Staff Bios

Biography for Amy Lawrence

The idea of a tea room came to me in the summer of 2002. Previously I had been a special education teacher for Placer County teaching autistic students in the STEPS program. I have a Master’s Degree in Special Education and taught for 11 years. I took a 2 year break to be home with my own children. In August of 2002 while having tea with my mother, I told her, “This is what I want to do now! I want my own tea room.” I love to cook and have always enjoyed catering for special parties. In November of 2002, I went to Magnolia and Ivy’s Tea Conference and also became a certified tea consultant through Irene’s Teas. It all began from there. I flew to Missouri where my parents retired and bought all the antiques for the tea room. We drove a 26 foot U-Haul truck back to Newcastle. In March of 2003 the renovations began. With the help of dedicated family and friends, we finally opened on August 27, 2003.

In 2006, we won the Reader’s Choice Award for the Best Small City Tea Room in the U.S. In 2007 and 2008 we won KCRA’s A List for our category. Also in 2008 we won Sacramento Magazine’s Best of the Best award for our category.

In 2009,  I closed my tea room in order to be home more with my family and to devote full-time to my other companies: Afternoon to Remember Fine Tea and Gifts, ATR Publishing, and the International Tea Sippers Society. I currently have published six cookbooks and sold more than 10,000 of them. I am currently working on several new projects, including another cookbook and a book of resources for new tea room owners.