The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-27 00:00:00

Hotel Living in New York.

The New York. Herald describes the new hotel
system which has been introduced into New York
within the last few years. " A few years ago," says
our contemporary, " the old American hotel system
of the table d'ho te was general, and we might
say almost universal, in New York. It is still
so in the provincial cities and towns. But there,
has been a great change. The refined, educatc,a,
and wealthy classes, both visitors and residents, in
the city, who do not wish to keep_house, now pre-
fer the restaurant plan. Some good hotels in the
old style still flourish, it is true ; but the new are
fast superseding them. This shows better taste.
The only objection we know of to it—and that
naturally would come from the ladies--is, that this
excellent way of living is calculated to make barb-6:

lors contented with a life of single blessedness,
However this need not be, for our restaurant hot,o/s
are as comfortable for families as for single persons.
The old system of hotel living has a good deal of
the mess-table character in it. The hungry ex-
pectant guests stand watching the opening of the
dining-room and signal for operations, then rush in
eagerly, and gobble up their dinner hastily. There
is always the same everlasting bill of fare, except
that for the sake of variety the order of the dishes
named is changed sometimes. Every dish has a
taste of every other, as if they had acquired an
affinity by standing long and through proximity to
each other in the kitchen. They certainly all smell
alike. Then the noise among the waiters and the
clatter on the table, the crowded and mixed condi-
tion of things on the table, and the jammed condi-
tion in which one has to sit, with scarcely room to
stir the arms, are features of the table d'hôte not at
all comfortable. We admit that to some of our
best hotels on this plan these remarks are not so
applicable; but the general character is the same
everywhere. We say nothing about the enormous
charges of five dollars or more a day for a little crib
on the sixth story ; we refer only to the matter of
eating. Compare this with the system that has been
coming into fashion for the last few years, and
that has now become quite fashionable—the elegant
restaurant mode of living—and the superior taste
and advantages of the latter will be admitted at-
once. Take, for example, the Brevoort House,
Delmonico's, the Maison Doree, Hoffman House,
Albemarle, and others that might be named, and
where in the world can one live more elegantly ?
We have the best market, and one in which every-
thing can be obtained ; the richest wines can be
procured here, and the very first French cooks are
to be found at the places referred to. A gentleman
or family may live at whatever rate their taste and
purse prescribe. A person can live as cheaply
or perhaps for less than under the old system,
if his tastes be moderate, and more com-
fortably ; or, he can live as extravagantly as
he may please. Then what charming places
they are for a dinner party, or for a petit souper
after leaving the places of amusement. New York,
which is making such strides in everything as a
great metropolitan city, now combines the best
features of hotel and restaurant life in Paris and
London. The heavy, solemn, and what we would
call the strong appetite system of London does not
prevail here, while we use as many of the elements
of good living as the English. We have the light-
ness, elegance, charm, and finished cooking of the
best restaurants in Paris, with more substance, more
liberality, and less that is mean, trifling, or merely
fanciful. In fact, we combine the best features of
hotel-restaurant living of the two great cities of
Europe, without adopting their worst. There is no
place in the world where a person or family can
live better or more elegantly than in New York."