Tea cottage event to show off changes

Blissfield artist Peg Stevenson, left, poses with one of her works and Dragonfly Tea Cottage proprietor Jennifer Blakeman. THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Sylvania's Dragonfly Tea Cottage has an art extravaganza planned for Saturday.

The genteel, Victorian-style restaurant at 5723 Main St. in the city's Historical Village will use the occasion to unveil a menu and its art gallery upstairs.

The day will feature a butoh performance by Chloe Whiting Stevenson outside and plenty of artworks inside. Butoh is a performance art of Japanese origin, with no set style, that incorporates elements of dance.

The day's events begin at 10:30 a.m. with a discussion on butoh, to be followed by a workshop from 1 to 4 p.m. At 6 p.m., Miss Stevenson will give a solo performance called Civil Inquiries.

The restaurant's new menu will feature more vegetarian and wheat-free and gluten-free dishes, said Jennifer Blakeman, the tea cottage's proprietor. It will also feature more of Blissfield artist Peg Stevenson's made-from- scratch pies.

"This is a natural way of eating, without the additives," Ms. Blakeman said. "The desserts are the same way."

Indeed, the restaurant uses only fresh ingredients in its dishes, which include mango gazpacho, black bean burgers, and asparagus quiche.

The first time a health inspector stopped by he looked in the cupboards and asked where the canned and packaged foods were. The answer was, "We don't have any," Ms. Blakeman recalled with a laugh.

Dragonfly Tea Cottage proprietor Jennifer Blakeman, left, of Toledo, and artist Peg Stevenson, of Blissfield, Mich., in one of the rooms of the tea house and gallery. On the rear wall are paintings by Stevenson. THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER Enlarge | Photo Reprints

The tea cottage had an unlikely beginning.

It opened in June of last year as an art gallery and in October as a restaurant. The walls are still hung with art, many of them pieces done by Ms. Stevenson, who is Chloe Whiting Stevenson's mother and a noted painter of portraits and murals. Her work will be prominently represented in the new gallery upstairs.

Ms. Blakeman had worked in art shows and in another Sylvania tea shop for years before she got the idea of starting the tea cottage. She decided that the old house on Main, which is owned by the city, would be a good location.

There was only one problem: She had no money or business plan. City council had a good laugh at the letter she sent explaining this, but in the end decided to take a chance and become her landlord.

Ms. Blakeman, Ms. Stevenson, and their associates put thousands of dollars of sweat equity into the old house. They ripped out kitchen cupboards, pulled up carpeting, and prepared the wood floors for refinishing. They paid a plumber to put in sinks and planted a garden. Ms. Blakeman is a skilled do-it-yourselfer, having for years owned and operated her own landscaping company as she raised her two sons as a single mom.

Ms. Stevenson, a Bedford High School graduate who has a studio in her Blissfield home, lent a hand with her painting skills. She worked as a mural painter in West Palm Beach, Fla., for 12 years and is accomplished in metal and glass. Her work can be seen at Monroe County's Bedford Branch Library as well as in Dundee and Ann Arbor.

The tea room is becoming an entertainment destination in Sylvania. Tonight there will be acoustic music from 6 to 9 p.m. and next Wednesday a poetry night starting at 7 p.m.

At the end of the month, the tea cottage will undergo a name change to the Dragonfly Art Cafe.

The reason for the switch is simple, Ms. Blakeman said: "Guys do not want to come and eat in a 'tea cottage.' "