Foreigner Cafe Tea

Recently the Foreigner Cafe in San Mateo has added afternoon tea to their menu! I was able to go for a friends birthday to check it out! This is not a dedicated tea place but more of a cafe and brunch place that happens to have tea now. 

A Novel Affair

 

A Novel Affair is a new romance focused bookstore in Los Altos that I was very interested in visiting! Unfortunately this city isn't very accessible via public transit so a car is recommended though there is plenty of parking around the downtown area.

Feldman's Books

I recently went to a used bookstore in Menlo Park called Feldman's Books. It's located in downtown Menlo Park so super easy to get to via the Caltrain. 

The Best Bookstore in Union Square

I went to the new downtown SF bookstore that just opened recently! After Alexanders Books closed there wasn't really a bookstore near Union Square for a bit. The Best Bookstore is near the Powell street Bart/Muni station and the end of the cable car line so it's definitely easy to get to using public transit.

Inkspell and Coastside Books

When I went to tea at By the Teashore I was able to stop by 2 bookstores downtown Halfmoon Bay! One of which was a combination new and used bookstore and the other less of a bookstore and more of a tourist and crafting store.

By The Tea Shore

 I was able to go to the new tea place in Halfmoon Bay that recently opened called By The Teashore; the name is very cute and creative! 

Hello Kitty Cafe

I'm back with another Afternoon Tea review! Two places recently opened up in the bay area and I needed to try them! The first is the Hello Kitty Cafe Afternoon Tea at the new Hello Kitty Cafe in Santa Clara's Valley Fair mall.

Fabulosa Books

I was able to make it down to the Castro to go to Fabulosa Books! They are an indie bookstore with an emphasis on LGBT+ titles. 

City Lights Books

I was able to go to City Lights Bookstore and Publishing in SF with a friend this weekend!

https://citylights.com/ This is a well established independent bookstore with some history both as a bookstore and a publishing house which you can read more about on their website!

Illinois cupcakes and books

I happened to be in the Chicago suburbs for The Great Lace and was able to go to the next town over to walk around with a friend- there happened to be a bookshop and cupcake place almost right next to each other! Of course we had to go to both!

Dark Carnival Bookstore

I went to a bookshop in Berkley called Dark Carnival! They are a scifi, fantasy and horror/mystery theme only bookstore with new and some second hand books. The place definitely embodied that aesthetic from the outside to the arrangement of shelves inside!

Cupcaken' Bake Shop

Long time no blog 🫣 I have actually been going to cupcake places and bookstores in my absence though I usually fail to actually create a writeup of the experience in blog format shortly after... Then just keep putting it off 😓 I pledge to schedule several entries that are mostly done over the next few weeks so that I can clear out my backlog a bit and hopefully start getting motivated to continue visiting more places soon! 

I was able to go to Cupcakin' Bake Shop in Berkley! I went to a location that was a very small shop that was obviously more of a to-go situation. The shop inside was small and had no places to sit if you wanted to eat there. The atmosphere was very clean and white with not a ton of decoration or personality. 

atmosphere: 2/5

I got 4 cupcakes but 2 were for The Blog of course the classic vanilla on vanilla as a control and then the most popular flavor according to the person working was their specialty Key Lime Pie cupcake flavor. The frosting on both was a little too much in ratio for the cake imo. The vanilla frosting was a classic buttercream, a little sugary but not too gritty or too sweet, just too much compared to the cake! The key lime pie one was more of a fluffy texture like a whipped cream almost but more stable and hardly sweet at all. There was a little bit of key lime pie filling topped with whipped topping in the center of the cake then the frosting on top of that. Again there was a lot of topping and not a lot of cake as compared for my liking

Frosting: 3/5

The cakes for both of the cupcakes were really really moist, almost wet in texture though they were baked through, I think this was just the style of cake they were using. I'm not sure I liked it but it was definitely a change from the last couple of places where I had some very dry cake. The Key lime pie flavor lacked even more cake in comparison to frosting as it also had a layer of graham cracker 'crust' at the bottom that was inoffensive tasting and texture wise but I'd have liked to have more cake-cake instead. 

Cake: 2.5/5

Each Cupcake was 4.75 which aligns with my expectation of $3.50-$5 per cupcake. 

Price: 3/5

Overall 2.6/5

If I happened to be downtown and fancied a dessert I'd definitely stop by again but I probably wouldn't make the drive so far from me spesifically for these cupcakes! 

Banter Bookshop

 I was able to go to Banter Bookshop in Fremont recently! 

Tea Review: Alexanders Patisserie

I was able to go to Alexanders Patisserie for their more recent offering of afternoon tea! We went Valentines day weekend (yes I am very late posting my review!) and I'm glad I got a chance to try this new afternoon tea offering in Mountain View!

Sibby's Cupcakes

Sibby's Cupcakes is located in San Mateo a little farther down than the main kind of downtown blocks but an easy walk. It's located in between a couple of car body shops and is a small inside. They do have some cupcakes for sale for walk-ins but there is no place to sit (it's VERY tiny 1 customer at a time) it seems like most of their business is for parties and larger orders. 

B Street Books

I was able to go to B Street Books in San Mateo recently! B Street Books is primarily a secondhand Bookstore so there are lots of treasures to be found here and their stock is always changing due to what people bring in!

Kara's Cupcakes

The Kara's Cupcakes I went to is located in the Town and Country Plaza in Palo Alto. I went close to closing so this may affect my review somewhat. Because it was quite late my usual vanilla cake with vanilla frosting was sold out so I got a chocolate frosting instead. The employee at the counter said their most popular flavors were two of the seasonal flavors so I chose the pumpkin seasonal flavor as my second choice. 

Read Between the Lynes

I went back to my hometown of Woodstock, IL for the holidays and of course I had to stop by the local indie bookstore.

The store is located in Woodstock's historic town square with lots of shops and restaurants around. On the inside the store is half bookstore and half cute cafe/candy store, a perfect stop for gift shopping!

On the bookstore side it's quite small inside but has a lot in the small space. Of course I immediately went to the sci-fi/fantasy section. I was able to find one of the paperbacks that was on my list to buy! It came with this cute pride bookmark since the series is a historicalish LGBTQ+ fantasy one that I want to have on my shelf to read again. Each book focuses on a different couple but they are all recurring characters in the larger plot. 

On the cafe/misc side they have coffee, some nibbles, and chocolates for sale. They also have various local themed items such as puzzles of the square, Woodstock themed nick-nacks, and locally made jams and pasta sauces.

My mom said they are doing quite well on TikTok with their bookish content and people drive to Woodstock sometimes just to visit the bookstore they saw on TikTok!  

Check out their TikTok and Instagram for more book content! 

TikTok

Instagram

As for me I will continue coming back here when I am back in my hometown to browse and see if they have any of the books on my list! I'd definitely recommend stopping by if you are in the area to check it out!

Bells Books

Bells Books

Sprinkles Cupcakes

I'm back with another cupcake place review! This time I went to Sprinkles Cupcakes in Palo Alto's Stanford Shopping Center. This is a national chain of cupcake places so you can get them even in airport vending machines! I had my customary vanilla on vanilla and the person working said that their most popular flavor was the red velvet so I got that one as the other flavor.