On a recent trip to San Francisco, I made my way up to Ghirardelli Square, not really sure of what to expect. Tucked in at the base of the iconic Ghirardelli sign, Ghirardelli Square offers a lovely collection of shops and places to wistfully spend your day. From Lori’s Diner, to Kora’s Cupcakes, to Lola of North Beach, there are plenty of kitschy venues to grab a bite, or even find the perfect gift.
However, none of these establishments will get you nearly as excited nor as giddy as the Crown & Crumpet will. As an American living in London, I was of course intrigued to see such an English sounding place hiding in the middle of Ghirardelli Square. And when I walked in to the Crown & Crumpet for the first time, I was overcome with delight. It was like being draped in cotton candy, wrapped up in Cath Kidston bed linen, slurping down a strawberry milkshake, and French kissing Colin Firth all at the same time.
Perhaps the best way to describe the Crown & Crumpet is that it is, simply put, an Anglophile’s wet dream.
A shop and tearoom combined, not only can you have the ultimate afternoon tea experience, but you can purchase English goods, teas, stationary, sweets, and tea cups all under the same roof. (Or another roof, as they have an additional, even bigger shop in Ghirardelli Square downstairs.) There are quirky gifts from Cath Kidston and Emma Bridgewater, and, much to my joy, the Crown & Crumpet is the only tea shop I’ve ever been to that sells the infamous Lady Gaga purple tea cup. (And in pink, blue, and yellow, no less!)
So who are the geniuses behind this amazing, delicious, and highly aesthetic shop of pure genius known as the Crown & Crumpet? Amy and Christopher Dean, that’s who.
Christopher Dean, of the ‘Pearl & Dean’ Deans, is a lovely English chap and a former antique dealer, who married an eccentric, enigmatic, educated and artistic American woman named Amy. When I met the couple at the Crown & Crumpet earlier this year, I was immediate drawn to them, and their classic Quiet-British-Boy-Meets-Much Louder-American-Girl dynamic.
Christopher quietly dotes around the shop while Amy, full to the brim with enthusiasm and passion for her fantastic tearoom, shows me around, unconsciously slipping in and out of an English accent that would make even Nigella Lawson feel a bit common.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time in the Crown & Crumpet as I would have liked as had a plane to catch, but as luck would have it, Amy and Christopher were headed to London a few weeks after we initially met. So a few weeks later, in a completely different time zone and on a completely different continent, Amy and I met again and had a chat over tea in one the many sitting rooms at the Sloane Club.
“My husband and I have always wanted to have a tea room. Or be involved with tea in some way," Amy explains as she sips her breakfast tea, “We love tea, and our wedding was even a big afternoon tea party. We had a retail store for eight years in San Francisco called La Place de Soleil, which sold mostly French and English antiques, with a few bits and pieces that we would bring over from England. So we thought if we’re going to [open a tearoom], we’re going to have to do it big.”
And big it is, indeed. The Crown & Crumpet opened in October 2008, and it comes as no surprise when Amy tells me people “freak out” when they first discover the Crown & Crumpet. They’ve received press from countless websites, magazines such as Glamour and Town & Country, and were even a winner of Daily Candy’s coveted “Sweetest Things” title.
The Crown & Crumpet is certainly something special, and it comes not from a fleeting or trendy attraction to teapots, cupcakes and all things quintessentially English, but a much deeper appreciation for the history, the decorum, and the “sense of pageantry”, as Amy says, of English culture.
“A lot of people are enamoured with France, or whatever, but if you don’t speak the language it can be a little tricky, and you can’t read the literature. But the Crown & Crumpet works because people connect with England. I just think people enamour the history, the beauty, the Queen... I mean Princess Diana did a lot for England, PR wise.”
Amy then dips naturally back in to that regal, overly posh accent of hers, and points out that a lot of the obsession with England comes from the accent.
“The accent is the biggest pull! People are just obsessed with the damn accent!”
The conversation turns from accents and giggling over things that only Anglophiles would find funny, to Cath Kidston. Amy raises an eyebrow and says the girls at the Cath Kidston store on Kings Road told her that Cath plans on opening up a tearoom herself. I ask Amy what she thinks of Cath and why Amy believes that the whole domestic/tea/cake/1950s Worship trend has become so popular as of late.
“I think that people just hanker for a time and a lifestyle when things were affordable and pretty. You now, it’s feminine. And she’s not a domestic goddess like Nigella Lawson. She doesn’t talk about how it’s OK to be sitting at home baking cookies all day. I think it’s much more subtle than that.
“She’s just encompassed this whole lifestyle . There’s Ralph Lauren lifestyle, you have the mid-century interior thing, the modern thing, and then you have Cath Kidston - which is just a little bit funnier, quirkier. She’s selling an entire package, and it’s easy for people to identify with.”
What I find fascinating about Amy, a walking, talking, fantastic amalgamation of English and American culture, (with some really awesome headbands, I might add), is that she is so fierce about what she does, and that she has such an interesting and creative past.
Armed with a degree in history from Oxford, Amy has done everything from learning about antique textiles from Paul Jones on Kings Road, working as “glorified window dresser” at Ralph Lauren for five years, to being a prop buyer and set dresser for feature films (and the Spice Girls’ “Wanna Be” video), working as photo stylist in San Francisco, starting up La Place de Soleil with Christopher in 2001, and now opening the Crown & Crumpet.
With such a love of antiques and textiles, an extensive experience with set design, and degree in History, it’s easy to see how the Crown & Crumpet was the result of a natural progression of both Amy and Christopher’s talents.
Because the Crown & Crumpet is so unique, and because there is so much attention paid to those extra details and touches that no one else would think of, Amy says she’s not worried about copycat shops and tearooms popping up.
“My attitude with that, and this is really important to get out to the Universe, is that there are so many people who are very afraid of being copied of being imitated, and you have to let it go. You have to let it go because it will really destroy you and your soul.”
So really? I asked. You’re not worried about being ripped off?
“If someone wants to copy us, good luck,” Amy laughs putting down her tea and snapping a biscuit in half, “First of all, you’ll need half a million dollars. Second of all, they’re going to do it their own way, anyway. They’re not going to get the exact thing. I tell people a lot of information, more than I probably should, but they’re not going to do it the same way because they don’t have my taste. So if they want to attempt to do something, go for it. Their own ideas are going to emerge and evolve, and be different from what I’m doing.”
I mention to Amy that a lot of those people who are so consumed by making sure others don’t copy their ideas are usually the same people who don’t want photos taken of their shops or their art or what have you.
Amy nods, “Our shop manager and I used to get really riled up about people taking photos of everything. Like, ‘Oh they shouldn’t be doing this!’ but then I thought, hold on a second, they’re taking pictures and they’re showing them to their girlfriends, their moms, their sisters...”
Ah, finally! Business owners who understand the beauty of people posting and sharing their photos of places and food online! To Amy and Christopher, the photos that are taken and subsequently shared with others both in real life and online (by paying customers and passersby alike) are essential to their business.
“I can’t tell you how many people have come in to us from all over the world - Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore – and they say that their friends came there on vacation, took photos and showed it to them, and that they had to come and find out who [the Crown & Crumpet] are. Those pictures spread the gospel of tea, and people’s experience with us.”
And what and experience it is.
The hot pink Crown & Crumpet menus are filled with delicious English treats such as toasted crumpets smothered in ham, cheddar cheese and mustard, or jacket potatoes topped with bacon, avocado, tomato and cheddar. Then, of course, you have the various combinations of cakes, scones and sandwiches for your afternoon tea. The actual tea served at the Crown & Crumpet is of fantastic quality, delicious, and quite extensive, as their menu even includes a tea called Marie Antoinette, rumoured to be its namesake’s favourite, which is comprised of bergamot, blue mallow and roses.
Perhaps what gives the Crown & Crumpet that extra bit of fairy dust that no one else could recreate is, in my opinion that the business is run by a very unique married couple. An English tearoom in America, run by a self-proclaimed Anglophile and a genuine Brit, who both very much enjoy working together.
“This business is his and mine. It isn’t just me. There’s a lot out there about women-run businesses and women starting businesses... I mean, I have friends ask, ‘How do you work with him?!’ And it’s just like, we really like each other! We like to be with each other, and we really missed it when he had to go get another job for a while. So it’s really nice to be working together. But yes,The Crown & Crumpet is ours, together.”
Considering the Crown & Crumpet has done so well in California, and despite London overflowing with cupcake bakeries, and teashops, the city does seem to be lacking in proper, affordable tearooms. So will the Crown & Crumpet be making its English debut anytime soon?
“Eventually we would love to. It’s funny because when we talk to people about it and show them our pictures everyone is really enthusiastic about it. They don’t sit there and go, ‘Oh, that’s so American,’ or , ‘That’s only good for you in America.’ They want it here.
“Because there are tearooms that aren’t really...There are hotel tea places, and there are cafés that do tea. And our business is so highly stylized and so branded, that that’s part of the success of it. It costs more money, but it brings more money in because people remember it, the experience of it.
"But no one has reacted negatively because I’m American. And because Chris is English it’s not like the Americans infiltrating or anything. But I am amazed that people are interested, because it’s a bit like selling coal to Newcastle, but everyone’s been really enthusiastic about it when we tell them.”
So there you have it. With one booming location in San Francisco, an online shop in the works, and a London version of the Crown & Crumpet possibly on the horizon, there is seemingly no stopping the magnificent duo that is Amy & Christopher Dean.
And I can’t see why anyone would want to.
All images © The Crown & Crumpet