Pinkies up for afternoon tea in Thornhill
Pinkies up for the $20 afternoon tea at Thornhill's Victorian Tea Room.

Thestar.com
March 14, 2014
By Amy Pataki

Travis Gallyot stays behind the screen at the back of the Victorian Tea Room, discreetly folding napkins and leaving the ladies to talk.

How Downton Abbey.

No matter how you feel about the hit British television series about aristocrats and their servants — or if you couldn’t get tickets to the Downton Abbey costume exhibit and tea at Spadina Museum — a proper afternoon tea is appealing. At least to women.

“Not too many guys come in, except on dates,” says Gallyot.

(In England, they’re targeting men with gentlemen’s afternoon tea of red meat and cigars.)

The seven-month-old Thornhill spot is a family business, started by municipal administrator Marlene Gallyot and run by her adult children.

The room, a former chocolate shop, is an olde-timey oasis of Tiffany lamps, floral drapes and red walls hung with vintage royal photos. Ferns and spider mums sit on the linen-draped tables. Classical music plays.

You could spend 15 minutes pouring over the lengthy tea menu. Or you could ask Travis Gallyot to suggest a blend to match your taste and temper. He offers canisters of loose leaves to smell.

My taste runs to old-school Darjeeling, here strong and smooth. It’s part of the $20 afternoon tea ($25 on Saturday and Sunday), with sandwiches, scones and petit fours.

Tea is served first, with steeping instructions and a strainer. The set is charmingly mismatched: plain white five-cup pot, rose-printed Royal Vale English china cups and a glued-together sugar bowl. Gallyot lays it all out as efficiently as an operating room nurse.

A three-tiered food stand comes 12 minutes later. Warm powdery scones sit on the bottom, the butter barley held together by flour. Devonshire cream, to which chef Tasha Shahamat adds sugar to underscore the tang, is as thick as cream cheese. A dish of raspberry preserves begs to be spooned up on its own.

Simple sandwiches occupy the middle layer. Made from white and brown bread and mayonnaise, they are dainty and pleasing: mild egg salad, smoky salmon, slippery cucumber and tuna salad with the crunch of celery. Crustless, of course.

The top layer is the only disappointment, pink-papered petit fours stale from the fridge. The chocolate macarons, butter tarts, strawberry sandwich cakes and cheesecakes are brought in.

Mrs. Patmore would not approve.

The Victorian Tea Room, 7713 Yonge St. (at John St.), Thornhill, 905-886-1777, victoriantearoom.ca. Open Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.