High Tea with Suzie the Foodie

Some events change your life. For me it was High Tea at The Royal York Hotel.

Getting dressed up can honestly give me hives. I have been known to break down into tears and curse like a sailor at the same time before leaving for a fancy event. I hate getting dressed up. I abhor all things fancy.

Thankfully, High Tea was a totally different experience. I had that excitement in me when I get dressed up for Halloween. I picked out a costume complete with silver shoes, a wild sparkly grey shirt, dangling earrings and cute little hat. For the first time probably ever in my life, getting dressed up was fun. 

The company was fabulous too! My sister Jamie, my Auntie Laima and my sister Shannon met at the stunning Royal York Hotel.

Photo taken from train coming in from Kingston

The Royal York Hotel is so iconic and so elegant… The kind of place I am usually allergic to.

High Tea is served in the Library Bar and you are greeted with champagne chilling, ready for Mimosas. Along the bar are all the fabulous treats to be indulged in when brought to your table. 

The room was filled with lovely ladies being waited on hand and foot.

First you must choose what tea you would like to indulge in during your visit. I selected (and I think we all did) The Empress 1908 blend, a rich orange pekoe. Then a tray of tiny sandwiches arrived including a lobster slider. Oooooo là là! Delicious!

Then the desserts arrive! So rich and beautiful. 

There were also scones of course which came with little jam jars. We each shared all the different flavours and even had honey from the apiary on the roof of the hotel. Which you can apparently tour but I had this sudden image of me screaming and jumping off the roof of the building by accident. I am more than a little afraid of bees, LOL. So no, we did not go for the tour. 

We did however try just about everything and it was all so rich, delicious and fabulous. 

Macaroons, cakes, teeny sandwiches and scones… Auntie Laima, you spoiled us so much!

Everything was so beautiful. My only regret is that being four women who photograph everything… I should have asked for us to be moved to another table. We were seated in a spot with almost zero light so I apologize for the quality of the photographs. They do not represent the true beauty of the event and, especially, the food.

My inner “polite lady” (who I did not know existed) vehemently whispered to me, keep your mouth shut Suzie! And, shockingly, I listened.

I left looking at all things fancy in a completely different light. Everything was so beautiful, delicious and fun that the event moved me deeply. 

So deeply that since I got back from my visit to Toronto I decided to open my own Etsy store which I named High Tea Gypsy Boutique. A place where you can go visit and pick out jewelry I made for special occasions like this one and feel fabulous without breaking the bank. I have been making jewelry for a long time and finally feel like I found my true niche.

The hardest part is not keeping the treasures I am making like these Sparkling Victorian-Style Dangling Earrings.

If you are interested in learning how to make jewelry you can see my tutorials on my High Tea Gypsy Blog

Now I not only make and photograph food in my kitchen, I bring out my beautiful teacups that I received from my mom and my Auntie Laima and use them to showcase my wares. It takes me back to my first true High Tea at the Royal York Hotel and fills me with that sense of specialness and magic I experience on that beautiful day in May.