This weekend I had the good fortune of being able to attend a birthday tea party at the Pinecone Cottage. I had missed a previous meetup at that locale and very deeply regretted it. I love going to tea, and from what I heard it sounded like the tea service at the Pinecone Cottage was very enjoyable! Now that I’ve attended and experienced it myself, I quite agree. I had a wonderful time and am really looking forward to going back.

We met at the train station, which is right across from the tea house. Once we determined that everyone had arrived, we headed indoors.

The tea house is incredibly charming. ♥ The tables are covered in white cloths and set with mis-matched but complimentary place settings. Everything has a shabby, romantic, antique sort of ambiance. I particularly liked the mis-matched ornate flatware, which I suspected to be old pieces of silverplate. Each table had a small pink candle and a beautiful white and pink rose as the centerpieces. They were a lovely touch, and not so bulky as to get in the way of conversation. The chairs look as though they’re made of branches, and the backs are decorated with a swath of coloured tulle and flowers.

When we were all seated, tea menus were brought out. The tea selection was varied, with something for everyone between the black, green, and herbal options. (I’m sure there was white tea as well, although I don’t remember it distinctly and thus think there was a smaller selection of that type.) I chose a flavoured black tea called “Russian Renaissance,” which the girl sitting next to me also selected. It was delicious and exactly what I was hoping for. I’m sure she felt the same way, as together we drank several teapots of it!

The Pinecone Cottage has a different menu for each month. Our theme for June was “Sun Porch and Roses.” The first course was a refreshing salad topped with a Vidalia corn chowder. The second course of savories consisted of asparagus pinwheels in a flaky crust, tomato-cucumber crostini with mozzarella, and zucchini bread with prosciutto and cream cheese. All were very good, although the crostini was rather hard to eat in a ladylike fashion–perhaps if the bread had been sliced thinner or more toasted it would have been less difficult. The zucchini bread was my favourite; I would have gladly eaten a slice of it sans meat and cream cheese~

After the savories we were brought cherry-lavender scones with raspberry-rhubarb jam and lemon Devon cream. The lemon cream was absolutely heavenly! I would have eaten it with a spoon had I not been seated at a table with other ladies and supposed to be behaving myself. :3 The raspberry-rhubarb jam was made by the tea house itself (they also sell preserves) using Elizabethan methods. I love rhubarb anything–it immediately makes me think of summer! ☆ It was delicious on the scones.

The dessert course consisted of peach Bavarian cream and strawberry-blackberry cobbler. Both were delicious! My only qualm was the way it had been plated–the Bavarian cream was in a cool glass dish standing on a plate, with the cobbler heaped beside it. This led to cobbler sneaking under the glass dish or wandering elsewhere; it would have been better on its own plate. The peach Bavarian cream was absolutely delicious. Now I have dreams of a creamy pink lemonade gelatin dessert…

Inside, we were seated at tables of three or four. Although that did prevent a lot of mingling, it made for easier conversation. I really enjoyed talking with everyone at my table! I hope the other tables were having as much fun as we were. (Although hopefully with less mishap… I got a bit overexcited at one point and broadsided a new, larger teapot all over the girl to my left. ;___; I still feel so stupid about it even though she was so gracious and assured me that everything was okay. I can’t even imagine how mortified and guilty I’d have been if she had been injured–thankfully the tea was not scathingly hot! I’ll have to find a way to make it up to her.)

I rather suspect that the other tables did have as much fun, or at least that’s what my husband reported. He sat at a different table–we don’t need to be glued at the hip, and he doesn’t attend meetups as my accessory or pack-horse. Despite the fact that he doesn’t dress in an aristocratic style, he likes the socializing aspect and comes for the conversation. It’s quite amusing, because he seems very shy–but he was the one insisting that we would go! (I’m very thankful he did–I would have missed out on a lovely time and it wasn’t at all as terribly expensive as I initially feared.)

One of the most exciting things for me about this meetup was that I had the opportunity to meet a few lolita I hadn’t met before! There are lots of girls interested in the fashion around Chicago, but we don’t always wind up together in the same place. Now that the weather is warmer and most people aren’t in classes (myself included), I’m seeing lots of participation from people I’ve never met before~ This always makes me cheerful. ♥ A community cannot continue if it become stagnant. Eventually people will stop wearing the fashion or leave the area, and the numbers of the group would dwindle away. I also like meeting new lolita because I remember being new to the community and what an important role it’s played in my life. I hope other people can grow to feel the same way~

(I suppose that was the little part where I stand on my pedestal and cry sparkling tears from star-filled eyes as I passionately rally the troops of frills and lace. XD It seems very silly and melodramatic, but I truly and sincerely mean it! ☆ My ultimate goal is to meet and spend time with everyone in area. I’m always working on it.)

When tea was over, we paused to take some pictures outside and then wandered around the area a bit. The tea house is in the downtown area of that suburb, so there were some cute little shops to investigate. We enjoyed looking around the local toy store; it made me feel nostalgic to see things like wooden food that velcros together and Playmobil castles and dragons. I almost had a fluffy-flustered-enthusiasm attack when I spotted a wall full of Calico Critters!

My husband was kind enough to buy me a set of bunnies when I bounced over and tried to explain that oh-my-goodness-there-are-tiny-animal-figurines-wearing-clothes-and-doing-human-things-I-need-some-in-my-life. He even helped me figure out which box of critters to choose. We decided on bunnies, and right when I was wishing there were brown bunnies or white bunnies, someone moved a box of gray bunnies and uncovered white bunnies with brown-tipped ears! ♥ They’re wonderful! I thought I was going to purchase said bunnies, but my husband surprised me by sneaking off to the cash register while I was convincing a friend to buy the gray bunnies. (Isn’t that what friends are for?)

I had an absolutely wonderful time! (I hope the birthday girl did, too!) Everyone was so sweet and friendly, and the tea service was better than most I’ve had at hotels recently. I can’t wait to go back~ I’d love to convince others who couldn’t attend this time to come to a future tea party. There’s something particularly intriguing to think that each month there will be a different menu–I’m sure they’re all delicious~

It’s been a while since I wrote a meetup review, but I don’t want to ignore some of the fun things I’ve had the opportunity to do!

On October 31, 2009 the Chicago-area lolita convened at Russian Tea Time for tea! The meetup was in honor of the holiday, so attendees were asked to dress for the theme–gothic, spooky, or otherwise Halloween-related. Everyone really went out of their way to wear their best; they all looked great!! I was such a stark contrast to our usual meetups, where brighter colors tend to dominate.

No-one really thought I would take the theme to heart, but I surprised everyone when I showed up in black and high heels! Miss Nena graciously lent me something from her closet, since everything I own is pink, white, or red. 😡 Well, except for my special blue floral one-piece, but that’s still not right for a Halloween theme! I had thought I’d have to coordinate some kind of lolita-esque costume from my clothing and other accessories in order to be appropriately dressed, but I really wanted to participate fully. It’s a lot of fun to step outside your normal boundaries and try something new!

The tea room provided a section of the restaurant just for our massive tea party… there were so many people I didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone. (I also spent a lot of time outside the doors, searching for stragglers! I am usually a bit of an Alice-beacon when it comes to meetups.) Several attendees weren’t lolita I’d seen before, and that makes me really excited. I like seeing new faces–it shows that lolita fashion is a growing trend, not a dying one.

The tea house served their house blend; it was a little spicy and had a mulled type of taste that was very heart-warming for a chilly day. The cups they used weren’t traditional teacups–instead, they were metal stein-shaped holders for thick glass insets into which the tea was poured. I could definitely understand the appeal–I didn’t burn my fingers by accidentally touching the bowl of the cup that is heated by the tea, as I sometimes do with china teacups. Servers constantly refilled empty cups, never leaving an empty glass empty for too long.

The trays of refreshments were really delightful. The top tier contained scones, two per person, and whipped cream and jam. Clotted cream may be the proper topping for scones, but it isn’t often served in Chicago. Traditional clotted cream requires unpastuerized cow’s milk, which isn’t readily available in the United States, and the jarred “clotted cream” sold at specialty shops is really gross if you’ve ever had actual clotted cream. The jam and whipped cream was delicious, although the cranberry-raisin scones didn’t really need toppings to taste wonderful!

The second tier held a vast assortment of finger sandwiches–smoked salmon, tiny rolled crepes filled with diced vegetables, roasted red pepper, mini Ruebens, and little quiches! The savory items were a very nice size–bigger than one bite, but smaller than four–allowing everyone to taste as many as they wanted. I enjoyed eating other people’s shunned smoked salmon sandwiches~

The bottom tier held a mind-boggling assortment of sweets! Cookies, pastries, and other sweets, all piled up together. There were so many that I didn’t even know what I was eating; I couldn’t keep up with the servers’ descriptions! They even brought out individual plates for everyone with two teeny-tiny cream puffs. It was very luxurious.

After the tea was over, we headed across the street to the sculpture gardens around the Art Institute. The lighting inside the tea house was much too dark to get any nice pictures, and everyone was dressed so lovely that it seemed like such a shame not to. (And many people wanted proof for daily_lolita, of course.) I brought my camera, so my person followed my little sister and me around, capturing our nonsense. I’m not very good at posing nicely for pictures–something is always off: mouth open, eyes askew, weird expressions, etc.–but I do like getting into trouble and having a record of it. My little sister and I are usually up to no good, especially when we’re dressed up.

After pictures outdoors (we moved over to Millennium Park, too) it became too cold and some people had to leave, so those who remained went to the Chicago Cultural Center. The Cultural Center is in a beautiful building, and there is no admission, and there is always somewhere to sit and chat. Once people thawed out a little, more pictures ensued in-between conversations. As more and more people headed out and the group dwindled further, I found myself in part of a group aimlessly browsing at the Marshall Field’s on State Street before heading home.

It was a really great time, and there are so many hilarious pictures to prove it! I only wish I could have talked to more people–I was right at the front end of the table, so I only interacted with maybe four or five people on that end. It was too crowded to be rustling around through the crowd. I had a lot of fun being a gothic Alice for one day, but I don’t think I’ll be changing my style anytime soon!