Where better to stop for a snack than Sandwich! Halfway between Newport, RI and Provincetown, MA, Sandwich is the first and oldest town as you enter Cape Cod. We heard word that The Dunbar Tea Shop was the place to go for a good ole British cuppa but ultimately the lure of house blend – with its accent of local cranberries – won out. (Happily it still came with hand-made tea cosy and china cow milk pourer!)

The tea shop’s charming interior (circa 1740) is featured on the cover of The Great Tea Rooms of America, but we were in heaven on the front lawn, marveling at the sheer blue sky. As tempting as it is to order a sandwich in Sandwich, we opted for the freshly baked scones – two with jam and cream for $6. In the pic above you can just about spy Bodie’s golden fur through the latticework of the table top. Here he’s slightly affronted that his grassy repose has been disturbed by my camera lens.

The car park at the Dunbar Tea Shop can get a little chocka but finding a spot elsewhere in town gives you an excuse to have a meander down by the old grist mill and mirror-like river and perhaps pause for a cooling splash of water…

With its annual prizes for window-box-arranging and picnic-packing skills, Sandwich is the kind of place Bree Van der Kamp might have chosen over Wisteria Lane . Clearly nowhere either Bodie or I would fit in but, nonetheless, a perfect pit stop.

THE DUNBAR TEA SHOP

ADDRESS: 1 Water Street, Sandwich, MA, 02563

MENU: Want to try something classically British? Order the Ploughman’s Lunch – a chunk of Farmhouse Cheddar, dollop of Branston Pickle, crusty bread and salad, then finish off with a “99” – aka vanilla ice-cream with a Cadbury’s Flake!

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