The Tudor Place Garden Party Gets A Glorious Reboot

ELLEN CHARLES ON THE RECEIVING LINE AT THE PARTY IN HER HONOR

The Tudor Place garden party, an annual event that typically is Georgetown's most luscious social occasion, returned to high ground this evening with a revived soirée that honored Ellen Charles. As I walked into the house and down the carpeted path to a sweeping tent, my reaction was, wow, Tudor Place is back! I say that because in recent years the garden party seemed to have lost its way a little, not sure of whether it was a corporate fundraiser or an old school good time. Happily, it got the message: old school is its strong suit. And by old school I don't mean musty. I mean elegant with contemporary panache. The credit for pulling that off goes to this year's chair, Elizabeth Powell, who gave the event a glorious reboot. 

And then there was the food, from Susan Gage Caterers. Ham biscuits as we arrived, grilled cheese sandwiches made in the fashion of standard poodles (Ellen owns, loves and shows standard poodles), lobster rolls, a buffet of lamb chops, onion pie, beets, salad, mashers. Later, splendid strawberry shortcake, among other desserts.

She moved around too fast for me to get a nice portrait of Elizabeth, but here she is talking with David Deckelbaum. 

Well done, Elizabeth. I hope you are home now, feet up on a soft pillow, celebrating what you achieved. And here's Ellen with Tudor Place executive director Leslie Buhler. We will be back there tomorrow to tape The Q&A Cafe, with guest Patrick O'Connell, owner and chef at The Inn at Little Washington.