The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1876-01-20
FOREIGN RESTAURANTS IN NEW
YORK.

=
YORK.
French Dinners and Those Who En-, Them
tbjntho Drinking aud nacnroni
pays.
Within n 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
iaurants in the city Of New York. Pre-
yious to that time there we're not more
than a half dozen in this city, and these
were about evenly divided into very
high-priced and very Iow-priccd places,
A wcll-iniormed caterer recently esti-
mated the number Of these restaurants
at the present time atabout 900. This
is, perhaps, an exaggeration, yet if all
the restaurants which serve dinners in
courses and in the French style are in
cluded, the number would not fall far
below the estimate. French restaurants
we're 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 d'hOte fare. In this city
they began to flourish in the neighbor,
hood traycrscd by Prince, Greene and
Wooster streets, which is still the dis
tincive home Of the French colony in
New York. That it is possible to get
"full dinner" in these times Of high
prices
FOR TWELVE CENTS
no one would be inclined to believe
without very positive ass"yeratlons'
Yet such is the fact. At restaurants
ON Wooster street, Houston stTvet 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 a halt
bottle Of red wine and also desert, ON
sisting of cheese and nm apple pie. At
the other end Of the scale are restaurants
whose charges for dinners vary from Sl,25
to 81. Their tables are provided with
| choice table wines and all dlc luxurics
of the season. Between these there is
an uninterrupted grade Of prices.
About t%hrcc-quartcrs Of the guests are
Frenchmen, many Of them being accom-
panied by their wives. The seats are not
all occupied until about 7 O'Clock, and
by that time there is a buzz Of CONVERSE
ton that is peculiarly noticeable in con-
trast with the unsocial and excessive re-
spectabiIity of American and English
restaurants. A singular company is as
sembled. Here are seen Frcnchmen
from every part of FranCc-from Alsacc
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 Inquire
and carriage of a field marshal, wearing
n fiery rosebud in the frayed button-holc
of his neatly brushed coat. His neigh
Dor, the fat, but not stout, little gentle
man, is known as perhaps the finest
chcss-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 OF HIS
SPOON,
which is poised across the top of his cup
of black coffee. Then he pours over the
sugar Il tiny glass of cognac, which costs
him ten cents extra. The liquor fills the
spoon and runs over into the coffee. The
sugar is now touched with a lighted
match, and the brandy burns with a
bluc flame 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
Frcnchman's dinner. While the brandy
is burning he takes out a little book of
cigarette paperand paws with his fingerand
thumb in his left vest pocket for Il 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, 1t is lighted in the blue flame,
and then the burning sugar and brandy
are unceremoniously tipped into the
which is now ready to be slowly
as the cigarette is smoked. Dur
ing all this time he has been talking vo-
ciicrously with the field-marshal already
described. At another table sits a little
lady, whose features have nothing of the
rudcness of her German sisters, and little
of the American beauty of outline, but
who chatters to her husband and two
gentlemen friends, who occupy the little
table with her, in a way that is visibly
interesting to them all. When she isn't
talking she is listening with wide-open
eyes, various delicate
sHRUGs OF E PRETTY MANTIED sHOUL-
DERS,
and movements of her head that appear
to be equally interesting. AS the various
courses come on she is helped first and
to the best portions, Il chivalrous polite
ness that she accepts as plainly her due.
yet always with some slight but graceful
acknowledgment. In the room are sure
to be one or two remarkable-lOoking gen
tlemen of swarthy complexion, black
hair aud whiskers, and melancholy or
sinister expressions, who reminded one
unpleasantly of the villains who are
found plotting diabolical crimes over
huge black bottles and tin tankards when
the curtain rises for the second act in a
melodrama. Watch one of these after
he has pushed aside his coffee. A tum-
bier of thin glass is brought him, within
which sits another glass, small and
goblet-shapcd, The small glass is filled
to the brim with a transparent liquid,
which, if you examine closely, exhibits a
suspicious sea-green tint. The william
takes up the water-pitcher, and, posing