Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Cream and Sugar?: Bruce Pittman, along with partner Joanne Rosso (not pictured), recently opened a new teahouse in Willow Glen. Tea, Travel & Tiques serves a continental breakfast and lunch seven days a week, as well as afternoon tea Thursday through Saturday.
WG's Tea, Travel & Tiques combines three pleasures
By Jim Aquino
Willow Glen is getting a little more eccentric, thanks to one of the neighborhood's newest eateries, Tea, Travel & Tiques, the valley's only tea cafe/travel agency/antique shop.
Owned by Joanne Rosso and Bruce Pittman, Tea, Travel & Tiques had its grand opening Nov. 5 at the Hunan Garden Chinese restaurant's former site at 2281 Lincoln Ave.
"We never set out to be just like anybody else," Pittman says.
Rosso explains that she and Pittman wanted to combine three things they really enjoy--tea, traveling and antiquing--into one business.
"Our accountant thinks it's a great strategy," Rosso says.
Rosso, who also runs a travel agency in Campbell, always thought about starting a travel business with an atmosphere that would be more relaxed and elegant than other offices.
"I thought, 'Why can't I pour a pot of tea and have it be a little bit more gracious when people are spending $4,000 to go to Hawaii for a week?'" she says.
Also, Rosso wanted to bring tearooms back to the less busy end of Lincoln Avenue after the Into the Looking Glass Tea & Chocolate Shoppe closed a few years ago. She used to work there as a waitress and tea-leaf reader.
"I loved the atmosphere and the focus on the different teas," Rosso says. "We have even stranger teas than anyone around here has."
Tea, Travel & Tiques carries more than 40 teas, ranging from Jasmine Wheels tea to White Monkey Paw tea. The cafe also offers breakfast and lunch menus that feature sandwiches like the muffeleta and the chicken cilantro croissant, as well as chocolates made by highly regarded Santa Cruz chocolatier Richard Donnelly and French pastries from the Saratoga-based Marjolaine bakery.
"Willow Glen's been waiting a long time for this," says Rosso, referring to such Marjolaine pastries as chocolate truffle cakes and cranapple tarts.
According to Rosso, customer responses to these pastries have been ecstatic.
"They just make all these groaning sounds," Rosso says.
Meals are served in light portions and range in price from $4.75 to $6.25.
"We want you to be able to try a little bit of everything, like a mini-dessert or a couple of mini-tarts," Rosso says. "In the middle of the day, people don't want a huge meal, but they want something tasty. They don't want fast food, so we're trying to fill that gap, where they could get quality food that's healthy and with good ingredients, at a reasonable price."
Pittman, who also runs an engineering consulting business, likens Tea, Travel & Tiques to a French or Italian-style café. He and Rosso wanted to veer away from having a formal, British-style tearoom, where people would sip their teas reservedly and with their pinkies in the air like they were characters in a Merchant-Ivory movie.
"We wanted this to be a very relaxed place," Pittman says.
According to Pittman, people from neighboring businesses, especially the regulars at the nearby Diann's Salon, have been frequenting Tea, Travel & Tiques and have been helpful in spreading the word about their new cafe.
"Tea is kind of unexplored in this valley," Rosso says. "We thought that we'd get Silicon Valley back on its feet again, one cup at a time."
Tea, Travel & Tiques, 2281 Lincoln Ave., is open Monday-Friday 6:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, call 408.978.TEAS.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
