Aylesbury strives to be Leesburg’s 'cup of tea'
By Betsy Allen
Like any good Brit, Karen Stroman takes her tea very, very seriously.
“You drink it with lemon and milk, not cream,” she asserted. “Cream is what goes on the scones.”
Customers who come to the Aylesbury Antique Center and Tea Room in Leesburg get the real deal -- what the English call “a proper cup of tea” -- in an airy space with lace tablecloths and bone china.
Stroman serves authentic Yorkshire Tea, as well as fresh baked scones, small sandwiches and other light fare.
Steeped in tradition, Aylesbury also offers a twist -- an antique center, with displays of wares from 15 area dealers. Items for sale include not only antiques, but an eclectic selection of handmade items, jewelry, apparel and home décor.
Stroman started in May 2006 with a simple tea room, sharing a space in an old house at 212 Loudoun St. SE with 4 Shabby Chicks, a retail antique and home décor business. Added to and renovated over the years, the original structure is part of the Dodona Manor trust.
“I thought that this building would be really cute for a tea room,” she said. “And I knew the (Shabby Chicks) business would bring traffic to me, and I could bring traffic to them.”
Stroman operated alongside the Chicks until they relocated to the Leesburg Antique Emporium on King Street in June. At that point, Stroman had to make a decision whether or not to stay with the business and keep the Loudoun Street location.
“Things were going really well,” she explained. “My husband said, ‘You should stay here.’”
So Stroman decided to keep going, and since then has focused her efforts on creating a sort of “one-stop” experience for her customers.
“People seem to like the idea of having tea, then shopping,” she said. “The concept comes from England. Many antique stores have tea rooms. You can make a day of it.”
In addition to the standard afternoon tea, Stroman now accommodates a variety of special events for larger groups, young and old.
“We’ve started to do a lot of children’s parties, and we do a lot of bridal and baby showers,” she said. “It’s something different for the ladies to do. Strangely enough, all the babies born have been girls, except for one!”
Stroman hails from a community not far from the English town of Aylesbury (about an hour north of London) in the county of Buckinghamshire. She met her husband, an American, in the 1980s while working for Goal Systems, a computer company, in Hertfordshire. They married and were transferred to the United States in the late 1980s. After stints in Ohio and Pennsylvania, they settled in Leesburg in 1996. The couple has two daughters.
Stroman tries to keep her hours both convenient for her customers and, as a mother, manageable for her. She credits her assistant, Jessica Billimeier, as a tremendous help in keeping things steaming along.
“She’s a great cook and loves baking. It’s worked out well -- she’s been with me from the start.”
While Aylesbury might be a novelty for her American clientele, it is a familiar -- and welcome -- sight for her fellow Brits who make their home in Loudoun. Stroman says she sees regular business from customers who hail from England, Scotland and Ireland.
For those folks and for anyone else with a taste for new products, Stroman is also branching out into sales of British grocery items, such as crackers, biscuits (cookies to us), various beverages and, soon, chocolate.
The scones, however, remain a favorite, served with thick Devonshire cream or butter and jam.
“It’s a family recipe,” Stroman laughed. “People ask for it, and I say, ‘If I gave you the recipe, I’d have to close down.’”
Beyond the Yorkshire Tea -- Stroman’s favorite -- Aylesbury serves eight or nine other kinds, but no coffee.
She will, however, cop to a regular morning java fix.
“I still drink coffee in the morning. I didn’t used to, but when I first moved [to the United States] the tea was awful!”
Stroman is out to fix that – one cup at a time.
Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd will dedicate the grand opening of the Aylesbury Antique Center and Tea Room with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the store at 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 5.