Trivia questions will test your knowledge of Edwardian England and British culture, touching on topics such as music, science, rulers, and geography. There may be a few questions about the characters and events in the Downton Abbey BBC series as well, just to see who has been paying attention.

Period costumes are encouraged but not required. Be a flapper girl! A gatsby! A matriarch or lord of the manor!  (Warning: French maids in costume may be conscripted into waitress service)

Dinner begins with a mixed greens salad with feta cheese and strawberry balsamic vinaigrette  followed by a selection of Egg Salad, Cucumber, Roast Beef & Salmon Dill tea sandwiches, a Wensleydale Cheese Onion Tart, Baked Brie w/Seville Orange Marmalade, Scotch Quail Egg, Bacon Wrapped Date, Sausage Roll, a Warm Scone with Lemon Curd, Strawberry Jam & Cream.

Save room for Dessert! A mini cheesecake, chocolate covered strawberry, ginger molasses bar, fresh made fruitcake and a shortbread cookie round out your dinner.

This event is $30 per person, including dinner. The proceeds of this event benefit the San Lorenzo Valley High School Grad Night program.

Don’t be late! Dinner begins promptly at 5:30pm on Sunday May 19.

Reservations are required. You can book your table online by clicking the link below, or you can make your reservation in the tea room or by phone at (831) 477-1798.

Click here to book your reservation online!

The Art of Quilling

with Roxanne Nicholson

Thursday, April 25th, 2013, at 6pm

Join us for an evening of instruction in the centuries-old art form known as Quilling on Thursday, April 25^th from 6-9pm. Dinner will be served.

We’ll start the evening with a prix fixe menu of mixed greens salad, tea sandwiches, savories and of course tea.  Local artist Roxanne Nicholson will give a brief history on the Medieval art of Quilling (Paper Filigree) – rolling, shaping and gluing strips of paper into shapes – followed by a beginning instruction class in this inexpensive but beautiful art form. A dessert buffet will be available during the instruction portion of the evening to fuel your creative muse.

Cost for this event – including dinner, quilling instruction, and all materials – is $50 per person. Reservations are required. 

Click here to book your reservation online.

Don’t delay booking your reservation – seating is limited!

Reservations can be made through Wednesday, April 24th at The Quail & Thistle Tea Room, by phone, or online.  All reservations must be paid in advance at the time of booking (online or phone reservations will be contacted next day for credit card information). Cancellations prior to 5pm April 18th are fully refundable. No refunds after April 18th.  

At the Quail & Thistle, we pride ourselves on serving exclusively on English-made bone china. We’ve been collecting the occasional teacup and saucer for ages, usually as mementos of trips overseas.

In moving to our new larger location in Capitola, we knew we needed more table wares. Thinking back to the holiday break between Christmas and New Years, it certainly feels like we pillaged just about every antique store and mall from Turlock to Carmel. We found some good deals and significantly bolstered the ranks of our cup & saucer sets as well as teapots, but we’re still well short of the inventory levels we need to handle high volume days and / or large groups comfortably.

We’ve slowly come to the realization that there just aren’t enough days in the week for one or both of us to be out foraging for tea cups in the wilds of the antiquing world.

To address this issue, we’ve decided to do something different – we’re going to turn this problem into a “crowdsourcing” adventure:

We will pay a bounty (in the form of a discount on your meal at the tea room) for every qualified piece of English bone china that you bring to us.

For a matching teacup and saucer: $5 off your meal.

For a matching sugar bowl (with lid) and creamer: $10 off your meal.

For a large (4-6 cup) teapot with lid: $15 off your meal.

Here are the rules and details of this offer:

1. This offer is only good for porcelain pieces that are clearly labeled “English bone china” in the maker’s mark on the bottom of the piece. Stoneware or earthenware are not acceptable. Unmarked pieces are not acceptable. Pieces marked only with a paper label or ink stamp are not acceptable – the maker’s mark must be under the ceramic glaze. 
2. Teacup and saucer sets must be in pairs and must be of a matching design and decoration. Teacups without saucers or saucers without teacups are not acceptable. (We have plenty of orphans already!)
3. Sugar bowl and creamer sets must be in pairs and must be of a matching design and decoration.
4. Sugar bowls must have matching lids.
5. Teapots must be medium to large, holding 4 to 6 cups of liquid. We do not need “tea for one” 2 cup mini teapots.
6. Teapots must have matching lids.
7. In all cases, pieces must be in good usable condition, showing no structural cracks, chips, leaks, or stains. A small chip on the foot of a teacup might be acceptable, but the same chip on the lip of the teacup is not acceptable.  Moderate “crazing” of ceramic glazing is usually ok.
8. All pieces must be fully glazed and intended for food service in their original manufacture. No post-manufacture adornments or surface painting are acceptable due to the risk of non food- safe chemicals in the paints.
9. We need teacups and teapots, not coffee cups or coffee pots. The distinction is sometimes subtle and often subjective. Teacups tend to be floral in shape; coffee cups tend to be more cylindrical. Teapots tend to be, well, “short and stout”. Coffee pots tend to be taller and thinner. If you’re not sure what you have, there’s no harm in asking!
10. Teapots will be tested for leaks and heat stress before acceptance. We will fill the teapot with hot water and listen for the telltale sounds of structural cracks squeaking and plinking with heat expansion. If the pot makes too much noise as it warms up, it’s not safe to use in constant food service and dish washing. In such cases we will kindly return your teapot to you clean and dry before the end of your meal service.
11. Limit one bounty redemption / discount per meal. Four friends at a table redeeming four teapots can each receive their discount for their meal.
12. If you have several pieces you would like to trade in at once, we will provide you with coupons good for discounts on future meals. One person bringing four teapots for trade will receive one discount off their current meal and three coupons good for future meals.
13. Discounts off the price of a meal are the only compensation we offer for the purchase of china. No cash payouts.
14. Each discount coupon must be used only for one meal. No remainders carried forward. If you have a $15 discount for trading in a teapot, you’ll need to order at least a $16 meal to get the full benefit of the discount.
15. Discounts are applied after tax.
16. We will write up a bill of sale for each piece you redeem for a meal discount. To be perfectly clear: the teapot you trade for a meal discount stays with us when you go home.
17. You will also need to sign a statement asserting that you are the rightful owner of the piece(s). If instead you are the authorized agent of the rightful owner, bring your lawyer and a note from your mother.
18. We reserve the right to decline any offered piece without explanation.

Keep in mind that we are not looking for art pieces.The pieces you sell to us will be put into service in the tea room. That means they need to be tough enough to hold up to constant use, and there is always the slight risk of breakage. Please do not bring us your family heirlooms that you (or someone in your family) has a strong emotional attachment to. Keep those at home, close to the hearth and heart.

Kooky eclectic teapot designs are fun, but not what we are looking for. Have you ever tried to wash tea out of a typewriter-shaped teapot?

You may notice that nowhere in that longish list of rules is there any mention of what patterns we’re looking for. We do try to avoid text or phrases in the decoration artwork of our service ware. Other than that, the pattern/artwork doesn’t really matter. If it’s not gorgeous then it’s, shall we say… “quaint”. However, if someone presents us with a truly hideous specimen, we reserve the right to change our minds!

Well there you have it. Bounties for English Bone China! Clear out the back corners of your cupboards, garages and attics. Find those unused or unloved pieces and put them to good use – have them help support your tea passion!

Finum Stainless Steel Basket Tea Infusers

Not quite sure what to do with loose leaf tea? Fret no more! We now have superb Finum stainless steel mesh tea infuser baskets for sale in the tea room.

These are the same infusers we use to brew each pot of tea for the tea room. The extremely fine mesh keeps the tea leaves and “fines” in the basket while still allowing hot water to move freely through the leaves to carry maximum flavor to your cup.

The large infuser fits most 4 to 6 cup teapots with a teapot lid opening 2.25 inches in diameter or larger. The medium infuser works well for 2 to 3 cup “tea for one” teapots, large mugs, and the occasional large teapot with a painfully small lid – lid opening 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter.

Finum does make a small infuser, but we don’t keep it in stock because we haven’t found a functional teapot that would need such a wee thing. If you need a thimble infuser for a lilliputian teapot, we would be happy to special order it for you.

We discovered Finum basket infusers years ago and fell in love with them instantly. We’ve never had one fail. Ever. We’re still using the first Finum infuser basket we bought ages ago alongside the many Finums (Finae?) we’ve added as our tea business has grown.

Easy to clean. Dishwasher safe. Nearly indestructible with common sense care. Our large or medium Finum basket infusers are $15 each in the tea room. A small investment for years of great tea making.

Quail & Thistle signature full-leaf tea blends

Our first batch of teas include decaf Earl Grey, Irish Breakfast, Moroccan Mint, Thai Chai, Sun Moon & Stars, Ginger Peach and Chocolate Rose, all smartly dressed in a lovely reusable 3x3x4 inch tea tin. 

Our seasonal Valentine Rose blend was so well received we’ve decided to carry it year round! We’ve renamed it “Chocolate Rose” and packaged a few tins of it as well.

Each tin holds 3 to 4 oz of loose leaf tea (“loft” or density varies by blend, net weight as marked). Prices range from $10.95 to $13.95 each.

We’ll be adding more tea blends to our line of packaged teas as we replenish inventory.

St Patrick’s Day Tea

Sunday March 17, 2013
11am to 3pm

Soup and Salad starters
Mini Stout Beef Stew Pot Pie *
Corned Beef Ruben on Rye finger sandwich *
Caramelized Onion with Goat Cheese Tartlet
Colcannon
Salmon Pinwheels
fresh-baked Irish Soda Bread

And a pot of tea

Ending with a selection of sweets to tempt any Leprechaun:

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
Irish Cream Coffee Bars
Shamrock Cookies
Frosted Irish Cream Brownies
Lime Curd Tartlet

$28 per person

Click here to book your reservation online

or call us at (831) 477-1798 if you have any questions or would like assistance making your reservation.

* Vegetarian alternates are available if requested in your reservation

We are happy to accommodate guests with special diets or food allergies with advanced notice.

Please Note: This special Irish themed tea lunch menu replaces our regular menu on St Patrick’s Day. Our regular tea lunch selections will not be available on March 17 so that we may focus additional time and effort needed to prepare these special dishes for you on St Patrick’s Day.

A Special Valentine’s Dinner

Thursday February 14 at 6:30pm

Share a relaxing multi-faceted dinner with that certain someone this Valentine’s Day at The Quail & Thistle Tea Room in Capitola. Catch up on times past, dream of times ahead, or spend an evening sharing thoughts about everything and nothing in particular at all.

MENU

Soup & Salad Starters
Mini Beef Wellington
Baked Brie + Apricot Pastry Cups
Smoked Salmon Pinwheel
Caramelized Onion Tartlet
Bacon Wrapped Dates
Fresh Fruit Kabob

and finishing with a selection of mini sweets

Red Velvet Cupcake
Cheesecake
Salted Peanut Caramel Cluster
Eclair

served with a pot of your favorite tea

$32 per person

Tables are limited

Click here to book your table online.

Escape the madness! Join us at The Quail & Thistle Tea Room this Sunday for a quiet “cuppa” with like-minded friends. No TVs. No touchdowns, penalty flags, or instant replays.

To mark the special nature of this February 3rd (and our weakness for puns), we will be offering a special “SouperBowl Sunday” menu – a 3 course luncheon featuring hand crafted soups at every turn.

Starters will be a cup of creamy tomato soup served with a mini grilled cheese sandwich. The main course will feature your choice of beef barley or vegetarian barley soups with a selection of tea sandwiches. For “afters” we will have a chilled fresh fruit dessert soup with a selection of small and varied sweets. This all comes with a warm scone, fresh fruit, and a pot of tea for $24 per person.

Sharp readers that you are, you may have noted already that while our restaurant hours are 11am to 3pm this Sunday, game time is set for 3:30pm PST. We do apologize for not scheduling the bowl game earlier in the day to better coincide with a sensible tea time. Nevertheless, if you slip in for tea at about 2:30 or 3:00 you can at least escape the pregame commentary and a fair portion of the first half.

Reservations are recommended. Book your table right here on our web site or call us at 831-477-1798 to reserve your SouperBowl Sunday Escape!

We survived the week! There were the usual opening jitters but on the whole the week went rather well. We are finding our rhythms and daily rituals to make each day flow more smoothly. Remembering to turn on the hot water machine first thing in the morning is at the top of the list.

Next week we hope to wean our credit card machine off the 300 baud dialup modem with installation of a real live internet connection. Imagine – credit card authorizations completed in 3 seconds instead of 3 minutes!

Many thanks to PPD for getting the awning done over the holiday break, and special thanks to Beth for hand painting our new street sign!