Steeps on West Broadway offers some 200 varieties of tea, served in china cups or mugs
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Hiroko Yamamoto of Steeps Tea Lounge on West Broadway, with a wonderful chocolate cake and freshly brewing dark tea. Steeps is a convenient stop for visitors to Vancouver General Hospital. Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
I went to an opthamologist appointment the other week and somehow the waiting time stretched to three hours.
I read. I grew weary. I debated the pros and cons of handling the wait with grace or letting loose my shrew. After two hours, I learned there were still six patients ahead of me and went cross-eyed from imploding. I cared enough about my eyecare not to go postal, preceding a dramatic exit. Instead, I marched out the door to blow off steam.
It was raining. I was hungry. I walked down to West Broadway and I found the perfect “serenity now” spot — Steeps Tea Lounge. Tea was just what I needed and I had my pick of some 200 teas, some flavoured with fruit or flower infusians, herbal teas. Over by the wall — stacks of china tea cups, the grandma kind, if one prefers them over mugs.
“That’s the appeal of tea,” says Pierre Leonardon, who runs the tea shop with Hiroko Yamamoto.
“Our customers are seven to 77 years old. We get young people, old people, sick people from the hospital [it’s close to Vancouver General], people going to see doctors [and spend half their day waiting for them], tourists from the hotel nearby.” From 11 p.m. to midnight, they see another crowd who come for a healthy nightcap.
There’s also food — panini, soup, baked goods. Grilled panini with blue corn chips cost $7.50 and soups change daily and include the Serious Mushroom Soup, Indonesian Lentil And Pumpkin. Yamamoto talks up the carrot cake.
“It’s most famous,” she says. “It’s soooo good and huge and in between, there’s caramel filling.” On top — cream cheese icing. And should you need, there are doctors’ offices all around.
“We also have a nice, big chocolate cake,” she says.
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STEEPS TEA LOUNGE
895 West Broadway, 604-371-8343.
Open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m. weekends, www.steepstealounge.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2007