On Saturday, July 14th, we had 11:00 a.m. reservations at The Grapevine Tea Room in Arlington, Tennessee. The tea room was established in 2006, and their name was derived from the Bible verse found in John 15:5 - "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me he can do nothing."
The tea room is located on Arlington's Historic Depot Square and is rated #3 out of Tennessee's 40 tea rooms listed at http://www.teamap.com, by Adagio Teas. Reservations are required for Afternoon Tea and holiday events, but are not necessary for lunch or dinner.
Below is the dining room to the right of the front door.
Our table was set-up in the gift area to the left of the front door so we would have privacy.
L-R: Debbie, Kaye, Aunt Ruthie, Vickie, Me, Valerie and Aunt Dot
The tea room serves Bigelow teas, and we all ordered peach iced tea. I ordered a cup of their tomato soup and pimento cheese [without optional crushed pineapple] served on a Croissant. Homemade pimento cheese spread is a southern specialty which I had never tasted, so I was anxious to try it. It was very good.
For dessert we all shared a taste of one of their house specialties - A Cookie Monster. It's a chocolate chip cookie that's freshly baked in a skillet as soon as the order is placed. When finished it's topped with ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and sprinkled with pecan pieces. Sorry...we ate most of it before I remembered to take a picture!
I purchased a bar of soap in their gift shop that I thought was unique, and coordinated with my bathroom color scheme, and was small enough to fit in my suitcase. It was handcrafted by Daily Blessings Farm in Hernando, MS. My bathroom was the only room in the house that didn't have anything tea-related in it, so now it does! ;-)
After the tea room we browsed the quaint shops around the town square. S.Y. Wilson & Company, an antiques, collectibles and retail store, was founded in 1893 and is the second oldest continuing business in Shelby County. The store also has a farmer's produce market attached to the side of the building.
My cousin, Valerie, and I finished our shopping before the other gals, so we sat on the front porch of the store to wait with my aunts.
The town of Arlington was established in the 1830's and was originally known as Haysville, named after the original landowner, Samuel Jackson Hays [a nephew of President Andrew Jackson]. The area began to grow with the development of the Memphis and Ohio railroad and the Withe Depot. In 1883, the name of the town was changed to Arlington [after the national cemetery in Arlington, VA].
After shopping, we went back to Vickie's house to visit with her daughter, son-in-law and two darling granddaughters.
Later in the afternoon it was movie time - The Sequel, second movie in the trilogy.
Since tea was woven throughout Lucy Maud Montgomery's storyline, we decided to have our own tea time at intermission [turning the DVD over to side II]. I took a muslin tea sock [infuser] and two black loose teas with me [black tea is easiest to prepare because it needs no thermometer - just boiling water], and we enjoyed Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice and SerendipiTea's Persian Nectar at our afternoon movie ritual. Vickie and Kaye made a delicious caramel corn to eat during the movie viewing too.
So glad your bathroom is now tea'd up! ;-) I have two pictures of asia teawares on my bathroom wall.
ReplyDeleteHow fun to have girl time with special family girls.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a neat tea room! And I must say, I can't get over the fact you'd never had homemade pimiento cheese spread before! That's a biggie down here, and people have very strong opinions on whether it's OK to use store-bought or not. (I use both, but I do prefer my homemade version!)
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