While trying to plan what we wanted to do for New Year's Eve, I started looking for unique events that wouldn't have huge crowds. While my search showed me events all over Atlanta, I soon stumbled upon the idea of Afternoon Tea at The St. Regis Atlanta. I pitched the idea to Mom, thinking she was going to say no, but to my surprise she thought it would be a lot of fun. I started doing a little more research on the afternoon tea and I found The St. Regis only offers the tea Friday-Sunday from 2:30-4:30 p.m. I attempted to contact Astor Court a few times to book the reservation, but I was lucky enough to make the reservation through Open Table.
Since I live so far from Buckhead, Mom and I started making plans of other things we wanted to do before the reservation so we could make the most of our time. We started the day over at the Buckhead Atlanta shopping center picking out glasses at Warby Parker. Our glasses shopping didn't take us very long, so we headed over to The St. Regis early to explore before our reservation. As we walked the three blocks to get there I wasn't sure we were headed in the right direction, but then out of no where appeared the beautiful St. Regis.
The exterior of the St. Regis was beautiful, but the interior was even more amazing. The hotel was still decorated for Christmas and the decor took my breath away. When we walked in the main doors we were immediately stopped in our tracks by the gorgeous Christmas Tree. Along with the decorated tree, both staircases were lined with garland that matched the tree. We walked off to the left side of the lobby and ran into a gingerbread house, that is actually made of real gingerbread. In a unique turn of events, the gingerbread house was actually a sweet shop they had put up where you could purchase cookies and candies.
While researching The St. Regis, I noticed they have a holiday skating rink where you can book time to ice skate. Since we were there so early, I took Mom up to the 6th floor and we went and watched the people ice skate. I had an ulterior motive for taking her to the 6th floor and my main reason was to get a hot chocolate. I had started following The St. Regis Atlanta on Instagram, after making the reservation, and the pictures of the hot chocolate looked amazing. I went up to the bar and ordered the hot chocolate and to my surprise the waitress asked me what toppings I wanted on it... I couldn't really come up with a specific topping, so I told her to make it look pretty. Oh did she deliver, she topped it with whipped cream, two pieces of chocolate, marshmallows and sprinkles. Wow! It was delicious!
After watching the skaters and drinking the hot chocolate, it was about 2:10 p.m. and we decided to head up to Astor Court and check in for our reservation. As we were checking in the nice hostess told us they do not seat for tea until 2:30 p.m. and pointed us towards the bar to relax until our seating time. We walked down a hallway and dead ended into the St. Regis Bar...let me just tell you my first New Year's Resolution, I want to spend every possible free moment I have in this bar. The decor and the ambiance are amazing: the molding is dark wood, the chairs and couches are dark leather, and the lighting is perfect. Mom and I grabbed a few seats at the bar and ordered a diet coke and a glass of champagne. I will tell you this right now, if I hadn't had reservations for tea, I would've stayed at the bar to eat!
Okay, now let's get to the main reason for this post, the Afternoon Tea! Mom and I were seated at a cute two person table by a window and the table settings were classic and the menus were already on the tables. As you are going through the menu there is a story about how afternoon tea came to be, descriptions of the teas you can choose from and the menu for tea. Before they start talking about the teas, the server asks you if you would like another drink outside of the tea. I ordered a glass of champagne and mom ordered water. The server came back wth our drinks and the box of teas. he went over each tea with us and let us smell each one until we made a decision. Mom chose the chai tea and I ordered the Iron Goddess, which I thought was fitting to start the new year! While waiting for the tea the server brought over the scones, which were chocolate cherry and pecan spice, both were delicious. The tea was soon brought to the table and Mom and I chatted her tea and scones. A little while later the server returned with our tower of deliciousness, the tower included: smoked salmon sandwiches, southern egg salad sandwiches, glazed ham sandwiches, English cucumber and chive sandwiches, roasted turkey breast sandwiches, sun-dried tomato aioli sandwiches, tomato and basil sandwiches, candy cane macarons, fruit cake financier, s'mores bites, gingerbread cookies and blackberry chestnut tarts. Everything was delicious!
After we were done with our tea I headed down to the most amazing restroom I have ever been in. As I was on my way there I passed the most beautiful wedding reception that had perfect bows in the entry way!
If you ever have a chance to do the Afternoon Tea at The St. Regis Atlanta I would highly recommend it. It was a fun day and I can't wait to do it again!