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Have Tea with the Queen (Kinda) at Buckingham Palace's New Tourist Cafe

While the Queen is away, her servants will play...

A new cafe for tourists—the only one, actually—will open tomorrow at London's Buckingham Palace. At the Garden Cafe, people without a royal title can enjoy a £2.65 cappuccino on the Queen's grounds or even fresh apple juice from the Queen's Sandringham estate.

Although the palace sees millions of visitors a year, many of whom are content to watch the Changing of Guard from the gates outside, the cafe will have seats for only 210. In order to restrict access, guests who want to dine these must also have purchased the £17 palace admission ticket in addition to any food bill. So that £2.65 cappuccino is really £19.65.

Although the cafe opens tomorrow, it was completed while the Queen was away on summer holiday. According to the Herald Sun, "all proceeds from the summer opening, a tradition that began in 1993, will be used to maintain the Royal Collection—one of the world's top art collections."

[Photo: ajagendorf25]