HG never drinks tea at an American restaurant. It’s vile. Sheer heaven is teatime at Brown’s or another estimable London hotel restaurant like the Savoy or Claridge’s, etc.. Ah, scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserves with properly brewed tea. SKF carries on English tradition by doing tea properly. Scalds the teapot with boiling water. Adds the good tea bags to the tea pot and covers them with boiling water. Nestles the teapot in a tea cozy (SKF uses a colorful cozy knit by her late grandmother). Lets the tea steep for an appropriate period. Pours it in a cup and adds a dash of milk. Very comforting. HG’s beloved late father, Hershele Tsvi Freimann, would frown at the addition of milk. He drank strong Russian style black tea with lemon. Held a sugar cube between his teeth as he sipped the brew. Sometimes he eliminated the lemon and added a big dollop of cherry preserves to his cup. That’s the way after dinner tea was served at the Russian Tea Room on W. 57th Street in New York. Try it. Delightful.
Thought about tea. But it’s 90° here so I’m doing a Nimbus Brewing Blond Ale in a frozen mug instead. Is the Russian Tea Room still there?
Russian Tea Room exists. An overpriced, gussied up shadow of itself. No longer a hangout for show biz, journalism, press agentry and related fields of dubious endeavor. Show biz now hangs out at a down and dirty Jewish diner in the Hotel Edison. Its habitues call it “The Polish Tea Room.”