Queen Elizabeth II graces Penny Poppins British Cafe as Elton John and Bee Gee’s music plays in the background and customers dig into generous portions of bangers and mash, and shepherd’s pie.
“She’s looking well!” banters David Saunders, from London, looking at the life-size cut-out of the Queen in the cozy 6th Avenue eatery.
Taking in a slice of home from across the Atlantic, Saunders, who now lives in Vero Beach, placed a to-go order for two pounds of frozen English sausage.
“It’s unique here,” he said of the café/tea room, which is located on 6th Ave., at the western edge of Treasure Coast Plaza. “There isn’t anything like it in Vero.”
Where else can you find Coronation chicken salad (mild curry flavor created for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II), and sandwiches deemed Tower Bridge turkey Stratford salmon and Cotswold cucumber and cream cheese?
Owner Penny Hawkes decided to bring English cooking and baking to Vero Beach last year, and settled on a name befitting the business, combining her first name with imaginary English nanny Mary Poppins’ last name.
Originally named Penny Poppins British Bakery and Tea Room, Hawkes recently changed it to reflect that she offers more than tea and scones. That said, anyone ordering the cream tea will be delighted to discover it’s exquisitely prepared – black, deejarling, herbal, earl gray or English breakfast tea steeped and served in a tall china teapot and poured into teacups; with it, two homemade scones, strawberry and raspberry preserve and clotted cream served on a silver platter.
Others wanting a traditional afternoon tea will be served steeped tea with finger sandwiches, scones and cakes on a three-tiered platter. But those with hearty appetites have a wide selection of menu items to choose from.
“‘We’re more than a tea room and a slice of cake!” Hawkes said.
Evidence of that showed up at one table where two customers seated in the so-called gold “throne” chairs by the window were served a steak bake – steak and potato cooked in a rich gravy and baked inside puff pastry – and bangers and mash – British sausages on a pile of mash potato with beef gravy.
One table over, a customer delved into the ploughman’s lunch – a mainstay of pub menus consisting of an assortment of imported cheeses and rolled meat served with pickled onions, English chutneys of piccalilli and Branston Pickle, crusty bread, sliced apple and a small mixture of salad greens. All of this was served with a bit of history about the origin of the dish.
“The ploughmen who’d go out to the fields and plow, would bring a hunk of bread and different cheeses, pickled onions and relishes and an apple with them and that’d be lunch,” said Hawkes.
At another table, a customer dug into the Cornish pasty – a hot meal consisting of skirt steak, potato, onion and rutabaga.
“Cornish pasty was invented for mine workers in Cornwall and it was made of a heavy kind of bread dough with a thick woven edge,” she said. “Miners would hold the edge while they ate the pie so they wouldn’t get dirt in the food.”
At Penny Poppins, the authenticity of the English food is accentuated by the ambiance Hawkes creates in her café, which has dark oak tables, counters and floors, framed illustrations of London scenes and posters of the royal couple – Prince William and Kate – and Sir Winston Churchill. Pub plates hang on a wall, and there’s a Welsh dresser with books on England and bits of memorabilia on display.
Adding to the charm are the friendly waitresses, also from England, and the variety of English accents adds to the guessing game of where they are from. Hawkes is from a small town in Worcestershire so her accent is a blend of farmer-townie. Two waitresses speak with Essex and London accents.
“They say, ‘I love your accent, just keep talking…I want to hear your accent even if I can’t understand what you’re saying,'” said the no-nonsense owner who came to the area in 2010 with her husband and their daughter.
Hawkes once owned hair salons in England, but wanted to bring a taste of England to Vero Beach. She claims the British cakes, sausages and bacon are very different in taste and texture from American versions.
As for tea, Hawkes says, the importance of it should not be overlooked. “Everything in England is fixed over a cup of tea. When you’re fed up, depressed, really down, it picks you up, makes you feel better.”