I recently posted about our June and July visits to Sweet Shalom Tea Room in Sylvania, Ohio. For April and May, our visits to Sweet Shalom were a bit out of the ordinary to say the least!

In order to stay in business during the COVID-19 shut-down, co-owners Chris Kruse and Sara Velasquez, along with their dedicated staff, needed to get creative. They decided to offer full “take-out” service of the month’s themed tea menu.

Not to break our record of visiting Sweet Shalom each month…David and I decided to go to Sweet Shalom the last weekend in April even though it was still iffy traveling around in Michigan and especially crossing the state border into Ohio.

We made our reservations with Sweet Shalom and were given an allotted time to be there for our take-out pick-up. When we got there, we parked in their back parking area, called the staff to let them know we arrived, and the masked staff proceeded to deliver the full tea menu offerings in take-out fashion to our van.

The warm scones were packaged in white paper bags complete with butter and jam, each in their own little lidded cup. Soup was next and presented in a lidded container. Then the items normally served on a tiered server were all beautifully arranged in a brightly colored covered tray complete with the usual fresh flower garnishes.

As for drinking hot tea, David and I had brought our own personal Thermos of tea.

Our dear tea friends, Betty and Ron Hill met up with us in the back parking area to enjoy our respective take-out tea meals. It was a warm enough day that we could sit in our vehicles with the windows down to converse and still have social distancing.

I have to say…it was great FUN! Different, delightful and delicious! Thank You Chris and Sara (and staff) for your devotion to keep Sweet Shalom going for yourselves and for your tea patrons. You found a way to work around the COVID-19 challenge and present such a unique tea experience! It was beautiful in so many ways!

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