Turning Over a New (Tea) Leaf

Bainbridge Business is Steeped in History

Whether walking off the ferry or strolling around town after a Town & Country run, it’s hard to miss The Ravine. The circle of local businesses, located at the ravine end of Winslow Way just to the east of Ericksen Avenue, is festooned with lights, Ethan Currier’s rock sculptures and an array of rainbow Pride flags.

BY AUDREY NELSON PHOTOS BY ANNA CARSON FOR THE RAVINE

Thank Erika Thayer for making The Ravine what it is today. Thayer, who moved to the island in 2011, purchased the property in the spring of 2020. That summer, as the pandemic ramped up, she opened The Ravine’s flagship business, what’s now the Bainbridge Apothecary & Tea Shop.

The Ravine is perhaps best known— especially to younger islanders—as the former home of That’s A Some Pizza. But the property’s history extends much farther into Bainbridge’s past. The four buildings, constructed between the 1890s and the 1930s, originally housed Winslow’s general store and post office.

Thayer had no intention of letting that history disappear.

“I thought that we really needed to preserve the legacy of what these buildings represented to Bainbridge,” she said.

So, in 2020—when it seemed like potential buyers were interested in transforming the property into a hotel—Thayer and her family bought it instead, and The Ravine was born.

Almost four years later, The Ravine is a thriving ecosystem for both tourists and locals, who come for high tea at the Bainbridge Apothecary & Tea Shop, try their hands at Bainbridge Escape’s new historical escape room or take home hand-crafted souvenirs from Island Life Artisan Gifts.

Meanwhile, Hot Hot Yoga offers classes in an infrared-heated studio, the Taco Barn sells food from a storefront decorated with colorful papel picado, and the Stage at the Ravine—an outdoor venue envisioned by Thayer and created in partnership with artist James Rudolph and the Bainbridge Creative District—spills over with local live music in summer months.

Plans are under way to transform the small building behind the apothecary into Wedgewood Cottage, a traditional Victorian tea parlor. With four new tables, Wedgewood will expand the tea shop’s current capacity for hosting high tea.

That’s not the only expansion in the works. Heading into the holiday season, Thayer is leaning into themed experiences at The Ravine. In November, she wants to sell pies and in December, she’s planning a Nutcracker-style high tea table on the Apothecary’s back deck, along with gingerbread, cocoa and opportunities to meet Santa Claus. She hopes to give The Ravine a “Victorian village feel” throughout the winter months.

Thayer’s efforts to transform The Ravine have not gone unnoticed. She was recently named Business Leader of the Year by the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce, just three years after The Ravine opened.

Thayer is humbled by the award, but she’s determined in shaping The Ravine to have a goal of more than profit. She wants the space to bring people together around civility, compassion, and—she said, laughing—“glittery pink rose-gold love.”

As someone who has spent more than 30 years in the tea business, Thayer has a keen awareness of what the ritual of gathering can add to our daily lives.

“I think we’ve lost the quiet moments, the times that we come together, and we really share in one another,” she said. “And that’s what The Ravine as a whole is all about; creating these moments of experience.”

She’s enabled countless quiet, remarkable moments during her time with The Ravine. A few of her favorites include a bride who experienced “three hours of stressless bliss” during a bridal shower; little girls who “exploded” with glee, delighted to “drink out of China cups and eat little tea sandwiches”; and a 95-year-old woman celebrating her birthday with a granddaughter in tow.

Running a business like The Ravine can be stressful. Thayer joked that she’s like a “little duck” with her legs paddling frantically under the smooth water. But each new moment of joy at The Ravine renews her commitment to getting people to gather, slow down and care for one another.

“The