Tea Room on the Ridge brings touch of England to Ridge Spring
Sep. 24—Nestled at the back of an antique store in Ridge Spring is the Tea Room on the Ridge, a small old-fashioned teashop with plenty of charm to share.
The tearoom was the idea of Marie Carey, owner of the Rabbit Box Antiques and Collectibles where the tearoom is located.
She knew she wanted to open a tearoom since she purchased two buildings on Main Street in downtown Ridge Spring.
"That's all I knew I wanted was a tearoom in the back to bring customers to the store," Carey said. "I always wanted a tearoom, my whole life. I bought stuff for years just to put in a tearoom and didn't know whether I was going to have one or not."
Carey turned to her sister-in-law Tami Hartley to make the tearoom happen.
Hartley has run Faith-Full Café on Main Street in Leesville for the past six years.
"Marie and I have always enjoyed drinking tea and going to different tearooms around South Carolina," said Hartley. "So, Marie mentioned she wanted to do one here but wasn't going to be able to do it. She and it just kind of clicked and I was like, 'Well, I can do it.' So, we got the ball rolling, started talking about things, and in no time, we were setting up."
The most stressful part was the renovations. Two walls were knocked down in order to combine two rooms into one .
When renovations were done, decorating began, and everything else fell together from there.
Most of the décor came from Carey's shop. Family members and friends donated China dishes, while other items were ordered online or found on buying trips.
The Tea Room on the Ridge opened for business on July 14, 2022.
"It was my dream that a tearoom would be here, and Tami made it come to completion," Carey said.
Carey rents the space out to Hartley who runs the tea shop .
The tearoom serves light sandwiches, salads, hot tea, sweet tea, iced tea, unsweet tea, coffee, water, lemonade, cupcakes and cookies.
It is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. On Saturday, the tearoom is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. depending on whether a tea party has been reserved for a private tea party. The tearoom can seat 16 people.
Each table gets a three-tiered serving plate of finger food. Usually, it is two or three different kinds of sandwiches or two or three different kinds of sweets. Customers can choose between the hot tea or the iced tea. Both selections get unlimited refills.
"It's just nice to have a tearoom in the back here," said Kim Feaster, the manager of the Tea Room who also works with Hartley at the Faith-Full Café. "Most of our customers are ladies, and they're thrilled to see us here. They like to come back here and get something to drink or get a little snack."
"I love the atmosphere that a tearoom gives you," Carey said. "It's very soothing and calming here."
Carey also appreciates how tea parties create a women-only space.
"Tea parties, I think, (are) just something for women to do that men don't necessarily have to do," Carey said.
The tearoom so far has been a success. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are the busiest days, but a decent crowd comes in regularly for lunch, Carey said.
Hartley hopes the tearoom will be a "place for people to come, unwind, enjoy a peaceful atmosphere, enjoy each other's company, unplug, and just have some time to relax. The world is busy. We need time to come and unwind and unplug a little a little bit. You can enjoy good tea, good food, and good fellowship."
"It's something we don't normally get to do here in America, you know," said Hartley. "They do it a lot in England and places like that, but in America, we don't get to do it a whole lot. It's something out of the ordinary for us, and that's what I enjoyed when we would go with friends to Laura's Tea Room in Ridgeway and places like that. It's just different. It's not what you normally get to do. You get to be a little froufrou and frilly and prissy for a while because I'm not that way normally. So, it's really nice to sit down and have the really elegant, quiet atmosphere to enjoy our friendship together."
