Tea At The White House was founded by friends, Gillian Niblett and Wendy Edmunds with the idea in mind of creating “a tea shop for the tea lover and a tea room for the tea drinker.” Their shared love for tea and delicious food grew from dream into reality when they first opened their doors in 1999. Not realizing just how popular this idea could become, they quickly had to hire more staff to host and serve the plethora of guests they found knocking on the door.
Wendy decided to step back from the world of tea in 2005 and not long after Gillian was joined by her daughter Laura DiFrancessco. Together this mother/daughter team took Tea At The White House to new heights with dabbling in the world of catering and hosting tea parties and events both on and off the premises.
January 2010 Gillian decided it was time to start looking in new directions for her ambitions. With her daughter, now at home with her family, she too decided it was time to step back, enjoy family, friends and travel. She started mentioning her retirement plans to friends, employees present and past. This is when Courtney Mowat, past waitress was told about the possibility of Tea At The White House coming to a close.
Having had dreams of one day opening up her own tea house, the thought never occurred to her that running Tea At The White House could be an option! Thus in February of 2011 Tea At The White House was purchased by Courtney's mother Cheryl and re-opened after a freshening up and a few small changes.
After lots of encouragement from her family and from GIllian, Courtney stepped into her role at Tea At The White House as a manager where she worked alongside Gillian, training to be able to keep Tea At The White House up to the standards it’s faithful clients have come to expect.
Courtney is currently operating Tea At The White House along with a fantastic team of employees.
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