FOOD: Mad Hatter Afternoon Tea

All things Alice in Wonderland greet you once you step inside Birmingham's Mad Hatter bar and bistro. From the doorknobs, to walls of mirrors, clocks and the red & black upholstery and furniture throughout, you'll feel like you just fell down a rabbit hole and earned yourself a spot for some delicious afternoon tea for your troubles. 

It has been far, far too long since our last afternoon tea adventure to The Whitney and after coming across Mad Hatter on a visit to Birmingham in December, the bar and bistro ended up on our to try list. Feeling a little homesick, Joe booked us a reservation for afternoon tea a couple of weeks ago. 

Everything Mad Hatter is very whimsical but without going too overboard. Table are adorned with pretty mismatched tea cups and saucers. Tea is presented in quirky teapots and food is severed upon traditional three tier serving platter to round things off. 

With our teacups filled with hot cinnamon spice tea, it was time to dig in. We started with the traditional finger sandwiches (think cucumber with minted cream cheese, artichoke, smoked salon and caper - my favorite and roasted pepper and hummus) all small, but all very filling.

Now, as with my fish and chips adventures in the US, I always love to see how the US takes on and caters British food traditions to the American market. Scones being one of them - because you know as Brits, we're rather picky about them. According to the menu the scones presented are the choice of the chef, we were served chocolate chip and poppy seed. Probably not something you'd see on traditional afternoon tea back in the homeland. Served with mascarpone cheese and lemon curd, I have to be honest, they were delicious and make a nice change from the norm. 

To finish things off, the top tier was filled with wonderfully cut and presented fresh fruits surrounding a selection of cakes - chocolate brownies, lemon tarts and a wonderful Oreo dessert.

Everything is served with your choice of tea. With fourteen regular teas, alongside decaf there's probably something for everyone from the Mad House Blend, Chocolate Mint to say Chinese Flower to name but a few. We even purchased a caddy of the Hot Cinnamon Spice to take home with us it was so delicious. Even better, you can try multiple tea blends throughout your stay. 

For $24 per person, you'd be hard pressed to find something so delicious and well serviced (our server was both friendly and very attentive throughout our stay). The venue is also a bistro and bar and it has me very tempted to return, for more tea drinking and the rest of their menu. 

Plus anywhere with a chandelier comprised of tea cups and spoons is a winner in my book. 

Mad Hatter Bistro: 185 N. Woodward Ave, Birmingham, MI 48009. 

Afternoon tea by reservation 11am - 3pm. 

Are you a fan of afternoon tea?

Rachael

LIFE: Small Things #10

The lighter evenings are starting to appear and oh my, do they make me wish and long for spring even more. To be able to push open the windows, see daffodils starting to drop their brightly colored heads in the breeze and awaking to morning birdsong. Michigan winters make those days feel so far away. Granted our winter this year hasn't been as cold, or as snowy, but there's only so many days in the minus numbers I can handle although it's always the perfect excuse to curl up on the sofa with the TV remote and a good book. 

In other news various happy things, and somewhat a sneak peek of things I'll eventually get around to sharing here on the blog;

• Lovely five day long weekend extending into Presidents Day with the OH although it always does result in me being confused about the day of the week afterwards. Right now I have no idea if it's Wednesday or Friday ... when it's actually Thursday.
• Gorgeous afternoon tea at the Mad Hatter Bistro and Tearoom in Birmingham (review to come).
• The last week or so has actually been all about tea - afternoon tea, buying some fancy spiced cinnamon tea, Persian tea. All the tea.
• Seeing Deadpool early Friday morning. The humor was right up my street and it was a brilliant adaption of the comic book. Villains were a little on the weak side but I'll get over that. Also probably features the best Stan Lee cameo. 
• Also public service announcement - stay to the end of Deadpool, because you know, extra scenes and all. I'll never understand people leaving early ...
• Speaking of spring I may have spotted some bulbs poking up in the back garden - I also may be really wrong and they are just weeds. Or now dead because of the chilly week we just had. 
• Rushing out to buy a load of wings from Detroit Wing Co., after hearing your favorite radio hosts (Valenti & Foster on 97.1 The Ticket - yes oddly enough my favorite radio hosts are on a sports talk station - what is happening to me?!) talking about chicken wings for four hours.  Four flipping hours, who couldn't say no to wings after four sodding hours?!
• Mexican hot chocolate treat for our adulting ongoing DIY adventures from Cafe Con Leche.
• Waving at my favorite Detroit building while drinking that Mexican hot chocolate - the Fisher Building. Gorgeous.  
• Stitching a little wild flower seed packet design for a forthcoming birthday card.
• Reading two awesome books - The Boston Girl and The Turner House - both I'd highly recommend. 
• I'll probably say the same about Judy Blume's In The Unlikely Event which I've just started reading. 70 odd pages in and very intriguing. 
• Oh and lots of graphic novels but I'll get to that in my monthly graphic novels review dump don't you fear. (*whispers*) it features - Through The Woods, Lumberjanes and Sisters.
• Finally getting all that stubborn old bathroom floor tile up, hammered out some concrete and replaced some floorboards. Getting overwhelmed with all this adulting points atm. We even hired a nail gun and didn't kill ourselves in the process of using it.
• Paczki Day! Joe sneaked out early on Fat Tuesday/Shove Tuesday to grab some paczki's from Dutch Girl Donuts. Delicious! What's a paczki you ask?! Well I talked about them a couple of years ago.
• Signing up for Daily Burn (a fitness workout over the internet, TV whatever you got - if you have Hulu you'll probably know their annoying adverts about leg day) and actually using it somewhat regularly. 

That's probably the most bullet points of happiness I may have ever achieved on my small things posts. Does help I'm bullet pointing three things daily that made me happy in that mission to work and overcome my stress issues. Ah well happy days indeed. 

How are things with you?

Rachael