The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-28
A Cheap Little rar,. In abe Heart of London.

writer ia Once Week says: "In Old Comp
ton street cheap life on the Paris plan Is carried
out in series of the most unsayory looking tene-
ments. Yet the establishments which are french
contrast most advants geously with those which
have obstnately remained British. The Cafe
Lombsrdo, or the Masonic Cafe. inscribed dur
Vrdis AnaiS, should be examined In contrast with
one CT two horrible little English coffee houses
which elbow them. The narrow windows of the
cate display giqot of foreign cut, trimmed cut
let's fresh salad an artchoke or two, TO please
the eye. The English coffee house shows two or
three dirty eggs, few cups and saucers. chop,
and the advertisement sheet of an old Bells Life.
with curtain as dingy as ramp's skirt Tor
background. The fastidious man might, IN q
strait. satisfy his appetite pleasantly enough in
the Cafe Lombsrdo-say with dish OF sardines,
an omelette, fines her6es and q salad. But should
hard fate lead him into the English coffee shop,
boiled eggs, coarse bacon, and stale, crumbling
bread must be his fare. The British coffee house
keeper has passed the windows OF this cafe every
day for years and has caught the savory odors
stealing from its kitchen, and has only gone back
again TO boil the egg hard or soft. He has never
cared to reach the dignity Of an omelette. The
dandelion and the mallow, and the satisfy, and
the haricots, and the lentls are, he will sheer,
stuff for Mounseer, but not for John Bull.
"a little way of IL q very small hotel for very
humble lodgers-the Hotel du Pavilion but its
restaurant window is enriched with dellcacies.
Round the corner is a purveyor of French nd
German comeshbes. He can show you thirty
varieties of sausages and twenty varieties Of
cheese. In his shop are open tubs Of gherkins
and olives and saur kraut. He has given you q
shilliDg's worth Of excellent truffie6 f0ie- grds.
and be will count you two or three ssrdines for
lunch or dinner. People come with little baskets,
and with shilling nteligently laid out get light
repast of real dsntes 1t is positively delight
full 10 see the shabby old foreigners peering and
pOkDg about the establishment which "a as
thickly larded with the good things of this life
IS the lively picture in the old Atn1dndch DIES
GOuTmdRde. d %
Higher up the street an establishment is
wholly devord TO Italian cOmestbles and fruits.
Herein you may buy tomato paste from Turin
and butter from Milan fresh every Wednesday, as
our thriftless, ignorant English poor can Just
manage to buy picked cabbage. Not far OF Is
the Cafe de rEtoile, in Windmill street, where
| a fixed price dinner, including half bottle Of
Bordeaux ordnaire, Is to be had for two shil-
| lines. A dish Of beef is TO be got, with such
| tomato sauce as is not obtainable In the best
| English feeding establishments round about. The
nest most disgraceful conception of a delightful
| vegetable. The British cook, even he who pre-
| tends TO cater for people who are willing TO pay
good prices has not yet discovered that the finest
| tomato paste is 10 be had In penny-worths. The
poor but intelligent foreign cooks about Soho are
| alive TO the fact, and profit by il.
IL would be ridiculous to assert that the two
| shilling dinner at the Cafe de fEtoile is spec-
| men OF artistic excellence; but compare 1t with
any two-shilliDg English dinner to be had in Lon
| DON and it must be accepted as triumph OF mind
| over manner. The salad alone shames the British
| kitchens of the neighborheod-aye kitchens
| planted in very fashionable neighborhoods IN.
1 Oeed.o