Talking Business: Tea Parlour opens at Longview gift shop
“Take a few quiet moments just for you — sit back, relax & enjoy.” Those words on the fireplace at Linda Beer’s Victorian shop in Longview are words she hopes customers take to heart.
“That’s what I’m after,” Beer said. “I want them to feel like they’re coming into Grandma’s parlor.”
Beer opened the Porcelain Rose Gifts in mid-September, and her latest addition, Rawnsley’s Tea Parlour, opened Oct. 28.
While customers browse the extensive inventory of collectibles and furniture, they can take time for a pot of freshly brewed tea, coffee or hot chocolate and the pastries Beer bakes daily, which might be cookies, scones or cheesecake. Prices are $2.25 for a pot of tea, and pastries range from $1 to $2.75. Cozy settings of sofas, chairs and tables throughout the shop offer places to enjoy the goodies, play a game, read, write a letter or visit with a friend.
Beer, 62, retired from the Longview School District in March as the administrative assistant in human resources after more than 30 years. She started renting 220-square-feet for her collectibles at the Heritage Square in Kalama in late 1992. Following her retirement, she had just added a tea parlor there when a fire destroyed the historic building in June.
