The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-01-20
FOREIGN RESTAURANTS IL NEW
YORK.
French Dinners and Those who E.sst Them
-Absinthe Drinking and EEncnrOni

French Dinners and Those who Eat Them
-Absinthe Drinking and 5EacnrOnI
Days
Within period extending back not
further than 1865, says the Daily
Graphic, there has been a remarkable in
| crease of what are known as French res
taUrants in the city of New York. Pre-
vious to that time there were not more
than half dozen in this city, and these
were about evenly divided into very
high-priced and very low-priced places.
A well-infOrmed caterer recently esti-
mated the number of these restaurants
at the present time at about ,000. This
Is, perhaps, an exaggeration, yet if all
the restaurants which serve dinners in
courses and in the French style are in
ciuded, the number would not fall far
below the estimate. French restaurants
were first naturaIized in this country in
New Orleans and San Francisco, whence
wonderful stories had long been brought
of the cheapness and excellence of
French table Ph0te fare In this city
they began to flourish in the neighber-
hood traversed by Prince, Greene and
Wooster streets, which is still the dis
tinctive home of the French colony in
New York. That it IS possible to get
a ''fuIl dinner" in these times Of high
prices
FOR TWELVE CENTS
no one would be inclined to believe
without very positive assaverations.
Yet such is the fact At restaurants
on Wooster street, Houston street and
Prince street such places may be found.
The dinner consists of soup, beef, vege-
tables, coffee, and bread. The food is
poor in quality, but surprisingly well
cooked. Twenty-Five cents secures q half
bottle of red wine and also desert, CON
sisting of cheese and an apple pie. At
the other end Of the scale are restaurants
whose charges for dinners vary from S1.25
to 81. Their tables are provided with
choice table wines and all the luxuries
of the season. Between these there is
an uninterrupted grade of prices.
About three quarters of the guests are
FTenchmen, many of them being accom-
panied by their wives. The seats are not
all occupied until about z o'clock, and
by that time there is a buzz of cOnveTsa-
ton that is peculiarly noticeable in con-
tTast with the unsOcial and excessive re-
spectability of American and English
restaurants. A singular company is as
sembled. Here are seen Frencbmen
from every part of France-frOm Alsace /
and Lorraine to the Bay of Biscay. There
are men with strangely shaped heads,
who have shed blood for the Commune
in the streets of Paris, and are now, per
haps, engaged in some department Of the
artificial flower trade In New York
There will be seen a man with the figure
and carriage of a field marshal, wearing
a fiery rosebud IL the frayed button-hOle
of his neatly brushed coat His neigh
Dor, the fat, but not stout, little gentle
man, Is known as perhaps the finest
chess-Player in the French colony in
New York He wheeZes as he leans for
ward and picks three Jumps of sugar
from the bowl with his chubby fingers.
Then he carefully piles them like
COTTON BALES IN THE HOLLOW or HIS
SPOON,
which Is poised across the top of his cup
of black coffee. Then he POurs over the
sugar tiny glass Of eOgnac, which costs
him ten cents extra The liquor fills the
spoon and runs over into the coffee. The
sugar is now touched with q lighted
match. and the brandy burns with a
blue fame which runs all over the spoon
and leaps down TO the liquor which is
floating on the top Of the coffee. This is
the closing scene Of that dramatic enter
tainment which constitutes every true
dinner While the brandy
Is burning he takes out a little book OF
paPeTand paws with his6ngerand
thumb in his left vest pocket for pinch
Of tobacco. The cigarette Is made with
a skill which is a natural inheritance, /
and which IS made perfect by the practice !
Of years. IT is lighted in the blue hause, |
and then the burning sugar and brandy !
are unceremoniously tipped into the |
coffee, which is now ready to be slowly /
slipped Is the cigarette il smoked. Dur
ing al shis time he has been talking Vo- /
with the field-marshal already I
described. At another table sits q little I
lady, whose features have nothing Of the 4
rUdeness Of her German sisters, and little 4
OF the American beauty of outline, but /
who chatter to her husband and two 4
gentlemen friends, who occupy the little /
table with her, in a way that + visibly /
70 them alt When She isn't I
talking she Is listening with Wide.open 4
ewes, various delicate
sHEUGs or HEE PRETTY MAETLED sHoCL- /
DEBs,
and movements Of her head thai appear 4
to be equally interesting As the various 4
courses come on she Is helped FIRST and /
to the best portions, a chiValrous polite /
ness that she accepts Is plainly her due. .
vet always with some slight but graceful 1
IN the room are sure 4
70 be one or two remark ble-lo0king gem /
tiemeu Of swaTthy icxiOn black /
hair and whist slancholy or
sinister exr #iHded one