The latest seating in the Mary Cassatt Tea Room is 3:30 p.m. The room has floor-to-ceiling windows that look onto The Rittenhouse's courtyard, harp music during service and a three-tiered tray of sweets and savories. It has served afternoon tea at 210 W. Rittenhouse Square in the hotel's own style for years. On Sunday, November 15, it serves its last one.
Once it closes, the neighborhood's best-known afternoon tea doesn't move to another grand room. It moves to The Dandelion, a British pub at 18th and Sansom, to a hotel lounge on 17th Street that is bringing tea back only for December, and to a set of new cafés that opened along Walnut, Chestnut and 19th in October. The Rittenhouse said in January that it is making this change on purpose.
Eight Afternoons Left at 210 West Rittenhouse Square
The tea room serves Thursday through Sunday, with seatings at 12:30, 1, 3 and 3:30 p.m. Billy Penn's October tea guide lists the price at $70 per person. Counting from this Thursday, these are the service days left:
- Thursday, November 5
- Friday, November 6
- Saturday, November 7
- Sunday, November 8
- Thursday, November 12
- Friday, November 13
- Saturday, November 14
- Sunday, November 15, the final afternoon tea
You need a reservation. The hotel releases each month's tables on the 15th of the month before, so this November's tables have been open since October 15. Parties of 15 or more book through the hotel's private dining team at 215.790.2533. You can book through the Mary Cassatt Tea Room page.
The Library Bar, the hotel's tucked-away room for cocktails, rare spirits and live music, already closed. According to the hotel's announcement, it served its last guest on October 31.
What the Hotel Is Building in Their Place
The two closings are part of a larger overhaul of the hotel's public rooms. Scarpetta, the Italian restaurant, closed on January 31 after nearly a decade in the building. Its replacement is The Ruxton, a steakhouse from Baltimore-based Atlas Restaurant Group. Billy Penn reported that the plan calls for 220 seats, three private dining rooms, two bars and a seasonal outdoor patio overlooking the square. The design takes its cues from the Jazz Age, with velvet upholstery, walnut woodwork and Murano-style glass chandeliers. Corporate chef Aaron Taylor will run a menu built around steaks and seafood.
The hotel's own announcement lists The Ruxton, a new intimate bar and Lacroix, which stays open. The first new space is expected in late spring 2027. A tea room isn't part of the announced lineup. In a statement to Billy Penn, the hotel described its plans for the space:
"We're thinking more intentionally about how guests can interact with the bar, lounge, and courtyard space to make them more accessible for events and socializing."
In January, a hotel spokesperson told The Philadelphia Inquirer, as Billy Penn reported, that the changes respond to a dining scene becoming "more vibrant, more interesting, and less formal and stuffy." That phrase describes the hotel's plans. It also describes where afternoon tea in the neighborhood is going.
Day to day, the hotel stays open throughout the work. Lacroix keeps serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktails. Construction is limited to weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., so weekend mornings and evenings on the west side of the square keep their usual pace. The hotel hasn't announced a completion date for the whole project.
The Afternoon Moves to 18th and 17th Streets
The closest tea service that runs every week is at The Dandelion, 124 S. 18th St. It serves the classic British format of sandwiches, pastries and tarts in two or three tiers, in a pub with dark wood interiors. It changes the routine in three ways.
- Days. The Dandelion serves tea Monday through Friday, 3 to 5 p.m. The Mary Cassatt room served Thursday through Sunday, so a weekend tea habit becomes a weekday one.
- Price. The menu lists tiers at $20, $30 and $60, and each one is meant for two guests. Pots of tea are $7 or $12, and a house champagne or rose mimosa adds $8.
- Format. Tea is one menu among several in a working pub. It isn't the only thing the room does.
One block east, Liberté Restobar and Lounge at the Sofitel, 120 S. 17th St., used to host weekly afternoon tea when the space was Chez Colette, then paused it. Its experiences page says a festive seasonal edition returns this December, with reservations and full details to follow.
Past the neighborhood's edge, more of Center City's tea runs on special-occasion schedules:
| Venue | Address | Format | When | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Dandelion | 124 S. 18th St. | Pub tea, two or three tiers | Mon–Fri, 3–5 p.m. | $20, $30 or $60 per tier, each for two |
| Liberté at the Sofitel | 120 S. 17th St. | Festive seasonal tea | December | Details to come |
| Aqimero at the Ritz-Carlton | 10 Avenue of the Arts | Boozy Tea, four courses with a teapot cocktail and live DJ | Monthly | $95++ per adult, $45++ for children 10 and under |
| Prince Tea House | 203 N. 9th St. | Tiered tea, no reservation required | Daily from noon | $60 for two, $90 for three |
| Bloomsday | 414 S. 2nd St. | High tea with a guest bakery | November 7 with Erby's Bakery | $80 plus tax per person |
The pattern holds across the table. Only The Dandelion and Prince Tea House serve tea on a standing weekly or daily schedule. The rest are monthly, seasonal or one-time events.
The Rosenbach, at 2008–2010 Delancey Place, works the same way. Its teas are themed programs, not a regular service. The most recent was the Philadelphia Tea Party on October 4, featuring Chef Adam Diltz of Elwood and musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra. Admission was $325, and it sold out. Its programs page lists the museum's upcoming events.
October Filled the Daytime Map With Counters, Not Tea Rooms
New places in the neighborhood also opened in October, and they follow the same trend. None is a reserved-seating room. They're counters and cafés built for walk-in stops through the day, with longer hours. Rittenhouse Ramblings' October openings roundup tracked them.
Somedays Bakery, 1601 Walnut St. It opened October 2 in the former Republic Bank building. This is its first Philadelphia-area location, and its baking kitchen sits behind glass walls. The menu covers café drinks, breakfast sandwiches, lunch and hand-laminated pastries. Its location page lists hours of Wednesday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
KYN, 1807 Chestnut St. This Korean coffee and matcha café opened October 22 in the former Taylor Chip space. Its menu covers tea drinks: Uji matcha, mugwort lattes, and matcha and hojicha cream tops, along with coffee and pastries. Doors open at 7 a.m.
Call Your Mother, 262 S. 19th St. It opened in October on the corner where Metropolitan Bakery used to be.
Put these next to the Mary Cassatt schedule and the difference is clear. The tea room offered four seatings, four days a week, booked a month ahead. Somedays alone is open fourteen hours a day, four days a week, with no booking.
The Weekend of November 14 Ends at the Tea Room
The last tea weekend lines up with one of the square's own fall traditions. On Saturday, November 14, Friends of Rittenhouse Square holds its fall Love Your Park Day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers plant bulbs in the square. Details are on the event listing.
Bulbs planted that Saturday come up in spring, about when The Rittenhouse expects its first new space to open. Lunch that weekend can be a Somedays sandwich on Walnut. Sunday afternoon is the tea room's last service, with its final scheduled seating at 3:30 p.m. on November 15.
If you're weighing how a block, a building or a nearby café fits your week here, Lindsay Good would be glad to talk it through over tea at The Dandelion. Let's Connect.
