L.S. Ayres Tea Room
650 W. Washington St
Indianapolis, IN
317-232-1637
visit website
Hours
by reservation only
#7
of 54
in IN
Map of L.S. Ayres Tea Room
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Overview
A symbol of elegance in dining for nearly a century, the L.S. Ayres Tea Room has been recreated in the Indiana State Museum.
From 1905 to 1990, the downtown L.S. Ayres department store operated its Tea Room for special elbows–off–the–table luncheons. A destination for gathering generations of grandmothers, mothers, daughters, friends and businessmen, the Tea Room was enormously popular. It was where you took someone special for any occasion.
Because of the affection visitors have always held for the Tea Room, the Indiana State Museum includes a replicated, 64–seat, fully functioning L.S. Ayres Tea Room restaurant. Today’s Tea Room recreates the atmosphere and elegance of the original. To capture the authenticity, great care was taken to replicate the ambiance of this popular dining facility.
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If memories of the original Ayers tea room make you want to go to this one, you'll be disappointed. Some of the original furnishings are there, but otherwise It's a very nice restaurant for a museum with nothing special except for the name and a few original dishes.
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- Eileen 04/27/08
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We took our first grade Brownie troop to high tea on a Sunday afternoon a couple weeks ago. The price for children is extremely reasonable, only about $4 per child. Adults are about $10. They made special tea sandwiches for the children, pb&j and grilled cheese along with some of the traditional offerings, like egg salad. The adults had quite a variety of sandwiches - smoked salmon was my personal favorite. Plenty of cakes and scones as well! Everyone enjoyed the fantastic selection of tea and we found the service to be very good in terms of accommodating us, not very knowledgable, however each child received a small goody bag, which was a very nice touch! It is too bad that high tea is not offered more frequently, we really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to going again. The am... (more)biance was special because we were there close to Christmas, other times of year don't expect too much in terms of frills. All in all we really enjoyed ourselves despite the lack of a more 'personal touch' you get at most smaller, independent tearooms.
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- J. Barker 01/02/08
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My husband and I love tea rooms and we travel often. We always search teamap for a local tea room (or two) if we are traveling for work or pleasure. L.S. Ayres Tea Room is perfect for a cafeteria 'feeling' lunch; but it is not a tea room. I was quite disappointed as the 'hours description' noted by reservation only. I called a week in advance for a Friday afternoon 'tea'. Only to find out that they only serve tea on Sundays. Or rather, they have tea time only on Sundays. Upon making my reservations, I explained I was visiting for a wedding. No explanation. I invited family members and friends to tea only to have an average lunch...at best. However, one of the attendants recommended a historic Canterbury Hotel after we expressed our disappointment. Needless to say we had already received hot water for our tea and decided to not to be rude and leave...regretfully so. Great for lunch....not so great for the tea experience.
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- A. Miller 10/16/07
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L S Ayres Tea Room is located inside the Indianapolis Museum. Museum admission is not required to enter the tea room. Lunch/Tea from 11 - 2:30 pm 7 days a week. Reservations recommended.
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- Susan Yachiye McKeen 07/28/07
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