Oops, I did it again! And glad I did! Thanks to my commitment to the quarterly Tea and Tidbits column, I found a new tearoom experience, which is truly unique. A “blinged-out tearoom on wheels” is how I would describe “Tea around Town,” a comfy and decorated-to-the-nines double-decker bus that offers a memorable tea service and a city tour. I headed out to Atlanta, Georgia, with “Karen #2,” who you might remember from our inaugural Tea and Tidbits column back in February. We HAD to board this bus and see what all the buzz was about with this “sip-and-see” phenomenon.
I learned about “Tea Around Town” after a friend posted pictures of her family on the bus on social media. After researching, I learned it is available in New York, Philadelphia, DC, and Atlanta. I noticed they had later added several locations in Texas. Being from Nashville, I needed something drivable, so it was in Atlanta! We had a memorable drive to Atlanta with an anticipated but not welcome thunderstorm with heavy rains and wind for the last hour, but it was well worth it. We spent the night and woke up the next morning ready to get fancy for the bus. After getting all spruced up, we headed to Centennial Olympic Park – a legacy of the 1996 Olympics -and barely made it even though we gave ourselves what we thought was PLENTY of time (hint: parking in downtown Atlanta is NOT for the faint of heart).
We boarded the bus, and it was an oasis of pink flowers and bling. The staff were accommodating and promptly seated us on top of the double-decker bus thanks to our “Luxe” ticket. It was fun seeing so many festively dressed ladies and gentlemen on the bus. A cute little girl was celebrating her 5th birthday, dressed like a princess, with a crown. There were lots of oversized hats, fascinators, and adornments on that bus!
But what about the tea? We started with a fantastic Refresh Rose’ with a strawberry and pineapple skewer and a towering afternoon tea tray of scones, savories, and sweets while listening to a wonderfully talented young lady singing “Georgia on My Mind” to the soft jazz music playing in the background. The bus started down the streets of Atlanta and the host called out all the scenery and sites as we enjoyed several other varieties of tea, including Robbie Chai, a spiced black tea with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and sweetness, and Earl Gray, a black tea base with a citrusy flavor from bergamot orange oil. We enjoyed classic baked and cranberry scones with Cloud 9 Crème, a salty mascarpone spread and strawberry jam and dove into the savories which included cucumber, egg salad, and chicken salad sandwiches, herbed mushrooms on a toasted baguette, triple crown steak on marbled rye with horseradish sauce, and Alaskan salmon on toasted rye. It was so delicious. We wrapped up with mini lemon tarts, cheesecake, tiramisu, pistachio ganache, crème puffs, and floral fun pops. We had great views of Atlanta from the top of the bus, including the World of Coca-Cola, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the 20-story-high SkyView Ferris Wheel.
The Tidbit:
“Fill your life with adventure, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.” Anonymous
Like my last Tea and Tidbits feature, I got much more out of this fun visit than tea and pastries. Of course, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with a dear friend, but I also felt my sense of adventure come roaring back. After five years buried in textbooks, crunching data, and mastering research methods in total academic solitude, my biggest adventure had been surviving coursework without backup from faculty, tutors, or even fellow students. But graduation came, and so did the realization—I needed more real-world escapes. Enter this road trip: the perfect antidote to academic exhaustion, packed with detours, discoveries, and the kind of adventure no syllabus could ever prepare me for.
From gripping the wheel with both hands while navigating unknown roads in a thunderstorm—rain pounding, winds howling, and impatient 18-wheelers roaring past—to weaving my way through a city that had transformed beyond recognition since my last visit 15 years ago, every twist and turn ignited my sense of adventure. There was no doubt—no matter what challenges lay ahead, this journey was already a triumph. We were adventurers, and the road was ours to conquer! I learned about Atlanta culture and stood in the same spots as Olympic athletes in 1996. I visited the iconic Mary Macs Tearoom, right off Peachtree Street on Ponce de Leon Avenue, with all its classic southern cooking, and learned it was named such because at the time it’s founder opened it in 1945 after World War II, there were restrictive business practices that would not allow women to open a restaurant -but nothing stopped them from opening a more refined “tea room” and serving traditional southern fare. A robot even served me dinner at a sushi and hibachi restaurant near Duluth. And I experienced a one-of-a-kind “tearoom on wheels” that was an adventure I had never experienced before. Life is an adventure and is meant to be enjoyed!
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