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106 E. Doty Ave * Summerville, SC 29483 * 843-851-8030 * thiswholehouse@bellsouth.net
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Owner
Judy Thomas: wife, head cook, interior decorator, antique finder, and a best friend to all patrons! Judy as featured in the Summerville Tourism Booklet.
Have You Heard???
this WHOLE house was featured in the Post & Couriers 2009 Dining Guide! Check it out here! Post and Courier -- May 19, 2006 (downloadable version) News Article: The same two factors also led them to create GreatTearooms-ofAmerica.com, a Web site that unites tearoom owners and tea lovers nationwide. The site allows tearoom owners to make personalized, one-page Web pages, listing hours of operation and photos of their establishments. Tearoom owners also can get an e-mail account through the site and sign up for tea newsletters written by LeCroy. Tea enthusiasts can search for tearooms by ZIP code or state, and map a route to each tearoom. Smith, who is from England and now lives in Mount Pleasant, said it was a major adjustment to move here because of the lack of tearooms. "He has been a tea drinker his whole life," LeCroy said. "The biggest adjustment for him is that in Britain, tea is just part of the fabric of your life." LeCroy, too, became accustomed to visiting tearooms, because the couple lived in England the first few of years of their marriage. Because of her interest in tea, LeCroy had some connections to other tea lovers. After moving back to the States a year and a half ago, she and Smith began compiling the information to build the Web site. "It seems kind of fitting that because we met on the Internet that the first thing we've birthed is an Internet Web site," LeCroy said. Since its launch May 1, the site has received almost 31,000 hits. It received another 38,000 during the pre-launch in April, LeCroy said, and 100 tearooms have already added information to their pages. One of these, This Whole House in Summerville, opened about a year and a half ago for the same reason the Web site was created: Owner Judy Thomas was fascinated by different kinds of tea. According to her daughter, Ebonn Thomas, the cottage that is home to This Whole House was purchased as an expansion of the family's antique shop. The family turned half of it into a tearoom and the other half into a gift shop. "It definitely combines the love of eating and shopping," Thomas said. This Whole House offers lunch every day except Wednesday, a brunch on Sunday and afternoon teas by reservation. LeCroy said it was almost 15 years ago when she first started drinking and researching tea. At that time, large hotels were about the only places to find tearooms. "A lot of people in the tea industry have wondered and wondered why it never did really catch on," LeCroy said. "I think probably you just have to go way back in history - and I don't really know if this is true or not - but during the Revolution, there was the Boston Tea Party, and the Colonists refused to drink tea. I don't think America ever really recovered from that, and then coffee became popular, and I think at that point people in America wanted to distance themselves from English customs." But, LeCroy said, it's impossible to ignore the sudden rise in the popularity of tea and tearooms. Part of the reason for this is probably health-related, she said. "Americans are becoming very health conscientious," LeCroy said. "It's a whole food. I think Americans are at a point now where we want to have this simplicity in our lives, and I think tea meets all those requirements because of its versatility." Ebonn Thomas agrees. "North America didn't used to be so health-conscious," she said. "Now, people are starting to realize tea can be beneficial to health." According to GreatTearooms-ofAmerica.com, there are 23 tearooms in South Carolina, four of which are in the Summerville area. "I think it's interesting that we have the traditional, which is the tearoom, which connects with the modern, which is the Internet, and it seems to just work together very well," LeCroy said. Reach Ashley Hopkins at ahopkins@postandcourier.com. Tea Time Magazine -- May/June 2006
Post and Courier -- March 3, 2006 Post & Courier -- February 16, 2005
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| 106 E. Doty Ave * Summerville, SC 29483 * thiswholehouse@bellsouth.net * 843.851.8030 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||