Catherine Elsworth of the London Telegraph credits the Pasadena institution with introducing "proper, English-style tea drinking" to the Lipton-sipping heathens of Southern California. The tea shop faces imminent eviction from its 1920s mock-Tudor cottage to make way for low-income housing. Elsworth blogs that daily sittings are reserved months in advance and that the afternoon teas are considered among the best in the U.S. She says: "Margaret Thatcher has visited six times. Princes Charles and Andrew stop by when in town. Julie Andrews and Angela Lansbury are fans and John Travolta was so impressed he raved about it to Oprah."

Elsworth also blogs for the global web audience about her recent move from West Hollywood to "trendy Silverlake" and how the move proved "far more chaotic than I’d envisaged. Not helped, I’m sure, by my sideswiping a stranger’s parked car in the van I rented to move my furniture (very, very sorry, Mr A, if you’re reading this)."

Photo: Telegraph.co.uk