My New Favorite Place

My friend Elin Babcock invited me to tea this afternoon. Turns out it was WAY so much more than tea! If you haven't been to Chozu bath and tea gardens on A Street and Seventh in Ashland, you simply MUST go.

First off, it's elegant and Zen-like and peaceful and other-worldly and gorgeous and, well, Japanese. Ilene, the owner, is Jewish from New York. I have no explanation.

There's a tea house/restaurant that serves lunch and dinner -- everything so far as I can tell, homemade and handmade by Natty, the adorable restaurant goddess. Raise your hand if you knew that! If you're not in the mood for any of the five exotic green teas or one of the four speciality teas, you can have. . . sake! Or Japanese beer! Or French Wine!! For dinner try red and yellow miso soup, seaweed salad, prawn shumai and green tea ice cream.

Afterward or before or presumably during dinner, you can soak in an outdoor salt-water pool fed by a waterfall, or in a private garden hot tub. You can steam yourself into a noodlie blob in the wet sauna or the dry sauna. You can have your choice of seven different massages and body treatments. You can even rent a cottage for the weekend! This place is HEAVEN. It is also clothing optional.

Want more information? Call cute, friendly, incredibly helpful Joanna at 541-552-0202. Or check out www.ChozuGardens.com. (Note: No one paid me to write this, or offered me anything in return, or even knows who the heck I am. Go there. You'll love it.)