BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:Spot of England awaits anyone yearning for tea

Anyone longing for a hop across the pond, but lacking the time for an international flight should look no farther than 17th Street.

English tearoom Tea and Sympathy has been tucked in the shopping center on Tustin Avenue and 17th Street for 33 years, but changed ownership about two months ago. Charlotte Scott of Garden Grove said she always dreamt of owning a tea shop and is now enjoying catering to men, women and children, serving them tea sandwiches, tea and other goodies.

“They have the little British newspapers there and it’s fun to sit and look at the paper and have your tea and your little cake or scones or meat pies,” Sandy Rollins of Costa Mesa said. “It’s just really very sweet.”

A caricature of a British guard greets visitors at the door and hard-to-find English groceries line shelves in what Scott called the “garden room.”

The tearoom carries HP sauce, spotted dick pudding, Cadbury candies, sponge pudding and shortbread cookies, as well as a slew of antiques and tea sets imported from England.

“The store has beautiful collections of beautiful teacups and teapots,” Rollins said. “I go in there a lot during the holidays to get things for my friends.”

But it’s not just tea Scott serves. People who fancy English fare can come in for a hearty lunch. Included on the menu with freshly made scones and cakes are steak and kidney pie, English bangers, Welsh rarebit on toast, quiche, soup and salad.

Prices range from $5.75 for the soup de jour to $21.95 per person for the most elaborate tea, the classic three-tiered tea, which includes quiche, scones, Devon cream — a cream from Devonshire, England, Scott said is hard to get — and jam, tea sandwiches, petit fours and a pot of tea.

“We have men come in with their sons to get bangers or shepherd’s pie, we get kids, we get women of all ages,” Scott said. “There is no real average guest, it’s for someone who wants to come in and relax and enjoy themselves.”

Soft music plays while Scott serves up a spot of tea to everyone from moms and daughters to Red Hat Society ladies and religious groups. Silk flowers adorn the tearoom, along with fine china, setting an ambience fit for a queen. For further proof, there are books about the Royal Family on the store’s shelves.

“It’s a little spot of England right here in Costa Mesa,” Rollins said.