Sharon
I have a lovely sister. Her name is Milly. This photo is not of Milly! This is Sharon. Sharon owns Vals English Tea and Pie Shop, a small cafe in Smithfield, Rhode Island, where my sister Milly took me for my surprise birthday treat earlier this year. Driving there I had no idea what she had in store for me. As we traveled further north into less known and slightly more “rustic” burbs I wondered louder just where she could be taking me. But then the guessing is part of the fun. Jutting out awkwardly from the corner of a small strip mall Vals doesn’t initially shout quaint English tea shop and as we drove in I found myself liking it all the more for the sheer randomness of this and its location.
Once inside though it was like we had walked through a time portal and ended up in 1980’s Brighton, a small seaside town in the UK. Leaning against a wall covered in photos of England, a life-sized cardboard cut out of Prince William still decked out in tinsel and a Father Christmas hat greeted us at the door.
Round tables with floor-length tablecloths circled the room while an entire wall was taken up with old English china. Plates, tea cups, saucers, teapots, egg cups, milk jugs you name it, were all stacked up on each other in little cubby holes with tributes to the royal family weaving in and out. It was at once both impressive and deeply depressing. The pair of us have a somewhat damaged attachment to the UK and this little bubble was rattling the memory banks.
Sharon was the only person working there, coming out from the open kitchen where she was preparing food for the other customers, she led us to a table in the corner by the kitchen. Taking my seat in front of a life-sized cardboard cut out of the queen's mother she explained to us how the menu worked. One Mimosa each to start, 3 cheers to me and my birthday, followed by an individual pot of any tea of our choice, I had my favorite Lapsang Su Chong, which Sharon later told me was her least favorite tea, ttssk her, and everyone else, boo you all, before finishing up with a 3 tiered medley of meat pies, sandwiches and biscuits ( as we Brits call cookies).
Swatting away chest-crushing feelings of panic we feasted on the homemade British food Sharon had recently made, delicate cucumber sandwiches, scones slathered in clotted cream and strawberry jam, tiny palm-sized sausage and apricot pies. I have always been confused about why England got such a bad rap for its cuisine?! Seriously, it really is the best food ever! Go marmite you rule!
As we finished up Sharon came over to chat with us. Expats love a good how did you end up here conversation and finding similarities in our histories. Turns out that Sharon grew up very near to where we did in London, with all of us living in neighborhoods just as they were getting tickled with the gentrification brush. The, “no way us too,” continued into the present day with my sister and Sharon both being avid tennis players, even playing in the same league. Sharon's knees no longer allow her to play tennis but that didn't stop her and Milly from slinging around tennis banter and a few, “do you know so and so’s.” They did! The big question though of course was the history behind the tea shop. Why was it called Vals and not Sharon and who was Val? Val was Sharon's mum and this tea shop was opened up in her memory after she unexpectedly died one day, sitting up in bed with a cup of tea in her hand! Sharon took this as a sign from her mum to make some changes in her life and finally open up that tea shop they had talked about. Both she and her husband had spent the better part of their adult lives working in the interior design and drapery fabrication business. Their kids were now grown with kids of their own, it was time for the next adventure.
It is clearly a lot of work, behind the chatty smile there was a feeling of exhaustion. I imagine it must take its toll not only physically but also energetically. The tea room is a place people go to reminisce over food that reminds them of another time, their unsolicited stories being a big part of that experience. Perhaps that is one of the reasons Sharon and her husband have given this chapter an end date. Together they decided to have this shop open for 3 years only before moving on to their next adventure. I forgot to ask when the start date was so who knows how much longer we have to eat all those cute little just gonna put this in my pocket meat pies for!
A week later Milly and I flew to London to celebrate our mum's 80th birthday. We got to eat all the greats: Cadbury's chocolates, crisps (so many good crisps in the UK), white flannel bread, and penny sweets. One night, mum made my favorite meal, lamb chops, gravy, peas and potatoes. Jilly Cooper's book Rivals had just been adapted into a TV show and the 3 of us sat on the sofa, plates on laps, watching this great British legend's story come to life on the telly! It
