Sisters, Haley & Lauren Fox, took their lifelong obsession of tea and turned it into Alice’s Tea Cup, which opened in 2001. They now own three Tea Cup cafes. My daughter and I dined at the original, on 73rd & Columbus Avenue, for a pre-theatre high tea before an evening performance of "Spiderman" at the Foxwood Theatre.
A varied menu included soups, salads and sandwiches, but we came for tea! The Mad Hatter Tea came w/a 3-tiered stand with yummy finger sandwiches (smoked chicken breast w/apples and goat cheese, egg salad infused with maté carnival tea and watercress) freshly made buttermilk and pumpkin scones, cookies and chocolate mousse. Christmas tea is available all year. We embraced the entire scene, wore the “house” wings, and allowed ourselves to be sprinkled with complimentary fairy dust. It was more food than my petite child could handle—we carefully packed up the leftovers for Dad.
As a native New Yorker my 7 yr. old has already seen a good deal of theatre. She’s girly so I was trepidatious about taking her to "Spiderman," which seems very boy. I could hardly contain her in her booster seat as she rocked out to songs and screamed when characters flew over her head. Yes, more than one character flies through the audience—some land in the mezzanine. As we walked home, she shouted from the street corner, “Best show ever!”
For my taste, the actors did not have strong enough singing or dancing chops. The real star of the show is the set. We’ve been hearing about all the technical problems that "Spiderman" has had and the long delay in opening so I was a bit concerned that some prop would fizzle or a set piece would drop out of the ceiling during the show. It was flawless and fascinating to watch the mix of larger-than-life comic characters, pop-up sets and costumes that came literally alive. Really a spectacular spectacle and worth staying up until 10:15 on a school night!
