How many of you are old enough to remember Tea Rooms? Tea Rooms were often owned by women when it was frowned upon for women to own restaurants. In many if not most cases, these were really restaurants under another name. Here are two of my favorite tea rooms.
- Mary Mac’s – Atlanta, Georgia. On historic Ponce De Leon Street, this place was started in 1945 by Mary MacKenzie. It’s the last of 16 tea rooms from that era. Later it was sold in 1962 to the legendary Margaret Lupo who ran the place until 1994. This place has great southern food. Foods like fried chicken, creamed corn, turnip greens, green beans, iced sweet tea and amazing desserts like banana pudding, coconut cake and the best Georgia peach cobbler.
- Hollyhock Hill – Indianapolis, Indiana on College Avenue. Started in 1928 by V.D. Vincent and his wife from their cottage outside of Indy. Only four owners in its history. Meals served family style. You want the Indiana Fried Chicken Dinner with the fixings – sweet pickled beets, house salad, biscuits with apple butter, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and corn. Apple pie or Chocolate Layer Cake for dessert.
Many tea rooms served then, and continue to serve afternoon tea. When we lived outside of London, we often enjoyed afternoon tea. Here are some great places for afternoon tea in the United States.
- Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The classic tea service, including a children’s Eloise Tea, named after the children’s books.
- Le Salon at The Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans. English style with Southern charm.
- The Living Room at the Peninsula Beverly Hills. Amazing finger sandwiches to start before moving on to the sweets.
- The Courtyard Tea Room at the Boston Public Library in Boston. Very civilized.
- The Parlor at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. The classic with all the history and charm of yesteryears.
And in my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, during our annual Spoleto Festival in May and early June, many of our churches hold lunches and afternoon teas in their facilities for the tourists and locals alike. The homemade desserts are worth the trip!
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Each month we spotlight one of the “very best but now gone” places to eat. One of the all-time great Tea Rooms was the Magnolia Room at the downtown Atlanta Rich’s Department Store. It was such a treat to dress up in what we called Sunday church clothes and go to the flagship Rich’s store and have lunch at the Magnolia Room. It was best known for its three-layer Charleston Coconut Cake. For my Atlanta friends, do you also remember the Magnolia Room along with famous Pink Pig monorail at Christmas? The perfect outing was lunch at the Magnolia Room followed by a visit to the Secret Santa Workshop to buy gifts for mom and dad and then a ride on the Pink Pig.
THE LAGNIAPPE
A lagniappe is a Louisiana French Creole word meaning “a little something extra”. It can be a small gift included with a purchase or a special little food treat at a meal in a restaurant. Each month I will give you my gift of a lagniappe or a little something you may not have expected ON THE ROAD WITH RICK.
I grew up reading the great Pat Conroy’s books on the Lowcountry of South Carolina where I now live. Pat was not only a great writer but a wonderful cook, too, and he wrote a terrific cookbook called, of course, The Pat Conroy Cookbook. I live in the Lowcountry and appreciate wonderful foods of this region like shrimp and grits, Frogmore stew, chicken bog, crab salad and fried flounder.
Pat also shared with me our favorite chef, the great Frank Stitt of Birmingham, Alabama. In fact, Pat wrote the foreword to Frank’s first cookbook, Frank Stitt’s Southern Table. Frank’s recipe for the Highlands Baked Grits is worth the price of buying this cookbook.
Frank’s original restaurant was the Highlands Bar and Grill, which closed during Covid and never reopened. But he owns and runs two other great restaurants in Birmingham, an Italian southern fusion one called Bottega and a French inspired one called Chez Fonfon. Both are bucket list destinations for amazing foods.
UNITED TASTES OF AMERICA
Our new podcast/vignette series, with my partner iHeart Podcasts, United Tastes of America, is in full mode. We continue traveling to each of our 50 states to tell the culinary history of America by selecting one iconic dish from that state to spotlight. You can find our video vignettes on You Tube and our weekly podcasts on iHeart, Apple, Spotify and others. And, if you like them, please pass them along to friends and family!
Today, we take a sneak peek look at the five states we will be releasing in April –
North Carolina
- Nothing says North Carolina like BBQ pork and the very best BBQ pitmaster is the legendary Sam Jones. Join us as we compare Eastern vs. Western style barbecue with an amazing trip to Sam Jones BBQ to cook (and EAT) whole hog BBQ.
Rhode Island
- Rhode Island cuisine is all about clams, and the best clam cakes come from Aunt Carrie’s in Narragansett.
Vermont
- Join us at the third-generation legendary diner Earl’s for amazing and HUGE French Toast sandwiches smothered in local Vermont maple syrup.
Kentucky
- Home of basketball, bourbon, and horse racing as we visit the historic Brown Hotel in Louisville for their legendary Hot Brown open-faced sandwich.
Tennessee
- Biscuits are legendary in the South and there are none better than those at the historic Loveless Cafe.
I hope you are enjoying this monthly newsletter and encourage you to pass it along to anyone else who might enjoy it. Next month we’re all about GUMBO, as we travel to Louisiana ON THE ROAD WITH RICK and will introduce four new states from our iHeart series UNITED TASTES OF AMERICA.