The Timeless Table offers bespoke tea parties in labor of love

Each tea party at The Timeless Table is served on owner Karen Allen’s personal collection of antique china. (Photo by Miriah Hamrick)

A new tearoom off Carolina Beach Road serves more than a freshly brewed beverage and homemade baked goods. The business allows owner Karen Allen to channel her passions – baking, collecting antique china, and of course, tea itself – into a one-of-a-kind experience for customers.
 
“For me, it’s the perfect marriage of everything I love,” Allen said.
 
Located at 1930 Carolina Beach Road, The Timeless Table opened in mid-May. Allen runs the business as a one-woman show, cooking the menu from scratch and then serving her fare to guests from a newly renovated space in a shopping plaza that she and her husband recently bought. Her goal is to provide the kind of experience she enjoys at afternoon tea, an outing she seeks any time she travels. She estimates that she’s attended dozens of tea services domestically and abroad.
 
“This is my idea of what traditional English afternoon tea should be,” Allen said. To ensure she’s able to meet her own high expectations, reservations are required.
 
In addition to Harney and Sons tea, served with homemade sugar cubes and cream, each tea party includes a three-tier display of savory sandwiches, English scones and sweet treats adorned with edible cornflowers, impatiens, nasturtiums and pansies snipped fresh from the tearoom’s kitchen.
 
Allen keeps the offerings classic, but adds her own touch; for example, she serves Coronation Chicken, a curried chicken salad first prepared for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, alongside traditional savory options like cucumber and cream cheese with chives and egg salad.
 
The scones required more than a year of research and development in order to replicate the texture of its English counterpart: crunchy on the outside, with an “almost sandy” crumb inside.
 
“The scones were a huge deal for me. Even though they look deceptively simple, they’re actually really hard to get the texture correct,” Allen said. That year of trial and error led her to incorporate many small changes that added up to a final product that she’s proud to serve today. As is done across the Atlantic, the scones are accompanied by clotted cream, lemon curd and raspberry jam.
 
Each tea is served on Allen’s collection of antique china, which includes more than 50 teapots and 100 sets of tableware.
 
“I love to have the opportunity to take stuff out and for people to appreciate how pretty it is,” she said, adding that the china was meant to be used.
 
Allen incorporates other little flourishes into each tea service to make the events feel special. A typewriter decorating a table features a message created for each event, and a copy of The Timeless Tribune is placed at each table setting, where Allen weaves in customized messages for her guests alongside details about the history of afternoon tea and the menu for the day. A sugar cookie decorated in honor of the occasion is also produced for each guest and serves as another keepsake from the event.

Her attention to detail goes beyond these noticeable elements, she said, down to an ever-evolving playlist to create the right ambiance.
 
“The details are super important to me, even the details that your brain is not actively registering. In the back of your mind, it adds to the experience and makes it feel really special,” Allen said.
 
Allen has noticed business steadily picking up, with weekends becoming especially busy. Although it’s a lot of work – Allen spends hours preparing for and facilitating each event – she said she’s been surprised by how fun it’s turned out to be.
 
“I put so much thought into how we wanted to do it, how I wanted to manage it. It’s better than what I thought it was going to be, and I’m enjoying it more,” she said.
 
Reservations for tea must be made at least 48 hours in advance, and the tearoom’s capacity fits a maximum of 10 guests at a time. The service costs $50 per person. More information about The Timeless Table’s offerings, including an online form to initiate a reservation, can be found on the business’s website.