Sylphia's Tea Garden

Sylphia’s is very formal, in a 1960’s NYC fancy hotel restaurant way.  Everything about the decor says money and elegance.  It isn’t garish, but it’s obvious that everything is of the highest quality, from the glazed tile floors to the pale, silk draperies and tapestries, embroidered with vines, leaves, and flowers.  The high windows have intricately carved wood screens/latices.  The wall panels are covered in something that looks like glossier, more tightly woven burlap/sack cloth…tinted green.  A tromp l’oeil mural of formal gardens covers the lower part of the cloth along one wall.  The potted plants and statues placed around the perimeter of the room exaggerate the illusion that you are in a planned, manicured garden.  

The square, [teak? tamsin wood?] tables are beautifully crafted, with intricately carved legs. [DM only: All tables have what appears to be an inset square of a different wood/stained wood in the middle.  The square has (some form of trench/bowling ball holes) for lifting it, and underneath is a velvet-lined ‘coin pit’ for betting on Tusks (see pic).  When a table is unoccupied, a potted [orchid?] is placed in the center, hiding the (‘handle’).  When a table is occupied, but no game is being played, the orchid might remain or be replaced by a lantern or removed. 

Waiters are unobtrusive but attentive and trained in serving nobility.  Their shirts are pale green (resembling a karate uniform), and they wear full length pale green aprons over dark green pants, with a grey-green belt/sash (like a thinner cummerbund that’s fitted so the pleated part goes all the way around the waist, with fasteners in the back.

There are no appetizers or shared trays of food, here.  When dining, each course is very formally served with presentation including glazed pottery decorated with botanical motifs, silverware, fine linen napkins, silver goblets, etc.  No pitchers or flagons are ever left on the table (guests should never have to refill their own cup!).  Empty plates are quickly whisked away.  Every need is attended to promptly by staff.

But the (mostly) ladies who come here aren’t tame.  They gamble and drink and gossip all day.  Most can drink a sailor under the table and still seem sober.  Many could beat a sailor in Tusks, even playing sailor’s rules.  Much of the maneuvering in merchant families comes down to the women who spend time at Sylphia’s.