, Fiona, Camy

I was with my dear friend, Camy Tang, another tea aficionado, and Fiona Harper, on our way to attend a friend's church. Yes, sometimes we go to church during writing conferences. Anyway, Camy had put the address into her iPhone wrong, so we ended up in the wrong part of town, and had to adjust. Our adjusted directions took us right past this tea shop and both Camy and I gushed over how cute it was. Since we were already late to church, it was tempting to stop, but I was determined to get to church because we had set that goal, and I do not miss goals. We made a vow to stop on the way back from church. And we did.

What was so great about going to this tea place is that Fiona is from England. She was so excited to be able to have a real taste of home- something she wasn't anticipating. I should add that she gave her thumbs up. :)

Note the bacon behind the sausage

As for me... all I have to say is how have I lived my life without eating the exquisite concoction known as bacon? Not the bacon we get here in the States, but real English bacon. I had a wonderful time in church, but man, oh man, the truly spiritual experience came from eating that bacon.

TEA!

The tea- I had the Earl Grey. Earl is one of the few boyfriends hubby approves of my having. In fact, he quite insists upon it. Earl is my standby whenever I don't know what to order or I'm overwhelmed, or I just need some comfort. In this case, I was absolutely parched and starving, and I didn't want to try anything new. Now, they say it's their special blend. Personally, I thought it was a little weak. I don't know if it was the blend or if they brew weaker tea. I like mine the way I like my men, burly, strong, and memorable. At least when I'm talking about my boyfriend the Earl. Camy and Fiona had the English Breakfast, and they enjoyed it.

Super tiny but cute!

That said, the food more than made up for it, and when I head back to the Big Apple, it's on my list of places to visit. I'll try a different blend of tea, because what I had wasn't bad, but I'm always eager to explore other varieties.

The decor was absolutely incredible, very quaint and tiny. Definitely a tight fit. But well worth it.


 

The outside of the church

Inside- photos don't do it justice

So if you're in the area, go! And, if you're there on a Sunday, visit Christ Church, which holds services only a few blocks away. They meet in a Seventh Day Adventist church, which is absolutely beautiful and has quite the history. I wish we could have spent more time just exploring the church building. Aside from the building, the teaching was wonderful, and the people were very friendly. Definitely the kind of church home I'd want if I lived in New York. Even if you don't live there, it's still a wonderful environment for visit.

I'm not sure which experience you'll find more spiritual, because both were quite excellent.