Flower Cafe

Petals & Pastries in a hotel courtyard

The order is a set piece: the Petals & Pastries Afternoon Tea, running from delicate savoury sandwiches through warm scones with clotted cream, lemon curd and jam, to pastries made for the occasion and a glass of champagne. Flower Cafe is the summer courtyard version of the Excelsior Hotel Ernst's afternoon tea, a seasonal activation rather than a permanent restaurant, and it sits between patisserie, floral design and hotel hospitality. The collaboration is between the hotel's executive pastry chef and its official florist: the pastry supplies the tea, the florist supplies the environment, and the pastries themselves are built around floral flavours, so the two sides read as one idea rather than as a decorated room. Flowers are treated as an equal part of the experience, not as a backdrop to it.

A courtyard instead of the Wintergarten

The setting is the hotel courtyard, turned for the summer into an outdoor tea room, with the Wintergarten afternoon-tea tradition adapted to open-air service. The sequence is classic English: sandwiches, then scones, then pastries, with a pot of tea of your choosing and Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte Réserve Exclusive in the wider programme. The pastry approach is described as traditional craftsmanship combined with modern innovation, and the floral frame gives it something specific to work against. The florist's style is timeless, modern, airy and wild, and the arrangements are immersive rather than decorative, which is what turns a courtyard into a room. It runs only through the warm months, which is part of why the hotel treats it as an event.

Order the full tea, then slow down for the scones

Take the full Petals & Pastries Afternoon Tea, since that is the format the whole thing is built around. Start with the savoury sandwiches, then slow down for the warm scones, where the accompaniments matter: clotted cream, lemon curd and jam are all part of the stated service. The pastries are where the pastry chef's hand shows most clearly; he grew up in a family of pâtissiers, has more than sixteen years behind him and refined the craft in distinguished European kitchens, including Michelin-starred restaurants in Germany and Spain. Champagne belongs to the package rather than to the extras. Later in the day the courtyard changes mood, with the Charles Bar team pouring floral-inspired cocktails that carry the theme into the evening.