You don't need a hit of pixie dust to get to Neverland; in fact, you needn't go any further than the 3000-block of West Broadway.
There, in a bright space filled to capacity with shabby chic furniture, crystal chandeliers, mismatched tea sets, and ooey-gooey baked goods, even the most jaded of grown-ups find themselves reuniting with their inner lost boys and girls.
It's this dormant sense of play that co-owners Terri Tatchell and Renee Iaci hoped to awaken in their customers when they first opened Neverland Tea Salon in September.
"There's something about having tea that makes you a kid again," said Tatchell during a recent interview in the busy Kitsilano tearoom. "My goal is that you take that feeling outside with you when you leave."
Everyone is welcome in Neverland, including a segment of society long excluded from tea rooms: gluten- and dairy-sensitive folks. Gluten-free and dairy-free alternatives are available for nearly every item on the menu — including traditionally out-of-bounds fare such as scones, cucumber sandwiches and Devonshire cream. "There are so many desserts that we have on our gluten-free menu which we also put on our regular menu because they're just delicious," said Iaci. "Gluten-lovers like myself don't know the difference."
Its a tearoom where Westside ladies, artists and students can gab, dine and sip loose-leaf teas while little girls wearing princess dresses pulled from Neverlands own tickle trunk play tea party with antique china; where, as afternoon bleeds into evening, customers can linger with their tea-infused cocktails and enjoy open mic performances on a Murphy-bed stage.
Rewind one year, and Neverland was little more than an unformed need. Tatchell — a busy screenwriter who, with her husband Neill Blomkamp, was nominated for a best adapted screenplay Academy Award for District 9 — found herself longing for a place where she could write and be happy at the same time. "Neill always says to me, 'It's such a shame that youre a good writer because it's the worst job in the world for you,'" said Tatchell. "I'm so social, and I'll go into my little cave and write and be deeply depressed because it's so not social."
Tatchell brainstormed a list of secondary businesses that could address this need and tea salon quickly rose to the top spot. "Usually I'll get these crazy ideas and talk myself out of it, but this one kept sticking," she said.
Soon Tatchell roped her long-time friend Iaci, an educator and founding member of Shameless Hussy Productions, into her tea scheme, and before long, the two were scouting locations and schooling themselves in baking, business, décor, and tea (the latter of which Iaci sources from all over the world; her favourite is Take Me to Neverland, a blend of chocolate and mint, while Tatchell is giddy with glee about the boozy tipsy teas).
Neverland draws its inspiration from whimsy, Peter Pan, and European tearooms. "It's the attitude of London but the luxury of Paris," Tatchell explained. And it's located in the middle of the West Broadway block around which she once pushed her daughter's stroller. "There is no block I love more in Vancouver," she said. "It's a very unique part of town that blends a lot of personalities."
Tatchell and Iaci wanted Neverland to feel like a home away from home for its patrons. To that end, they scoured Craigslist and drove all over the Lower Mainland in search of time-worn tables, over-stuffed chairs, and vintage bric-a-brac.
Their favourite find greets customers upon entry: a huge window that served its purpose for more than one hundred years at Christ Church Cathedral (and is now in use as a room divider).
One thing you wont see in Neverland is Tatchell doing what she originally set out to do. "I created this place so I could be writing, but that's never going to happen here," said Tatchell, co-writer of Chappie, currently filming in South Africa. (She's also adapting Kitsilano-based author Susin Nielsen's Word Nerd for the screen. Read story here.) "I've still got my little cave for that."
