Dates visited: Friday 16th October 2020 and Thursday 12th September 2024
The T‑Shop is situated in Trinity Street on the south of Weymouth Quay, on the ground floor of a nineteenth century Grade II listed building, with Weymouth museum nearby in the former Devenish Brewery.
The T‑Shop has one small room with three tables for those taking tea indoors, but half a dozen outside, not just in front of its own premises but also outside the Old Rooms Inn across the road.
The menu at the T‑Shop includes a selection of hot – but not cooked – and cold snacks, including all day ‘elevenses’ (sandwiches and toasties), other sandwiches and toasties, panini melts, and ploughman’s lunches. Several cakes were on display at the counter inside. The hot beverage menu does not elaborate for tea beyond the size of the pot and is almost similarly brief for those mistakenly preferring coffee. Hot chocolate and a selection of soft drinks are also available.
In 2020, a coronation chicken sandwich, a slice of coffee and walnut cake, and a pot of tea came to £10.20. The coronation chicken was served with salad and crisps, and the cake included a pleasantly hefty layer of coffee cream. The teapot was kept warm in a knitted cosy. These are a feature of The T‑Shop, with a wide variety of designs in use. The T‑Shop’s window is also adorned with several knitted decorations.
The T‑Shop is leased from the owner of the flat upstairs. One of the conditions of the lease is that cooking is not permitted. As the new proprietors noted during my visit in 2024, fortunately for them the restriction on ‘cooking’ does not include toasting or heating paninis, allowing them to serve some hot foods.
New proprietors took over The T‑Shop in July 2023, but remarkably, very little has changed. Whilst knitting doesn’t appear to be a craft the new proprietors enjoy, they seem to have plenty of friends that do and have donated tea cosies and more to them. Knitted decoration now extends to many of the bollards around The T‑Shop.
In 2024, a piece of Dorset apple cake, and a pot of tea for one came to £5.80. The cake wasn’t like any other Dorset apple cake I’ve eaten, with a crustier top, a slightly heavier consistency than is customary, and inclusion of dried vine fruit.
Service from the proprietors was friendly and chatty, with the chattiness perhaps because frequent showers were keeping customers away.
The T‑Shop is open on Wednesdays to Saturdays from May to September, between 10 am and 4 pm.
