Tearoom luncheon brings out fancy hats, fond memories (with slideshow)
Frances Trent, a member of the Peacock-Harper group, talks to guests at the Miller & Rhoads Tearoom event. At right is Joan Bowers, who loaned her vintage hat collection for the event. Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis/The Roanoke Times.
The “Remembering the Miller & Rhoads Tearoom” luncheon I’ve written about a couple of times over the past few months took place today at the Roanoke Country Club. Actually, two of the three seatings took place today; the third will be held later this month.
Although the Peacock-Harper Culinary History Friends planned to host about 150 people at one luncheon, the country club will end up serving nearly 400 guests by the time the third seating is done. There are no tickets left for sale.
I purchased two tickets to the first seating for myself and my mother-in-law, who drove all the way from her home in the Outer Banks to attend with me. She is from Richmond and lived in Roanoke for many years, so she has treasured memories from the Miller & Rhoads tearooms in both cities.
To me, the best part of the luncheon was the fact that so many of the women who attended (and it was mostly women) brought out their best attire and unpacked vintage accessories as a tribute to the snappy outfits they used to wear to lunch at the Tearoom. One attendant, Joan Bowers, generously offered her large vintage hat collection for the club’s use. They incorporated them into the table centerpieces and decorated fireplace mantles with them. Bowers also loaned hats to some members of the Peacock-Harper group.
To continue reading and see the slideshow, click “Read more.”
The menu consisted of dishes that were all popular in the Tearoom: Senate bean soup, Missouri clubs with mustard pickles, frozen fruit salad, chocolate silk pie and lemon buttercup pie. The event was attended by Mayor David Bowers, former Roanoke City Manager Bern Ewert and Donna Strothers Deekens, who was the Miller & Rhoads Snow Queen for many years.
Guests left the event with a beautiful, large pamphlet full of original Tearoom recipes. If you didn’t get to go to the event, do not be dismayed! You can still get a recipe pamphlet by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address:
VA Egg Council
Re: Miller & Rhoads
3401 West Ridge Rd., Roanoke, VA, 24014
Please add one extra stamp for each additional pamphlet you want besides the first one. And allow a bit of time for the pamphlet to arrive – these envelopes are being stuffed by a volunteer.
I hope you enjoy this photo slideshow of the event with pictures by The Roanoke Times staff photographer Stephanie Klein-Davis.
October 12, 2012 - 7:05 PM
RSS feed 
Dear Lindsey,
It’s really been fun to see the pictures and read this blog and the article in last Sunday’s paper. I appreciate being quoted, but I am sorry that my mother and her modeling weren’t mentioned, even when the Teen Board was mentioned, since she had worked with the Teen Board for a number of years. Are you, perhaps, going to do another feature on the models?
I’m glad this project has been such a success. Maybe they should make it an annual event, and hold one of the luncheons on a Saturday so those of us who work can attend.
Love, Drew
This is a thread hijack, but one that I think is worthy of attention. Darden restaurants, owner of such franchise restaurants as Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse & Olive Garden, has begun instituting a policy in some of its restaurants on a trial basis.
First, they’re limiting workers to no more than 30 hours per week, to avoid having to provide health coverage under the new medical care plans coming in 2014. Secondly, they’ve forced ‘tip sharing’ by the wait staff with hourly employees.
This allows them to pay the hourly employees much lower ‘tip credit wages’ of $2.13/hour instead of the minimum wage of $7.25/hour. It evidently does not matter that the tips are spread so thin among so many employees, that no one makes the assumed differential between the two wages.
Nice corporate strategy. Think about that the next time you go to Longhorn Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Olive, Garden, etc.
http://gawker.com/5950331/olive-garden-red-lobster-scale-back-employee-work-hours-to-avoid-paying-for-health-insurance
Thanks for bringing that up, CR. The original article Gawker is using for its story came from The Orlando Sentinel: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-10-07/business/os-darden-part-time-workers-20121007_1_darden-restaurants-health-insurance-olive-gardens
If you read that article, it sounds as if many other companies are also considering such a move.
That is also a strategy, on a lower scale, that WalMart employs.
When people dismiss local establishments in favor of standing in line for an hour every Saturday evening at (fill in the blank chain restaurant), they often fail to consider the ripple effects.
Sure, the wait staff is employed at a busy restaurant. Of course, they’ve limited to no access to health benefits, their tips are redistributed to kitchen staff, and everyone ends up in a form of economic slavery.
All so lazy consumers can have the exact same dining experience in Roanoke as in Blacksburg as in Richmond as in Atlanta as in Chicago as in Dallas, ad infinitum.
Call me cranky, but I find little to nothing of value in that.
Lindsey, could you direct me as to where I can find the Miller and Rhoads cookbook?? I worked there, and would love to recover some of the good recipes..
Nolwheeler, unless they have run out of the recipe pamphlets, you can still get one by sending the self-addressed, stamped envelope to:
VA Egg Council
Re: Miller & Rhoads
3401 West Ridge Rd., Roanoke, VA, 24014