Brambleberry Cottage

Brambleberry Cottage is a tea gift shoppe and tea room in Spokane.  There is almost no better way to relax with a friend than to go to "tea," and that is just what I did when I went to tea at this lovely little place with my friend this day.  But, let me tell you, this is a tiny little tucked away place that you might never know about unless you were looking for it. It's located east of division, south of Sprague, at 206 E. Pacific Avenue, here in Spokane.

 

Here is a picture of the a picture they have on the wall depicting the establishment.  I liked it rather than my own photo because there are leaves on the trees.  The day I went it was windy and rainy....January day, and a perfect day for hot tea.




Here is looking out from inside the door.



 There is a staircase when you first walk in, and a guest book and for me there was a closed wooden door.  Having never been here before, it was a little bit awkward to know which way to go, but I took a risk and opened the door.  It was the right choice.  (The door was closed to keep out the cold.) On the other side of the door was the Brambleberry experience.

 Here is our little reserved table, to the right,  and some pictures of the other rooms, even the upstairs, where there is a bit of overflow space and many very pretty items to browse.

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Dawn, the owner, has added some beautiful touches to the decor.


I loved the rose art, and the Spokane nostalgia on the walls upstairs. There were little special touches everywhere.  






After some exploring and looking over the tea menu, it was time for tea.

...and crumpets.  Never having had "crumpets" before, I thought that was the highlight of our meal, on the other hand, everything was delicious!

 The crumpet was like a crispy English muffin-pancake.  If that sounds interesting to you, then you simply must try these delicious things for yourself.

But that is not all we had.  The crumpet was served with jam and Devonshire cream, and this amongst a vast array of wonderful things to eat... and actually it was on one of three plates...

 There as a scrumptious fruit sauce served over these little round cakes.  Marvelous!  Along with our sandwiches and sweets,, we had some dill/potato soup.  (All served on pretty little plates!)  Certainly, such a tea time as this is a bit of a feminine thing to to, it is true that men,
(while they would probably rather be hunting or fishing,) in the right company, often enjoy "tea time" too!

I noticed that the house number placard is actually a colorful collage , or rather mosaic of pretty broken chine piece.  Another clever and endearing touch by the ladies at Brambleberry Cottage.

Pleasant Blends

Pleasant Blends serves up coffee and teas well as simple sandwiches soups and desserts.  It's a tiny gem of a shop in North Spokane located near the Rosauers store... to the eastern side.  The address is 9147 N. Newport Hwy.  It is upstairs which may limit it's access for some people.  They do mail orders (might be a good source for your favorite blends,) and they see teapots, coffee presses and trinkety things like that too.

My friends began meeting here when, once upon a time, one of them began working there and then it just sort of became a hang-out meeting spot.  Not for all of us at the same time but individually from timne to time.  today I met here with L. and S and A.  It's a great place to meet on the Northside.  It is small and quaint and quiet too... except of course for us..  Our friend who worked here has since moved on, but there is something about the location that is appealing.  It is a nice little shop,  though we do miss the trumpe l'oeil painting of a rug on the floor.  That was cool.

My friends had coffee and I had tea, since tea is one of my latest obsessions. It was made a little strong for my liking, but I must say, they had quite a selection.  There are many kinds of tea and coffee as you can see:

This is a nice place for meeting up with people enjoying a cup o joy or getting a bite to eat while you relax and read the paper.  It is not a loud place... the people are friendly and you can get almost any flavor your heart desires in the way of coffee or tea.  My tea today was Jasmine.

They have lots of pleasant blends!

Taste And See

Taste and See on the Northside is now open on Holland Street!


OLD REVIEW:
Taste and See is a Tea House on the South Hill in Spokane.
(NOTE: As of January 2011 they have closed this location with plans to reopen on the North-side of the city in the spring.  Check their website for more information.)

)Having never been to such a place before I was delighted when a friend of mine asked me to join her for a Christmas tea.  This is something I would definitely enjoy doing again, and I most certainly recommend it as the kind of thing to do when you want to dine with someone and spend time talking and enjoying one-another's company.  The experience of enjoying tea with a friend was fun, relaxing, elegant, a bit whimsical and most definitely a delightful way to spend an afternoon in anticipation of the Christmas Holiday. Taste and See is the brainchild of Thada Ziegler.

This place is quite elegant and it's run as a "ministry," a not for profit business organized around the intent of helping women who are transitioning from shelters, they say that they "provide a paid internship program for these women, in the venue of the tea room, to help them get ready to transition back into the work place."  It's a cool concept to help others, and the "Taste and See" name comes from the book of Psalms in the Bible, (Psalm 34:8.)

The shelters I saw listed that they are associated with were Anna Ogden Hall and the Union Gospel Mission, Christian ministries, so one might assume it is a Christian oriented ministry organization, but whatever it was specifically, was not particularly obvious to me, except for the reference to the Psalm in the name, and most certainty the kindness and respect they showed all the customers there, including us.  There is definitely a spirit of serving here. As for cost to the customer, each reservation was $20.00, which I thought was reasonable, especially as we were there two hours.  Tips and donation all go directly to the ministry.

Having made prior reservations, our table was ready for us and  we were seated to a beautiful salad and invited to "tea."  Our waitress also graciously explained the process of eating at a tea house to us, telling us what we could expect throughout our visit, as well as about their little gift shop.Our first tea was Cinnamon Stick.  It was sweet and cinnamony, a lot like my favorite Good Earth blend.  Each subsequent tea was brought out in another teapot and all were unique and quite ornate.

We were greeted and made to feel right at home immediately.  There were quite a few other people there, and not just women only, there were men. In our room there was a couple at another small table and a large group of about ten dining in our room while we were there.  On the other side of the house there were people also.  We were told that people there were "walk-ins", people who did not make reservations who had just walked in, like they were going to a restaurant, and ordered a lunch.  Our server told us that they were discontinuing that after January and would only be taking reservations after that.

After our tea and salad, we were brought two more pots of tea that we selected from a tea menu.  Shortly thereafter we were served Lemon Scones, severed with Devon-shire Cream as well as Lemon Curds.  (above)

After these were were offered more tea and  then we were brought fancy little lunch treats.



There were stuffed potatoes, Chicken Salad Croissants, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato English muffins and Turkey and Cheese wreath-shaped white and wheat  sandwiches.  (pictured to the right)

Next there was more tea and then dessert

The desserts were assorted samplings of several tasty morsels.  I do not remember exactly what all we were served but I do remember that in the center were balls of peppermint ice cream that had been rolled in coconut.  It sounded a little odd to me, not something I would have chosen for myself, but it was delicious.(below)

It was really nice to spend time with my friend, talking laughing, and not having to think about what to order except for tea.  (The meal was preplanned by the kitchen staff.)  We were there for two hours.  They told us to expect that when we made our reservations, and that is exactly what occurred. 

We tried numerous teas, mostly Roobios types.  I think may very favorite was the Cinnamon, although  the others were delightful to experience.  I understand that Roobios (pronounced like "roy-bos") also known as Red Tea is a very healthy drink.  Tea in general is supposed to be good for you, so, drink more tea.  And, if you can, get together with a friend, someone special to you, and make reservation for a tea party of your own at the tea room,; it's fun.

Here is a photo of the house.  Upstairs, I  understand, is a Bed and Breakfast!