SUMNER, Wash. — There's a Victorian mansion in Sumner where people wear their Sunday best, pour each other tea and nibble finger foods from a flower-laden tower.
"This is a home away from home," said Claudia Fox, a member of this private dining club. "A place where friends become family. If I could come here every day, I would."
Elizabeth Kleingartner and her husband Mark provide the classic afternoon tea experience that dates back more than 200 years.
"In the early 1800's the Duchess of Bedford realized that she was getting cranky and hungry in the later afternoons because they ate dinner so very late at that time," Kleingartner said. "And so she asked the servants to bring her some little sandwiches and cakes to her boudoir and then she started inviting some of her ladies in waiting to join her and pretty soon it became a custom for the upper class to indulge in a little afternoon tea every day."
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Almost everything served at The Secret Garden is made from scratch. Before COVID, the Kleingartners hired a huge team to serve more than a hundred customers a day. Post COVID, The Secret Garden has become a private club with members who pay dues.
"And it's been so much fun and really successful," Kleingartner said.
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On Wednesdays, the general public can visit The Secret Garden website to try to reserve a table. But members, like Claudia Fox, always have first choice.
"Membership has its privileges," she said.
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