A regal violin harmony gently lilts through the air above Atascadero’s Entrada Avenue. Nestled between a juice store and a barber shop, the strings sing from the balcony of a white cottage while a small crowd waits.
Sit and sip
The Tea Trolley is open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 3 to 5 p.m. High tea is served on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. by reservation only. Make a reservation at theteatrolley.com. Find the cottage at 5932 Entrada Ave. in Atascadero and on Instagram @teatrolleyatascadero.
About 10 women dressed in British Regency gowns listen for their names—preceded by the word “lady”—to be called in for afternoon tea.
The Tea Trolley in Atascadero has provided a British high tea experience since it opened in 2002. It hosts afternoon tea, private celebrations, and themed tea services and has a shop selling tea and gifts. On Jan. 31, the tea room transported guests to the world of Bridgerton, a popular Regency romance series on Netflix.
But the Tea Trolley’s foray into themed high tea events is recent—a brainchild of the spot’s new owner, Deneen DiCarlo. She took over the business in September 2025, from the Trolley’s original owner from England, Wendy Richardson.
“The day she handed me the keys, she had a really hard time,” said DiCarlo. “I understand why, because when I leave this place, I rub the walls and I just say, ‘Thank you so much,’ because it is such a magical place.”
She stumbled upon the little cottage while looking at real estate in Atascadero, initially thinking about opening a yogurt and candy shop.
“I was like, ‘I need that house; we’re going to do something with this house. I don’t know what I’m going to sell there, but I’m going to do this house,’” she said.
When DiCarlo offered to buy the place, Richardson expressed her desire for it to continue to be focused on tea.
“It was just like, I know nothing about tea, but I will learn,” DiCarlo said.
The new owner works to keep the tea room’s traditional character alive, while adding her own touch.
“She [Wendy] needed a tea place, and hers was very British,” DiCarlo said. “She always goes, ‘Darling, don’t you think this is a little over the top?’ But she loves it.”
After more than two decades as a rheumatologist in New York City and San Luis Obispo, DiCarlo knew she wanted to continue taking care of people as she eased into retirement from the medical field last August.
“I love to talk to people,” she said. “A lot of times my patients would be stable, and … you’re spending like 15, 20, 30 minutes, you talk, you get to know their families and what’s going on, and that’s what I get to do here.”
Her staff—or as DiCarlo describes them, “family”—also have roots in the medical and service industry. Lilly Germond has been the Tea Trolley’s lead server since DiCarlo took over. Prior to this role, she was a caregiver and was in the service industry for the past 10 years. Germond describes the Tea Trolley as “restorative” and “healing,” thanks to a staff experienced in taking care of others.
“There’s this sense of playfulness to the Tea Trolley,” she said.
During the Bridgerton high tea experience, a heavy French accent seamlessly rolled out of Germond’s mouth, a commitment to her character as she greeted the guests and poured tea.
Chef Andre Averseng makes the food that rounds out an afternoon tea experience: scones, crumpets, desserts, and fillings for finger sandwiches—including egg salad and caper and cucumber dill. The shortbread cookies, which are a staple of every tea experience at the Trolley, are primarily baked by Lynne Anger. The labor and delivery nurse’s passion for baking and cookie decorating has driven cookie production since DiCarlo took over.
The pair became best friends in first grade and both had careers in medicine, experience that they lean on at the Tea Trolley.
“I think part of medicine in any way, shape, or form is listening,” Anger said. “You sit and you listen and a lot of these people will come in and they’re by themselves or they want to talk. Especially the older women that maybe are widowed or they just want somebody to sit and listen to them.”
The Entrada Avenue cottage was built in the 1930s, the first building on the street. Over the years, it’s housed a lawyer’s office, a dressmaker’s house, a hairstylist, and a doctor’s office, according to DiCarlo. She is the sixth owner of the building.
For the recent Bridgerton event, DiCarlo said she slept about 12 hours in total the week leading to it.
“I feel more stressed out than I did as a doctor sometimes because I’m like, I got to make this work,” she said.
Moving forward, DiCarlo has plans to hand the Tea Trolley over to a new owner after five years, a difficult decision she knows she will have to make. In the meantime, she works gratefully alongside her staff.
After hours immersed in the world of Bridgerton, elegantly raising pinkies, sipping tea, nibbling freshly baked scones, and batting feathered fans, the Tea Trolley’s royal guests exited the shop and stepped back onto modern-day Entrada Avenue.
“I feel like Willy Wonka, like I won the golden ticket with everything,” DiCarlo said. “This is not something that is paying the bills. I’m at that stage of my life where I feel so privileged; not a lot of people can do this.” ∆
Reach intern Fiona Hastings at ntintern@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Feb 19-26, 2026.