"The Rhubarb Fizz at Fitzbillies" (by Stacey Harwood)

Stacey Harwood wires from Fitzbillies, the legendary tea shop on Trumpington Street in Cambridge, with the news that the venerable institution, which faced bankrutcy not too long ago, is thriving under new management and a chef that is au courant. The rhubarb fizz is something you would never associate with the home of the Chelsea Bun (which Tim Hayward, a co-owner who writes on food for the Guardian and the Financial Times, calls "a diametrical coma in a rectangular box").

Here is Stacey's report filed for Saveur:

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Cambridge mainstay Fitzbillies has always been one of my favorite stops when I'm in England. I look forward to the reliable tea and Chelsea buns they're famous for, but on my most recent visit I noticed that the university town fixture has somehow changed—newer, fresher, bigger, brighter. I soon learned that Fitzbillies has, in fact, enjoyed a recent growth spurt, thanks to husband-and-wife team Tim Hayward and Alison Wright, who took over in 2011 and added an imaginative dinner menu with the help of London chef Rosie Sykes.

When I sat down to dinner, I was greeted with a basket of cheese straws and the new house cocktail, the rhubarb fizz, a compelling combination of rhubarb syrup and sparkling wine -- spicy and nuanced. I asked chef Sykes to confide the syrup's ingredients. "Cardamom and vanilla," she said. "I've been on a bit of a cardamom kick lately." She infuses additional flavor into the syrup by simmering the rhubarb in a spicy ginger beer.

Now that I'm back home, and with one of the first edible harbingers of warm weather finally showing up at my local farmer's market, I know what I'll be drinking for the next few weeks.
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http://www.saveur.com/article/Wine-and-Drink/Friday-Cocktails-Rhubarb-Fizz