Abigail's Tea House in St. George, Ontario is my favourite restaurant of all time! I found out about it from an Instagram picture that a friend posted, and after my first visit, I was hooked. It is a lovely step into the gracious past when tea rooms served Cream Teas and High Teas. The proprietors, Lorene and Ivan White, are a husband and wife team who are the most congenial hosts, making it feel like you are visiting their home for the afternoon. While the menu is unchanged, there are always variations and seasonal offerings that make no two visits the same. We started this weekend with a visit to celebrate a family birthday.
All restaurant patrons who dine indoors in Ontario must be fully vaccinated. We uploaded proof of vaccination onto our phones and our certificates and ID were verified before we were seated. I have no problem with this!
The vintage china place settings are mismatched and charming. I love the peacock plate that my tablemate used.
I opted for the Pretty Ploughman's Plate with open-faced savoury sandwiches on herbed scones. The toppings included pimento cheese, brie with red pepper jelly, egg salad and cucumber with cream cheese.
High Tea starts with a fruit salad, then a plate of pimento cheese with assorted crackers, a green salad or chicken salad, and then the platter of tea sandwiches, mini pies, scones with cream and jam. An assortment of sweet bites finishes the meal. Everything is washed down with cups of delicious tea chosen from the extensive tea menu. I always get the house tea, except when they have their Christmas tea available.
We raved about the cranberry cake when Lorene stopped by to chat with us. She brought out a binder of her recipes and was pleased to offer us her sister's recipe for the cake. She warned us not to beat the eggs for 7 minutes as she felt that made the cake too tough.
The proprietors are originally from Canada's East Coast and this cake put me in mind of a partridge berry cake we had enjoyed in St. John's Newfoundland. Partridge berries are like mini cranberries.
I made the cake yesterday using frozen cranberries we had on hand. The ones at the teahouse were made with fresh cranberries and were superior in my opinion. However, if you could not compare the two versions, mine were very acceptable.
As we chatted, our hostess commented that people in the community had been very supportive of their small business during the pandemic, and while they had to close down their separate bakery shop (they had the BEST chocolate tarts!!), the tea house was doing well.
It is easy to grab a take-out pizza or go through a drive-through for a fast meal, but this kind of lunch is a special treat indeed. I have been to other tea rooms, but this is the best of them all with its homey offerings and atmosphere and the super-attentive, friendly hosts.
This sounds and looks like a ,lovely place to visit.
ReplyDeleteHow exquisite! How delicious! How dainty! Oh, I'd love to visit that lovely tea room. Thanks for posting. My son and his family live in Ontario and they told me about the Vac Pass being enforced in all public places. Here in OK, we don't have that.
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