Chateau Chansons d’Amour

I think this is nice place for a certain sort of person. Don’t expect your hot-​wing popping, coors-​beer drinking friends to appreciate the ambiance. This is more feminine situation best arranged for showers and girly events.
My impression from my visit was pleasant and odd. The location is up a mysterious dirt road behind Ciao Bella in Ben Lomond. You think you might be lost, but then there is a sign. The house is not «Tea Housey» from the outside. It’s a nice Arts and Crafts style house precariously stuck on the side of one of our mountain sides.
The house is very interesting and they do give you a tour. Being I used to be a historical tour guide, I sort of knew the drill. «Many famous people stayed here… Art’s and Crafts style. antique…ect…»
Yet I felt I was being given a tour of someone’s regular house. It seemed like the house of a nice lady who collected fancy antiques and their stories and had her own personal style of decorating which has the common theme of everything being.well.antique. And it smelled like my grandma’s house; fancy perfume, baking, and the pervasive scent of dog.
Tea was fun, lots of little tasty-​tidbits right out of a hotel English Tea.
Teas are VERY fancy and served in those foofy fanciful teapots you see in people’s china cabinets. As far as English Teas I prefer mine offered buffet style (as in most hotels) but the courses were pleasant and I felt the hostess and host worked very hard to make the event warm and entertaining.
The only bitter-​sweet part was their policy on reservations (as mentioned above). Maybe it needs to be VERY clear that if you arrange for tea for 10 people, you will pay for all 10 people. And if they don’t come, well you get all the food that was prepared that is leftover, but you still must pay for your reserved group. It was a tad embarrassing for she who had arranged the party and i felt for her. As well the price of 20.00 per person, seemed extremely steep, but fine for a one-​time experience in my new town.

Though the house was nice, the owners charged us for 10 people when only 9 were there. When my sister emailed them afterwards to ask about it, she got a long response back, with the owner (Zeda Elizabeth Ali Dowell) calling the tea guests rude, and telling her that all their proceeds go to charity, so asking for a refund was making laser eye patients in Guyana suffer: «patients who cannot afford treatment will serve the consequences.» «I am sorry to say but because of your bridal shower and the rudeness of your guests, I will have to reconsider doing any more showers I do believe this will be a loss to this community but we do not need this to happen again to us.»
Wow — all this after asking for clarification of an overcharge of one person? We were all very nice and polite to everyone while we were there, and even spend a few hundred on additional items from the vendor. Needless to say, I won’t be returning there.