Watts Tea Shop occupies the second floor of George Watts & Son on East Mason Street, and it has been serving lunch to Milwaukeeans in one form or another since the George Watts china and gift shop opened downstairs in 1870. That is not a typo. The tea room itself, as it exists today, dates to the mid-20th century, but the bones of the place — the white tablecloths, the bone china, the quiet insistence on doing things properly — feel considerably older than that.
The room is small and unhurried. There are maybe a dozen tables, natural light from the windows facing Mason, and a level of ambient quiet that is genuinely unusual in a city restaurant at noon on a weekday. The clientele skews toward women who lunch, pre-theater parties, and the occasional person who just figured out this exists and can’t believe it took them so long.
Lunch is the main event. The menu runs to things like chicken salad on a croissant, a cream of tomato soup that arrives in a small china bowl, open-faced sandwiches, and a quiche that changes by the week. Nothing costs very much — most lunch plates fall between $12 and $16 — and the portions are sized for actual eating rather than spectacle. There is an extensive tea list, as you might expect, organized by type, and the staff will help you pick one without making you feel like you’ve wandered into an exam.
The real draw, if you’ve never been, is the dessert cart. It rolls up to the table near the end of the meal, and it is loaded with pastries and petit fours and small cakes that are made in-house and change with the season. Order the sponge cake if it’s available. Order two things if you can’t decide, because the portions are restrained and the regret is immediate if you choose wrong.
A few things to know going in: Watts only serves lunch, Monday through Saturday, and the kitchen closes at 2:30 p.m. Reservations are genuinely recommended — the room fills up, and walking in cold on a Saturday will sometimes leave you standing. The shop downstairs sells Wedgwood, Lenox, and Reed & Barton flatware, and it is very easy to spend money on the way out if you’re not paying attention. The tea shop itself is cash or check only, which surprises people every time and is worth knowing before you sit down.
It would be easy to dismiss Watts as a relic, the kind of place that survives on nostalgia and doesn’t need to try very hard. That’s not quite right. The food is careful and consistent, the service is attentive without hovering, and the experience of sitting in that room for an hour on a weekday afternoon is legitimately pleasant in a way that’s hard to manufacture. Milwaukee has plenty of places that work hard to feel like institutions. Watts actually is one, and it doesn’t appear to notice the difference.
It’s on East Mason Street in the lower East Side, a short walk from the lakefront. Go on a weekday if you can. Bring cash.
