Why I found myself motoring down Berkley Road in Devon is not particularly important, though it had to do with the offer of one of those tilted copper bowls they use to whisk the puffy omelettes (French souffles, almost) on Mont Saint-Michel.
Anyway, it was lunch time not long after I picked it up, and off to my right about midway between the back side of the Devon Horse Show grounds and the front of the Whole Foods on Lancaster Avenue, I encountered a modest tea room called A Taste of Britain.
It had the aspect of a country cottage, inside and out. And if you happened to be in the market for British nostalgia foods, it was an oasis, well-stocked with Branston Pickle, and Lyle's Gold Syrup Biscuits with a cream filling, and Frank Cooper's Original Oxford Marmalade, and of course, Ribena, the sweet, black-currant concentrate, and a variety of tinned and bagged teas, Taylor's of Harrowgate and Harrison & Crossfield most prominently represented.
(There was much more in the tiny retail shop appended to the tea room - classic teapots in primary colors, and violet-themed bone china cups, and jars of lemon curd and, in the cooler, a few wedges of Stilton and - how apt! - both clotted and double Devon cream, rich and creamy as butter.)
If what you are looking for in a tea room is a moment of respite and refuge, a place where the comforting social aspects of afternoon tea or a light lunch are more key than the quality of the cookery, this room certainly fits the bill.
On a given day, a preteen granddaughter in a long dress might be undergoing tea initiation. Or girlfriends with an infant might bow their heads before a first dainty bite of chicken salad croissant sandwich. Or a sturdy old woman in a blue straw garden hat and pink tennis shoes might be lunching alone, part of the gray-haired troops who are stalwarts, especially at Full Afternoon Tea (tea sandwiches, fresh-baked scones served with Devon cream, lemon curd and preserves, pastries and a generous pot of tea, $15.95 per person).
