Tea and Sympathy [Hardcover]

Anita Naughton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2002

In 1990 Nicola Perry, former tea lady at the London Stock Exchange, started living her dream. She found a storefront and opened Tea & Sympathy, an authentic amalgamation of English tea shop, mum's kitchen, and working man's café right in the heart of New York. Anita Naughton was one of her first waitresses, and from day one she kept an anecdotal record of the place, encapsulating the charm, flavor, and enigmatic patrons that are the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Together they have created a colorful biography spanning the first decade of this landmark eatery: from the early days, when they kept their meager profits in a teapot, to nowadays, when they keep celebrities (British, American, or otherwise) waiting for a table along with everyone else. Complete with sixty recipes and photographs of food and popular visitors, this is a quintessential taste of England ready to take home.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In its original incarnation, Manhattan's Tea & Sympathy was a hole-in-the-wall outpost for British food and drink, authentic down to its steak and Guinness pie and bracing quantities of "cuppa." The place took off, attracting local and visiting celebrities as well as neighborhood regulars. Tea & Sympathy presents more than 60 recipes from the teashop, provided by its owner Nicola Perry, as well as a house chronicle, the work of ex-T&S waitress Anita Naughton. Though the recipes offer exemplary, easily done versions of such fare as bubble and squeak, kedgeree, and sticky toffee pudding, it's Naughton's saucy day-in-the-life narrative that makes the book a should-read. Whether relaying customer eccentricity ("Please help me get fat, only I don't have any money," wails a soon-to-be regular), general staff randiness (seeing a repairman lying captivatingly beneath a cappuccino machine, waitress Carol offers, "It might be easier if you take your trousers off"), celebrity sightings ("I carried the Dalai Lama's afternoon tea," says the author breathlessly), or the seat-of-the-pants business of the daily round ("Hangovers are now banned," posts owner Nicky in a staff memo to which one waitress replies, "Are you going to put it in the menu?"), Naughton's narrative is both hilarious and poignant, in ways that often catch the reader by surprise. Ultimately, she writes of being young and alone and trying to find a foothold in the big city, but she also offers "a happy ending"--her marriage to the restaurant's chef, "the sixth [one of us] so far" to have found and wedded a mate on the premises. With a detailed tea discussion and "family photo album" of almost the entire cast of characters, the book is a special culinary-literary spread, one that's in some ways even choicer than a Tea & Sympathy visit itself. --Arthur Boehm

About the Author

Anita Naughton lives in New York and is currently at work on her first novel. She is the granddaughter of novelist Bill Naughton.

Nicola Perry and her husband, Sean, have recently opened a fish-and-chips shop next door to Tea & Sympathy called A Salt & Battery and find themselves at the epicenter of an ever-widening Anglophilic crowd.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (October 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399149376
• ISBN-13: 978-0399149375
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the perfect Christmas gift!, December 3, 2002

By 

A. J. Perrottet (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tea and Sympathy (Hardcover)

This is far more than a cookbook -- in fact, calling it a cookbook is like calling 'Moby Dick' a fishing story. Every recipe is preluded by a hilarious anecdotal story about the author's life in New York as a waitress trying to 'make it,' and these tales create a marvelously entertaining narrative thread. The vignettes of customers are wickedly funny -- Naughton has an eye for skewering the pretentions of New Yorkers, both native and Anglo. Many of the tales are delightfully ribald -- a cross between Seinfeld and Sex and the City. A great present for the Christmas season -- the recipes suit the weather, and the stories are worth reading aloud on the long winter nights!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the real thing!, October 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Tea and Sympathy (Hardcover)

I have been going to Tea & Sympathy for almost as long as it has been open and this book really captures the feel of the place. Aside from all of the recipes I have been dying to have for years, I now feel privy to the repartee I always knew existed between the people who work there. What a joy! Now I can make the English food I have come to love myself AND when I go to the shop I am in the loop! If you have never been to T&S this is certainly the next best thing.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shocks and Giggles all day long., October 28, 2002

By 

Peter Sheen (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tea and Sympathy (Hardcover)

As a regular customer of "Tea & Sympathy" I found it a great joy to get behind the scenes and find out what really goes on in the tiny space which I have grown to love so much. The story told by author Anita Naughton is always full of enjoyable stories and comical situations that the girls frequently find themselves in.
The recipes that Nicola Perry has at long last revealaed are easy to follow and produce great results.

All in all a great idea for any Anglophile or budding Jamie Oliver.