Patricia Murphy’s legacy lives on! A friend of mine proved this by dining at the Milleridge Inn in Jericho, Long Island, and sending me this photo of her server. Patricia had no direct connection with the Milleridge, but until recently, it was owned by two generations of her family members. These other Murphys borrowed many ideas that made Patricia Murphy Candlelight restaurants legendary for four decades — good food, lovely décor, and popovers.
Milleridge Inn server Amanda Adamo, pictured in the photo, is proud of her role in culinary history. Contacted by this author, she wrote, “We like to keep the traditions still going. All of our popovers are fresh. They are made with eggs, butter and milk. A lot of people that come to the restaurant to receive a popover because it is uncommon now. It is fun to serve something that is so historic.”
Patricia Murphy made popovers her signature item because people weren’t likely to make them at home. The ingredients were relatively cheap during the Great Depression, when Patricia started her business on a shoestring. By 1954, she’d opened three restaurants and earned millions, partly because people kept coming for the popovers. On her wrist was a bracelet with a popover charm.
Like Patricia’s long-gone suburban restaurants, the Milleridge is vast, with private rooms for parties and little shops surrounding it. But although Patricia’s DNA pulses through this charming restaurant, she was estranged from the brothers and sisters who once owned it.
As I recount in my book, Patricia had planned to be the only Murphy operating a Long Island restaurant. As the eldest of seven siblings who’d fallen on hard times in their native Newfoundland, she went to New York alone. Once she’d found success in Brooklyn, she brought her entire family to the US. In return, her brothers and sisters helped out in her city eateries. Branching out to Manhasset, Long Island, in 1950, Patricia planned to continue employing them. But the sibs wanted their own slices of postwar prosperity.
Led by James, the eldest brother, they hatched a secret plot to start their own restaurant. Jim convinced the others to buy a restaurant in Great Neck — a short hop away from Patricia’s Manhasset place — and name it Lauraine Murphy’s. They copied her format and menu — right down to the popovers. Their ads even proclaimed Lauraine Murphy’s to be “the home of the popover.” Patricia never spoke to them again.
Incensed, Patricia left Long Island (a step she later regretted.) By 1954, she’d sold all three of her initial restaurants, allowing the new owners to use her valuable name. That gave her the million she needed for her ten-acre flagship in Yonkers. From there, she expanded into Southern Florida, eventually returning to Manhattan to open three more Candlelights.
In the meantime, James Murphy, with the assistance of the other mutinous siblings, became a successful restaurateur in his own right. In 1964, he bought and restored the Milleridge Inn, parts of which date from 1672. The Lauraine Murphy restaurant was sold to finance the purchase; lesss adventurous than Patricia, James took only calculated risks. The Milleridge was a hit — in the Seventies, its bar drew singles employed by Long Island’s emerging tech industry — and Patricia’s siblings were set for life.
In recent years, Murphy family members decided to sell the Milleridge, and residents feared it would be razed. On a Facebook page called Save the Milleridge, people shared memories and organized resistance. Fortunately, a restaurant company stepped in, introducing new ideas while commemorating the restaurant’s heritage. I salute them for commemorating Patricia in every popover.
