A Spot of Manly Tea

Today was one of those days that remind me why I moved to Florida. It was a beautiful day to take a stroll and stop for a spot of tea…

Sorry, I haven’t kept you all abreast of my comings and goings, but they’ve mostly been goings! We’ve had the siblings-in-law (Snowgirl and Ejen) down from Maine since December 22.

It’s been great. We had Christmas with them, took them to our favorite restaurants (we eat out waaaay too much), went to the Christmas Candlelight Procession at Epcot (Gary Sinise was awesome), drove up to St. Augustine twice… We’re pooped! (But it’s a good kind of pooped.)

Today was their last day here. We decided to take it easy and drove up to Mount Dora for a little window shopping and lunch. (Stick with me, you manly men. There’s beer at the end of this story…)

Mount Dora is a tiny town in Lake County, about 25 miles north of Orlando. It’s downtown is about six or eight blocks full of antique shops and craft stores–paradise for Snowgirl and her sister (my dear spouse).

You see, our house is merely a repository for four things: our beds, our computers, our cats, and all of the fabric, beads, buttons, thread, sewing machines, glue guns, cutting boards, and other necessary materials and implements o’doom required of a crafty woman. And her sister blows her own glass beads, fer cryin’ out loud! Escaping the craft and bead stores for the entire visit was out of the question, even if I tried. (Hold on, guys, beer’s coming.)

At lunch time, we ducked into The Windsor Rose English Tea Room. Yes, I said “tea room”. Fine china cups and saucers. Tea pots with tea cozies. Finger sandwiches. The works. It couldn’t have gotten more girly…

This particular tea room had several choices for Afternoon Tea, and the women-folk chose The Windsor Rose – Full English Tea for Two:

Freshly baked scones with Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry jam. Assorted finger sandwiches, pastries, Queen Victoria sponge cake and a pot of tea for two.

Ah, but this particular tea room is run by a man! The decor, rather than being overly froo-froo, reminded us of an English country restaurant (not that we’ve ever actually seen one). And, in addition to Afternoon Tea, he offered High Tea! That means Manly Lunch! Cottage pie. Chicken and Leek Pie. Cornish Pasty. Scotch Egg. And more than tea…. GUINESS!! (See? I told you there’d be beer.)

Ejen had the cottage pie, and I had the Ploughman’s Lunch–wedges of cheddar and swiss cheese, fresh baked bread, salad with English salad cream, and a dollop of Branston pickle (a chutney-style vegetable relish to die for). It was perfect. We shall return.

I have to carry Ejen and Snowgirl to the airport at 4:30am tomorrow, so I’d better shut this thing off now. We’ll miss them. It was a great two weeks!