Pickity Place in New Hampshire: A Storybook Cottage and Garden Lunch Experience

Spring’s profusion of pink and purple flowers stirs the soul; its bounty of verdant greens makes the heart sing. Such seasonal gifts also bring on appetites. Thankfully, satiation awaits at Pickity Place, a New England culinary institution tucked away in the hilly woods of southern New Hampshire.

Originally opened as an earth-celebrating tearoom 50 years ago, it’s still true to that mission today. The signature five-course lunch (served three times a day, 360 days a year) is infused with herbs and spices grown mostly in the gardens surrounding the 1786 cottage, all just a stroll from the front door.

Inside, diners fill 16 tables in three cozy rooms, decorated with dried herbs and country decor, including floral wallpaper and stenciled borders. Monthly menus feature herb-forward creations, such as freshly snipped chives swimming in French onion soup; sprigs of lovage atop a zesty salad dressed in sun-dried tomato vinaigrette; and beef short rib slathered in sweet and spicy bacon jam and topped with nasturtium, microgreens, and peppery chive blossoms. Each course delights the senses with color and flavor, accompanied by decaf mocha coffee, mulled cider, herbal iced and hot teas, or lemonade (choose from lavender, mango, or strawberry basil). The servings are plentiful enough to put dessert in danger of having to be boxed up and trundled home.

Before or after this magical meal, stroll the grounds. (Don’t worry about getting a little lost—a bell is rung when it’s your time to dine.) Even in winter, the stone pathways and maze of garden beds delight the eye and capture the imagination; spring through fall, they dazzle with color and aromas. Meander beneath arbors and along paths studded with ferns and lily of the valley to nature’s soundtrack: gray catbirds, American redstarts, and chipping sparrows, with a backbeat of humming bees.

Adjacent to the dining area is the most winsome of shops, where Pickity spice blends are sold alongside garden-themed gifts, as well as a stuffed version of the resident real-life cat, Poppy, a fluffball who roams around making himself available for petting and photobombing. Follow your nose along hedges of lavender and heather, past swaths of thyme, through garden rooms where pollinators alight on blossoms and people literally stop to smell the flowers.

Farther afield, past sweeps of comfrey and thyme, and patches of rhubarb studded with cherubs and whirligigs, beyond phlox tumbling over stone walls and blossom-laden apple trees, you’ll find the garden shop, with more enticing wares and an entryway into the greenhouse, where you can pinch, sniff, and sample herbs for sale, among them borage, rue, and several kinds of mint (lemon, apple, chocolate, julep, peppermint, and strawberry among them). The day we visited, dozens of potted opal basil plants awaited planting for chef and owner Keith Grimes to turn into a summer pesto in the months ahead.

As Grimes says after 25 years at the helm, his is a dream job in the restaurant business, since he serves only lunch and can be at home with his family at night. Their biggest day is Mother’s Day, often booked a year in advance (however, don’t let that stop you from trying, as cancellations do occur). Grimes and his wife, Kim, work year-round managing a small staff. Making it a true family affair, their daughter, Ashley, works here, too, and one day she plans to follow in her parents’ footsteps and run the operation.

It all looks and sounds like a fairy tale, which is fitting: In the late 1940s, artist Elizabeth Orton Jones used the historic cottage as the inspiration for her illustrations of the Little Golden Book edition of Little Red Riding Hood. You can learn more about it in a history nook near the check-in, and you’ll notice some related touches around the place, such as a crimson hooded cape—just like little Red’s—hanging in one of the dining rooms. The burgundy clapboard cottage, charming gardens, and surrounding forest proved the picture-perfect backdrop for a wolf’s cravings … and will for yours, too.

This feature was originally published as “A Feast for the Senses” in the March/April 2026 issue of Yankee.

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Carol Connare

Carol Connare is the editor in chief of The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which has just released the 2026 edition of its annual collection of horticultural advice and inspiration, The Old Farmer’s Almanac Garden Guide (available at store.almanac.com).

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