Willie's Modern Fare High Tea with Talk show host Sandie Newton

Sandy, Pat Patterson. Hey, Pat. Nice to meet you. Welcome to our beautiful desert. So happy to have you. Is there a dress code? I didn't know how to dress. I'm from the beach. Right, I mean there's not a dress code per se, but we usually get a little dressier. Do you mind? I'll be right back. I'm Pat Patterson and I love California. Now is this like the place? It is the place. Willie's is fabulous. Willie's Modern Fair. Isn't it beautiful? Well, every Sunday at 3 p.m. they have a high tea, so it's lovely, but at other times of the day they have lunch, dinner, brunch. It's beautiful. They have a really robust bar and lounge area that's always popping and Willie Ryan, the proprietor, owns two other restaurants in the desert, so he really knows what he's doing. Now to talk about you for a second, you are the host of Desert Chat here on KESQ. What time is that on? It's on Sunday nights at 6 30 p.m. on KESQ, Sundays at 10 30 p.m. on Fox 11, and Monday at noon on CW5. Wow, same station we're on here in the desert. And background, Hollywood Insider, we had all sorts of things. I was gonna say, my first job was PM Magazine in Los Angeles. I replaced Mary Hart, which I worked on, and you worked on that as Mary Hart was leaving, so we literally just crossed paths, and then I kind of retired. I did a show called Home and Family on the Hallmark Channel for six years, and when that stopped in 2018, I said, I'm kind of retired, and I love Desert Chat. Thank you. So what else to do here in Coachella? What are some of your favorite things? You know, of course, our living desert is really a world-renowned kind of habitat for animals. They all live in their natural habitat. It's over 200 acres. It's beautiful. You don't want to miss taking the tram up to the top of the mountain. So beautiful. There's snow there in the winter. You come down to the desert floor, it could be 70 degrees. You go up there, and it's 45, and there's snow on the ground, which I love. We have in Southern California, you can surf in the morning and ski in the afternoon. Exactly. Love that, and then, of course, we have our Firebirds now. We have a hockey team at Akershare Arena, which is part of the American Hockey League. Amazing. The fan base has come out in big numbers all throughout the Coachella Valley. Oh, here we go. Nice. So take your spoon and take your tea. That way, when you put your spoon in to either stir your sugar or cream, it's not cold. You know what you're doing. And then the cream. I put a little cream in mine, and then, of course, a little sugar. And I love that Willie's has the traditional sugar cubes, because those, when I was little, and we used to have tea at home, because, as I said, my dad is in English, of English descent, we always had the sugar cubes. So he had that left over. Exactly, which I love. When you lift it up, Pat, you want to make sure you have your pinky up, because that shows that that's kind of a upper-class affectation that kind of is carried down through the generations, I think. And then we say, cheers. Cheers. Perfect. Oh my god, that's really good. Isn't that good? That's the best tea I've ever had. Oh my gosh, here's the food. Hi, Willie. How are you, my dear? It's so good to see you. Love that we're both co-coordinators. Pat is the host of Pat Patterson's Best of California. Wonderful. This is going to be seen in 50 cities throughout the country, including right here. She's teaching me how to do this, and I can't wait to have one of these. What? Layers. Sandwiches first, scones, and then the petite pastries. Well, I've touched this now, so I realize I should do this. I see you've already got one of the cookies on your plate. Start with, go for the dessert first. I'm going for the dessert. Rafa, will you take this? Do you mind? Now you can take it. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Okay. Now you've got some room. Yes. Sandwiches first, scones followed by the scones, and then dessert. Bon appétit. Bon appétit. We don't clink this? That's so good. And we have the traditional sandwiches. The egg sandwich is a must. Smoked salmon is a must. Cucumber sandwiches, and then the house-made scones are absolutely delicious. We use sultanas in our scones, so it's a nice touch. What's in that? So good. It's so good. There'll be coconut and maybe a little bit of apple. I can taste the apple. That's what it is. So good. Now the scone, scone or scone? Scone. Scone. It is scone. See, you're confusing me now. I know, I know. It's hard. Tomato, tomato. And it's got raisins in it? Those are sultanas. Sultanas, okay. Different dried fruit. Wow. Better than a raisin. And that's the clotted cream. So I'm going to watch you. Well, I like them both. I like them both, so I'm going to put a little clotted. This is very controversial, starting with the clotted cream. I'm starting with the clotted. This could cause some controversies and lead to our cancellation. Now may I just put in the jam? I hate to put the clotted cream knife in the jam, but I can. You can pretty much drag this out for three or four hours, can't you? Absolutely. Again, you're skipping some of the sandwiches. Normally you would just do all of the sandwiches. We're doing it in TV time. So I'm going to do the reverse, just to be sassy. There you go. Now make sure you get lots of jam. Okay, lots of this. It really looks good. Nice. Sandy was very sparing with the jam. She was leaving some for me. So now the cream on top of this? If you want. I've got to try the whole package. Absolutely. So good and homemade, you said. Delicious. And really, how long has this place been open? We opened two years ago. We're just coming up on our second anniversary. So now I'm going to try this guy. Is that okay? Cut it right in the center. I thought this was a real fruit. No. When I looked at it, I went, that is a big cherry. Moose filling and a little messy. Both of you, thank you so much. Thank you, Pat. Pinky's up. Pinky's up. So let's check out all the great parts of the Coachella Valley.