Where Did Winter Go?

m January through March as a time to regroup. I don’t have as many deadlines to cope with, although a lot of time is devoted to arranging and attending travel shows to promote tourism here in Cape May County. But for most of us here at the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC), it’s planning season.
Maybe it’s just that this was “the winter that wasn’t” but it seems like the time has flown by and spring is upon us. The calendar may say it’s still March, but the daffodils blooming on the grounds of the Physick Estate beg to differ. Suddenly our planning time has turned into doing time, which makes me take inventory of what’s been accomplished.
One thing new for us here at MAC that came to fruition this winter was our mobile website. The world of technology goes on vacation, too, and we’re finding more and more of our visitors are coming to our website through mobile devices. So, I set about building a mobile site for MAC, which was something of a new experience for me, but kind of cool, too.
It’s sort of an abbreviated (greatly) version of our current site, but designed for people walking around town and looking for things to do. Hopefully, this will be helpful and ensure a happy visit to town. Check it out at www.capemaymac.mobi and let your out-of-town visitors know about it.
Winter is also time for our trolleys to get spruced up and tuned up for the busy season ahead, so if you seemed to be seeing more of them trundling up the Parkway, that’s why.
Our biggest winter project, also in the regrouping category, was our restaurant here at the Carriage House on the Estate. Its popularity has been growing, especially for those who liked the classic Tea Luncheon but it, too, needed a tune-up. I always described it in ads as “Not just your grandmother’s tearoom,” which was, and still is, pretty accurate.
One of the problems is that most people equate a tearoom with tiny little cucumber sandwiches and petit fours and many of our male visitors were probably dragged here whining, if not kicking and screaming. Of course, once here, they found out there was plenty more than cucumber sandwiches on the menu, and they didn’t need to stop at McDonald’s on the way home to fill up.
The menu still needed updating, however, and that’s what we spent most of the winter months doing, and it’s just about ready for its April 27 grand re-opening. That classic Tea Luncheon is still here for those who enjoy a leisurely lunch, but there are also accommodations for the fast-paced world we live in, like a la carte pricing, take-out and even a special grab-it-and-go case in the Carriage House. While we can’t imagine Dr. Physick and Mrs. Ralston having an interest in that, we’re sure they’d understand the need. Not all our guests linger as long as the social callers of Dr. Physick’s time here in Cape May.
It’s been a real challenge to blend the old and the new… tea sandwiches balanced with paninis and wraps, a steaming tea pot with a bottle for take-out, but while we all enjoy taking that step back in time that a visit to the Physick Estate provides, we like to have our modern amenities close at hand. So, thanks to those who have been involved in the redesign of the Carriage House Café & Tearoom, including innkeeper Diane Hutchinson who is going to do some of her creative baking for us, we can have our cake…and eat it, too.
(ED. NOTE: Barraclough is director of marketing and communications at MAC)