Taking Tea in New Orleans

New Orleans—the name itself conjures up images of smoky French Quarter bars and jazz musicians playing on the street corner. But, as we discovered, New Orleans and its environs have a more refined side where a proper afternoon tea is served up Big Easy style with a large helping of fun. Daytime temperatures in the 60s and lower humidity make November and December a great time to visit southern Louisiana and the New Orleans area. Plus, the Big Easy puts on a show for holiday visitors. In addition to traditional reveillon dinners at some of New Orleans’s most famous restaurants, you’ll find holiday teas at the city’s finest hotels. And as TeaTime discovered, there are several more-casual venues for tea—in the French Quarter and on Lake Pontchartrain’s North Shore—that will not disappoint.

WINDSOR COURT HOTEL
300 Gravier Street • New Orleans, LA 70130
504-523-6000 • windsorcourthotel.com

Just across Canal Street from the French Quarter in the city’s Central Business District, you’ll find the Windsor Court Hotel, one of New Orleans’s most gracious and luxurious. It is here in this city with its proud French heritage that generations of New Orleanians have been introduced to the English custom of afternoon tea. It is served in Le Salon, the Windsor Court’s elegantly appointed lobby, Thursday through Sunday year-round, but the hotel steps it up a notch during the holiday season with its Holiday Tea.

Partaking in the Windsor Court’s Holiday Tea has become a tradition for many local families. When reservations open each year on March 1, patrons begin calling to reserve their favorite table (the table in front of the fireplace is a highly coveted spot). A harpist or a pianist serenades patrons as they enjoy a properly brewed cup of tea from among the 26 offerings on the Windsor Court’s tea menu. Gingerbread and cranberry-orange scones—served with raspberry preserves, Devonshire cream, and lemon curd—tempt the palate, while a selection of classic English tea sandwiches round out the savories course. The final course includes sweets prepared by Windsor Court pastry chef Shun Li—miniature cakes and tartlets, chocolate-covered strawberries, and truffles. (His puff pastry swans, filled with Chantilly cream, are always a treat.) What better way to begin the holiday season?

The Windsor Court’s Holiday Teas begin November 27, 2015, and continue most days through January 3, 2016. Reservations are required. Call 504-596-4773, or go to windsorcourthotel.com/le-salon to make reservations.

LUCULLUS
610 Chartres Street • New Orleans, LA 70130
504-528-9620 • lucullusantiques.com

If your exploration of the French Quarter should lead you down Chartres Street, don’t miss an opportunity to browse the exquisite tea things at Lucullus, a different kind of antiques store. The creation of sixth-generation Southerner Patrick Dunne, this charming shop specializes in culinary antiques, including vintage teawares that will make a tea lover swoon. Jane Austen would feel right at home here.

Lucullus’s treasures feed the imagination. You might discover an 18th-century Chinese teacup and saucer that could have arrived in England as ballast in an East India Company tea ship. Or you might find a 19th-century inlaid mahogany tea chest, perhaps used by a French Creole housewife to keep her valuable stock of tea leaves under lock and key. Gleaming silver tea services rub elbows with delicate porcelain teapots. It’s a simple step to imagine Creole ladies lingering over tea in a pleasant French courtyard, sipping from delicate Vieux Paris teacups. The romance and history of tea-drinking in the West come alive among these beautiful tea things. Lucullus is open Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

THE ROOSEVELT HOTEL
130 Roosevelt Way • New Orleans, LA 70112
504-648-1200 • therooseveltneworleans.com

The classic European-style hotel just off Canal Street has operated under many names since it opened more than 100 years ago. But it was as The Roosevelt Hotel that it became known as a beacon of luxury in the South during the 1920s, 1930s, and beyond. After Hurricane Katrina prompted a four-year, $170 million renovation, it reopened as The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, on July 1, 2009.

During the 1990s, the hotel’s famous Teddy Bear Teas, held each Christmas in the Blue Room, had become extremely popular. It was only natural that the hotel’s new management revive and expand them, and they are once again a New Orleans tradition. Beginning on the Sunday after Thanksgiving each year, the ballroom is transformed into a Christmas wonderland that delights children of all ages. The tea menu includes children’s favorites such as tea-sized peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, served with milk or hot chocolate. (Grown-ups can partake of tea or more adult beverages, including the hotel’s famous Sazerac cocktail.) Santa and Mrs. Santa make a grand entrance in a parade led by a bugler, and everyone has an opportunity to meet the big guy in red. The 90-minute experience ends with a traditional New Orleans second-line parade back to the Roosevelt’s lobby, where young patrons receive teddy bears.

The Roosevelt Hotel’s Teddy Bear Teas are offered weekends, beginning November 29, and weekdays December 21 through 23. Reservations are required.

SALON BY SUCRÉ
622 Conti Street • New Orleans, LA 70130
504-267-7098 • shopsucre.com

Exploring the French Quarter can exhaust even the most devoted Francophile, but afternoon tea at Salon by Sucré is sure to revive you. This charming restaurant, just around the corner from Lucullus, opened last April in the loft space above Sucré’s Conti Street location. The self-described sweet boutique is renowned throughout the city for its confections, including French macarons that come in more than a dozen flavors.

The restaurant’s award-winning chef, Tariq Hanna, was born in Nigeria and raised in Great Britain. He fondly recalls sharing afternoon tea with his mother at some of London’s finest hotels. Strangely enough, it was not Hanna but his American partner, Louisiana native Joel Dondis, who suggested adding afternoon tea to Salon’s menu. Hanna says he jumped at the chance to create his own version of afternoon tea. His menu includes English currant scones with clotted cream and house-made preserves, as well as an impressive array of tea sandwiches, from traditional cucumber to Branston pickle with house-cured salmon. Of course, Sucré’s signature macarons are the stars of the sweets course. Although Salon’s tea menu, exquisitely curated by beverage manager Braithe Tidwell, includes only 15 teas and three herbal tisanes, it offers something for everyone. If something stronger than tea is desired, Salon’s delightful tea-infused cocktails are sure to please.

Salon by Sucré is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (until 11:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday). Afternoon tea is served from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

On The North Shore

Lake Pontchartrain, the 630-square-mile estuary that lies just north of New Orleans, and its northern shore have been a popular vacation getaway for New Orleanians for more than 100 years. The area’s population grew dramatically when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, and that influx of people has seen new development in Mandeville, Covington, and the other cities along the North Shore.

 

THE ENGLISH TEA ROOM & EATERY
734 East Rutland Street • Covington, LA 70433
985-898-3988 • englishtearoom.com

Tim Lantrip grew up sharing tea with his grandmother, whose own parents had emigrated from Great Britain in the 19th century. “I’ve been drinking tea all my life,” he says. But it was a Texas tearoom that inspired him to open the English Tea Room in Covington, Louisiana, just a few miles from the Lake Pontchartrain shore.

On the outside, the English Tea Room looks like a typical Creole cottage, albeit one with British flags flying. But when you step inside, you may feel as though you have been transported to a British pub. Every available inch of wall space is covered with British memorabilia—from a newspaper account of Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1837 to a 1964 poster advertising The Beatles performance in New Orleans’s City Park.

In the Queen’s Parlor, the Tudor Room, the Britannia Room, or the Churchill Room, you can enjoy a hearty breakfast with English crumpets or French croissants or lunch on traditional British fare such as Bangers and Mash or Steak and Kidney Pie. Indulge in one of three traditional British-style teas, complete with freshly baked scones, tea sandwiches, and delicious sweets, or just enjoy a freshly brewed pot of tea with scones, clotted cream, and house-made lemon curd. Tea choices range from more than 200 white, green, oolong, and black teas to herbal and fruit tisanes and rooibos blends.

The English Tea Room is open Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. It is handicap accessible.

VIANNE’S TEA HOUSE 
544 Girod Street • Mandeville, LA 70448
985-624-LOVE (5683) • viannes.com

When Kerri Blache went out for a Sunday afternoon drive more than 13 years ago, she discovered a charming cottage for sale in Old Mandeville. Although the retail location needed a little tender loving care, it captured the imagination of Kerri and her husband, Michael, and sparked a vision of the international tea house they would have there. After more than a year of renovation, the Blaches opened Vianne’s Tea House in December 2003, and they haven’t looked back.

The tea house, named for Kerri’s mother, Vianne Ruffino Jones, has a bit of a split personality. Traditional tea with all the trimmings is still available by reservation. But in response to customer demand, the couple now offers quicker counter service for patrons who have limited time for lunch. Busy patrons choose a table in one of the cottage’s four rooms, peruse the menu, and when they’ve made their choices, place their orders for tea and scones, salads, and sandwiches at the counter. Tea is brought to the table, ready to be brewed in T-sacs, along with a teapot of hot water at the correct temperature and a laminated card with brewing instructions. Brewing one’s own tea adds to Vianne’s ambiance, and the tea house has become a popular neighborhood hangout.

On the second Saturday in December (December 9 this year), Vianne’s Tea House hosts its annual Dickens Tea, a 12-year tradition. It’s held during Mandeville’s Christmas Past Festival, which encompasses four blocks of historic Girod Street.

Vianne’s Tea House is open Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It is handicap accessible.

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Editor’s note: Vianne’s Tea House is closed. The shop was open at the time of this article’s original publish date in 2015. However, their selection of V’s Teas is available online.

CAMELLIA HOUSE BED & BREAKFAST
426 East Rutland Street • Covington, LA 70433
985-893-2442 • camelliahouse.net

Just one block off East Boston Street, in the heart of Covington’s historic district, you’ll find Camellia House, a traditional raised Louisiana cottage that owners Linda and Don Chambless have transformed into a bed-and-breakfast. Each of the four charming suites has a private entrance with a porch for relaxing. (Two suites enter from the front porch, and two enter from poolside.) Inside, you’ll enjoy cozy accommodations decorated with a big dose of Creole charm and with your own microwave and mini fridge tucked away in a corner.

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