AFTER 24 years and goodness knows how many pots of tea, the proprietor of one of the Island’s best-known cafés is preparing to hang up her apron.
Rosie’s Tea Room in Market Street, St Helier, has been put up for sale after owner Rosie Fern made the decision to retire after almost quarter of a century of dispensing drinks, cake, cheese toasties and good old-fashioned hospitality.
It will be the end of an era for the 67-year-old, who has built up a loyal following of both locals and visitors since she first opened the doors in 2002.
“I’m just ready to retire and have a bit of time for myself,” she said. “I was thinking about it last year and then before you knew it we’d got to Christmas, so I decided it would be this year, and I feel ready now.
“It’ll be a sad day when it goes – not many places have still got a wee old-fashioned tea room where you can get your pot of tea and ham, egg and chips, or fish and chips, at a decent prices.
“People probably come past and see that we’re full and think ‘oh she must be raking it in’, but it’s not easy – we just make it look easy because we’re professional, from the old school.”
Not that the tea room hasn’t changed with the times – smashed avocado is on the specials board, for those that want it, French and German menus are available, and if someone wants a speciality milk with their coffee and it’s not in stock, Rosie will nip next door to Alliance and grab a carton.
As a teenager growing up in the Scottish town of Motherwell, Rosie made her first steps in hospitality as a teenager with a summer job at a Butlin’s holiday camp in the north of England, and then in 1978 made the move to Jersey to join up with former colleagues from Butlins. She started her first job, at the fashionable ladieswear store Unit One, a few days after arriving and supplemented her income with evening bar work.
Fast forwarding to 2026 and Rosie has developed at outline plan of how she’ll spend her retirement.
“Number one is I’m going to sleep for a week to sleep for a week, and then I’ve got lots of cupboards at home that need sorting, and then I’m thinking maybe I’ll learn woodwork, or do a mechanic course at Highlands.
“I’ll have to do a wee part-time job somewhere, because I’ll get bored,” she admitted. “I would probably even just do a couple shifts in here if they [the new owners] wanted me.”
For the past two years, Rosie has pulled out all the stops to enable Islanders to enjoy a Christmas dinner. The idea launched in 2024 with an offer to collect a three-course meal with a cracker and a small bottle of wine on Christmas Eve to cook at home the next day.
The cost was just £20, and some customers donated this amount so that some who may not have been able to afford the stated price could still get their festive meal. More than 150 people were catered for, a total that increased to 200 last year.
Posters have recently gone up in the tea room confirming that the business is for sale, with an asking price of £850,000 that includes the downstairs business premises and two one-bedroomed flats above.
Anyone interested can email rosietearoom@gmail.com or call 736004… or just pop in for a cuppa.
