When Pamela Pipes decided to have an old-fashioned tea party at one of the most historic landmarks in our city, she asked chef/owner Jason Goodenough of Carrollton Market to help with the menu.
She envisioned ladies in beautiful hats and antique three-tiered silver dishes that held tea sandwiches and desserts. Silver coffee urns and silver service tea pots and creamers filled with azaleas and hydrangeas from the garden decorated the food and luncheon tables.
Gazpacho in shot glasses was passed to each guest, and iced tea with mint and strawberry lemonade was served. Tea sandwiches included pimento cheese, mint shrimp, orange and cranberry and tomato and bacon. Caramel cake and carrot cake desserts were homemade from recipes that have been handed down from her great-grandmother. The pièce de résistance was a cookie favor that included the dessert recipes in cellophane bags tied with flowing ribbons!
The historic Pitot House is the only Creole colonial country house open to the public in New Orleans. In the 1960s, the Louisiana Landmarks Society painstakingly restored it, and it has been furnished with Louisiana and American antiques that date from the early 1800s through mid-19th century. Today, the LLS uses it as its headquarters, opens it for tours and rents out the lawn and gardens for special events. Visit LouisianaLandmarks.org/visit-pitot-house to learn more.
