Silver Tips opened on November 6th, 1999. We had 19 seats and had had been granted our Certificate of Occupancy the previous afternoon. We were in over our heads, had little experience in running a restaurant and our employees had only the very basics of Tea training. I discovered, to my deep dismay, that our Food Prep person was a 7th Day Adventist and needed Saturdays off. That first day, my sister and I were Food Prep and Cook! We served 96 people, were full all day and elated but completely exhausted when the day was over. We toasted sandwiches, heated Scones, sent out Afternoon Tea tiers and tried to avert disasters. In the front of the house, my very good friend, Mike Olsen, who had just ended his tenure at The House of Tea in Philadelphia, came and helped all day, trained our Servers and steeped Tea. We still have our first earned dollar and all the memories of that opening day. It has been quite a journey since then. We've gone through water boilers, ice machines, broken freezers, hurricanes, blizzards, electricity failures, a store expansion, countless broken plates and cups, menu changes and employees. Through it all, we've tried to stay true to our Mission:
- To provide a perfect cup of tea
- To deliver consistently good food and service
- To educate customers about all aspects of tea
- To make every visit memorable
As you can imagine, we've not always succeeded! We've served oversteeped tea, forgotten to check on customers, lost opportunities to explain the mysteries of tea and been less than hospitable to our guests. On balance, however, we would probably get a better-than-passing grade. We still strive everyday to provide that small moment of joy to our customers. And we never forget that we would have no business, let alone one for 15 years, without you, our customers. We are grateful to each of you for your loyalty and friendship.
Silver Tips opened on November 6th, 1999. We had 19 seats and had had been granted our Certificate of Occupancy the previous afternoon. We were in over our heads, had little experience in running a restaurant and our employees had only the very basics of Tea training. I discovered, to my deep dismay, that our Food Prep person was a 7th Day Adventist and needed Saturdays off. That first day, my sister and I were Food Prep and Cook! We served 96 people, were full all day and elated but completely exhausted when the day was over. We toasted sandwiches, heated Scones, sent out Afternoon Tea tiers and tried to avert disasters. In the front of the house, my very good friend, Mike Olsen, who had just ended his tenure at The House of Tea in Philadelphia, came and helped all day, trained our Servers and steeped Tea. We still have our first earned dollar and all the memories of that opening day. It has been quite a journey since then. We've gone through water boilers, ice machines, broken freezers, hurricanes, blizzards, electricity failures, a store expansion, countless broken plates and cups, menu changes and employees. Through it all, we've tried to stay true to our Mission:
