Afternoon tea · Celebrations
Afternoon tea is what people book when there is something to mark and nobody wants a formal dinner. It takes about an hour, it feeds everybody properly, and it works just as well for a christening lunch as for a hen party.
24.9 a head, booked any half hour from 12 to 3, or 12 to 2 on Sundays. Up to 6 can book online, and up to 20 in the private room upstairs.
Two ways to do it
Best for two to six people. Book online, add a note about the occasion, and turn up. The cafe seats 24, so a small party sits among everyone else with the market square out of the window.
For seven up to twenty. Newly refurbished, completely separate from the cafe, with its own entrance and its own toilet, a main room and a breakout room. For the time you have booked, it is yours.
Occasions
A table of four or six in the cafe, or the whole room upstairs for a bigger one. Tell us whose birthday it is and roughly what age when you book, so we can pitch the day right. A tenth birthday and a seventieth want different things from us.
Afternoon tea suits a shower better than a sit-down meal: everyone can move about, so people drift between conversations. The private room works well when there are gifts and games involved.
The daytime kind. Afternoon tea for the group, the room to yourselves if you want it, and a cake if the day calls for one. Ring us with the numbers and the date and we will tell you what fits.
Two people at a table by the window, or twenty of you in the room upstairs for a golden wedding. Both work. If it is a landmark year, say so when you book and we will make a bit of a fuss without making a scene.
Church, then across to the square. The private room has its own entrance, so a christening party arriving together does not have to file through a cafe full of Saturday shoppers.
We do these, and we do them quietly. See below for how it works, because it deserves more than a paragraph in a grid.
Funeral teas
We do funeral teas, and there is no clever way to write about it, so here is how it works.
Ring 01845 523869 with the date, the time you expect people to arrive and a rough number. That is all we need to start. Sandwiches, scones, cake and hot drinks, set out in the private room so the family are together and away from the cafe, or in the cafe itself for a smaller group.
Numbers after a funeral are always a guess. Tell us your best estimate and we will plan for it moving, because it usually does. If there is something the family particularly want on the table, say so and we will make it.
You will not have to fill anything in online, and we will not chase you.
Cake
Two layer cakes from 40, seven flavours, buttercream and edible garden flowers, plus brownie towers if that suits the crowd better. Same kitchen, same phone call.
Dietary needs
Gluten free, vegan, allergies, children. Send them all in one go when you book the group, and ring if any of them is serious.
As a present
Tiers of 25, 50, 75 and 100, valid for 12 months, spendable on afternoon tea or anything else in the cafe. Posted with a handwritten note or sent as a code.
Arranging it
1
In the cafe, any half hour from 12 to 3, or 12 to 2 on Sundays. For the private room we can be more flexible.
2
Adults and children. It can move later; we would rather have a number to start from.
3
Birthday, shower, wake, anniversary. It changes how we set the room.
4
All of it in one go, and ring rather than type if it is an allergy.
Coming from further afield? The trains, buses and parking page is worth sending round the group, and plan a day in Thirsk covers what to do with the rest of the afternoon.
Questions people ask
Ring 01845 523869 with a date and a rough number, and we will do the rest. Small tables can book online right now.
From the journal
Afternoon tea
A Christmas shopping day on Thirsk market square: the Saturday market, the gift and charity shops round the square, then afternoon tea at Tea Time, booked online from your phone.
Afternoon tea
Gift vouchers from Tea Time, the cafe on Thirsk market square: afternoon tea, brunch, lunch or coffee and cake, ordered by phone or contact form, posted with a handwritten note or emailed as a code.
Afternoon tea
Afternoon tea on Thirsk market square through November and December: booking a time online, the Christmas Eve change, bigger groups, and a voucher as a present.