New Business / February 2007
Beau-Tea-Ful Dreamers
Kim Shirkey |
By Pat Lawrence
When Beth Painter called to say she was quitting her job and going into the catering business, her best friend was very excited for her. Kim Shirkey says, “Beth was always a lot like Martha Stewart! She was baking all these wonderful creations when she was sixteen.” Kim, whose background was sales, immediately offered to help. “I told her I’d do marketing and advertising and the PR. She said, no, we would be full, 50-50 partners.”
For three years, the Teays Valley entrepreneurs have been catering to their clients most immediate interests, the desire for good food and someone else to prepare it. Kim says, “Actually, we told one friend who was in pharmaceutical sales that we were going to do catering. That was all it took to get started.” Many of their events still involve pharmaceutical sales, with dinners and lunches for as many as 100 attendees. But, bridal showers and club meetings keep them busy, too. Sometimes, they have scheduled seven caterings a day, with just the two of them handling all the preparations.
Kim, who grew up in Cross Lanes, says many of her friends have moved away from the area. But, they get together often, gathering at each other’s new home towns to eat, drink, be merry and relax. Kim especially enjoyed the cozy tea rooms they visited. “When they came to visit me, it didn’t seem like there was that kind of neat place here.”
It took two years to find the right place, mostly because, “I spent almost all of two years trying to buy the wrong place! There was a new obstacle every step of the way with the property I had chosen.” What became the right place is now the Beau-Tea-Ful Moments Tea Room, at 600 D Street in South Charleston.
They opened the doors in December, with seating for 55 in the main area and another 25 in the children’s room. Apparently Kim and her friends weren’t the only ones yearning for a neat place to relax and enjoy. “In January, we got so busy, sometimes we had to turn people away!”
The Beau-Tea-Ful Moments Tea Room offers a light, lovely menu, with the touches and tastes that ladies love-wonderful soups, fresh greens with mandarin oranges or raisins and poppy seed dressing, dainty tea sandwiches, freshly baked scones, hot fudge cake with ice cream, the “awesome” bread pudding. The children’s room has bistro tables and zebra covered chairs, for mothers and daughters to share and for children’s parties.
The recipes are central to the tea room’s success, but so is the warmth and friendship that circulates with the delicious aromas.
The staff is friends and family who came to lend a hand and stayed.
Kim’s mother works there. “She makes the scones. She’s so detailed, such a perfectionist-everything has to be perfect!” Betty Nonning is 76. “She’s my ‘second’ grandmother, a friend who keeps me going. I don’t have half the energy she does.” Another friend, Carrie Bumpus, originally from St. Albans and now living in Teas Vallley, is responsible for the ‘awesome’ bread pudding. Leann Wooten is yet another friend who helps makes the tea room all that it can be.
Recently, Beth has had to focus on family health issues. Kim says having friends and family so willing to help makes it all possible. The tea room is open Monday through Saturday, from 11-3. Catering often takes place in the evenings. “We get calls on Thursday for dinner for 100 on Friday. We still get it done!”
Having two businesses has doubled the fun, but also the work. Some weeks, Kim works all night for three or four nights in a row, cleaning, cooking, billing and handling administrative details, in addition to working all day. The mother of two goes to all of her son’s hockey and baseball games, all her daughters soccer games and riding events. “There’s been a couple days I wondered, ‘What was I thinking?’. My husband says I’m not good at delegating, but I’m getting better. I scheduled an entire week off for spring break.”
But, the Beau-Tea-Ful Tea room is something more than a business. It is a very special place for women. The fountain there is dedicated to Kim’s grandmother who developed Alzheimer’s when she was just 55. Later this year, Kim and her friends and family will host fundraisers for Alzheimer’s and for breast cancer. And, everyday, with every smile and every scone, they will celebrate friendship and family.
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
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