NCTSTRCATT

[Wowbagger]

Whilst out on yesterday's ride, my pal Rebecca NOTP, largely because of our experience towards the end of the ride, pointed out that there should be a National Campaign to Stop Tea Rooms Closing At Tea Time.

We arrived at one at 4.06. It had shut at 4. The second, within a garden centre, at 4.40. It shut at 4.30 and there were three members of "serving" staff chatting over a counter laden with cake. They would have done £10's worth of business if only one of them had had the gumption to put the kettle on.

But it is a national problem! The nation's tea time is between 4 and 5 pm. Can you find an open tea room at that time? You might, but you would be hard pressed.

Hence the need for NCTSTRCATT!

[Andrij]

Really?  I was under the impression that tea time was 3 pm.  Then again I am FORRIN and not a fan of tea.

Regardless, the early closing is most definitely a serious issue!

[Jurek]

See also Clacton.
During the Clacton Air Show, when the town is replete with hundreds of thousands visitors.
I'd earlier singled out an Italian restaurant, who's menu took my fancy, for a spot of lunch.
13:10 was the time I turned up.
'Sorry. We stop serving lunch at one.'
WTF?

[Canardly]

How very British. 

[Polar Bear]

It is a problem frequently encountered even in Scotlandshire.  We rocked up at Alness a few years back well before advertised closing time but the parochial local had decided to close rather than serve two hungry cyclists with sandwiches, cake and copious amounts of tea. 

I think you could drop the 'At Tea time' bit though.      

[Butterfly]

I refer you to a poem by the esteemed Les Barker.  You could adopt it for your campaign, which is urgently needed in my opinion.

[rr]

Indeed mini and i arrived at KneadFood at 16:40 yesterday, they closes at 17:00 and stopped serving at 16:30.
Mind you the bluebird tea rooms in Malvern used to close for lunch as well.

Sent from my XT1562 using Tapatalk

[Gattopardo]

I know, it is madness.

I have had a quite long argument with a tea shop owner about this.  Also the plain and fruit scone ratio in a cream tea.

[Steph]

At Wrotham in Kent there is a garage nicknamed the "Not 24h" with a café next door. For several years, the café used to close for lunch.

[Jaded]

A later tea is middle class!
High tea starts at 6:00ish
Supper is later, before bed.
Dinner is 7:30 for 8, Maam.

[Basil]

See also getting anything to eat after 2pm on a Sunday around here.

[The Family Cyclist]

Think this topic needs expanding. Used to have a small cycle shop near my old work that shut for lunch. Yea they deserve to eat but it removed my business as couldn't go on lunch break and shut same time I finished work

[Kim]

We used to have a local fish'n'chip shop that closed for lunch.  And that was the least of their eccentricities.

Excellent chips, when you could get them.

[quixoticgeek]

If it's any consolation, on cycling to Sandwich in Kent, and entering the cafe/tea room on the main square called "The Sandwich Shop" I asked if they did bacon sandwiches. I a reply along the lines of "I'm sick and tired of telling people their's no demand for us to do bacon sandwiches..."

Turns out it's surprisingly hard to buy a sandwich in Sandwich...

J

[MikeFromLFE]

Fair dos to The Kings Lock Tea Room in Aylestone near Leicester- they will stay open as long as customers keep coming, and if the owners are inside doing jobs on a day they are closed, and see gasping thirsty folk outside then they will open specially. They also put 'open' on the door when they arrive in the morning even before their official opening time. Very bizarre.

[Cudzoziemiec]

An excellent and worthy campaign but the initials are a bit much. It needs a snappier name: something like Stop Tea Stop Stopping!

[Morat]

An excellent and worthy campaign but the initials are a bit much. It needs a snappier name: something like Stop Tea Stop Stopping!

It'll probably get rebranded as T24 or something ghastly.