Eileen Roddy

Bistro Bella, Italian for “beautiful cafe,” nestles in Clinton Parkway’s strip mall next to Juice Stop. Soft background music creates a pleasant atmosphere inside, where it’s spacious and inviting, with two soft full-size sofas, a large table for group meetings and plenty of smaller ones.

Children can decorate cookies or play in an area with a miniature sofa and easy chair. Adults can enjoy good conversation or a quiet read from available magazines and newspapers, hold a meeting or plug in a laptop. If all tables are occupied, extra ones are retrieved from storage.

I place my hot tea order.

“Our teapot’s in use,” Jenny says.

“Only one pot?”

“Yes,” she replies apologetically. “The others (29) got broken; the new ones (60 of them) will arrive next week. They’ll be less fragile.”

I place a Chinese Breakfast tea bag in a cup and make a note not to bring Prince Charles to visit.

I explain my search for “real” tea to owner Steve Stewart.

“That’s a challenge in Lawrence. Our tea offerings are limited, but that’ll change soon,” he responds.

My curiosity is aroused.

“So many customers have requested ‘real’ tea recently, we’re going to provide it,” he says. “I’m going on a three-day training course to learn all about loose-leaf teas and how to brew and serve them.”

“Did British customers push for this?”

“Some, but mostly other Europeans, Asian and Mideastern customers. They like tea served the way you do.”

One such customer is Maulik Trivedi, from Bombay, who is completing a doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry at Kansas University. His first name means “unique” in Sanskrit.

“What brought you to Kansas?” I inquire.

“Tradition. Several family members attended KU, and it has one of the top pharmacy schools in America.”

“What’s been your biggest challenge living in Kansas?”

Without hesitation, he says: “The cold, snowy weather.”

He loves the smallness of Lawrence, its friendliness, and enjoys the Bistro atmosphere.

He glances at my tea bag.

“I wouldn’t use one of those; it’s only flavored tea-dust.”

I agree. “We Brits are hard to please.”

“The British learned all they know about tea from India,” he informs me.

“We taught them how to make real tea,” I counter.

Only the freshest leaves are used for “real” tea. Water must be boiled thoroughly and time given to brew the full flavor. A strainer gathers the leaves as the tea is poured, and then milk, not cream, is added. You can create a lively discussion in British circles if you ask if milk should be placed in the cup before or after the tea.

“Maulik, President Reagan should have invited you to the White House for Prince Charles’ visit.”

We chuckle.

An excerpt from Reagan’s recently released memoirs tells of his embarrassment when ushers served tea to the heir of the British throne.

“Horror of horrors,” he wrote, “they served it our way with a tea bag in the cup. It finally dawned on me that he was just holding the cup and finally put it down on a table. I didn’t know what to do.”

The equivalent would be for the Queen’s staff to serve the president a coffee bag in a cup of tepid water.

Tea-growing, according to Maulik, is big business in India. There are two main tea-producing areas: Assam in the northeast, where he believes the British learned tea-making, and Nilgiri in the more mountainous South.

“I prefer the fuller, purer flavor of Assam tea,” he explains.

The Bistro’s coffee offerings are better. In addition to five acclaimed daily-brewed coffees, there’s a wide and changing menu of specialized ones. The “cherries” (raw beans) are roasted daily in Topeka. Espresso is still made by hand.

Coffee drinker Laura Meyer-Pfeifer, a Lawrence native, lives and works in Shawnee as development officer for Unity Village, but she returns here on Saturdays to see friends.

“It’s a fun place to meet and chat,” she says of Bistro Bella, 3514 Clinton Parkway. “We can sit comfortably in or outside. The service is good, and the coffee’s excellent with plenty of variety.”

By summer’s end, I hope to say the same about the tea-drinking experience there.

Ratings: Service 5/ Ambiance 5/ Coffee 5/ Tea 1