News Release The Huntingtons Historic Tea Room Slated to Reopen by Spring 2023

Table Of Content

• Airy spaces, fanciful finger foods, and the new Shakespeare Pavilion add to the destination's elegant allure.
• Blend of nature and history brewing at Huntington's renovated Rose Garden Tea Room
• Take a sneak peek inside The Huntington's revamped Rose Garden Tea Room
• Tea time is back at The Huntington Library, as…
• Encampment builds as Cal State LA students rally for Palestine on May Day
• Cool Food Events and Pop-Ups to Check Out This Week in Los Angeles: April 26

For $62 per person, tea is served with house-made scones (one is flecked with rich butterscotch), as well as a selection of savory finger sandwiches and delicate sweets created by executive chef Jeff Thurston and pastry chef Luis Perez. This garden was started nearly 100 years ago with plants from a range of places, including local nurseries and public parks in addition to private residences. In current times, there are 60 landscaped beds in the Desert Garden that feature more than 2,000 species of desert plants. From beautiful succulents to colorful blooming cacti to agave and aloe, there is plenty to see—and Southern California's coastal climate is the perfect place to keep this dry garden alive. 6, 2025 | This exhibition displays 24 artworks and a performance piece highlighting how Chinese gardens have served as transformative spaces for growing and contemplating plants, encouraging visitors to view their gardens as sources of delight, nourishment, and inspiration. Three striking new works by California-based artist Mineo Mizuno activate the Huntington Art Gallery and its outdoor loggia to invite new ways of looking at the art collections and surrounding gardens.

Airy spaces, fanciful finger foods, and the new Shakespeare Pavilion add to the destination's elegant allure.

Members at the Premier levels (Affiliate, Patron, Supporting, Benefactor, and Society of Fellows) are eligible for a 10% discount! TISANES Chamomile Clementine - An organic tea blend that delivers both sweet and velvety flavor notes. Pacific Coast Mint - This refreshing organic blend of spearmint and peppermint is harvested from the coasts of Oregon and California. French Lemon Ginger - A soothing organic lemon ginger blend comprised of spicy, grassy, and citrus flavor notes.

Blend of nature and history brewing at Huntington's renovated Rose Garden Tea Room

A high tea option will include champagne and such items as lobster salad in phyllo with Maldon sea salt and shaved black truffles. A higher-end option includes champagne and such items as poached Maine lobster roll with Hawaiian black sea salt and micro celery. Vegan, gluten-free, and children's menus are also available, along with additions, and Champagne, wine, and cocktails by the glass.

Take a sneak peek inside The Huntington's revamped Rose Garden Tea Room

He wanted to present a fresh take on all the favorites plus some seasonally selected features to showcase what’s in bloom. SAN MARINO, Calif. — Flowers — flowers everywhere — and even some to drink with a rose-infused tea offered as one of many varieties available in the newly renovated Rose Garden Tea Room at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens. Those sweet occasions were put on hold, first in March 2020, when the Rose Garden Tea Room shuttered in response to the pandemic, and then in early 2021, when a new vision for the space took root.

On reopening day, community calls the revival of Cafe Tropical a ‘triumph’

The Rose Garden Tea Room opened its petals on May 24, 2023, giving flower fans and lovers of traditional tea services a peek at the pretty, light-filled spaces and the airy Shakespeare Pavilion. Plush green chairs with sleek wooden armrests and scattered white-marble-topped tables make for a peaceful scene, noticeably lacking in the hectic sound of traffic and horns that serves as the soundtrack for most of the city’s outdoor dining experiences. The only honking is that of Canadian geese, mixed with the trill of bird calls and patter of the garden fountain. Serving a selection of grilled items, house-made soups, hand-crafted sandwiches, salads, tacos, tostada bowls, and house-made salsas, 1919 Cafe offers indoor and outdoor dining.

Inside the secret poker games opening doors in L.A.’s art scene

Eventually there will be koi in the garden pond by the house, and the water circulating in that pond will be enriched with their poop, she says, and help feed the farmland below. Around the house is decorative edging called rain catchers — narrow drains filled with smooth gray rocks to collect any rain or dew falling off the roof, which also drained to the farming areas below. The final phase of the Huntington’s famed Chinese Garden is scheduled to open Oct. 9, with an additional 11.5 acres, or 15 acres total with new pavilions, landscaping and — someday — even restaurants. Hori already was thinking about a big project for the Japanese Gardens when he first met Yohko Yokoi. The Huntington’s Chinese Garden was in the midst of a huge expansion, and the discussion was how to add to the Japanese Garden to balance the two, says Hori. “This was an ongoing conversation we’d been having [at the Huntington] since 2012, and I’d been taking several trips to Japan to figure out what we should be adding next to that garden,” he says.

At the start of each month, get a roundup of upcoming plant-related activities and events in Southern California, along with links to tips and articles you may have missed. At home, he inspires his Watts neighbors with his low-cost, DIY garden full of native plants, herbs and food. Consider the distinctive conical ceramic tiles covering the pitched roof like rows of tight curls.

A Renovation Blooms for The Huntington's Rose Garden Tea Room - NBC Los Angeles

A Renovation Blooms for The Huntington's Rose Garden Tea Room.

Posted: Fri, 22 Jan 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Encampment builds as Cal State LA students rally for Palestine on May Day

The San Marino-based nonprofit, famed for its gardens and art collections, will restore the entrance of the original 1911 building. The journey took nearly eight years of negotiations, bureaucratic wrangling and skilled craftsmanship to dismantle, reassemble and, in some cases, re-create the 3,000-square-foot house and gardens. And starting Saturday, visitors can finally tour the compound, which will be open daily from noon to 4 p.m.

French Lemon Ginger A soothing organic lemon ginger blend comprised of spicy, grassy, and citrus flavor notes. Chamomile Clementine An organic tea blend that delivers both sweet and velvety flavor notes. Originally created for the owners' enjoyment, the Rose Garden is now one of the most beautiful spots on the Huntington Library property. The site features more than 3,000 individual rose plants made up of 1,200 different varieties along winding pathways and atop a hillside vista.

There were plenty of trying times — more than two years of negotiating with city, state and federal officials to get the necessary approvals and occupancy permit to move and rebuild the house. And in the midst of the pandemic, when the disassembled house sat in dozens of packing crates for nearly nine months, Hori had to coax reluctant Japanese craftspeople to come and put it together so the ancient wood pieces didn’t warp in SoCal’s dry summer heat. The Herb Garden was one of The Huntington’s original gardens, “so the garden-building relationship was absolutely central to everything we thought about,” said Stephen Farneth, project architect for the renovation.

The Rose Garden Tea Room was designed by the preeminent architect Myron Hunt—who also designed the Rose Bowl Stadium— to serve as a billiard room and bowling alley for Huntington founder Henry E. Huntington. Hints of the original bowling alley can still be seen in the entranceway to the dining room, as Farneth pointed out. The entrance has also shifted away from the front of the original Tea Room, instead opening to the Rose Arbor walkway on the east of the building, which will provide direct access to the to all three dining areas and allow the Tea Room to function solely as a dining space. SAN MARINO — After a three-year closure, the public will be able to catch the first glimpse of the renovated Rose Garden Tea Room at the historic Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens starting next month. If man caves existed in the early 20th century, then American railroad tycoon Henry Huntington had one of the finest. Built in 1911 on his sprawling San Marino estate, Huntington’s social retreat — just a short walk through the rose arbor from his mansion — was built in a classical revival-style outbuilding containing a billiard and card room and a two-lane bowling alley.

The Huntington returned it in pieces to Japan, where the original builder’s son oversaw its restoration. The building will host demonstrations and classes related to the Japanese tea ceremony. But over a century, shifting soil, termite damage, and general decay left the once-enchanting grounds in less than exemplary condition. Though small updates and repairs had been made sporadically since the garden opened to the public in 1928, structures such as the Japanese House, made in part of reed mats and rice paper, were in need of expert care.

Explore the history of Los Angeles’ Chinatown, the first community in North America to be planned and owned by people of Chinese descent. This site-specific work explores the fragility of the Earth’s ecosystem, as well as the destruction of the forest and its potential for regeneration. The sculpture celebrates the beauty of wood in its natural state and emphasizes its potential as a reusable and renewable resource. The Huntington Library’s extraordinary holdings of 12 million items reveal an infinite number of stories. The works on display give voice to some of the collection’s depth and breadth in the culture and history of North America, the British Isles, continental Europe, the Atlantic world, and the Pacific Rim. Feb. 17–May 20, 2024 | This exhibition of 43 works is dedicated to the work of Sargent Claude Johnson, the California artist whose uplifting portrayals of people of color made him the West Coast’s key connection to the Harlem Renaissance.

The plants are labeled with their names as well as the years they were introduced to the garden. The flowers typically start to bloom in March and are often alive into December, meaning that the colorful garden is the perfect place for a romantic stroll for most of the year. For over a century, the historic Japanese Garden has been one of the most beloved and iconic landscapes at The Huntington, with its distinctive moon bridge, picture-postcard views of koi-filled ponds and the historic Japanese House. One of the most popular spots at The Huntington, the Japanese Garden has attracted millions of visitors and remains a site of both fascination and contemplation. Built in 1911, The Huntington’s Rose Garden Tea Room was originally created as a billiard room and bowling alley for Huntington founder Henry E. Huntington. The building was designed by architect Myron Hunt, who also designed Henry and wife Arabella Huntington’s residence (now the Huntington Art Gallery), the Library building, and the Huntingtons’ garage (now the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery).

This 3,000-square-foot residence built around 1700, served as the center of village life in Marugame, Japan. Visitors will be able to walk through a portion of the house and see how inhabitants lived their daily lives within the thoughtfully designed and meticulously crafted 320-year-old structure. The tea house was much smaller than the shōya house, says Nicole Cavender, director of the Huntington’s botanical gardens, but it gave them the confidence to tackle a much larger structure and create a reconstruction of village life.

On the opposite end of the building, Herb’s Room, facing the Herb Garden, was also renovated and will be made available for private rentals. Eager to snack on small sandwiches and sweets — think smoked salmon with dill cream cheese and caviar as well as buckwheat financiers — and sip beautiful brews at the lovely location? You'll need a ticket to The Huntington as well as a Rose Garden Tea Room reservation.