The Drake Hotel is at 140 E Walton Pl. For my birthday a friend told me we were going out for tea and to dress nicely and to bring my camera but didn’t tell me where we were going. She had made a reservation for us at the Drake Hotel for afternoon tea in the Palm Court. They have a dress code of smart casual and we went on a Sunday afternoon.
We looked at the menu for tea first and the waiter suggested the Bombay Chai, so that’s what we both picked. The tea leaves were in the teapot we were each brought and we placed a strainer over our cups when we poured the tea. Next to the spreads for the scones was creamer and we were brought sugar cubes in a little dish for our tea. They came by often and refilled our tea pots with hot water.
The food included finger sandwiches: a cucumber and tomato on white bread, lobster and shrimp salad on a brioche bun, roasted strip loin and white cheddar on a pretzel roll with a tiny pickle. When we finished the sandwiches they brought us another plate of them, complimentary. We also got raspberry Sacher tortes, vanilla bean cream puffs that looked like swans, passion fruit tarts, and French macaroons. There were also cranberry scones and mini lemon poppy seed loafs. We tried the scones with the preserves, lemon curd, and English double Devon cream. I enjoyed the lemon curd and cream a lot better then the preserves, but the preserves were good too.
They had a harpist come out and play music. She played happy birthday every once in a while and each time it came the workers would bring out a little cake made of mousse coated in cocoa powder, a piece of chocolate printed with the Drake’s dragon and Happy Birthday, and with a lit candle and a raspberry sauce on the side. They said softly so as to not pull to much attention from the peaceful elegant atmosphere happy birthday as they passed. It was a lot less embarrassing then being sung to by the entire restaurant.
Between all of the food and the never ending tea it was very filling. It was a lot of fun to go to such an elegant place for high tea, where my friend said that if you want to go out for afternoon tea that the Drake is the place you have to go. It’s a bit pricy, but for high tea it isn’t bad, and everything is included in the price, all of the food and the tea. Afternoon tea is daily from 1:00pm -5:00pm.