Alice's Tea Cup Chapter I

Birthday Tea

                                    Alice's BLT                                               Curried chicken salad sandwich

Scones w/ raspberry preserves and homemade clotted cream

Back in November, we visited a tea shop by Central Park West called Alice's Tea Cup 

(102 West 73rd street).

We arrived there around 1 o'clock, expecting it to be relatively empty, or as empty as it gets in most places on a Friday afternoon.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.

We ended up leaving our name and cell number so they could reach us when it cleared up.  Having nothing better to do, we decided to stick around the area in case they called us quickly, and what better to do than visit Central Park?  Unless it was freezing outside.  Which it was.

Still, we ended up sitting on some of the flatter rocks close to the West side entrance, doing homework, or in my case, flipping through the Rolling Stone Hobbit Guide, but back to the point, they called us about a half hour later and we rushed out of there and to the shop as quickly as we could (Stopping to admire some very adorable dogs and scare off pigeons to keep our friend safe along the way).

It was still crowded when we arrived but a table had cleared up, though I got stuck with the awkward third seat at the table where I had to turn my body to sit properly.  I don't normally care about crowded places, but wow, the group sitting near us was more than a little obnoxious (Trust me, when they left, it was like a whole other place where I could *gasp* hear myself think).

As for food, I had the Alice's BLT, while my friends ordered the curried chicken salad sandwich and scones. (Menu) And of course, a pot of Birthday tea. (Tea menu on site)

Being that I had a standard BLT, it was, of course, as good as a BLT can get and very filling.  The curried chicken was alright in my opinion, though it's my friend's favorite.  The scones were delicious as well, though I found one of them, I believe it was the chocolate raspberry scone, to be a little cardboard-y; having it with the clotted cream made it much better though, A+ to that clotted cream.  You go clotted cream.

Oh, and the Birthday tea, described as "A classic blend of black teas with tropical fruits and flowers."  Now, I'm not a fan of fruity teas.  At all.  I find that they're usually way too sweet and overpowering for my liking, and leave an unpleasant aftertaste.  But something about this tea was just simply lovely.  No other words for it.  Just lovely.  And not just the taste, but the aroma; if anything, it smelled even nicer than it tasted.

Needless to say, we demolished it all promptly, taking our time with the tea, though, to just sit and chat (And wait for a friend, because unfortunately for her, she didn't get out until about 4).