Elixir Tea House

High tea, eighty teas, and five themed rooms

The tea list runs past eighty, and the visit is built around a pot from it rather than a takeaway cup. Elixir Tea House has served high tea in Sarasota since 2013, calling itself Sarasota's favourite high tea and describing its style as a touch of European elegance. The programme centres on tea, finger sandwiches, pastries, scones, clotted cream, jam and celebratory service, with salads, handhelds, sweet treats, coffee drinks, smoothies, beer and wine filling in around it. The high tea itself gives the visit its structure: finger sandwiches, cakes, pastries and scones with clotted cream and jam, plus a complimentary glass of champagne. Coffee is secondary but present, with espresso, lattes and smoothies there for anyone who has not come for the pot.

Five rooms, each with its own theme

The rooms are part of the draw rather than a backdrop. Elixir is one of the few places in Sarasota with private rooms, and the five themed spaces host small meetings, friends, book clubs, birthdays, bridal showers, baby showers and anniversaries. The themes run from fairy tale and Victorian to Asia, London and Alice in Wonderland, which makes the seating decision more specific than picking a table in an open dining room. The service is guided as well: guests are often given a tour before being seated in a private room, then walked through how the tea service works. Staff know the list well enough to steer a choice, which matters when there are more than eighty teas to choose between. This is not a laptop café or a grab-and-go coffee bar; the table, the room and the pace of the service are the point.

Order the high tea first

Order high tea first, because it combines everything the house does best: a pot from the long list, finger sandwiches, cakes, pastries, scones with clotted cream and jam, and champagne. Around that, expect warm scones, blueberry scones, mini cakes, chocolate-covered strawberries, fruit tarts and desserts, which shows how central the pastry side is to the format. For a lighter visit, the menu holds salads, handhelds, sweet treats and lite bites, with cold beer and wine as alternatives to tea. High tea remains the distinctive order, especially for a birthday, a shower, an anniversary, a book club or a small gathering in one of the themed rooms. Since 2013 the reputation has rested less on formal awards than on repeated praise for the rooms, the service, the sandwiches, the scones and the celebratory format itself.