Crestview tea parlor changes hands (with photos)
Afternoon tea. It’s something that sounds, well, veddy English. Maybe a little frivolous. Perhaps a bit lavish. Certainly a bit foreign to Crestview.
But when times are tough, folks are stressed, and life is just too darn hectic, tea drinkers insist that taking time to relax over a cup of Earl Grey, Orange Spice, Ginger Bounce or Lady Hannah’s Fruit Tea is just the ticket to soothing the spirit. It offers time to fall back and regroup, they enthuse.
Add a fantastic variety of sandwiches or home-baked quiches and you’ve not only rejuvenated, you’ve had a darned good lunch as well.
Local lovers of the Ivy Leaf Tea Parlor on West James Lee Boulevard were devastated earlier this year when they learned their favorite haunt might close down. They rallied their forces—and thrust Erica Teets into the fray. She and her husband Kurt bought the Ivy Leaf from previous owner Elaine Broome and tea — and hat swapping; more on that in a moment — resumed.
Renamed the Baron’s Tea House, the parlor celebrated its Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting on Friday, Nov. 13, a day that proved lucky for lovers of afternoon tea.
Erica Teets is quick to point out there’s more to Baron’s than just the fancy Victorian Tea. The tea parlor also offers breakfast pastries, soups, quiches, and after the New Year — sooner, if we’re lucky — that two-handed New Orleans gastronomical sandwich extravaganza, the muffeletta.
The Baron’s Tea House, named by the Teets’ 5-year-old daughter Richelle after Baron Humbert von Gikkingen in the Disney/Studio Ghibli film “The Cat Returns,” maintained the Ivy Leaf’s Victorian ambience. It may look a little too fru-fru for the menfolk until they try it.
“The tea café is gender-neutral,” Erica Teets assures gentlemen patrons. “In fact, we have lots of men who come in for the sandwiches. The other day I had two men come in just for lunch and they enjoyed it.”
In addition to the spacious tea café, the parlor includes the Victorian tearooms, a banquet room in the back that’s perfect for business or club meetings and showers, and a gift shop. The side and front porches are great for relaxing in nice weather.
Now about those hats: When the parlor first opened, Broome festooned the Victorian tearooms with an assortment of ladies’ hats and accessories, and in a frivolous mood one day, some patrons started dressing up in them. It rapidly became a tradition. As many of the ladies brought their husbands to tea, Broome had to add men’s toppers as well.
“For the ladies, we have the hats and scarves and boas to dress up in, and we have the hats for gentlemen as well,” Teets assured. “Sometimes we have teenage boys come in with their families and they dress up well. A lot of the ladies and young girls, they like that.”
Tea is an escape, Teets said. One hesitates to call it a civilized escape because that might frighten some folks away, but it is. It’s a complete change of pace, and something exceptionally different to do in northern Okaloosa County. The Baron’s local proponents, including News Bulletin columnist Estelle Rogers, add that because it refreshes the body and the soul, it’s needed now more than ever.
Give it a try, they encourage. Wearing a silly hat is optional.
