Tea-Cake: Getliffe’s Yard, Leek
If you’ve never been to Getliffe’s Yard in Leek, then you’re missing a real treat.
Through a little archway just off Derby Street, not far from where it meets the imposing Nicholson War Memorial, you could perhaps be forgiven for not even noticing it’s there.
But this treasure trove of independent shops, businesses and cafés is well worth seeking out and, covered with an impressive glass roof, there’s no need to let rainy weather spoil your visit.
Dating from the early nineteenth century, and still with the original cobblestones, Getliffe’s Yard has been transformed into a great example of why so many people love Leek; full of intriguing one-offs that make it so special and a million miles away from the identikit towns that are, sadly, widespread across much of Britain now.
Like many independent shops, cafés and businesses, most of those in Getliffe’s Yard open up on those Sundays when it’s the monthly Totally Locally Leek Sunday Supplement – a great event that sees the town buzzing with people browsing the stalls of food, crafts and art or enjoying eating and drinking in one of the local cafés and pubs or listening to the street musicians.
It was at the October Sunday Supplement, after some shopping and enjoying the bands performing around the town as part of the Leek Blues & Americana Festival, that we decided to try a new tearoom that had recently opened up in Getliffe’s Yard: Tea-Cake.
Tea-Cake is much more than just a tearoom though; it also displays and sells handcrafted home wares and gifts made by local designer-makers – including the lovely decorated porcelain on which they serve their hot drinks, homemade cakes, scones and sandwiches.
Over two floors, Tea-Cake is beautifully decorated with patterns from the porcelain echoed on some of the walls.
There’s some seating downstairs, plus the display of gifts and home wares, with more seating reached via a beautiful, white-painted iron staircase. Here, the wonderful glass ceiling of Getliffe’s Yard is used to lovely effect and even on quite a dull day the tearoom seemed bright and welcoming. Jugs of fresh flowers on every table and original artworks on the walls added to the cheerful-looking decor and we immediately felt that we were going to like it here.
From the range of six sandwiches listed on the day’s menu, all of which are served with coleslaw, crisps and salad garnish, we both chose the salmon and cucumber on brown bread which arrived pretty quickly and on their lovely decorated plates. The sandwiches were generously filled and the malted grain bread of very good quality. The salad garnish was nice and fresh and a welcome, crunchy accompaniment along with the crisps and a little pot of coleslaw on the side.
I guess that most people wanting to read about a place called Tea-Cake will be rather interested in the cakes on offer and here there were eight delicious-looking cakes to choose from including Carrot Cake, Almond Slice and Chocolate Malteser Cake. The range also included two gluten-free options.
They certainly don’t skimp on portions at Tea-Cake, so when my partner chose the Victoria Sponge it came in a very substantial slice. I helped him out (not that he needed it) and we found it to be lovely and light with a good amount of buttercream and jam filling.
I decided to try the cream tea: a choice of plain, fruit or gluten-free scone, served with butter, jam and clotted cream, plus tea or coffee. I opted for a fruit scone and an Americano without milk.
Now, when ordering a cream tea, I make it a point of principle (okay, call it what it is: greed) to try to use every bit of butter, cream and jam that is served to me and I rarely fail. By the way, it’s always in that order of butter-cream-jam; I’m with Devon on that one as, despite loving their clotted cream, I can’t agree with the Cornish custom of jam before cream. Anyway, Tea-Cake beat me! I was fine with the jam, virtually all of the cream (I admit I resorted to getting the last bit out of the dish with my finger and licking it…) but even I couldn’t finish all the butter. It’s not that I want to encourage waste, I just hate it when you have to make a little butter go a long way – not something Tea-Cake can be accused of.
The scone itself was just right, with plenty of fruit. The clotted cream was lovely and the strawberry jam tasted like good quality stuff too.
My very good coffee came in a cafetiere, enough for one and a half servings, without milk, in their quite large cups. My partner’s English Breakfast tea was served in a large, beautiful teapot which, along with the milk jug, matched the pretty sugar bowl already on the table.
We thoroughly enjoyed our first visit to Tea-Cake. Besides the food and drink which we cannot fault, the staff were very friendly and the whole operation seemed very efficient. We didn’t have to wait long to be served, even though most tables were full most of the time, and everyone else appeared to get their orders pretty swiftly too.
I think this lovely little tearoom is a great addition to Getliffe’s Yard and fits in so well with the independent, Totally Locally, spirit of Leek with its mission to get more of us supporting local small businesses and for those businesses to support each other.
We’ll certainly be returning soon and I hope you’ll treat yourself to a little Tea-Cake too.
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