High Tea

High Tea

Coffee drinkers rarely deviate from their regular morning orders. For Shawn it was a large triple-shot Americano. That changed when he met Mia in England. They were both doing graduate work at the University of Oxford. She was smart and beautiful, and he enjoyed everything about her.

She’d invited him to join her at Camellia, a small tearoom on Savile Road near the campus and it became their regular meeting place. They fell in love over cups of Earl Grey tea, warm scones and lively conversation. In the evenings they met at Clancy’s Pub and discovered they shared a liking for strong English ales.

They swapped stories of his native California and her nearby hometown of Headington. He was rooted in San Diego and she’d always thought she’d spend her whole life in England. But things changed. When graduation came, they talked about what might happen next and a decision was made. The woman from foggy England would move west to be with the man from sunny California.

Mia had never been there and it took her a while to get used to the climate and the pace of her new surroundings. After she found a great job in marketing, she set out to find her way around. Every free hour she could find was used to explore her new home. It was a slow process. On weekends Shawn introduced her to some of his favorite local spots. Little by little she began to feel settled in.

His time in England and his falling in love with Mia had led Shawn to a very unusual idea, an idea he needed to explore further. Lunch hours became treks to various parts of the city to find a good starting point for his plan. One of those treks led him to Bluff Road, a steep, winding road lined with palm trees on both sides. It was a beautiful drive but not as beautiful as the roads and streets at the bottom of the hill, the ones that meander along the beaches and through the resorts. To most people, the view from Bluff Road was nice but not enough of a reason to wander away from the resorts below it.

Despite that, his drives along Bluff Road seemed to strike a chord with him. For a week, he had taken time away from his office and traveled every foot of that road, checking the ocean views and how infrequently the little bit of traffic from the resorts came up the hill. For three days he sat in his car in the parking lot of a small, almost empty café and counted the number of cars that drove by.

He saw that the parking lot of The Summit Inn, the small hotel next door, was rarely more than half full. It seemed to him there wasn’t much of a reason for people to climb that hill. At least for now. A plan was percolating in his head and a recent news report became the core of it all. There had been some changes to State laws, changes that fit perfectly with his idea. It was time to bring Mia into the discussion.

On a Saturday morning he talked her into driving with him up the hill to the small café. It was hard to hold back from sharing it with her. She asked him a lot of questions about where they were going, but he asked her to be patient just a while longer. It was a fairly easy drive from their apartment and when they reached the bottom of the hill and the beginning of Bluff Road, he said, “Okay, imagine what it would take for you to want to drive up this hill on a regular basis.”

“And I take it when we get to the top you’ll tell me what this is all about.”

He smiled. “Yep, every little detail.”

They drove slowly, enjoying the view, and when they reached the crest of the hill they pulled into the parking lot of the small café. Shawn pointed out the Business for Sale sign hanging over the entrance door. Mia turned toward him, “So…what? You want to buy this old place?”

“Well, I want to buy the building, not the business.”

“And do what with it?”

“Okay, just bear with me a minute. He paused and looked right into her eyes. I want to buy this place and convert it to a tearoom.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “A tearoom, you mean like Camellia? A tearoom. Not a bar, a tearoom? Not margaritas…tea?”

“Well, there would be a lot more to it than just tea. I’m thinking something very different and very unique.”

“What’s unique about a tearoom? I’ll bet there are a bunch of them around town.”

“I’ve been looking online and every tearoom I found was pretty basic. Pretty much like the ones in England. I have something else in mind here. I don’t want to compete with other tearooms, I want to reinvent them.”

“And how will you do that?”

He opened the lid of the console between them and pulled out a small packet of papers neatly paperclipped together. “Here’s my idea. I named it The Hilltop Café.”

Mia took the packet from him and leafed through the sheets. The first few were the realtor’s information on the property. The next one was Shawn’s hand-drawn idea for a logo, the words The Hilltop Café in a curving arch surrounded by leaves. Inside a circle under the arch, in large block letters was THC. She stared at it. Finally, she asked, “Does that mean what I think it does?”

“Yeah, it’s THC, tetrahydrocannabinol. Cannabis. Pot. My idea is to open a tearoom that offers conventional tea if you want it or infused tea if you want a little extra something. We’d do the same thing with other drinks, regular or infused. And we’d even have a few simple food offerings.”

Mia was silent for an uncomfortably long time and Shawn wondered if he’d just told her the dumbest idea of all time. He studied her face and, slowly, a smile appeared. She was silent for another few seconds then said, “Honey, I have to admit I like this. It’s a little out on the edge but I like it.”

Shawn couldn’t hide his relief. “Wow, that’s great. I was afraid you’d think I was some kind of wanna-be hippie.”

“No, not at all. It’s an interesting idea but do you really think there’s a market for it? I mean, could you…we actually make money doing it?”

“I was the business major and you were marketing, but I think we’re seeing it through the same eyes. Look through the other pages. I found a lot of details about marijuana consumption, both smoking and edibles. When you read through those pages you’ll see how cannabis enhances flavors and increases people’s enjoyment of eating. The new State laws really loosen up the ways to get it and use it. Dispensary sales are huge. I think the demand is there and we can supply it.”

She was nodding but got silent again. He asked, “So, is it a go?”

“Honey, I have to believe that a venture like this could be really expensive. We’re saving for a house, and this would be a huge roadblock for that.”

“Well, I’ve given that a lot of thought. We talked about my inheritance from my uncle as being a retirement fund but I’m thinking some of it could go toward buying this place. Retirement can wait.”

After a long pause she sighed, “How about we grab lunch and a beer and talk some more?”

“Great idea but let’s make it quick so I can get back to the office. This cafe has beer and we’ll just take a chance on the food.”

“Okay. I like your idea, but if you don’t mind I’m going to hold off on getting too excited for now.”

Over the next two weeks Shawn met with the café owner and the realtor and examined every inch of the place. He found out what he needed to make an offer but there was one more conversation he wanted to have.

The next day on his lunch hour he visited the Summit Inn. As he walked toward the registration desk and looked around the lobby, a young woman approached him and said, “Good afternoon, welcome to The Summit Inn. How can I help you?”

“Hi, I’m Shawn McVeigh. Is the manager available?”

“Sure, he’s the owner and he’s in his office. Can I tell him what you want to see him about?”

“Well, just tell him I might be your new neighbor.”

While he waited, Shawn looked around at the lobby and down a corridor. He could tell the place had seen better days. Things looked worn and outdated, clean but not much more than that. A few minutes later a slender, impeccably dressed man walked up to the counter. “Hello, I’m John Baird, You’re Shawn and I was told you might be our new neighbor?”

Shawn extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, John, and yes, I’m considering buying the café. I thought you might be able to shed a little light on the business climate in this part of town.”

Baird paused before he said, “Well, I guess the best way to put it is that the neighborhood isn’t what it used to be.”

“Interesting. I talked to the realtor who has the café listing and he made it sound like things are busy and booming on the hill. It sounds like you disagree.”

“That’s the way it used to be but over time the big resorts down below grabbed up everything,the guests, the diners and a lot of the sightseers. We have enough traffic to keep our doors open but not much more. We’re okay…for now.”

“That’s not very encouraging. Do you have a lounge or a dining room here?”

“Nope, we send our guests over to the café.”

“Do you ever get feedback from them? Do they like the food…the place?”

“Some do and they say it’s adequate but nothing special. If you don’t mind a little advice, I think you’d better come up with a gimmick of some kind, something that makes people talk about you. Something that’ll make them drive up the hill and come through the door.”

“Well, I have an idea but it’s still a work in progress. I’ll let you know more, if and when I decide to buy the place.”

The next few days were hectic. Both Shawn and Mia juggled their day jobs while doing research on the local dining scene. They found one cannabis-based restaurant but it was miles away, in National City near the Mexican border. The resorts at the bottom of the hill offered everything from fine dining to poolside bars but nothing like what Shawn and Mia had in mind. Shawn talked to food and restaurant supply companies to get an idea of the costs to open the place and run it. Mia dug deeply into the California marijuana laws and didn’t find anything that would be a problem. When they found out that the café owners hadn’t received any offers on the building it looked like things were falling into place.

After a long meeting with their lawyer about the inheritance and many more conversations about “what ifs” they made a formal offer on the café. It was three days of quiet nervousness before they got an answer. The offer was accepted. The Hilltop Café, THC, was born.

Shawn and Mia knew the risks they were facing and that they’d have to keep their day jobs. They both had built strong local networks of business contacts that they could tap into for advice in helping them get things off the ground. Shawn’s contractor brother took on the role of Project Manager. The work on site would be his responsibility.

Thanks to a referral from a colleague who happened to love smoking pot and had contacts in the restaurant community, Shawn found the perfect man, Alvin, to run the unusual new café. Alvin knew a baker to make the cannabis infused scones and other foods. He would also train the kitchen staff in the proper and legal methods of infusing the rest of the menu.

Mia did a masterful job of creating a marketing plan. It was a perfect balance of a comfortable place to eat and drink and a place with a tempting difference. Three long, stressful but exciting months later, The Hilltop Café opened its doors.

Like any new business it took a while to build an audience. Mia had come up with an idea to make the café stand out to the passing traffic. Shawn attached a rooftop flagpole, and they hung their own unique flag; a bright yellow background with a large, green marijuana leaf inside a circle of tea leaves. It wasn’t exactly subtle but that was the point.

Some online marketing and some full-color flyers for handouts at the resorts started a trickle of attention and soon a steady flow of cars headed up the hill on Bluff Road. There was the expected turnout from the surfer and biker crowds but there was also a surprising number of business people and couples. Mia had named the Happy Hour offerings “High Tea”, and the double meaning brought large crowds. But it also brought trouble. Unexpected trouble.

A few weeks after the opening John Baird walked into the café demanding to talk to Shawn. Alvin gave him Shawn’s cellphone number and the arguing started immediately. “Hello, John, Alvin told me you wanted to talk.”

“Yes, I do. I want to tell you that I’m not happy with the kind of crowd your little café is attracting.”

“You’re kidding, right? We’ve brought in all kinds of people from the locals to the tourists. What’s your problem?”

“My problem is that some of your customers, the ones who, let’s just say, aren’t the kind of people I’m used to having in my hotel, are coming in asking for rooms.”

“Yeah, I’ve looked over a few times and noticed your parking lot was full. Good for you.”

“No, it isn’t good for me. I knew as soon as I saw that God-awful flag and all those motorcycles that there’d be trouble.”

“And an inn full of paying customers is trouble? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes a lot of sense. I have people that have stayed at my place over and over and I don’t want them to be scared off by your potheads.”

“John, we don’t call them potheads. We like to refer to them a tea lovers.”

“Shawn, don’t get cute with me. I know you think I’m being unreasonable, but there’s going to be trouble. It took me years to build my business and now you come along with your, what do you call it, infused tea and infused food and infused everything else. The people who want all that, well, you don’t know what they’ll do.”

“And my customers aren’t good enough to be your customers? Seeing that full parking lot of yours makes me think you should be thanking me not bitching about my customers.”

“Shawn, I mean it. You have to take care of this before something bad happens. I’ve already alerted the Police Department to keep a close watch on things up here.”

Shawn was silent for a moment and then said, “Your place is within walking distance of my café. I’ll tell you what, John. I’ll ask Alvin to keep an eye on who comes through our door. I’ll have him ask if they’re local or just visiting and he’ll ask the visitors where they’re staying. And anyone who says they’re staying at The Summit Inn will get a free cup of our best Mary Jane Tea. How’s that for being a good neighbor?”

“This is just a big joke to you, isn’t it? I’m telling you, I don’t want those people in The Summit Inn!”

“Well, I want them in my café.

Baird sputtered and seemed to be fumbling for a reply. Shawn took a deep breath, then added, “Okay, John, here’s what I’ll be happy to do for you. I’ll tell Alvin if he talks to anyone looking for a room, especially the surfers and bikers, that they should head over to your place and ask for you. You can tell them how you feel in person.”

“Damn you, Shawn. You haven’t heard the last of this!”

The Hilltop Café had quickly found its groove. A comfortable mix of local folks and tourists kept the seats filled every day and there were even times when people had to wait outside. Many of them enjoyed their first taste of infused tea and food. Alvin told Shawn a police car had driven through the parking lot once but left quickly.

A few weeks later, on a sunny Saturday, Shawn and Mia were standing outside the entrance enjoying their weekly visit when a white shuttle van marked Sun Spree Resort pulled up. A few minutes later four of their customers came out of the café, smiling and laughing as they boarded the van. Mia looked across the empty parking lot of the Summit Inn and saw John Baird standing near the entrance, watching the café. She waved to him and called out, “Hi, John, happy weekend!” She didn’t even try to hide her sarcastic tone. Baird didn’t respond and went back inside.

Half an hour later a long, yellow shuttle van marked Beachside Hotel and Spa pulled up to the cafe. Three people got off and walked inside. Moments later four people came out and boarded the shuttle. Unfortunately, Shawn and Mia weren’t there to enjoy the sight of John Baird, standing at his front door, watching his business die right in front of his eyes.