After years of hosting dinner parties that nobody wanted to miss, Denise R. Paquette decided to use her passion for hospitality and open her own business in the Kingston food industry where she’s remained on and off for over 30 years — until now.
The past month has been one of the busiest yet for The Delightfully Different Tea Room ahead of its May 30 closure after nearly a decade on Wellington Street. Most days of the week, Paquette runs back and forth behind the counter, making egg salad sandwiches, baking quiches in the oven, and chatting with customers — most of whom she knows by name.
Regulars visiting The Delightfully Different Tea Room say it is a unique and unforgettable experience that truly lives up to its name. Valerie Goff, a local retiree, has been coming to the tea shop since it opened almost 10 years ago. “[The Tea Room] is a one of a kind restaurant. There is nothing there that can replace it. It will be a great loss to the downtown area,” Goff said in an interview with The Journal.
One of her favourite parts of visiting was how customers were encouraged to pick a teapot to be served with from a wide range of eclectic options from elephant-shaped designs to asparagus-themed creations. Most of the teapots were accumulated by Paquette over road trips around Canada, though some were donated by friends.
Each customer and employee has their favourite pot out of Paquette’s collection of almost 200, each of which is steeped in individual charm.
“When I opened in July of 1998, I decided to open back up as a tea house, and I then started to collect some pots. When I would bring certain pots out, people would stop talking immediately and say ‘oh my god, look at that teapot,’” Paquette mentioned in an interview with The Journal. “After that I thought, ‘you know what? I should probably collect eclectic teapots, and that’s how it started.”
However, these assorted teapots aren’t the only thing Goff will miss. She shouts out The Tea Room’s reliably “excellent” food, “relaxing” background music, and Paquette’s personability. “She chats with her customers. She knows their names and their preferences,” Goff said.
Many of Paquette’s customers have become close friends, as she’s known them for several years. Some customers have even known her 32-year-old son since he was a baby, when she was still working at her first cafe.
This initial cafe was opened in 1984 on Sydenham Street. 14 years later, she decided to relocate because there of an announcement that Hotel Dieu Hospital would be closing in February 2000. That same year, she opened The Delightfully Different Tea House on Wellington Street, deciding to focus on tea after CBC’s announcement that tea was back in style.
She remained there for four years before she decided to close in 2004 and retire for 12 years. Together, she and her son spent the time sailing to the Bahamas. When Paquette returned in September 2016, she reopened as The Delightfully Different Tea Room where she’s remained since. As a result of these years sailing and adventuring, retirement isn’t completely unknown to Paquette.
She calls the present decision to retire “bittersweet.” She’s grateful to close The Tea Room on a high note, especially after breaking the sales record over the Mother’s Day weekend.
“It was a nice way to end with a bang. Everybody is cheerful, happy, and wishing me well. They all understand that I can’t be doing this forever,” Paquette said.
“I’m kind of looking forward to taking a breather and not having the responsibility of doing a payroll and always having to think and plan,” Paquette added. After closing, she’s hoping to work on a memoir and cookbook, while also having more free time for extracurriculars
such as belly dancing.
However, Paquette’s decision to retire wasn’t made in isolation, but was influenced by an alleged rent increase of 44 per cent. According to Paquette, she tried to negotiate for the past year and a half, but was left ignored until she finally decided to give her departure notice in November of this year.
“I still like what I do, I still have the energy to do what I do, but I don’t want to be doing it for someone else,” Paquette said.
The Delightfully Different Tea Room isn’t the only local business that has been affected by an unsustainable increase in their rent. In January of this year, Indian restaurant Darbar — which has been serving Kingstonians for almost 30 years — had to close its doors as a result of a 50 per cent rent increase from their landlord. As well, The Grad Club recently closed its doors due to bankruptcy, as they’ve been struggling with financials since the University planned to raise their rent 300 per cent.
As of 2024, residential tenants have rent increase caps of 2.1 per cent in Ontario, but commercial tenants, such as Paquette, face unlimited potential increases.Landlords are legally able to increase rent however much they want at lease renewal.
Paquette mentioned that there should be some sort of cap for commercial leases and that someone should step in to create this change. “What are [people] waiting for now? Are they going to wait till there’s absolutely no charm left here at all?”
Catherine Purcell, a retired former Queen’s academic counselor and regular of The Tea Room, shared a similar sentiment. “There are places where they know you when you walk in the door. It’s not like a chain, it’s a very personal kind of place. There’s a connection. We need more of those downtown, and unfortunately, now with the Tea Room closing, we’re going to have one less,” Purcell said.
“It’s one of the few places that you can go in downtown Kingston where the owner actually comes out, meets you, and chats with you. You feel comfortable even going by yourself if you want to go for tea,” Purcell added. “We’re going to miss it very much. It’s kind of a fixture downtown.”
Over the past month, Paquette has taken her time, explaining to each of her loyal customers why she’s closing; all of whom express their disappointment, with some customers even dropping off handwritten notes of gratitude. Many of her friends have placed orders to buy batches of soups and quiches to take home and freeze in preparation for the closure. As well, Paquette’s iconic decor dwindles as more and more customers take teacups and teapots home.
Paquette mentioned to The Journal that while she loves being in the food business, she wishes she had something to give people to look at and hold onto the memories. By giving away or selling her tea pots, she hopes people can hold onto their memories from The Tea Room.
Louisa Holah, a 17-year-old employee of The Tea Room who’s been working for the past three years, has a definite favourite tea pot: a simple English Rose styled pot. Fitting, as Holah was born in Canada, but her whole family is from England. As soon as she first visited, Holah fell in love with the energy of The Tea Room, calling it her “comfort place.”
“The atmosphere of the tearoom is definitely one of a kind and I have yet to recapture it someplace else. You’re surrounded by beautiful pieces and decorations, you can smell freshly baked goods, you can hear oldies playing on the CD player, and you can simply feel warmth radiating around you. There’s so much to look at, it’s almost a tiny museum,” Holah told The Journal.
Holah owes her introduction to The Tea Room to The Martello Alley, a vibrant art gallery and art shop beside the Tea Room, that’s co-run by Wendy and David Dossett, a married couple who opened the gallery in 2015, only a year before The Tea Room opened. Holah told The Journal that when she stumbled upon The Martello Alley, the gallery’s owner heard her English accent and encouraged her to visit The Tea
Room for afternoon tea.
As neighbours, Paquette said her and the Dossett’s established a “very, very good rapport together,” often encouraging customers to visit one another’s businesses, as Dossett did with Holah. Wendy Dossett told The Journal she was “sad” to hear of the Tea Room closing, mentioning that she thinks Paquette’s BLT sandwiches are the “best in Kingston,” and that she will also greatly miss her salmon quiche.
Paquette claims that the success of her food lies in the fact that it’s “simple” and “fresh,” with her soups being a total hit amongst Kingstonians. As the second of six children, Paquette wasn’t able to do a ton of baking and cooking growing up, as “food was expensive and that was her mother’s domain.” But as she got older, Paquette began to collect recipe books, attracted to the various pictures of meals and treats.
“When I was 18, I remember my mother had those French onion soup bowls above the fridge in the cupboard that nobody goes in. I made French onion soup from my recipe book, and it looked absolutely delicious, and it tasted just as good. My dad was over the top going on about how good the soup was and I remember my mother finally said, ‘Okay, that’s enough!’ It was so funny,” Paquette chuckled.
That soup recipe is the one she uses to this day for her iconic French Onion soups.
But, the relationship between Paquette and the Dossett’s goes beyond love of soup and recommending customers. The Dossett’s invited Paquette to use their outside space for a patio during the summer months, which became Paquette’s “little slice of Europe” — full of flowers and art. Dossett used to joke that the patio would cost $1 a year and for the first few years, Paquette would always bring him a loonie, as a homage to the camaraderie.
One of Holah’s favourite memories of working at The Tea Room takes place on that very patio when she stayed late to help out with Paquette’s birthday party. The patio was nicely lit for the evening, teeming with Paquette’s friends with a live music backdrop,
where everyone danced together to a cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.”
“There are lots of nice memories that I have of this place so it’s hard to pinpoint a favourite,” Holah told The Journal, “I just remember [Paquette’s birthday] being really good vibes and overall a very fun time.”
“Denise has been a very supportive role model to me throughout the years and I will miss her advice and simply bold and inspiring presence,” Holah said.
Similarly, Paquette mentioned to The Journal many times how much she appreciates her staff. “It’s the reality. I couldn’t have done this without them, and they deserve to be recognized,” Paquette said.
Whether it’s personal connections with her staff or giving back to the community, many say that Paquette’s generosity and impact has always extended beyond the walls of the Tea Room.
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closure, Kingston, Local, rent, tea
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