Businesses Past
by Richard D. L. Fulton
Dutch Cupboard Tea House
by Richard D. L. Fulton
The Dutch Cupboard Tea House was located within the building that is presently housing Rita’s Water Ice and the Gettysburg Cigar Company at 523 Baltimore Street, across the street from the Jennie Wade House and Museum.
The company held its grand opening on July 2, 1953, according to an advertisement published in the June 29, 1953, edition of The Gettysburg Times, which also listed Margaret Fitz Scott as having been the hostess. However, not mentioned was the fact that Scott was also the owner of the establishment at that time.
The Times noted in an article published in the newspaper’s November 14, 1958, issue that Scott, who the report had identified as the owner/hostess, “is a direct descendant of the Fitz family that settled in the Blue Ridge Summit area two centuries ago.”
The restaurant’s initial advertisement announcing the date of the proposed grand opening published in The Times stated that the eatery was to feature Pennsylvania Dutch Style Cooking, and that the business would include catering to small groups and parties.One advertisement additionally stated that the restaurant would be open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and would be serving breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. Just for the record, there was a time when dinners and suppers were different meals. Dinners were regarded as the major meal of the day, which was generally served at midday, while suppers were considered to be a lighter meal, either served in the evenings or after the midday dinners.
The two meal designations are still used today, normally with differing implications, and they also vary within the present regions of the country.
Whatever the case may be, the meals served at the Dutch Cupboard Tea House achieved some claim to fame when a report of another publication’s review appeared in the July 12, 1955, issue of The Times, which stated that the business was recommended by Clementine Paddleford, food editor of the New York Herald Tribune at that time.
According to The Times, Paddleford wrote, “Tourists driving through the Pennsylvania Dutch country are disappointed often in not finding authentic Dutch food,” adding that such meals can be found at the Dutch Cupboard Tea House in Gettysburg.
During 1954, the restaurant offered a full-course Sunday dinner for $1.50 with all-you-can-eat hot biscuits, and on Valentine’s Day, they offered an all-you-can-eat buffet for $2.00.
Another favorable review appeared in an article published in the November 14, 1958, edition of The Times, in which the newspaper noted that the Pennsylvania Dutch saying “Kissin’ wears out; cookin’ don’t” could be applied to the meals served at the Dutch Cupboard Tea House, where emphasis is placed on the “successful preparation of these (Pennsylvania Dutch) traditional dishes, now almost a lost art in our present-day of canned goods and hurry-up cooking.”
The article further stated that the restaurant maintains the spirit of German family life and of the folks for whom mealtime was the highlight of the day, further noting that many of Scott’s menu offerings were based on recipes that had been passed down by her great-grandmother.
The Times stated that the restaurant was “attractively furnished in pine and maple… with a color scheme of hemlock-green and primrose-yellow, the color scheme serving as a fitting backdrop for many painted antique items which decorate the walls, cupboards and shelves.”
By 1958, the restaurant was also selling recipe books and other Pennsylvania Dutch-related souvenirs, as well as homemade dressings, apple butter, and other goods.
Noteworthy patrons that have eaten at the Dutch Cupboard Tea House, according to the June 6, 1958, edition of The Times, had included, “Dr. Howard M. Snyder, physician to the president; Maj. and Mrs. John Eisenhower (son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower); Martha Ray; James Cagney, and a daughter of Pakistan’s premier – the latter heard of the famed tea house in Pakistan…”
Published advertisements of the Dutch Cupboard Tea House petered out dramatically in the 1950s for some inexplicable reason. However, the restaurant reportedly remained open until 1994.
