Vintage Hot Spot – Store Tour & Interview – Crown & Crumpet San Francisco, CA

Welcome to another Vintage Hot Spot! We are so excited to be sharing with you a tour of Crown & Crumpet, a true paradise for your eyes. Please help me welcome Amy Dean, co-founder and co-owner of Crown & Crumpet.

What was the inspiration upon opening Crown & Crumpet?
 
The inspiration for Crown & Crumpet was the desire of my husband and I to have an English tea room that was fun, chic and not fussy. A bright and happy place, that had humor, good tea, great food and a traditional tea experience. We wanted to shake up the whole "ye olde tea shoppe"  that Americans have come to think of when they hear “tea room”.

(Photography by Drew Altizer)

When did you open?
We opened late September 2008.

 (Photography by Drew Altizer)

What kind of store is Crown & Crumpet?
 
Crown and Crumpet is an English Tea Salon located in Ghirardelli Square, in San Francisco. We serve a traditional English tea service, as well as breakfast, and light lunches. We also have an aperitif bar in the evening. We have a small retail store too, that sells unique gifts, tea accouterments and our personalized, logo-ed china.

 What is your address?

 Our address is, Crown & Crumpet   900 Northpoint, Ghirardelli Square, 207E, San Francisco, CA, 94109

 
What are your store hours?
 Hours: Monday -Thursday  10:00am to 6:00pm

  Friday – 10:00 – 9:00pm

  Saturday – 9:00 am to 9:00pm

  Sunday- 9: 00 am to 6:00pm

(Photography by Drew Altizer)

 Do you hold any special events at your store?

 We have special events for all the major holidays- Valentines, Easter, Mother's Day, Halloween, Christmas and Hanukkah. We also have special classes for tea education, manners and etiquette teas for children. We have also had a variety of fun guests join us at Crown & Crumpet, including a tealeaf reader, tarot card reader and the Post Master General of the World's Smallest Post Office who came and wrote miniature letters for guests.

 

(Photography by Drew Altizer)

Is shopping indie and small businesses important to you? If so, why?

 Buying from small shops, and buying locally is really important to us. (We also have great British imports, of course.)  Basically we love to shop in unique stores where we can find unique items but feel like they are disappearing quickly with the popularity of superstores.  We really pride ourselves on our very unique gift items that we find for our store.  We love the rare and unusual, and think that our customers do too.  They really seem to appreciate the time we take in finding the most special finds.

A special thank you for Amy Dean co-founder of Crown & Crumpet for the wonderful interview.