Bringing the past into the new millennium

Published 12:00 am Saturday, April 28, 2001

REBECCA CARRASCO

PHOTO: POCHE PLANTATION in Convent, built in 1870 by Judge Felix Pierre Poche, recently opened as a bed and breakfast by owners Gregory and Linda Meffert. (Staff Photo by Rebecca Carrasco) Some old, something new…and something different. At the Poche Plantation Bed and Breakfast, period pieces, antiques and artifacts give the visitor a glimpse of the South during the Reconstruction period. The plantation’s current owners, Gregory and Linda Meffert, bought the property in 1998, and opened it for business in March 1999. Carved out of an earlier sugar cane plantation, the Poche plantation was built in 1870 by Judge Felix Pierre Poche, an accomplished attorney, Louisiana Supreme Court justice, co-founder of the American Bar Association, Civil War hero and diarist. Judge Poche was a busy man, explained operations manager Bonnie Kellogg, who gives tours of the main house of the plantation by appointment. Guests stay in one of three cottages, one of which is an original 1839 overseer’s cottage. It later served Judge Poche as a law office, Kellogg said. The cottage was also once a generator room during the area’s early electrification. People used to come just to see the lights, Kellogg said. The Mefferts live in the main house with their son Mason, age 3, their brand-new son, Tyler, 3 weeks old, and Binky the cat. Not much renovation was required for the first floor, just work on electrical, plumbing, and the exterior, according to Kellogg. But the second floor had to be completely redone. Originally it just had two massive rooms, “The Barracks,” in which Poche’s children slept, his sons on one side and his daughters on the other. “The Mefferts renovated the upstairs to make it accommodating for themselves and the babies,” said Kellogg. “They definitely lived in the whole house….they made it their own. They lived upstairs mostly, but did their entertaining and took their meals downstairs.” Kellogg has been associated with the house since it opened. “I came out to do the bid for the cleanup after the renovations,” she said. She and Tammy Kinler, the assistant innkeeper, do everything at the Poche Plantation, from making reservations to making groceries. The bed and breakfast has acquired a reputation for its diversified breakfast menu. “Everything we cook is fresh – we make everything from scratch,” said Kellogg. “We try to be different from everyone else. We change our menu for breakfast so that people who stay with us don’t have to see the same thing twice.” When visitors arrive, they find “fresh baked cookies and iced tea” waiting for them in their room, added Kinler. The kitchen that Kellogg and Kinler use was once the servants’ quarters. In the kitchen, the cabinet and countertops are made out of wood from the old cypress goat barn in back of the house. A gift shop, where postcards, mugs and T-shirts are available, along with bath salts, aroma therapy candles, and “pear preserves that are made across the river,” is located in Whistle’s Walk – a path where servants once carried food. They would have to whistle along the way so that the mistress of the house knew they were not eating any of the food they carried. The Mefferts had hoped in 1999 to add a swimming pool and a hot tub, according to Kellogg, but the St. James Historical Society advised against placing the pool in the middle of the yard. So the owners bought the property next door for space to put in a pool, and acquired as lagniappe a house which had belonged to Lloyd Hymel, son of the second owner of the Poche Plantation. His parents, Judge Henry Hymel and his wife Marie “Adele” Hymel, bought the house in 1894 and lived until their deaths. The new restaurant, expected to open in June, is located in the renovated Hymel house and can accommodate 36 people. Kellogg expects the restaurant to be different from everyone else’s around the area. “Our chef is born and raised in New York and lives in New Orleans,” Kellogg said. “He has a little coffee shop in the Shell Building,” she added. “He is going to do a more midsized bistro. We will have a chef’s table where you can watch your meal being prepared through a window. We will also have scotch-and-cigar bar.” “It is not going to be the Cajun Creole you can find all along the river,” Kellogg said of the restaurant’s cuisine. “It will add to the plantation’s success by making ours more accessible to people visiting the area. By being open on Sundays and Mondays – when people can’t find anything open – we’ll be here.” Poche Plantation started with one visitor in April 1999, and now the response for weddings is overwhelming, Kellogg said. “We now have visitors both nationally and internationally. We just keep on getting better and better every year.”