Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

Articles Sections >> Arts + Words Bars + Clubs Dating Festivals Fitness Food Lifestyle Music Theater Travel + Tourism Who's Who > View All Ask Centerstage Cheap Thrills Green Thumb Weekend Warrior

Blimey! Snacks and sips do make an afternoon complete.

Sunday Jul 15, 2007.     By Erin Brereton

Lifestyle Feed

Ever since my satellite service mysteriously ate BBC America (but left me QVC, thanks), I've missed my weekly dose of cheeky British life. Without my "Footballers Wives" fix, I needed to find another way to add some UK-inspired fun to my life. The perfect solution: afternoon tea. But posh teatime at a downtown hotel can cost $35 or more, so I set out to find a beverage bargain and discovered Minnies and Russian Tea Time.

Decorated like a black, white and red retro diner, Minnies in Lincoln Park serves tea Monday through Friday from 2-5 p.m. for just $13. As the eatery's name implies, everything inside Minnies is adorably small—from the sandwiches and the water glasses to the ketchup dispensers and tea service.

Minnies offers about a half dozen teas, in traditional and fruit flavors, packaged in pre-punctured foil tubes to dunk into the pot (and, yes, it's a tiny teapot). I opted for raspberry, which tasted sweet enough to not need sugar. Because I don't eat meat, the staff happily substituted the tuna and chicken sandwiches for two wee cucumber sammie halves and five egg salads on a variety of rolls—a good deal, yes, but also a bit of an egg-salad overkill. I enjoyed the cucumber bites and moved on to two small chocolate croissants, which packed more pastry than chocolate, making them the perfect light finish.

Russian Tea Time, just down the street from the Art Institute, offers a slightly more formal tea service than Minnies from 2:30-4:30 p.m. daily for $21. The low lighting and quiet atmosphere feels elegant, but also somewhat like a hotel lobby, only without the check-in desk...and with $11 vodka flights.

After perusing the tea selection, which ranges from the standard green to a Russian Caravan blend of Indian and Chinese black teas, I chose a caffeine-free apple flavor. It was the most dramatic cup of tea I've ever ordered. With a flourish, the waiter placed the pot in front of me, arranged the strainer of tea leaves and proceeded to pour the water slowly over it with a fierce look of determination on his face. He then concocted my friends' strawberry teas while we waited for applause, cheer, cymbals, pyrotechnics or some grand finale to his performance. But, he just walked away.

He also brought us a tiered platter of goodies, with treats like two raisin scones, clotted Devonshire cream and strawberry jam (if I ever have a heart attack, I hope clotted cream's the cause, as I can't think of a better way to go), smoked salmon sandwiches, a mini croissant and a spinach and tomato tart. Delicious. The dessert level contained more than I could consume, but I managed to sample almost all the offerings, including almond cookies, a chocolate-dipped butter cookie, lemon cake and a fudge brownie piece.

While I was impressed with my teatime experiences, I was also stuffed…and ready for the cable guy to bring BBC back. I can't eat like this every day.