Customer Reviews

Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in America

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With all the books on tea that have come out lately, it's amazing it took this long for anyone to do a book on the tea room, but it was worth the wait. Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn is a beautiful, witty and informative book. The illustrations are especially fine, with lots of rare advertising ephemera, great images from menus and signs, and historical photos.

The anecdotes from the heyday of the tea room are delightful -- and often very funny. Combined with the illustrations and the wealth of detail woven into the "history" aspects of the book, these give a vivid portrait of the character of tea rooms and their proprietors. The number of prominent people in 20th century America who used to hang out in tea rooms is amazing.

The book is ambitious in giving an overview of all kinds of tea rooms throughout the U.S., and it succeeds in convincing me that many things we now think of as normal in a good restaurant were innovations of tea rooms of the past.

This book takes a new and enthusiastic look at the women's movement of the early 20th Century - the social side! Women getting out, driving cars away from their homes and routines to get together and figure it all out.

There's nothing delicate or dainty about this tell-it-like-it-was study. Jan Whitaker presents in lay person's terms - what was a new horizon for women, where the woman's touch began to infiltrate the hospitality industry, and a whole lot more.

A thoroughly researched subject, a beautifully designed book and a great collection of pictures. "Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn" is tops!

We are given a fascinating glimpse back into the early 1900s, when women were opening their own restaurants, and where ladies now could enjoy luncheons and teatime without being escorted by men.

Another major change was occurring due to the automobile, making countryside excursions popular. This was the perfect time to open roadside restaurants. Whether country places or city tea rooms, the proprietors took pride in serving the kind of food they would prepare in their own homes. It is a contrast from the monotony of today's chain restaurants.

The author's extensive research into this era will interest anyone curious about an early example of social changes that ultimately combined with others to result in the emancipation of women in the 20th century.

This beautiful book is enriched with delightful old photos, postcards, advertisements, and color illustrations that bring the period alive.

I was born too late to enjoy the heyday of the tea room but do fondly remember some of the last vestiges, including department store dining and the ladylike chains such as Stouffer's and Schrafft's. This is a "delicious" social history of the tea room phenomenon, propelled by the early women's movement and the automobile as mentioned in previous reviews. I learned how tea rooms were the first "themed" restaurants, purposefully designed to mimic a period in time (Ye Olde Colonial) or particular culture (the mysterious Orient), and that tea was the least important item on the menu. Jan Whitaker makes this a fascinating journey to take, all the more poignant as we know the fate of them all.

Gift for a friend who is a big tea fan - she seemed to like it OK but did not wax wildly enthusiastic.