New York is said to contain between five and six thousand restaurants.
These are of every kind and description known to man, from Delmonico's
down to the Fulton Market stands. A very large number of persons live
altogether at these places. They are those who cannot afford the expense
of a hotel, and who will not endure a boarding-house. They rent rooms in
convenient or inconvenient locations, and take their meals at the
restaurants. At many nominally reputable establishments the fare is
infamous, but as a rule New York is far ahead of any American city with
respect to the character and capabilities of its eating-houses.
The better class restaurants lie along Broadway and Fifth avenue. The
other longitudinal streets are well supplied with establishments of all
kinds, and in the Bowery are to be found houses in which the fare is
prepared and served entirely in accordance with German ideas. In other
parts of the city are to be found Italian, French, and Spanish
restaurants, and English chop houses.
The fashionable restaurants lie chiefly above Fourteenth, and entirely
above Canal street. Delmonico's, at the northeast corner of Fourteenth
street and the Fifth avenue, is the best known. It is a very extensive
establishment, is fitted up in elegant style, and is equal to any
eating-house in the world. The prices are very high. A modest dinner,
without wine, for two persons, will cost here from four to five dollars.
The fare is good, however. The house enjoys a large custom, and every
visitor to New York who can afford it, takes a meal here before leaving
the city. Delmonico is said to be very rich.
A young man, to whom the ways of the house were unknown, once took his
sweetheart to lunch at this famous place. His purse was light, and when
he came to scan the bill of fare, and note the large sums affixed to each
item, his heart sank within him, and he waited in silent agony to hear
his fair companion make her selection. After due consideration, she
ordered a woodcock. Now woodcocks are expensive luxuries at Delmonico's,
and the cost of one such bird represented more than the total contents of
the lover's purse. He was in despair, but a lucky thought occurred to
him. Turning to the lady, he asked with an air of profound astonishment:
"Do you think you can eat a whole woodcock?"
"How large is it?" asked the fair one, timidly.
"About as large as a full grown turkey" was the grave reply.
"O, I'll take an oyster stew," said the lady, quickly.
The fashionable restaurants make large profits on their sales. Their
customers are chiefly ladies, and men who have nothing to do. Their
busiest hours are the early afternoon, and during the evening. After the
theatres are closed, they are thronged with parties of ladies and
gentlemen who come in for supper.
Some of the best restaurants in the city are those in which a lady is
never seen. It must not be supposed that they are disreputable places.
They are entirely the opposite. They are located in the lower part of
the city, often in some by-street of the heavy business section, and are
patronized chiefly by merchants and clerks, who come here to get lunch
and dinner. The fare is excellent, and the prices are reasonable. The
eating houses of Henry Bode, in Water street, near Wall street, Rudolph
in Broadway, near Courtlandt street, and Nash & Fuller (late Crook, Fox &
Nash), in Park Row, are the best of this kind. In the last there is a
department for ladies.
Between the hours of noon and three o'clock, the down-town restaurants
are generally crowded with a hungry throng. In some of them every seat
at the long counters and at the tables is filled, and the floor is
crowded with men standing and eating from plates which they hold in their
hands. The noise, the bustle, the clatter of knives and dishes, the
slamming of doors, and the cries of the waiters as they shout out the
orders of the guests, are deafening. The waiters move about with a
celerity that is astonishing; food is served and eaten with a dispatch
peculiar to these places. A constant stream of men is pouring out of the
doors, and as steady a stream flowing in to take their places. At some
of the largest of these establishments as many as fifteen hundred people
are supplied with food during the course of the day. A well patronized
restaurant is very profitable in New York, even if its prices are
moderate, and the higher priced establishments make their proprietors
rich in a comparatively short time. The proprietor of a Broadway oyster
saloon made a fortune of $150,000 by his legitimate business in five
years. A large part of the income of the restaurants is derived from the
sale of liquors at the bar.
The principal up-town restaurants are largely patronized by disreputable
people. Impure women go there to pick up custom, and men to find such
companions. Women whose social position is good, do not hesitate to meet
their lovers at such places, for there is a great deal of truth in the
old adage which tells us that "there's no place so private as a crowded
hall." A quiet but close observer will frequently see a nod, or a smile,
or a meaning glance pass between the most respectable looking persons of
opposite sexes, who are seemingly strangers to each other, and will
sometimes see a note slyly sent by a waiter, or dropped adroitly into the
hand of the woman as the man passes out, while her face wears the
demurest and most rigidly virtuous expression. Such women frequent some
of the best known up-town establishments to so great an extent that a
lady entering one of them is apt to be insulted in this way by the male
habitues of the place. These wretches hold all women to be alike, and
act upon this belief.