nothin Lulu Launches Next Act — In Her Kitchen | New Haven Independent

Lulu Launches Next Act — In Her Kitchen

Chris Randall Photo

DeCarrone with apricoty baked brie.

Louise Lulu” deCarrone used to serve coffee and conversation to East Rockers out of her popular Cottage Street coffeehouse. Now, she’s serving gnocchi, gorgeous salads and crackly vegetable tarts out of her kitchen — and teaching those who come through the door how to make those dishes themselves. 

DeCarrone, a 24-year veteran of the coffeeshop trade, has launched a newest business venture, Around Lulu’s Table, a by-appointment-only slate of home-cooking classes that range from rudimentary skills and quick weeknight meals to involved baking and pastry tutorials.

Typically, deCarrone asks for a minimum registration of six people. Classes are $85 per person.

She opened the business this month after 15 months of planning. The planning began with a question she asked herself after she turned over Lulu’s European Coffeehouse to a new owner: How could she maintain the warmth and candor of Lulu’s, while stepping away from a business where she had done what I could do,” and wanted to move on to something new?

The answer, deCarrone knew from the get-go, had something to do with her big, storied dinner parties, parties she’d been hosting for decades.

At those parties, she was able to unwind from her managerial role at work, and learn about new dishes from friends who had brought mains, appetizers and desserts from originating from different corners of the globe.

Paul Bass Photo

DeCarrone with Oricchio.

She realized that the product looked something like a potluck, something like a cooking lesson, and something like Lulu’s tight-knit patron base — soaked in smiles and conversation, with good food scoring the whole ordeal.

In other words, her dining room table.

One night, I sat down, and I thought: What made you stay at Lulu’s for 24 years? What was the love of it?” she said on a recent episode of WNHH radio’s Kitchen Sync.” I thought about my dining room table, and how many parties and dinners I’ve had there … So I took that, and what I adored about Lulu’s, and put that into Around Lulu’s Table.” 

I think it’s very important to cook at home and to share food with people,” she added. It doesn’t have to be this huge meal …You don’t have to be a chef to cook for people. Do what you can, and invite a bunch of people over. And if you can’t afford to have a whole meal … have them bring something and everyone share together. I think it’s missing in our society, I think it’s really important, and I think it builds community and breaks down prejudices like nothing else can.”

On a recent weekend, deCarrone put that inkling to work as she celebrated a soft opening of the business. Welcoming a small group into her home, she threw herself into making a dish that will become a staple of her pasta class: light, buoyant gnocchi with as little flour as possible.

This time was a little different. While describing the gnocchi operation in detail, she ceded control of the pasta dough and turned to folks who had gathered in her kitchen, hoping to empower them with the skills to make the recipe themselves.

Chris Randall Photo

Gnocchi dough kneaded.

You can learn a little from a video, you can get an idea, but it is only when you feel what something should feel like is when you know what you can move around in,” she said. That’s the important thing about having classes. People need to touch, they need to smell, they need to know when it goes from one thing to another. And I also want people to take my classes to enjoy it. It’s ok to drop flour on your apron! It’s really ok. It’s like: don’t be fearful … we all make mistakes. The only way you can learn something is to try it.”

While she didn’t exactly want to be self-employed after handing Lulu’s over to longtime employee David Oricchio — I’d just sold a business!,” she’s quick to say — she missed the people, the community, connecting people and being connected with great people, and most of all, the stories.”

I think in out society right now, we are totally missing characters,” she said. They are my joy. And there are just so few left. I think Lulu’s was great about that. I think it brought them in.”

Armed with bags of black lentils, chicken cutlets, sacs of freshly-milled flour and a few sharpened knives, she anticipates reconnecting with those characters in her own kitchen now, bringing them in with the culinary passion that has kept her running for years.

I wanted the business part to be in the background, and I want people to come in, learn to cook, experience that joyful coming together, because it’s a lot of fun. When I had the dinner [for the soft opening], we laughed all night. It was hilarious. And that’s what I want to continue.”

I think Lulu’s is really ingrained in me because it is who I am,” she added. I don’t think that I can help but bring that everywhere I go.”

To listen to the episode of Kitchen Sync” about Around Lulu’s Table, click on or download the audio above or check out WNHH Arts Mix on Soundcloud or iTunes. To find out more about Around Lulu’s Table, visit its website.

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