Tea Time Adventures and Other Food Exploits: Crown and Crumpet Cafe at the New People Center

Welcome back Crown and Crumpet! Tea Time has been waiting to add this notch to their blogging belt for a while now. For those in the know, Crown and Crumpet is remembered as a modern English tearoom that used to be located over in Ghirardelli Square (with bathrooms around the corner and down the alley). When that location closed they announced a move to Union Square. While that store is still in the works, for the meantime, you can take an Afternoon Tea Cafe break over in the Upper Fillmore/Japantown district! Their cafe is in the New People building on Post Street. There are loos both upstairs and downstairs from the cafe and they have some very interesting features. We're not going to get graphic here (except about the food) but be sure to check them out even if you don't need to use the facilities.

What more is there to say?

"Bottomless" teapot. Just ask for more water.

An inviting table waiting for YOU!

Water cooler with cucumbers, tea cozies below.

Little touches make afternoon tea an Adventure.

After your tea stop, take a look around the New People!

We each got an order of afternoon tea, but decided to share a large pot of Marie Antoinette, a delightfully light black tea with rose. Our 3 tier tray arrived laden with comestibles and we were hungry (of course) so we dug right in to our tea/lunch. Angela grabbed onto the sandwiches, which breaks our Tea Time tradition of scones first, but hey why not shake it up now and then? We'll break the tea tray down for ya the same way, bottom to top. First, sandwiches. The Crown and Crumpet afternoon tea gives you four sandwiches and this day they chose to serve a more traditional array of Chicken Salad, Ham and Cheese, Cucumber with cream cheese and mint, and an egg salad that J.K. liked in spite of her mayo aversion. The cucumber sammie was also a stand out with a very good ratio of cucumber to thick cream cheese. The middle plate features scones (one blueberry, one red berry) and warm crumpets with butter shimmering on them. We overheard that this is a new scone recipe and we give it thumbs up, a great choice with your own personal devon cream and/or red berry jam. The top tier is a plethora of desserts. Lemon bar, raspberry bar, white chocolate mini pie thing, plus mini cheesecake cups (one each of caramel and coffee/chocolate flavor). We could have spread the lemon bar on our scones instead of lemon curd, they were so full of tart sunshine. Of course we documented the whole she-bang, so take a peek at what we got to eat!

Traditional 3-tier tea tray

Four sandwiches each, with salad

L to R, Chicken Salad, Ham and cheese, cucumber, egg salad

Scones and crumpets, with jam and clotted cream

Scone sharing, it takes practice.

Desserts for two.

JK took home desserts, & Angela was gifted with the rest of the tea in a to-go cup.

If you got the chance to enjoy afternoon tea at C&C over in the square, you'll find the ambiance recreated here in Japantown at the Cafe Stop. Even though we said we wouldn't "get graphic" Tea Time can't resist tipping you off to the special features awaiting you after you've had your four pots of tea. So if you're ready to immerse yourself in culture, venture over to Crown and Crumpet in Japantown to dine in fine British style and then view some art in the New People galleries.

Update: Sparkling Party 4/2013

Tea Time is back again. Ready to enjoy C&C with a Sparkling Wine party. The corkage fee here is very reasonable, so we brought along two bottles of a red sparkling from the Chocolate Shop. (A light flavorful red with a chocolate nose and hit of cocoa at the end!) We do love a Tipsy Tea! This get together was a lot of fun. Mel reserved the table and the six of us had a merry time. Most of the food and desserts were different from our first visit, so it looks like Crown and Crumpet will have an evolving menu. They also have gluten free tea now! So ask, if you have dietary restrictions, when you make your reservation.