Sky Room’s afternoon tea is a love letter to detail as Long Beach’s tea scene flourishes

Sky Room at the Fairmont Breakers has launched its afternoon tea service. And it feels less like a novelty and more like an extension of the restaurant’s meticulous culinary philosophy.

Long Beach’s formal return to proper fine dining has largely been led by the rebirth of the Sky Room. Chef Maxwell Pfeiffer and the Sky Room team have created one of the city’s premier formal dining rooms, if not the premier dining room next to Heritage.

Pairing sweeping harbor views with polished service and ambitious cuisine, Chef Maxwell has rightfully earned the title of Long Beach’s fine dining prince.

Detail-oriented, firmly focused, and wonderfully woven into the vibe of the Sky Room space, their afternoon tea service is an incredible addition to a continually growing tea scene. But it is Chef Maxwell’s masterful meticulousness that immediately stands out.

Sky Room’s afternoon tea service is one worthy of the space’s reputation and beauty.

Afternoon tea is often reduced to aesthetics—a tower of finger sandwiches, a few sweets, perhaps a scone or two. Sky Room’s interpretation embraces the tradition while elevating every component.

What makes the menu impressive isn’t simply the number of items but the number of components behind each one. Nearly every bite contains multiple layers—a pastry base, a house-made cream, a preserve, a garnish, or a carefully chosen finishing.

His croissant? Arguably up in the air as the best in the city, where its lamination comes of in a flakiness that can be heard as its cracks and a pillow of buttery layers that define the pastry. His cucumber sandwich? A perfectly lined layer of ultra-thin cucumbers, lined with equal layers of an herbed cream cheese, that will make you a fan if you’ve never had it or want to perfect your own version at home.

It reflects Chef Max’s reputation for precision, where seemingly simple offerings reveal extensive prep work and technical execution behind the scenes. The result is a service that feels luxurious without becoming overly precious.

What to expect from Sky Room’s afternoon tea service…

Guests can choose from several tiers of service. The Regular Tea Service ($95) includes a welcome glass of Champagne alongside a bread basket, a selection of savory bites, an assortment of sweets, and a curated tea service. For those looking to elevate the experience, the Celebration Tea Experience ($110) adds a tableside flambé presentation—we chose Bananas Foster—everything the regular service offers.

Additional upgrades include free-flowing pours of Billecart-Salmon’s 1818 Champagne for an extra $55 per person or a one-ounce serving of Tsar Nicoulai Osetra caviar for an additional $110.

Younger guests ages 3 to 10 can enjoy a dedicated Children’s Tea Service ($55).

Bread Basket

Bread Basket: Lemon curd | clotted cream | seasonal jam

Croissant

Buttermilk Scone

Blueberry Scone

The Savory menu…

The array of savory bites includes some of the best smoked salmon you’re going to find in the city. A nearly perfect Waldorf salad whose only disappointment is that there is not more. A deviled egg that makes you question everything your aunt’s version lacks at the family potluck—and it’s not just the caviar topping. A simply wondrous array of salty bits.

Smoked Salmon on Rye: Rye bread | caper cream cheese | trout roe

Market Cucumber Sandwich: Brioche | herbed cream cheese

• Aged Comté: Puff pastry | apricot jam
• Asparagus & Iberico Ham: Asparagus | Iberico ham

Deviled Chino Valley Egg: Tsar Nicoulai caviar

Truffled Waldorf Chicken Salad: Endive cup | truffled Waldorf chicken salad

The Sweet menu…

The details amongst this spread are undeniably charm-inducing. The caramel apple tart—with its perfectly squared bits of cooked apple and a razor-thin green apple slice to top it off—is gorgeously layered with a perfect flower dotting its center. A strawberry puff pastry that makes one wonder how such a small bite can explode with such strawberry strength. A peach pastry whose chamomile tea is doused in a high-gloss glaze before being topped with a sliver of peach and gold foil. And somehow, a soft chocolate mousse that is sculpted into a perfect sphere for its seat in a meringue cup.

And yes, they taste as delicious as they look gorgeous.

Strawberries & Cream Puff: Strawberries | cream puff

Caramel Apple Tartlet: Caramel | apple

Lemon Poppyseed Madeleine: Lemon | poppyseed

Dark Chocolate Meringue: Luxardo cherry | dark chocolate meringue

Peach & Chamomile Mousse: Peach | chamomile

Seasonal Macaron

Sky Room’s tea selection comes from The Art of Tea

The tea menu can, admittedly, feel overwhelming. From black and green offerings to white and herbal teas, you can smell each one before tasting. Personal favorites? The wonderfully fruity Happy green tea and, definitively at the top, the White Coconut crème tea, a joyous cup that acts as an ode to coconut.

Black Teas

• English Breakfast Tea: Traditional organic loose-leaf black tea
• Earl Grey Crème Tea: Organic black teas | corn flower | bergamot oil
• Dark Chocolate Peppermint Tea: Pu-erh cacao nib | peppermint | pink peppercorn

Green Teas

• Green Pomegranate Tea: Organic green tea | organic black teas | rosehips | raspberry
• Happy Tea: Jasmine green tea | guayusa | rosehips | hibiscus | rooibos | apple | raspberry
• Jasmine Reserve Tea: Loose-leaf green tea | medium caffeine

Oolong Tea

• Orchid Oolong Tea: Whole-leaf orchid oolong | lilac | fresh floral notes

White Tea

• White Coconut Crème Tea: Organic white tea | safflower | corn flower | coconut | medium caffeine

Herbal Tisanes

• French Lemon Ginger: Rooibos | lemongrass | honeybush | lemon verbena | ginger
• Pacific Coast Mint Tea: Spearmint | peppermint
• Egyptian Chamomile Tea: Sweet calming chamomile
• Apricot Escape Tea: Rosehips | rooibos | hibiscus | honeybush | orange peel | lemongrass

Long Beach’s growing love for afternoon tea service makes it one of the richest in SoCal.

The arrival of afternoon tea at Sky Room also highlights a broader trend: Long Beach is quietly becoming one of Southern California’s more compelling destinations for tea service. For the last few years, the city’s standard-bearer has been Chez Bacchus, whose weekend afternoon tea has become a beloved ritual among locals. It’s not just underrated but one of the best in SoCal, offering two types of service that don’t skimp on the elegant, calming nature of afternoon tea.

Beyond that, more casual concepts such as Afternoon Tea in The Village or Dream Come True have introduced a younger audience to the tradition through approachable tea experiences. And the enduring service aboard the historic Queen Mary continues to offer one of the region’s most iconic settings for tea, pairing finger sandwiches and pastries with views of the harbor and the ship’s storied Art Deco interiors.

What Sky Room brings to that growing landscape is something uniquely its own: a tea service filtered through the painstakingly thorough culinary lens of Chef Maxwell. It combines the elegance expected of a historic luxury dining room with the obsessive culinary detail that has become a hallmark of Chef Maxwell’s work.

In a city increasingly embracing afternoon tea as both a social ritual and culinary experience, Sky Room’s version may be its most ambitious yet—one where every dollop of cream, spoonful of jam, and perfectly placed garnish reminds guests that details matter.