The Bottom of the Cup

On a day in late August, the sleepy vibe of the Bottom of the Cup Tea Room turned on a dime when several groups of women stopped in. They had come for psychic readings, to browse the tea selection, and to investigate the array of mystical and metaphysical totems and accessories. The six psychics on hand moved efficiently through the waiting list with a kind smile or serious visage, depending on the mood they were trying to set. Ten people came and went within a half hour, just for readings alone. 

Slipping into the Bottom of the Cup Tearoom out of the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter, visitors are first greeted with an assortment of spiritual artifacts; then, past the gathering area with tables and chairs on one side and the service counter and tarot card display on the other, is a wide variety of loose teas of all sorts—black, green, herbal tinctures. It’s one of the largest selections of organic and fair trade tea in the country, according to longtime employee and shop frontman and manager Leo Bookbinder.

Bookbinder has manned the counter at the Bottom of the Cup for over twenty years. He’s worked with three of the four generations of Mullen family members who have shepherded this shop for almost ninety years now. He notes that not only the ownership of the tea room is multigenerational—the clientele is as well. 

In addition to the more traditional readings in the tearoom, [Adele Mullen] was sought after to predict sports victories, and even the police would come to her to get readings to crack difficult cases.

In 1929, Wilhelmina Mullen, known as “Ms. Willy” to all, originally opened the tea shop at 318 Royal Street, eventually settling in at the current location at 327 Chartres Street. (The Tearoom also had a second location at 732 Royal from 1972–2003.) Although a very open “secret,” serving tea was a cover for the real business of psychic readings, which were illegal at the time. Ladies would stop by after shopping and walking around the French Quarter, pay for a cup of tea and a sandwich, and, as per the tea room’s sign, get their “readings gratis.” 

Adele Mullen, Ms. Willy’s daughter-in-law, was the second generation to run the tea room, and built on her mother-in-law’s reputation to earn respect from locals and visitors alike. “Everybody loved her,” said Bookbinder. She presided over the business for decades until her retirement in the early 2000s, running the show long enough that records are sketchy regarding her actual start date. 

She was renowned for reading people without using tarot cards, palmistry, or tea leaves—according to local lore, she could just look at a person and sense their energy and future. In addition to the more traditional readings in the tearoom, she was sought after to predict sports victories, and even the police would come to her to get readings to crack difficult cases. Ms. Adele passed away in 2007 at the age of 76.

Adele’s son Thomas and granddaughter Jeanne are the current proprietors of the tearoom, aided by longtime employees like Bookbinder and psychic Otis Briggs, who has been reading leaves, palms, and cards for the Mullen family business since 1972. Over eighty years old, Briggs is the tea room’s star psychic, and he doesn’t look to be retiring anytime soon. He loves his work, he said, which helps people focus their consciousness on issues in their lives and start the path to finding solutions to whatever is blocking their progress and success. His thick Southern accent and ‘70s-style wide lapel shirts can’t conceal his genuine empathy and thoughtfulness. Regardless of one’s level of belief or skepticism for the psychic realm, being read by Briggs is entertaining and insightful. 

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When working with tea leaves, the psychic brings in the cup of tea dregs to the private reading space, flips it over, and has the client spin the inverted cup three times on the saucer; the reader then interprets the waves of grounds that reach all the way up the rim of the teacup. It’s almost a stream-of-consciousness affair, with the psychic turning the cup around and predicting general thoughts on health, wealth, and love. Especially love—Bookbinder reckons that Adele counseled thousands of ladies on their love lives. 

The tarot readings are more in-depth, depending on the length of session. In a 10-minute session, the client gets her choice of tarot, tea, or palm reading for $35. A $65 half-hour session offers two methods of divination.

Historically, the tea room’s clientele has been overwhelmingly female, which created a de facto women’s gathering space where clients could chat, come together, and support each other. In a city full of men-only establishments, the Bottom of the Cup Tearoom provided (and continues to provide) an important place for women to gather and discuss any number of current issues. 

Aside from the spiritual and metaphysical aspects of this French Quarter institution, the important question is: how is the tea? Well, there’s a lot of it—over one hundred varieties for sale, and all of them are organic and fair trade sourced. Varieties include classics like Assam, Darjeeling, Lapsang Souchong, and Earl Grey, as well as some blends and flavors that will pique anyone’s curiosity. The Monk’s Blend, for example, includes black tea, calendula, sunflowers, grenadine, and vanilla. There are also combinations like rooibos with herbes de Provence, Lavender Earl Grey, satsuma black tea, and the Buckingham Palace Garden Party, a blend of black and green teas, jasmine, and cornflower petals.

Clients can have a cup of tea while waiting for their reading—there’s a kettle in the back with more than twenty tea selections, along with a fridge full of bottled water, in case a cup of hot tea is not desired on a warm New Orleans day. In fact, stop on by anytime; tea is available for $3 per cup without a reading. The wide variety of flavors available makes this a great option for grabbing a cup of tea and soaking in the unusual ambience of the shop, definitely different from the typical coffee place.

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Beyond the tea and professional readings, the Bottom of the Cup carries more than sixty different tarot decks for those who wish to learn and practice the art themselves, along with books to assist the beginner with translating the cards. Add to that the crystals, totems, prayer cards and candles, and other mystical items, and the tea room has a diverse income stream to keep it afloat. But at its heart, the Bottom of the Cup Tea Room is dedicated to the one-on-one contact of client readings and predictions. Bookbinder theorizes that the tea room’s French Quarter location has been crucial to their success. “There’s a lot of history ground into this neighborhood,” he says. “Each decade leaves its traces and emotional resin, which helps us tune into the intuitive mind.”  

Bottom of the Cup Tearoom

327 Chartres Street

New Orleans, La.

(800) 729-7148 

bottomofthecup.com