Table d'hote is the feature of San Francisco's restaurant life. It is
the ideal method for those who wish a good dinner and who have not the
inclination, or the knowledge, to order a special dinner. It is also the
least expensive way of getting a good dinner. It also saves an
exhibition of ignorance regarding the dishes, for if you are in doubt
all you have to do is to leave it to the waiter, and he will bring the
best there is on the day's menu and will serve it properly.
It is really something to elicit wonder when one considers the
possibilities of a table d'hote dinner in some of the less expensive
restaurants. Take, for instance, the Buon Gusto, in Broadway. This
restaurant boasts a good chef, and the food is the finest the market
affords. Here is served a six course dinner for fifty cents, and the
menu card is typical of this class of restaurants. What is provided is
shown by the following taken from the bill of fare as it was served us:
Hor d'ouvres--four kinds; five kinds of salad; two kinds of soup; seven
kinds of fish; four kinds of paste; broiled spring chicken; green salad
with French dressing; ice cream or rum omelet; mixed fruits; demi tasse.
With this is served a pint of good table wine.
As one goes up with the scale of prices in the restaurants that charge
$1, $1.25, $1.50, $2, $2.50, and $3 for their dinners it will be found
that the difference lies chiefly in the variety from which to choose and
from the surroundings and service.
Take, for example, the following typical menu for a dollar dinner,
served at the Fior d'Italia, and compare it with the fifty-cent dinner
just mentioned:
Salami and anchovies; salad; chicken broth with Italian paste; fillet of
English sole, sauce tartare; spaghetti or ravioli; escallop of veal,
caper sauce; French peas with butter; roast chicken with chiffon salad;
ice cream or fried cream; assorted fruits and cakes; demi tasse. Wine
with this dinner is extra.
Now going a step up in the scale we come to the $1.50 dinner as follows:
Anchovies, salami (note that it is the same as above); combination
salad; tortellini di Bologna soup; striped bass a la Livornaise; ravioli
a la Genoese and spaghetti with mushrooms; chicken saute, Italian style,
with green peas; squab with lettuce; zabaione; fruit; cheese; coffee.
Wine is extra.
Let us now look at the menu of the $3.50 dinner, without wine:
Pate 'de foie gras--truffles on toast; salad; olives; Alice Fallstaff;
Italian ham "Prosciutto;" soup--semino Italiani with Brodo de Cappone;
pompano a la papillote; tortellini with fungi a funghetto; fritto misto;
spring chicken saute; Carcioffi all'Inferno; Capretto al Forno con
Insallata; omelet Celestine; fruit; cheese, and black coffee.
This dinner must be ordered three days in advance.
These menus will give a good idea of the different classes of dinners
that can be obtained. Between are dinners to suit all tastes and
pocketbooks. If you wish to go beyond these there is no limit except the
amount of money you have. If but the food value be taken into
consideration then one will be as well pleased with the fifty-cent
dinner as he will be at the higher priced meals, but if light and music
and brilliant surroundings are desired, then one must pay for them as
well as for the meal he eats.
All of the restaurants mentioned serve good table d'hote dinners, giving
an astonishing variety of foods for the money, and it is all cooked and
served in a manner that leaves nothing to be desired. As before
mentioned if you wish a table d'hote dinner composed entirely of sea
food you can get it at the Shell Fish Grotto for one dollar.
A good rule to follow when dining at any of the restaurants is: When in
doubt order a table d'hote dinner. You will always get a good meal, for
the least out lay of money and least expenditure of thought. Often one
desires something a little different, and this is easy, too, and you
can conserve your brain energy and get the most for the least money by
seeing the proprietor or manager of the restaurant and telling him that
you wish to give a little dinner. Tell him how many will be in the party
and give him the amount you wish to spend. It will be surprising,
sometimes, to see how much more you can get for a slight increase in the
price. Of course your wines and cocktails will be extra and these must
be reckoned in the cost.
From this we come to the ordered dinner, and here is where your own
knowledge and special desires come in. Here, too, comes a marked
increase in the cost. You now have the widest range of possibilities
both as to viands and as to price. It is not at all difficult to have a
dinner, without wine, that costs twenty-five dollars a plate, and when
you come down to the more normal dinners, unless you confine yourself to
one or two dishes you will find that you far exceed in price the table
d'hote dinners of equal gastronomic value.
While this is true it is well to be able to order your dinner for it
frequently occurs that one does not care to go through the heavy course
dinner provided table d'hote. Sometimes one wants a simple dish, or
perhaps two, and it is well to know something about them and how to
order them. We have made it a rule whenever we have seen something new
on the bill of fare to order it, on the theory that we are willing to
try anything once, and in this way we have greatly enlarged our
knowledge of good things.
It is also well to remember national characteristics and understand that
certain dishes are at their best at certain restaurants. For instance,
you will be served with an excellent paste at a French restaurant, but
if you want it at its best you will get it at an Italian restaurant. On
the other hand if you desire a delicate entree you will get the best at
a French restaurant. For instance, one would not ask for sauer braten
anywhere except at a German restaurant. It will readily be seen that the
Elegant Art of Dining in San Francisco means much more than the sitting
at table and partaking of what is put before you. Dining is an art, and
its pleasure is greatly enhanced by a knowledge of foods, cooking,
serving, national characteristics, and combinations of both foods and
wines. How few people are there, for instance, who know that one should
never drink any hard liquor, like whisky, brandy, or gin, with oysters.
Many a fit of acute stomach trouble has been attributed to some food
that was either bad or badly prepared when the cause of the trouble was
the fact that a cocktail had been taken just prior to eating oysters.
Some of the possibilities of dining in San Francisco may be understood
when we tell you of a progressive dinner. We had entertained one of the
Exposition Commissioners from a sister State and he was so well pleased
with what he had learned in a gastronomic way that he said to us:
"The Governor of my State is coming and I should like to give him a
dinner that will open his eyes to San Francisco's possibilities. Would
it be asking too much of you to have you help me do it?"
"We shall be glad to. What do you want us to do?"
"Take charge of the whole business, do as you please and go as far as
you like."
"That is a wide order, General. What is the limit of price, and how many
will be in the party?"
"Just six. That will include the Governor and his wife, you two and
myself and wife. Let it be something unusual and do not let the cost
interfere. What I want is something unusual."
It has been told us that when the Governor got back home he tried to
tell some of his friends about that dinner, but they told him he had
acquired the California habit of talking wide. This is the way we
carried out the dinner, everything being arranged in advance: At 6:30 we
called at the rooms of the Governor in the Palace Hotel and had served
there dry Martini cocktails with Russian caviar on toasted rye bread.
An automobile was in waiting, and at seven o'clock we were set down at
Felix's, in Montgomery street, where a table was ready for us and on it
were served salami of various kinds, artichokes in oil and ripe olives.
Then came a service of soup, for which this restaurant is famous,
followed by a combination salad, with which was served a bottle of
Pontet Canet.
The automobile carried us then over to Broadway and at the Fior d'Italia
our table was waiting and here we were served with sand-dabs au gratin,
and a small glass of sauterne.
All the haste we made was on the streets, and when we finished our
course at the Fior d'Italia we whirled away over toward North Beach to
the Gianduja, where had been prepared especially for us tagliarini with
chicken livers and mushrooms, and because of its success we had a bottle
of Lacrima Christi Spumanti, the enjoyment of which delayed us.
Again in the automobile to Coppa's where Chicken Portola was served,
with green peas. Accompanying this was a glass of Krug, and this was
followed by a glass of zabaione for dessert.
Back again to the heart of the city and we stopped at Raggi's, in
Montgomery street near Commercial where we had a glass of brandy in
which was a chinotti (a peculiar Italian preserved fruit which is said
to be a cross between a citron and an orange).
Then around the corner to Gouailhardou & Rondel's, the Market Cafe,
where from a plain pine table, and on sanded floor, we had our coffee
royal. As a fitting climax for this evening we directed the chauffeur to
drive to the Cliff House, where, over a bottle of Krug, we talked it all
over as we watched the dancing and listened to the singing of the
cabaret performers.
This dinner, including everything from the automobile to the tips cost
but fifteen dollars for each one in the party.