Maker: Renea Woods-Baylor, President
Business: The Tea Lady Inc., a one-of-a-kind tea room in downtown Akron serving English-style high tea
You come from a line of entrepreneurs in your family. How did that inspire you as you were growing up?
I grew up at the dinner table with our family. I'm a third-generation business owner in my family, and my personal philosophy is that entrepreneurs are raised at the dinner table. You're talking about in the 1960s, ‘70s, somewhat in the '80s, where families sat down and had dinner together. It was an amazing time for us to share. Even as a kid, I'm listening to my parents talk about their business, what they're doing, their inventory, where they're going to be located, all that. I'm just excited to keep that tradition going and starting a business. I been in business as an accountant for over 30 years. I've owned my own firm for over 22 years here in Akron. We had clients all over the country, and I just enjoyed being an entrepreneur for as long as I have been, and starting this new business is a breath of fresh air.
Woods-Baylor's mother, Gertrude Overstreet-Robinson, sitting in one of four shoe stores owned by her parents. Woods-Baylor is a third-generation entrepreneur. [Renea Woods-Baylor]
Talk about the camaraderie that surrounds tea time, and how your business brings people together.
Tea time is meant for conversations, and I believe one of the things COVID has taught us is how much we long for relationships. Everybody wants that. They want to be engaged with one another. And tea time -- you can't be sitting across from someone this close and be on a phone. And really, because we came out of COVID, that's not what you want to do now. I want to talk to you, see how you’ve been doing. ‘How did you get through this? What's going on in your life?’ So it's a lot of conversation going on. And I believe that now tea time is the best way to experience people coming together.
Guests enjoy getting to know one another over tea in The Tea Lady's main tea room. [Jean-Marie Papoi / Ideastream Public Media]
You’ve always had a love of entertaining. Was that partly why you started The Tea Lady?
One of the reasons why I started this business is because when I was married, I was married to an executive chef. And I was like, ‘Ooh, I get to live out my little tea dream through him.’ He would prepare all the food, and I’d set the table and put my china out and have tea parties. I did that every year on the day before Mother's Day and we would seat about 25 to 30 people in our home. And then five years ago in March, he passed away with kidney cancer. And he asked me before he passed, ‘What are you going to do with all this stuff?’ Because by then I collected china and crystal and different things for different events, and I told him I was going to use it. And of course, after a year of grieving and everything, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to get out of doing anything that was stressful. When I thought about it, I went across the hall from my accounting firm in my office and I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to ask God, what I should do that is going to give me peace? What gives me joy?’ It's tea. I love doing tea parties.
Woods-Baylor with her husband, chef Dennis C. Baylor, who passed away in 2017 from kidney cancer. [Renea Woods-Baylor]
You had already owned your own accounting firm for over 20 years, but this is much different. Were there challenges you faced when starting The Tea Lady?
Yes, I absolutely had challenges. I was terrified. I've been doing just one business for 25 years. Stepping out doing something totally different, like, this is the restaurant industry, was very scary in itself. I would say to challenges, it was really overcoming outside things that control the healthiness of your business, especially when you're just starting out. So you know what? I know how to make lemonade, and I know how to make it really good and sweet. Because you see challenges, but you have to work your way past. You can't give up. Giving up is just not an option, and it's definitely not an option for me.
Woods-Baylor owned the accouting firm OFG Advisors Inc. in downtown Akron for 22 years. [Renea Woods-Baylor]
You did a lot of research on the history of African-American women owning tea rooms. What did you find out?
In my research, I wanted to see, did other Black women own tea rooms? And I went back as far as 1920. They were some of the wealthiest women in the community, only because they served some of the wealthiest upper-class Black people in the community -- jazz artists, NAACP social activists, preachers. Because of segregation, Black people weren't allowed to go into white establishments, so the tea room owner really had to do things differently. It was very Americanized, and they had to accommodate their guests, and their guests loved soul food. So it wasn't the tea sandwiches, they had to serve food that was more accommodating to the culture then. And not only that, they had to work very, very hard. They had to work long hours, and sometimes had to house their guests in the tea room because Blacks also weren't allowed to go to any place where they could stay overnight, they had to stay in Black establishments. So it’s really, to me, kind of sad because I can't imagine myself doing all of that and more. So, you know, out of the Black culture, when it came to owning tea rooms, they had to do more than just serve tea and say goodnight to their guests or good afternoon to their guests, but also be more accommodating and making space for them to have those conversations of civil rights. And it was a lot of planning and a lot of social activity during that time.
"I'm the first African-American woman to own a tea room here in Summit County," said Woods-Baylor, "so I'm very proud of that." [Renea Woods-Baylor]
As an already established business owner in Akron with your accounting firm, how did the community respond to The Tea Lady’s opening?
People knew me as an accountant, and now everywhere I go everyone in Akron calls me the “tea lady”. Well, that was purposeful. I plan for you to call me that because I wanted to put in the mindset of who I am and who I'm becoming. And they embraced it. They loved it. They're like, ‘Oh, great, we get to have a tea room right here in our very own city!’ And I believe that's why a lot of people come from out of town, because they have family here and they're bringing their family that lives right here in Akron to the tea room. So I think we're making a big statement that you can go across the street to the Akron Civic Theatre, see a play and then come over here and have tea. You can always have something to do downtown. And the Akron Downtown Partnership has been amazing, and the Greater Akron Chamber has been awesome in helping us share what we do with the community.
