Tea Time at Polly Claire’s

For the longest now (since my birthday in June), my mom had been wanting to get tea at one of the tea rooms in Chattanooga. The one tea room that I had visited downtown closed before the year was out, but Mom had visited a newer one, Polly Claire’s, with some of her work buddies and suggested we try it out to celebrate.

Well, it’s January and we finally took the MLK Jr. holiday (and my new flexible work schedule!) to enjoy Polly Claire’s together. We met up around 1:45 in the afternoon and had planned to not eat lunch but just snack around, but it turns out that we both didn’t have much food beforehand, so we were looking for a more solid grub.

We didn’t have a reservation and after just a few minutes of getting the table set up (they change the tablecloth with every new party. Maybe I don’t get out a lot but this impressed me a bunch), we were seated and welcomed by our server David. He was super informative and accommodating without being overbearing. A few minutes into the meal, we were enjoying a pot of Oolong Orange Blossom (you can check out their extensive tea list here).

David then answered a few questions we had about the food and we landed on the Afternoon Tea Service. He warned that it was a small amount of each item, so Mom and I opted for the Tea Service along with their house special of pimento cheese and chicken salad with crackers and fruit.

A few minutes later, our food came out and we couldn’t help but smile over how great all of it looked. We managed to split the items with no problem (except the shrimp cocktail, Mom was nice enough to let me have it) and even though it wasn’t a huge amount of food, by looking at it, we were full by the end of our high tea experience.

This scone was so yummy

This was all great but the shortbread was out of this world

Besides the ridiculously good food that I’m already looking forward to having again, the sweetest part of the trip to Polly Claire’s was getting to hang out in a gorgeous but not stuffy environment. The building is a super historical one in Chattanooga and I so enjoyed spending much needed time relaxing with my mom there.

I know we’ll be back sooner than later and I’m also already finding ways to get Loss to Polly Claire’s as well. Big thanks to David and all of the crew at Polly Claire’s for an awesome afternoon tea and time well spent!

If you’re ever in the Chattanooga area, you can check out Polly Claire’s on their website or Facebook page. They also have a sweet and tempting Instagram page! They are typically open 11-4 Monday- Saturday and also have dinner service on Friday and Saturday (I would LOVE to take Loss to dinner sometime).

What’s your favorite kind of tea to enjoy?