Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
preserves to grace the tea table—rose
petal jam, gooseberry and elderflower
preserve, lime curd, and pink grapefruit
marmalade.
For years, Fortnum's Fountain restau-
rant was an iconic spot for afternoon
tea—a charming gilded salon, tucked
behind the ground floor food hall. Sadly,
the tea service has moved to the fourth
floor, where it merely coasts on its reputa-
tion, while Fortnum's promotes its five
other full-menu restaurants stashed
around the store. You have to applaud
Fortnum & Mason for not cloning itself in
branches all over the world. Now if they
could just keep their focus on tea . . .
181 Piccadilly (
&
44/20/7734-8040;
www.fortnumandmason.com).
(
Heathrow (24km/15 miles); Gatwick
(40km/25 miles).
L
$$$ 22 Jermyn St., St. James (
&
800/
682-7808
in the U.S., or 44/20/7734-2353;
www.22jermyn.com). $$
Vicarage Private
Hotel, 10 Vicarage Gate, South Kensington
(
&
44/20/7229-4030;
www.londonvicarage
hotel.com).
Fortnum & Mason specializes in champagne
and caviar, as well as unique teas.
Tea
451
Cotswolds Tearooms
Tea Cakes in the Countryside
Around Broadway, England
No part of England is more postcard pic-
turesque than the Cotswolds, with its low
rounded hills, winding leafy lanes, and tidy
villages built of warm golden Cotswold
stone. Because it's only a 2-hour drive
from London, the Cotswolds' bucolic
charm is hardly undiscovered by tourists.
Come on a weekday when it's not high
summer, however, and you can easily
imagine life here in the 16th century, when
the wool from Cotswold sheep made these
villages prosperous.
It seems that every Cotswold town has
its own nostalgic tea room, where those
hordes of visitors can find refreshment.
Right on High Street in the market town of
Broadway—the most popular base for
touring this area—
Tisane's Tea Rooms
(21 The Green;
&
44/1386/853296;
www.
tisanes-tearooms.co.uk) is set in a lovely
17th-century stone building with a bow-
fronted window. (The old-fashioned deliv-
ery bicycle parked on the pavement outside
is a quaint touch.) Besides serving morning
coffee, light lunches, and afternoon tea,
the shop sells teapots, coffee jugs, and,
instead of tacky Cotswold souvenirs, a line
of preserves, mustards, and spices from a
