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It's not easy for many of us to get across the pond to enjoy a full-service British-style afternoon tea with all the trimmings, but we don't have to leave Los Angeles County to indulge our inner Londoner, thanks to the Langham Pasadena's elegant high tea. The stately and delightful ritual takes places Thursday through Sunday in the hotel's welcoming and window-side Lobby Lounge, allowing guests and visitors to the hotel the chance to indulge in a spot of tea and the elegant accoutrements of the meal.
Earlier this month the Langham (once the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel) celebrated their London location's anniversary with their "Hats off to London" tea service. For one day only patrons donned tea-time hats, the waitstaff wore period costumes, and the price of the tea was rolled back to 1 shilling and 6 pence; that's the 1865 price, equivalent to 15 US cents today! While that price (and the hats and costumes) were a one day anomaly, the lovely Traditional Afternoon Tea service can be had by one and all year-round. And if you're a chocoholic, you may want to try their Chocolate Afternoon Tea, available on Sundays.
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Be sure to visit their very amusing web site, which apparently features a photo of the hotel, which has yet to load, after five minutes. To get the hotel's address, click on the "location and city guide" link leads to another s-l-o-w loading map page (no text address is shown until the map arrives), along with a message which reads: "The weather is showed here."
I've always heard that there were a lot of web designers out of work. Maybe The Langham should hire one of them, or more.
actually, the Langham's website is typically both beautiful and functional. perhaps you can forgive an international company for having a period of web difficulties, perhaps due to servers or an internal issue they're surely working to resolve, rather than publicly berate them?
My guess is that no one is "working to resolve" anything, and won't be unless someone "publicly berates" them. I didn't find the site functional, since it was difficult to find the hotel's address, which was hidden on a slow external link; nor did I find it beautiful, due to its putrid color scheme, with text in a pale shade which was nearly unreadable against the background, not to mention the still-missing home page photo, which is the first thing a visitor fails to see. I find no reason to "forgive an international company for having a period of web difficulties," as if it was a struggling garage startup. They're in a tough business and their competitors, national and international, seem to be doing a much better job with their web presences. I view my comments valid and appropriate.
So unless you make snarky remarks in the comments section of a story regarding a recent event, no one at the company is likely to address any web issues they are having? That is a strange rationale. Did you consider taking up your dislike for their site design with someone equipped to address your concerns, i.e. someone who works there in such a capacity? Someone to whom you could provide your thoughtful feedback and criticism of both their design aesthetics and their business acumen?
Also, the address is at the bottom right, absolutely no external link involved. (Although, if you wanted to drive over there and give them your critique in person and still can't find the address on the home page, can I suggest this nifty website called 'Google'? You type in "Langham Pasadena" and by God, like magic, there's the address!) Photo is right where it should be, and all the text fully visible.
I view your comments rude and inappropriate. So there.
Fine. I'm sure your check from the management will clear in good order. Or are you just so defensive about your precious content that snarkiness is personal affront? I think I'm starting to understand the nature of the hype which permeates this site. Why doesn't LAist allow us to append "DISLIKES" to its entries?
You haven't said anything about the content of the story itself, which is what is so maddening. You're using this space to mock the place of business' website, and, as I pointed out above, this isn't a place where your feedback will get results or the response of someone who can do anything about. You can dislike their site all you want--I won't get in your way. But what I don't understand is how you couldn't see the address on the page, and how you find it intolerable that a site might experience technical difficulties. Imagine if your server crashed and we couldn't load a picture of you, say, playing a keyboard? What if I thought comic sans was the font choice of chumps? Would you appreciate me publicly berating you on another website in the comments' section?
I have no idea what the "hype" is you're talking about, but, to trot out the internet's oldy-but-goody, if you "DISLIKE" something so much...don't read it.
I had no problem with the website and I looked up not only room+tea package they have, but the room+brunch and room+dinner offerings, as well as a few others. Looks nice! They also have a Michelin star, which at least makes it worth trying. Plus, afternoon tea is such a novelty around here.
I made a negative comment about the hotel's web site because I'd followed your link to find out more about the tea service and had difficulties with it. You chose to make an issue out of that. Your aggressive defense seemed odd as a response from someone who'd supposedly merely written an informational piece about an establishment, but then the article did read like a press release and offered little information of value other than the hotel's talking points.
A high tea is NOT a novelty in Los Angeles. How does the Langham's compare with the others? Have they come up with a source for clotted cream? The sandwiches look okay, but is that salmon as dry as it looks? Are the scones freshly made?
Ahh, to hell with it. Obviously, you're right: you "have no idea of what the 'hype' is," and your answer is the correct one: don't read it. Since so much of LAist's content of late falls into that category (what has happened there? An influx of interns?), I guess it's time to delete the bookmark and move on to more credible sources with more knowledgeable contributors.
Can Ms. Ross kindly confirm/deny whether LAist received any pecuniary remuneration for this story?
Seriously? Of course not.
It's been said here before: We are allowed to like things.
I like the Langham very much, I have liked it for years before it was a Langham, I've enjoyed many a tea and special meal there.
We always indicate if a post is sponsored. When that is the case it is by, obviously, one of our advertisers. That's the only way to purchase space on the site.
I find it amusing that in a post about a one-day event, where most of what I wrote is "this happened" and the rest "they serve a nice tea" that anyone would think this was bought and paid for. (You did read the part where the tea COST 15 CENTS A PERSON that day, right?)
Again: It's okay to like something. This post was, honestly, about the photos, particularly because it was a novelty to see people in period costume. In the captions I mention what my favorite sweets and sandwiches of the bunch are. This was not a hard-hitting investigation comparing all of the city's tea services.
I certainly read this: "While that price (and the hats and costumes) were a one day anomaly, the lovely Traditional Afternoon Tea service can be had by one and all year-round."
Certainly sounds like an endorsement to patronize Langham, which is why I wanted to confirm you had no ulterior motives. (Not all sites **yelp** can claim as much). Thank you for confirming that your post was your opinion and nothing more. I'll certainly make it a point to try Langham based on your unbiased recommendation.
Farmer Tomato, any other high teas of note in LA?
Also, wouldn't have occurred to me that your post might be paid for if that 15 cents price was still available. But that's already "happened", no?
Wait, so if I said "McDonald's serves refreshing sodas" then you would assume it was an "endorsement to patronize" McDonald's, and not a statement of fact colored by a single positive adjective (in my case "lovely" in the example's case "refreshing,")?
This whole idea that we have "ulterior motives" is what really upsets me. Why can't I tell you to go try a fancy Afternoon Tea at the Langham? I don't get any compensation or commission. And if you take our suggestions for cocktails, burgers, happy hours, sushi, ice cream, and so on, obviously you come here because you (and I mean the generic or hypothetical "you") trust our opinions. I guess I just find the cynicism about our "ulterior motives" kind of upsetting. Like Elise said, more often than not, we try to be cheerleaders for what we've experienced positively.
For the record, I don't understand your comments about the special pricing; do you mean that if the tea were 15 cents every day it's not possible that they compensated the site for running a story? And that since it's full price all the time it makes sense that they would compensate the site for it? In either case, as I've said before, it's absolutely not true.
To mgn99, I don't think to compare this to the KogiBBQ PR debacle is fair. It's not a similar situation at all. I have every right to comment on a post I've written. Please note, that I did not engage in any "name calling" nor pass the kind of judgment on the commenter to which you're referring that I was subjected to at their hands. I also welcome anyone to look at my record of commenting on the site, on posts written by me or anyone else--I'm not particularly a prolific commenter. But when I do engage it's because I feel very strongly about something, and my initial response in these comments were because I felt very strongly that it was unnecessary to mock the people responsible for this business' website because they seemed to be having a temporary glitch.
Elise: NICE PHOTOS!
Link works fine for me. Farmertomato, if you ever encounter another problem on the computer, just throw it away. Then you can't complain about it and I don't have to read about it.
Links work for me too. I have been to several afternoon teas around LA- and that one looks amazing. I will definitely check it out soon. Great photos too. I could really go for one of those shrimp sandwiches right now.
Thanks, samkim, but I think instead I'll throw away my links to a declining web site containing soporific writing seemingly turned out by high school student journos. This author claims that the piece under discussion was about a one-day special event--one which wasn't mentioned in the headline or until the final paragraph of the piece. In fact the headline was "Indulge Your Inner Londoner with Afternoon Tea at the Langham," about as much of an advert as ever appears here.
At any rate, thanks to this little contretemps, and my subsequent search for blogs which better serve the community, I found out about LAobserved.com which, along with LAeater.com will nicely fill the niche formerly occupied by LAist--although I may check into Gothamist from time to time--the original is always so much better than the lame spinoff, isn't it?
Ok guys, I've been thinking about what Farmer Tom has said, and, you know, he may be onto something. Clearly "Indulge Your Inner Londoner with Afternoon Tea at the Langham" was too effusive and advertorial. So I think I'm going to re-title my piece. Here are some alternate titles I'm thinking about using:
"This Post is About a Tea Event, But What I Really Hope You Comment on are Your Thoughts on the Hotel's Website."
"Here's Something Really Cool I'm Going to Brag About Doing; Sorry Suckers, it Happened Already, and You'll Have to Settle for Going on a Regular Day."
"Four out of Five Tea-Goers Like the Langham, and I'm One of Them."
"I Don't Know Where the Langham Gets Their Devonshire Cream But it is So Orgasmically Delicious I'd Like to Swim in a Vat of It, Then Lick Myself Clean."
"Afternoon Tea: Good."
"Go Have Tea at the Langham RIGHT NOW. DROP WHAT YOU'RE DOING. IT'S THE BEST DAMN THING YOU'LL EVER DO. GO! HURRY."
"This Tea Was So Stupendously Enjoyable That I Jizzed in My Pants, and I Guarantee You Will Too."
Hmmm... I'm torn. Of course, since I'm only a high schooler working as an intern, I'm totally not sure what to do...
I didn't say you were a high schooler working as an intern. I said you WRITE like a high schooler working as an intern. But please don't let me interfere with your continued attempt to make this all about you and what you like. it's a good thing this isn't a humor blog, because as naive and cliche-ridden as your regular pieces are, you really are even more unskilled at attempting to write something funny.
Why is this high school drama playing out in the comments? I think it's highly unprofessional for the author to be getting into this kind of name calling with a commenter. Have we learned nothing from the Kogi PR debacle? If she had just left it alone it no one would have even noticed farmertomato's useless comment. Just because you are having loading problems of the hotel's site doesn't mean the site sucks. The weather typo was weird and unprofessional (I noticed it too), but, whatever. This is a news source, let's keep it in the grown-up realm.
For the record, we do not get paid by subjects for writing articles. In fact, the writers are not even paid by LAist/Gothamist. I pay for my own gas, food, camera equipment, internet access, plus hours and hours of my time. We do it for love. LOVE.
I see this site as a place to say, "Hey, here is what WE think is cool about this city! Eat this! Watch that! Go see this band! Here are some cool pics we took at this event! We love the city! We love you!!!" Every once in awhile we will post a "Wow, this sucked" article, but for the most part we are cheerleaders for stuff we like.
PS.
The tea is much fancier than most.
The scones were freshly baked, but a little dry for me.
I don't like salmon so I didn't eat it.
I did not inquire about the clotted cream
Now come on, someone say, "nice photos!" and make my day