Milwaukee's Watts Tea Shop, James Beard American Classic '11

JBF Announces 2011 America's Classics Award Honorees wrote:...
The restaurant’s roots date back to the mid-1920s, when then-owner Howard Watts built a beautiful new building to house his family business. His great-grandson, 31-year-old Sam Watts, is now the store’s president. The tea shop became a beloved destination among generations of Milwaukee devotees and it remains a quiet mainstay of the downtown lunch scene.

Many of the dishes follow recipes that have been used since the 1930s, including the soft whole-wheat bread, the English muffins, and the olive-nut and chicken salad finger sandwiches. The star of the show, legacy recipe-wise, is Sunshine Cake, a spectacular three-layer lemon chiffon extravagance that’s filled with lemon curd, slathered in a thick seven-minute icing, and garnished with an edible flower.
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I went only once and found it very memorable. I am pleased they are still around.

Watts Tea Shop
761 N. Jefferson Street,
Milwaukee, WI,
414-290-5700
President and CEO: Sam Watts

Did you try the cake? That alone
sounds like it would make it a worthy
stop.

HI,

Our visit was 15-years-ago. We ordered all the highlights, though I cannot precisely remember much. It has long been on my mind to revisit. We learned of this tea room from a Jane and Michael Stern book.

What I do remember is children misbehaving. I was with my two nieces who were 3-5 years old. The youngest one was impatient over getting her next sandwich, crawled across the table to reach it. I signed both up for children's etiquette classes the next week.

Regards,

The cake was as good as it sounds at least as recently as 2008, and the building and sunny rooms are something else. Watts is not without its Midwestern service and menu-design quirks, which is why I like the place, and I am looking at some Watts blue china as I type. A truly pleasant institution.

A terrific, perhaps less pricey, option for a formal tea in Milwaukee is the Anaba Tea Room.

My favorite tea sandwich here: ginger pear - ginger pear chicken salad with walnuts served open face on citron oolong scones

2107 East Capitol Drive, Milwaukee, WI
(414) 963-9510 ‎