Local Tea Room Aims to Create Safe Space for LGBTQ+ Community
BATHURST – D’s Tea Room is officially open at 115 Main Street in Bathurst. Having had their grand opening on June 3rd, Wendy Landry, owner of D’s Tea Room, was beyond surprised at the instant hit that the tea room had been.
D’s Tea Room brings a new sort of style to how many people may think of a tea room. Unlike the traditional style that you may see in London, Landry says that she wanted to bring a different, more relaxed and laid-back atmosphere to her tea room.
“It’s just a place where you can come in and if you want to sit down with your laptop or your phone or whatever, get a little bit of work done, or come in with friends and sit around and chat,” Landry tells Huddle.
Landry says that all the tea that is used in D’s Tea Room is loose tea, making it better for the environment, from Bush Berry in British Columbia. All the tea leaves are compostable, and will even be free to take for any local gardeners to ensure that nothing is going to waste.
Along with this, Landry says that she wanted to open D’s Tea Room to give the local high school students a safe space to go on their lunch, and in their free time. Owning a craft store that is located alongside D’s Tea Room, Landry says that she has seen many of the high school kids looking for more affordable lunch options.
“We’ve been slowly launching different things and every month we’re going to have something new and hopefully the full menu will be up for the new school year, next year, for the kids so they have a cheaper alternative [for lunch],” says Landry.
With this, Landry says that many of the students in which she sees in her craft store have disclosed to her that they are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. This inspired her to open up the tea room and make it the ultimate safe space for the LGBTQ+ community.
In the future, Landry says that they are planning on hosting some events at D’s Tea Room, such as metaphysical nights. After having poor experiences in the past with haters, she plans to have tickets available ahead of time for each event so that she can monitor who is coming and ensure that the events will remain a safe space for everyone in attendance.
Currently, D’s Tea Room has a wide variety of teas and specialty drinks available, as well as food and desserts. Many of the specialty drinks found at D’s Tea Room are based off the local community of Bathurst, such as the Phantom Sunset, the Youghall Sunrise, and everyone’s favourite, the Toasted Marshmallow that is based off a local community member.
“My goal is just to be a cute little café where locals and tourists can pop in, have a conversation, we haven’t had anyone yet come in that hasn’t stayed for at least half an hour just to chitchat,” says Landry.
By the end of the year, Landry says that she aims to have D’s Tea Room be 99% earth friendly, with the exception of the straws. However, they will still be compostable instead of paper.
“Everything else is actually going to be environmentally friendly,” she says. “All our packaging that we’re using, once the cups we have right now are gone because I didn’t know it was an option, all our plastic is going to be compostable.”
Having reached 200 customers earlier this week, Landry says that she loves to see everyone come in and try something new. She says that even those who are typically coffee drinkers have come in and found something they loved. There really is something for everyone.
Ryley Roach is a Huddle student intern, based in Fredericton. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].