Lady Mendl's tea salon

WASHINGTON IRVING HOUSE (on Irving and East 17th) belonged to my distant-but-beloved relative and nom de plume’s namesake, Elsie de Wolfe, in the early 20th century. She lived there during her gay relationship with literary and theatre critic, Elisabeth Marbury, and it was the house where first tried serious interior decorating - i.e. chinoiserie.

In 2026, the Washington Irving House is some grotty flats and a sushi restaurant. However, there is an up-scale tea salon run in Elsie’s name just across the road…

The salon is called Lady Mendl’s - a reference to Elsie-married! (Elsie’s union with Sir Charles Mendl was one of convenience: the de Wolfes had the money and the Mendls had the titles; so the two of them enjoyed a sweet mariage blanc together until Elsie’s death in 1950.)

Lady Mendl’s tea salon is owned by an anonymous purveyor and managed by a woman called Kristine Guialdo. I first visited on a Sunday afternoon, straight after attending an American Quaker meeting at the Meetinghouse on 15 Rutherford opposite Stuyvesant Park (and American Quakers are way-preachy, O-M-G…) I was instantly hooked - this place is everythinggggg!

The Lady Mendl tea parties are mega: Earl Grey out of pink harlequin tea-sets; cucumber sandwiches with cream cheese; scones with raspberry jam; vanilla creme crepes; and petit fours. It’s a bit much but that’s just AMERICA pour toi.

The owner is clearly a fan of Elsie de Wolfe - and perhaps the only other one in the whole world. Elsie’s most notable work, an autobiographical good-living manual, is now only available from an obscure Amazon shop called ‘Forgotten Books'.

Lady Mendl's is also featured in the iconique RHONY!