To continue my survey of the tearooms of Texas, I recently visited the McHugh Tea Room in Bellaire, just SW of downtown Houston.
Founded by Kim McHugh in 2013, it has been owned by Amy and Woody Quinn for the past three years. After enjoying a Pride-themed High Tea, I interviewed Amy an all things tea.
While most of the clientele are ladies, Amy says guys are welcome. “Come on, dads, you can bring a kiddo in for tea!” quipped Amy. “We actually have a lot of regulars that are men.”
Seasonally, the busy time is from January to May, with “Mother’s Day weekend kind of being our Super Bowl.”
In addition to high tea, there is a fine lunch menu. “We’ll have people who will stop by after a bike ride and grab a tea to go or a dessert.”
This month the tearoom is celebrating Pride month which includes (on the top of the traditional three-tiered serving tray) a selection of strawberries and cupcakes that each support a message about Pride. A delightful and colourful idea! I asked how it developed.
“Well, my husband and I bought the tea room three years ago, and right off the bat when people found out that the Tea Room was sold they asked ‘you’re not getting rid of the menu are you?’ So we figured out quickly that the regulars and the things that people have come to love about the place needed to be kept the same.”
But one thing Amy and Woody wanted to do was be creative with the afternoon tea menu. “So we thought, well, what if we have an alternate tea every month and call it a specialty? And it could have a theme. So, we started that October with a Halloween trick-or-treat. It was basically the same but we changed things like the sandwich shapes to look like a skull and Frankenstein. This doesn’t have to be a ‘super stuffy sit down, let’s all be proper, kind of space’, it can still be a fun place to bring kids or a group.” The concept has developed into several themed events, listed at the end of the article.
Next up is the Chef’s menu, starting in July. “It’s got different ingredients and sandwich flavors and scone flavors and desserts and stuff that are not on our normal menu. And so, it’s just a way to kind of level up your afternoon tea experience. So, if you do like the room and you want to come back, you’re not having the same thing every single time you come.
“Do you want the traditional every time you come? Great. If that’s what you love, wonderful. If not wait till there’s some menu that sparks your interest or curiosity!”
Did you ever imagine five or ten years ago that you would own a tea room? I asked. “We were looking to buy a business and it came up and we met the owner and looked at the business model. We can pool our community, you know, for catering and sponsorships and events and so it just really makes sense. My husband and I grew up in Bellaire and we live in Bellaire now and so it made sense. It’s like Oh, this is right in our backyard!”
The tea selection on the menu is quite extensive, and for that we can thank the original owner, Kim McHugh, for her continuing collaboration. “She also has the Truleaf Tea Company, so she made the teas and then she had the tea room. Kim sold the tea room, but kept the tea wholesale company. She does all the tea blends and we still buy from her.”
The menu lists teas by type: white, matcha, oolong, herbal, green, black, chai and Pu-erh. I found the black Texas Goldrush Tea to be a real winner: safflower, marigold, cornflower and passion fruit flavour.
I asked Amy what her favorite tea is of all the ones on offer there. “My favorite is the Immune Boost. It’s got a lot of good different herbs and plants like peppermint and licorice to settle your tummy or when I find when my allergies start acting up, I start drinking that and my allergies are not as severe.”
“What I love about all of them is any of them can be made over ice for iced tea. So depending on the time of the year, if you want a hot tea or an iced tea, you still get a really neat tea flavor profile, whether it’s iced or hot.”
I like the fact that three pots of different teas are delivered all at once at High Tea. At a table for two, just select three from the more than 40 on offer. With three teapots available to share, you don’t have to keep waiting and ordering more. So that was a nice touch. It is a method of serving that originated with the McHugh owners.
And the sandwiches and scones are delicious; I especially like the pistachio scone. “We make everything from scratch: all the desserts, scones, cakes, pies, carrot salad. The only thing we don’t make is the jelly.
The décor includes an entire wall of photographs of people drinking tea. There you will find Queen Elizabeth and, in a separate photo, Prince (now King) Charles. The large wall on the left as you enter is covered in loose-leaf tea offerings for sale, and the plates on your table come from many countries: even Russia! Don’t miss the Van Gogh-style painting of the tea room on the wall.
“We operate as a traditional tea room, but like to think of ourselves as not a traditional tea room. There are places that you can go but worry ‘do we really have to dress up?’ or, dish out a ton of money. Not everybody’s going to be comfortable with that. We’re still just a little community spot. We’ve got regulars such as a Bible study that comes in on Wednesdays.
We offer this space for nonprofits to hold their board meetings and we do special events like Tea with Santa. It’s an accessible place in the community and I think that’s why it’s thrived for so long.”
For further information, visit the website: Mchughtea.com
Address: 5305 Bissonnet St D, Bellaire, TX 77401
Phone: (713) 218-6300
Seasonal Themed High teas:
PRIDE (All June)
Chef’s Table (July – September)
Halloween (All October)
Diwali (Nov 1 – 9)
Christmas (All December)
Hannukah (All December)
Photos by C. Cunningham