People and tea: the perfect blend for business

In commenting on who she hires to work in her downtown Bothell tea room, Lea Miller gives more than a few clues about her approach to business.

“I don’t think you can teach a gentle nature,” she said. “We look for people who are people oriented and who want to serve.”

Miller’s stated goal, written for a business class: “Creating experiences that joyfully connect people.”

To Miller, one sign of success is the fact customers don’t come into her Three Cups of Tea eatery at 18104 102nd Ave. N.E., grab their food and go.

“We have a lot of customers that just come in and sit for a few hours,” Miller adds, stating she has nothing against someone who wants to sit and sip tea while reading a good book.

In many ways, it was actually a well-known book that led Miller to open her shop in June.

Miller is the member of a book club that last year just happened to select bestseller “Three Cups of Tea” for one of its discussions.

Written by journalist David Oliver Relin, it is the true story of Greg Mortensen, an American who became lost on the Karakoram mountain range in northern Pakistan. While veering from his ascent of the mountain range to take part in a successful mission to save another climber, Mortensen wandered into a small village, a happenstance that apparently saved his life. Mortensen eventually became the co-founder of a group that builds schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The title of the book, which obviously became the title of Miller’s tea room, is taken from a native Pakistani proverb that declares by the time you have shared a third cup of tea, you are family.

As the club discussed the book (in a tea room, no less), one of the members, apparently inspired by the story, asked Miller what she most wanted to do with her life. She said she always wanted to open her own tea room. She was promised by two friends, that if she did, she already had two faithful employees.

“We’re just really good friends,” said Paula Stevenson, one of the duo that kept its promise and now works for Miller at Three Cups. “I wasn’t really looking to go back to work, but it seemed like a reasonable thing to do.”

Stevenson added most people don’t get to pick their own boss, let alone work for a friend.

Open for breakfast and lunch, Three Cups offers quiche and sandwiches (turkey and cranberry is the most popular), along with salads, cookies, scones and French pastries. Everything except the pastries are made on site.

“I’m not a gourmet pastry chef,” Miller admitted, stating she leaves that bit of cooking to those who are.

Oh, Three Cups also features tea.

“From all over the world,” Miller said.

Most of the offerings are loose teas; that is, not tea in bags. It’s served in pots with built-in strainers, pots left right at the customer’s table.

By the way, those tables each have a cup of brightly colored sugar, dubbed “sparkling sugar,” by Miller. There’s also hour-glass style timers, which allow visitors to steep their tea just right.

Naturally, Three Cups offers plenty of teas and goodies to take home. Tea pots and tea accessories line the walls and displays. There are two private gathering rooms, one titled, appropriately enough, the “Alice Room,” decorated with scenes from a well-known, if fictional, tea get-together. Open into the evening hours, those rooms host everything from business luncheons to Bible studies to — you guessed it — book clubs.

Retired after working at several retail businesses, Miller said she turned her 401K into Three Cups of Tea. Just off Main Street, the location used to be a dance studio. Again with the help of her friends, Miller said the interior completely was redecorated. Miller added she actually kind of misses the process of looking at flooring and paint colors and so on.

“I personally believe this was a niche Bothell needed to fill,” Miller said of her business, which she added has done well so far.

Miller likes to contrast Three Cups with the area’s coffee houses. Besides what she believes is her more homey atmosphere, Miller said she doesn’t play music and few people sit around staring at lap tops, though anyone is certainly free to do so.

“To me this is music,” Miller said, indicating the sounds of the kitchen, and probably more importantly, the sounds of conversation coming from the crowded main dining room. If someone stops in at five minutes to 4 p.m., when the shop closes, they will still be served.

“We just want to be accommodating,” Miller said.

For more information, call (425) 877-1385.

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