Sipping in San Francisco and Beyond

Crown & Crumpet Tea Salon

1746 Post Street • San Francisco, CA 94115

22 Ross Common • Ross, CA 94957

415-771-4252 • crownandcrumpet.com

Whimsicality and playfulness abound at Crown & Crumpet. “Keep Calm and Carry On” and “Doily Free Zone,” signs proclaim. A large pale-blue clock, with floral teacups and saucers glued to its rim, suggests that it’s always time for tea. Dogs, a rabbit, and a raccoon sit at tea, while a giraffe and polar bear look on in charming artwork. Each saucer bears a quotation on tea or good manners to ponder, “Civility costs nothing and buys everything” (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu) or “Tea’s proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious” (Samuel Johnson). Pink prevails, from heart designs on banquettes to table linens.

“It’s a traditional English tea with a more modern voice and feel—cheeky, not Granny’s front room with kid-free furnishings. I want it to be a fun experience,” says Amy Dean, who opened the tearoom with her British husband, Chris, in 2008. Amy’s history degree from Oxford University clearly inspires activities at the tearoom. Events like the coronation of King Charles III and the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II are televised during tea parties, where games feature quiz questions about the history of tea and the royal family. To celebrate the release of the movie Downton Abbey, guests to its tea party (costumes encouraged) received movie tickets. The tearoom is a “go-to for anything going on that’s British,” says Amy. It has even catered events for the British Consulate.

Amy is a San Francisco native who lived in London for 24 years and whose father worked for a British bank. She met her husband at a dinner at writer George Eliot’s home in London, and the two bonded over a shared love of tea, antiques, and travel. So, it was natural that the pair opened an antiques shop, La Place du Soleil, in San Francisco after they wed and moved to her home city. Before that, Chris worked in an antiques shop, and Amy worked for Ralph Lauren stores and showrooms.

The most popular of the 29 teas on the menu are “Paris” (a black tea marked by vanilla and caramel notes), “Happiness Is” (a green tea with tropical fruit, citrus, and floral notes), and “Peach Crumpet” (peach-flavored tea with calendula petals.) Reserve teas include White Peony, which tastes of melon, grape, and herbs, and Lychee Congou, a black tea with lychee fruit juice, both from Fujian, China.

Tea includes three sandwiches (such as Coronation chicken salad—a curried chicken with apricots and almonds, and honey-roasted ham with English cheddar and apples), two warm savories (like chicken pot pie and chicken-and-apple sausage rolls), scone, crumpet, and four small sweets, including matcha mousse in a tiny chocolate teacup and chocolate-strawberry cake. For parties, the pastry chef delights in making macaron towers—a showstopper composed of more than 30 macarons in seven flavors, pistachio and blueberry included—and unicorn cakes, whose layers in rainbow colors are topped with a ridiculous amount of sprinkles.