JACQUELINE’S TEA ROOM
201 Main Street • Freeport, ME 04032
207-865-2123 • jacquelinestearoom.com
What do you do if someone buys the historical home you’ve been eyeing for your tearoom? Well, if you’re Jacqueline Soley, you build your own “circa-1848” Greek Revival–style house—complete with a pink front door—just up the street. Using windows from an old structure being razed and wide pine planks for the floors, this industrious entrepreneur created not only a thoroughly charming tea venue and a bed-and-break fast inn, but also a home for her family. She even did all the landscaping.
This “Jacqueline-of-all-trades,” as she laughingly describes herself, fell in love with tearooms years ago when a visit to one in Tampa, Florida, inspired her to seek out others during her travels around the world. When the opportunity arose to open her own, she was ready. The cooking skills she learned from her mother hold her in good stead in the tearoom, where she makes everything from scratch. She offers a four-course Afternoon Tea and a simpler Cream Tea. “I change up the menu all the time so I don’t get bored,” she says. And her customers can’t wait to see her latest creations—think brie with roasted-red-pepper tapenade.
A gift shop runs throughout the premises, filled with all sorts of lovely things. “I see my place as a sort of spiritual haven,” says Jacqueline, “where guests are taken away from daily life and pampered for a while.”
