Thursday, 11 May 2017

London (Thursday May 11th 2017):

A UK chain of tea rooms has become the first restaurant in the world to introduce a Cinderella Carriage as a dining table in its two London branches at House of Fraser Oxford Street and House of Fraser Victoria Street.

The Tea Terrace restaurants and tea rooms announced that it has installed the unique carriages at its two London branches and says that demand has been overwhelming as customers rush to book it for afternoon tea or lunch.

Ehab Shouly, Managing Director of The Tea Terrace, said the company is proud to be the first in the world to introduce this kind of unique dining experience at its restaurants.

He explained that he came up with the idea after hearing many of his customers refer to the interior design of their tea rooms as a fairytale or Alice in Wonderland themed.

"We are always looking at innovative ways to attract new customers. We want to reinvent the concept of eating out and dining. It's no longer about just the food, it's now more about the experience and the photo opportunity that the restaurant presents to its customers so they can share the photos on social media," he said.

Shouly added that The Tea Terrace first introduced high-back 'throne' chairs at its three branches in London and Guildford (Surrey) two years ago in order to create a unique look for their "very English" tea rooms.

"We have these amazing high-back throne chairs which we had custom made for our tea rooms. They look very regal so fit in perfectly with the ambience of a very English tea room serving afternoon tea. But we found that people love sitting in them and taking photos, especially tourists who like to pretend they are royalty by sitting in the thrones. We even bought faux crowns that they can wear on their heads for the photos, and customers love them," he said.

As The Tea Terrace started attracting more younger families because of its blue and pink pastel interior design, Shouly decided to create something even more unique which will be attractive for young families and even young ladies in the 20 to 40 age range.

After a brain-storming session with his and business partner Rowena Shouly, they decided that they would recreate a Cinderella carriage and build it with a table that can be folded down for people to sit in it.

"We looked and looked for a furniture company that can build it for us and everybody thought we were crazy. We finally found a company abroad that builds carriages. We submitted a sketch which I hand-drew myself and told them this is what we want. So they built a working carriage for us with the table and seating for 6. It looks amazing," the Tea Terrace executive said.

The carriages are huge and weigh half a tonne each. To get them to the 5th floor of the House of Fraser department stores where The Tea Terrace is located, they had to go through a special design process to have them built in sections so they can be dismantled when they arrive in the UK and taken up to the tea rooms and reassembled.

"This required a lot of planning but we're thrilled with the results. When we installed them yesterday, the customers who were dining at our tea rooms couldn't believe what they were seeing. They all wanted to take photos in the carriages and were telling us they will come back with their children or their friends to dine in the carriage," Shouly said.

The Tea Terrace posted photos and announcement of the carriage on their Facebook and 12 hours later they had more 25,000 views and 300 comments and more than 30 requests for booking the carriage.

"People are booking it for special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, or for a romantic date. We even had a bride-to-be email us asking if she can book out the entire tea room to have her wedding in it. A young lady also booked the carriage for her parent's 50th wedding anniversary. She said her parents would love it,".

The Tea Terrace is now taking bookings for the carriages. There is a usage charge of £15 per person (£7.50 for children under 12) and a minimum spend of £19.25 for either an afternoon tea for one or a lunch comprising of a main course, dessert and a drink.

For further information please email ehab.shouly@TheTeaTerrace.com

Www.TheTeaTerrace.com