LAKE ALFRED, Fla. (WFLA) — If you are looking for a place to celebrate Mom, check out this hidden gem in Polk County: Lavender ‘N Lace Tearoom and Restaurant.
With a floral aesthetic and charm, the restaurant has been family-owned and operated for more than 30 years.
“We’re a tightknit family,” Tabina Bajwa said. “We have people that have been here from the very beginning and have poured that same love into it.”
In 1989, Bajwa’s mother and father, Sehar and Hafeez Bajwa, who are originally from Pakistan, opened up the charming place in Lake Alfred.
“They restored this very old estate into the tearoom that is today. It’s continuously being transformed and curated,” Tabina Bajwa said.
Before moving to Florida, Hafeez Bajwa was a merchant marine captain and traveled with his wife Sehar often.
“They were sailing a lot so there’s a lot of globetrotter elements in here,” Tabina Bajwa said.
Those travels influenced several of Lavender ‘N Lace’s recipes.
“There’s like southern new cuisine, we have Caribbean dishes. We have the idea that it’s homestyle kitchen,” she said.
Some employees who currently work at the tearoom have been there since the very beginning.
“That labor of love is definitely translated to each detail here, from our kitchen to the giftshop, to the garden,” Bajwa said.
In the future, Bajwa said, the family business will expand to doing events and even weddings.
Lavender ‘N Lace is currently open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. You can make reservations on their website.