- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
While going through mementoes from vacation trips made through Vicksburg, Mississippi for a recent thread, I remembered this interesting cookbook from 1960. The Old Southern Tea Room was nationally famous and featured in various travel-related publications and news stories:
A romanticized version of its creation appeared in the little cookbook:
Here's a look at the inside of the little building in which it was first housed; later it removed to the lobby of a nice downtown hotel, but upon the death of Mary McKay it gradually fell into drab ordinariness and although retaining the name, revised the menu and thereby losing any claim it might have still had to any kind of distinction. The hotel eventually went out-of-business and last time I looked seemed to be some kind of subsidized housing for the indigent.
THE OLD SOUTHERN TEA ROOM, 1201 Monroe Street... "Deep South Cooking At Its Best." This quaint Tea Room, in the heart of the "Deep South," carries on the tradition of delicious Southern cooking and gracious hospitality. With its colored waitresses, in bright "Mammy" costumes, serving steaming Shrimp Gumbo, crisp Fried Chicken, and Hot Biscuits, it is a mecca for travelers wanting old-fashioned southern cooking served in an atmosphere of picturesque charm. 2 blocks east and one block south of downtown. Recommended by Duncan Hines "Adventures in Good Eating," Gourmet's Guide and AAA.
Here's one of their signature dishes, the one I miss and also the one I ordered on my first and later visits:
If anyone would like to see more, let me know and I will copy additional pages!