Little Tea Shop - Memphis, TN

A vintage lunch room on old Cotton Row, the Little Tea Shop's everyday specialty is a bowl of very serious turnip greens -- whole-leaf heaps of heavy vegetable goodness, soft and dark green, with a commanding tonic flavor. They are served with corn sticks on the side; a common custom is to crumble the corn into the greens as one eats. For dessert: a frozen pecan ball with hot fudge.

100% Approval Rating (7 votes)

Overall: Worth driving from anyplace

Must Eats

Turnip Greens ($7.00)

corn sticks (N/A)

Pecan Ball ($3.00)

Written Reviews

Michael Stern

"We love the do-it-yourself ordering process at the Little Tea Shop. Every customer gets a one-page printed menu of the day – there is a different menu for each day of the week – with a little box next to each item. Like voting with an old-fashioned ballot, you put a ..." [Read More].

Logbooks

3/15/2005 - Michael Stern, $10
9/16/2002 - Michael Stern, $8

Map & Directions

69 Monroe, Memphis, TN
901-525-6000

Hours & Policies

Seasons:	Open Year Round
Meals Served:	Lunch
Operational Hours:	Always Call Ahead!
Credit Cards Accepted:	No
Alcohol Served:	No
Outdoor Seating:	No
Reservations Accepted:	No
Delivery Available:	No
Takeout Counters:	Yes

"Here's a meal to make you feel strong as Popeye. The intense vegetable flavor of the greens and their likker is brilliantly haloed by the sharp taste of onion and the sweetness of the tomato on top. Several years ago, proprietor Suhair Lauck eliminated pork from the recipe (and from the Little Tea Shop kitchen), but the taste of these greens is, if anything, even more luxurious than before."
Michael Stern

"Corn sticks come with every meal. They are warm, crunchy, and earthy-flavored."
Michael Stern

"In the old tea-room tradition, the Little Tea Shop has order pads that customers fill out themselves."
Michael Stern

"The must-eat dessert on Memphis's Cotton Row: a Little Tea Shop ice cream pecan ball shrouded in chocolate."
Michael Stern

"The oldest restaurant in Memphis (since 1918), the Little Tea Shop is a bastion of regional foodways, but to its regular customers, it is simply a nice place to go for lunch five days a week. Once located in a basement, it moved to this location in 1935."
Michael Stern