Tales of an English teashop in New York City...

New blog…. soon!

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

Ladies and gents, we have not forgotten about our dear old blog. We’re putting the finishing touches to a spiffing new website, which will soon be the home to our unique mix of British news, witty quips, and delicious recipes. We promise to share the link with you as soon as it’s ready, and we hope you’ll make the journey over with us!

Nicky’s Queen Elizabeth II Belt Buckle!

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

Virgins Saints & Angels creates the best and most striking handmade jewellery in Mexico, combining artesanal and gothic elements with religious iconography. Designer Mercedes Hart went back to her London roots however when she crafted this amazing British-themed belt buckle especially for Nicky. Queen Elizabeth with her fave corgis – it’s just gorgeous!

Belt Buckle by VSA Designs

You can find more unique Virgins Saints and Angels jewellery designs on the company’s Facebook and Twitter.

A Great New ‘Squeeze’ Documentary

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

This fantastic documentary about British New Wave pioneers Squeeze was aired back home on the BBC a couple of weeks ago. Like Nicky, the band grew up around Deptford, and they may have been known to kick a ball through the dusty streets of East London together at times! They’ve also become a big part of American culture too – the song Up The Junction was a fitting soundtrack to the end of the midseason finale of AMC’s Breaking Bad recently.

Squeeze: Take Me I’m Yours

Nice!

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

When the nice folk from fashion site Lifestyle Mirror popped in for a photo shoot with Brit model and actress Poppy Delevingne, they felt like a mid-morning snack. We handed round some NICE biscuits, and they instagram’d this wonderful photo.

The delicious coconot-flavor cookies are widely eaten in Britain, but originate from the French town of… you guessed it. You can find these and other British Pantry items in our lovely grocery store, Carry On Tea & Sympathy.

Lifestyle Mirror are on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Robert Irvine Loves Our Victoria Sponge Cake

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

Robert Irvine is a British celebrity chef and expat with a sweet tooth and a taste for delicious British cakes. He’s thankful to Tea & Sympathy for serving up a Victoria Sandwich Cake in New York City, “as good as it is back home.”

The camera crew for The Best Thing I Ever Ate came down to the restaurant, interviewed Nicky and tried our Victoria Sandwich, with delicious consequences. Thank You Robert Irvine!

Tea & Sympathy on the Food Network

We’ve previously blogged the recipe for our Victoria Sponge cake here, and you’ll also find it in our cookbook, which we sell in store. Our book makes the perfect Christmas gift, and Nicky will even sign copies now she’s such a big TV star!!!

Our Best Christmas Mugs!

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

New in at Carry On Tea & Sympathy – and just in time for Xmas – are a new range of fabulous British mugs and teapots. Adorned with a cool variety of Union Jack designs, these are just some of the crockery items available from our grocery store. Come down and find the perfect gift for the tea lover in your life this Christmas!

All-New British Mugs And Teapots

Want hot drinks on the move? Our carry mug is for you, and we even sell our own brand of Rosie Lee – tea!

Christmas Is Coming!

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

The holiday season’s nearly upon us, and we’ve got loads of festive treats for our wonderful customers to do Christmas the British way – crackers, advent calenders, christmas pudding and delicious British chocs for use as stocking stuffers. Take a peek!

Christmas Gifts At Tea & Sympathy

Christmas crackers are an integral part of Christmas dinner in Britain. Pull each side for a loud bang, and to find a joke, a toy and a paper crown inside the cracker!

An Advent Calendar filled with delicious Cadbury Chocolate.

Don’t tap it, whack it! Terry’s Chocolate Orange is an essential Christmas stocking stuffer.

Everything here and more is available in our store – Carry On Tea Sympathy. We deliver locally and can also ship orders to the US and Canada.

Much Ado About Stuffing!

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, Nicky – ever generous and kind – thought she’d share her famous stuffing recipe with all you lovely people. This recipe is perfect for turkey and you’ll hopefully have most of the ingredients lying around your kitchen already. So try it out this Thursday for a fabulous Thanksgiving feast!

Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe by Tea & Sympathy

1 large onion chopped
2 sticks celery chopped
2 red apples chopped
6 rashers bacon chopped
3 sausages out of skin
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup fresh chopped sage leaves
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
salt & pepper
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
1 or 2 eggs

Fry the onions until soft then add the bacon. Cook for a few minutes then add celery, apples, nuts, sausage meat, sage, herbs, salt and pepper. Fry until it is mostly cooked. take off the heat and add the bread crumbs and beaten egg or eggs. Put into a baking dish and bake for approx 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Delicious!

For the truly lazy we also stock Paxo at our Carry On Tea & Sympathy grocery store. This is a stuffing mixture you can add water to then bake in the oven. So whatever your time constraints this Thanksgiving – Tea & Sympathy has got you covered!

Poppy Delevingne Checks Out Tea & Sympathy

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

British model, It Girl, and close friend of the royal family Poppy Delevingne has been in and around New York City for a while now. But she’ll always love a little slice of home life! She visited Tea & Sympathy for a photo shoot with stylish shopping website Lifestyle Mirror – and ended up dancing in the street with Sean.

Poppy Delevingne: Model Behavior

Few things make a New Yorker stop on the street. But on a brisk fall day in Greenwich Village, British model and actress Poppy Delevingne has the power to stop traffic.

Tall, fine-featured and with expertly mussed blonde hair, she’s all business during a photo shoot. She leans against a vintage London-style taxi in front of Anglophile tearoom and general store Tea and Sympathy. As music plays and trucks speed by, she dances in the street with a dapper gentleman as the camera clicks furiously. Deliverymen on bikes pause to gawk. A troupe of school children linger, pointing and clapping. Drivers honk.

“How painfully trendy of you!” her dance partner says teasingly as she takes a spin. Her face bursts into a laugh.

All the details on the shoot and the full interview can be found here.

I ♥ NY T-Shirt Flooded For Sandy

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Tea & Sympathy

After the storm, Milton Glaser’s iconic I ♥ NY logo has been flooded as a way of raising money for Sandy relief efforts. The shirts were created by New York based artist and designer Sebastien Errazuriz. They cost $40 and are available at Grey Area. All proceeds go directly to Hurricane Sandy programs.

I Still Love NY Hurricane Sandy Relief

“Sebastien Errazuriz’s studio was paralyzed after the hurricane. Unable to work and tired of watching the horrible disaster unfold on the news, Errazuriz decided to design something to help raise much-needed relief funds. This idea occurred to him after seeing the water line marked on the walls of the flooded galleries in New York’s Chelsea art district.”

Here is an excellent article from our second favorite quality daily – after the (perhaps fictitious) Tea Times of course. Back in March, Kaly Soto of The New York Times put together this pretty exhaustive guide to the best spots to sip tea in NYC. Tea & Sympathy features pretty highly, which we’re chuffed about – even more so because of the fabulous photographs. Below, we’ve cherry-picked Soto’s delightfully informative introduction on the tradition of British high tea, her feature on T&S, and a link to the wonderful photos that accompanied the article.

Sipping Serenity in the City

By KALY SOTO
Published: March 10, 2011

T for Tea?

Click here for the original photographs that accompanied the article. There are some really excellent ones of Tea & Sympathy. We’ve also posted the slideshow to our Facebook, accessible here.

SOMETIMES you leave a meal at a New York restaurant more stressed out than when you arrived. You make a reservation, but they won’t seat you until your whole party has arrived. The entree you want is no longer available. Your waiter disappears for a half-hour and returns only to nudge you out of the table so someone else can sit down. But there is a dining experience that will leave you feeling pampered and relaxed: afternoon tea. I recently sampled several afternoon teas, and in every establishment, the sterling service matched the sterling silver of the place settings, which also included beautiful (and often charmingly mismatched) china.

Though much of the fare was to be expected — cucumber sandwiches, scones and clotted cream — the experience was the real treat. Despite the decorous connotations, the teas were more akin to spa treatments than to etiquette lessons. Occasionally a server made a suggestion (like, start eating from the bottom of a tiered tray), but much more attention was paid to whether my teacup was full and I had everything I needed. And at each place I learned a little something, too.

The first order of business was getting the vocabulary straight. What most places in Manhattan offer are afternoon teas, not high teas. Though high tea sounds more formal, in Britain it was originally the tea of working-class men and women, said Lisa Boalt Richardson, who has written two books about tea, “The World in Your Teacup” and “Tea With a Twist.”

“They wanted to partake in tea,” Ms. Boalt Richardson said. “But it is not an afternoon tea; it’s more of a supper tea. They would have it about 5 or 6 and have it around a high table, the dinner table.” High tea might be accompanied by potpies or shepherd’s pie, whereas afternoon teas come with cheese, bread, finger sandwiches and scones…

…Haley Fox was not the only proprietor who spoke of really feeding customers. Nicky Perry, who owns Tea and Sympathy in the West Village, advised patrons to “come hungry.” Her casual establishment has 10 tables and the decided feel of her native Britain, with floral tablecloths and pictures of famous countrymen on the walls. Along with a “proper English scone” and other appropriate fare, Ms. Perry serves more than three dozen British teas, including Typhoo, Yorkshire Gold and Rosie Lee; the English breakfast brews are the most popular. (Afternoon tea here is $35 for one person; $60 for two.)

“The tea in this country tastes like they fished it out of Boston Harbor,” she said.

Robert Litwiller has been going to Tea and Sympathy since the day after it opened in 1991. Mr. Litwiller said he had just moved back to the United States from London when he discovered the shop and proceeded to eat there almost every day for several years.

“It became my little place to bring people,” he said. “It means a lot to me.” But he added that Tea and Sympathy brooked no bad attitudes. “You’ve got to play by the rules.”

Ah, finally, some rules. They are posted at the door and include: “Be pleasant to the waitresses — remember, Tea and Sympathy girls are always right,” and “If we don’t need the table, you may stay all day, but if people are waiting and you have finished your meal, then it’s time to naff off.”

A version of this article appeared in print on March 11, 2011, on page C21 of the New York edition.

Sipping Serenity in the City – T&S in the NYT!