Sweet Violets Tea & Antiques

Adorable little spot downtown.   The owner was welcoming and knowledgeable, the space was sunny & spacious.

Menu selection is nice with Edwardian Lunch and Butler's Board selections, but the portions are very, very small (smaller than many other high-tea places that I've visited).  The croissant sandwich was more appropriately sized for a tiered-tea, not a sandwich selection.  Same with the quiche.  The "pastries" consisted of ONE cookie, ONE bite-size cupcake, ONE cereal-mix "bird's nest" with jelly beans.  None of which I would consider to be proper "pastry" items, nor tasty.

We were pushed on the children's tea for my daughter (I would've preferred ordering off the adult menu).  We were disappointed with the tiers.  The cream cheese & strawberry sandwich was OK, but the other tiers were not good.   The menu stated the 2nd tier should have been seasonal fresh fruit, but we got 2 cheap bite-size corn dogs and 2 Totino's pizza rolls.  They went uneaten.   3rd Tier was the same "pastry" selection as the adult.

I give it 3 stars because:

Super friendly service and a beautiful space.
WONDERFUL scone with devonshire cream & lemon curd to open up the service.
The only place (i think) to get proper high/cream tea service, with a children's option and enough of a lunch menu for adults who don't want the tiered "high tea."    The white tea was delicious.

I would definitely come again to meet up with girlfriends or to have a light lunch.   If they can work on the pastry selection and the portion sizes for regular menu items, I think it would be a 5-star option, as they items were quite tasty.  

Please do not hesitate to check it out on my 3 stars alone: it's worth a visit and I rated it on the literal 3-star yelp definition of "A-OK!"