Sponsored by Riverside Custom Cabinets

In much of the country, a butler’s pantry is the stuff of design magazines and high-dollar listings: a nice extra for homeowners with square footage to spare.

Here in south Louisiana, where friends and family gatherings always seem to wind up in the kitchen, it’s a different story. Here, the butler’s pantry isn’t a luxury amenity. It’s as essential as the kitchen itself.

“Most all of the new construction that we’re doing has a butler’s pantry,” says Donnie Kogel Jr., owner of Riverside Custom Cabinets in Baton Rouge.

The difference between a butler’s pantry and an ordinary pantry comes down to function.

“A regular pantry is just to store all your goods,” Kogel says. “A butler’s pantry stores the goods, but is also equipped to serve as an area for prep” – i.e., a sink, a dishwasher and an ice maker, much of what you’d find in the kitchen, all tucked into a room of its own.

The payoff comes when the guests arrive.

“Think about a dinner party at your house,” Kogel says. “You’re hosting people and you’ve got them in your kitchen. You’ve got crock pots and warming trays everywhere. If you have a butler’s pantry, it frees up counter space for people to sit and get together.”

The main courses can stay back in the pantry, he adds, leaving the kitchen island open for appetizers and conversation.

Some Riverside clients take the idea even further. In those homes, the kitchen holds only the range, microwave, a sink and a dishwasher. The refrigerator and freezer, a second dishwasher and sink, the ice maker, a wine refrigerator, a beverage cooler and even the trash pullouts all live in the butler’s pantry.

“That leaves the kitchen as an entertaining area,” Kogel says. “It really opens up the heart of the home to socializing, and puts the work clutter in another room.”

That matters just as much when the meal is over. Instead of a sink piled with dishes in full view of the guests, the plates and platters disappear into the pantry.

“The whole main area where everybody’s gathering is clean,” Kogel says, “and the party continues without any interruption.”

Just because it’s a workspace doesn’t mean it looks like one. Kogel says today’s butler’s pantries can be quite elaborate, with paint-grade cabinets that often run all the way to the ceiling and door styles that mirror the main kitchen. If the kitchen features inset cabinetry, the pantry follows suit.

“Some of those, you leave the door open and it’s just like an extension of the kitchen, not a workroom,” he says.

Butler’s pantries are predominantly a new-construction feature, Kogel notes. Adding one to an existing home is possible, but it would mean bringing in the right architect and designer to rework the space. For families planning a build, that makes the design phase the time to get it right.

With the holidays approaching and the guest lists growing, it’s easy to see why so many Baton Rouge homeowners consider the butler’s pantry non-negotiable. In a place where gathering around the table is a way of life, the best hosts know the secret to a great party is the room the guests never see.

Planning a home built for gathering? Call (225) 755-6536 or visit RiversideCustomCabinets.net to schedule a consultation.