Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-06-27
MORETTI'S DINING DIVE.
FAMOUS PLACE AMONG WOULD
BE EPICURES.

Dishes Swimming in oil and Garlic
Served Among pictures Musty end
Rusty-Other Eating Places which
Gothamites Love to Favor with their
Patronage.
NEW YORK. June 25.-Moretti's is a
restaurant that has achieved national
reputation, although as unpretentious as
Oliver Hitchcock's beanery. 1t is on
Fourteenth street, near Third avenue.
You enter a narrow and dirty hallway,
ascend dusty fight OF stairs, and are
ushered into dining room filed with Ia
bles covered with linen anything but
snowy in color. The chairs are rickety
there is little ventilation, aud the rooms
are usually filled with the fumes of garlic,
coffee and tobacco. The walls are lined
with pictures of iflustriOus Italians from
Cavour down TO Campanlni and Crista-
dOro. The portraits are rusty and musty,
the restaurant is stufy. the plates and
cups are nicked and cracked, the walters
are sloyenly. and outward appearances
are far from appetizing. 1etsome of the
most noted men and women of New York
dine here. Moretti himself does the cook
ing, and everybody praises and appar-
entity enjoys it. The proprietor ire
quently leaves his stewpans and chat
guests in his shirt sleeves. He usually
has a cigar in his mouth. He always
wears a soiled apron and invariably looks
as though he had Just come out of stable.
Yet milliOnaires and hterau press his
hand with delight, end ladies of the baut
ton greet him with their sweetest smiles.
He has been the rage for years. The art
ist Page first discovered him nearly
thirty years ago. William Henry Fry,
Charles A. Dana, William Stuart, George
Arnold, Fitz Greene Halleck, William
Cullen Bryant, Henry Ward Beecher,
William Henry HurlbeFt, Joseph Howard,
Jr.. and men of that lax quickly recog
nfzed the Importance of the discovery aud
the COOK began to get on his feet. Politi-
clans, merchants. brokers and men about
town took the cue and followed suit. Mo-
retti became famous. His place has bee n
thronged for years. 1t is almost impossi-
BILE TO secure seat at a table at the 6
O'Clock dinner hour. All the dishes are
Italian in cOncoction and deeOction. To
the uneducated American palate they are
simply nauseating, yet bon vivaDts revel
in them. You get soup, fish, meats, game,
maccaroni, salads and desserts ali ia
vored with oil and garlic, and. to a farm
er's boy, all tasting alike. Half the ma
tive Americans who drop IN there masti-
cate the food with an imaginative relish
and are-sick for DAYS atterward. Yet all
vie with the bon vivants in praising Mo-
rettPs provender.
EACH MAN WANTS TO BE THOUGHT AN
EXPERT
in testing cookery, and therefore eats and
commends everything set before him, Men
eat cheese and game birds at MOrettis
tables who would pitch them out of the
windows il they were served at home
Moretti is as shrewd in a business way as
he is in the gastrOnOmic line. He makes
no effort to branch out in gorgeous mag
nihcence like Martinelli and Morelli. He
sticks to his original plant aud lets his
cooking speak fer itself. He enjoys his
squalid surroundings and makes no effort
to gid them. He takes no vacations. He
spends no money in pleasure. His life is
bounded by his cookshop; beyond its con-
fines there is no happiness for him. Morn
ing, noon and night, both summer and
winter, you will find him stewing and
sweating in his Italian kitchen and lad
hing out his dollar meals. How much he
is worth is a secret known only TO himself.
The figures must run up among the hum
bred thousands.
Lately, however, competition has reared
its head. A beetle-browed little Spaniard
of the name of Pedro some years ago
started small restaurantin Duane street,
1t is in little squatty wooden building,
sa's den on one side and OF the Five Points
on the other. Pedro devotes his attention
to Spanish dishes. His table linen srarely
clean and his crOckery looks as though it
has just come out of a tenement house.
Untutored stOmachs would declare the
cooking to be execra0le. The smell IF
garlic is about suffocaJing, the bread is The
color OF. mahogany, and the wine as sour
as cider vinegar; yet, William Stuart,
mands assert that the cooking is per-
lection itself and 20 into ecstaces over his
dinners. Stock brokers give select dinner
parties in his shanty and armies of flies
welcome them. Tom cats scattered among
the tin come littering the yards near BY,
furnish classic music, and Pedro himself,
arrayed in badly solled garments, dish S
streaming with onions. and garlic. Ladies
ola podrida and other choice Spanish
disnes, frequently grace the swarthy
Spaniards' gastronomic sanctum and
Pedro is on the highway Of fame, gather
ing in fortune.
HE ALREADY SELLS MORE CHAMPAGNE
THAN MORETTI,
but whether this isowing to the digestible
or Indigestlble nature OF his dinners is a
question. One thing Is certain. 1t takes
a well-trained stomach to appreciate his
cooking. A thorough Western cowboy
would probably shoot him on sight il con-
fronted by one of his dishes. The other
day Chinaman dropped into the cook
shop. He tackled plate of soup, but
b0lted when the second course was served.
Pedro's best customers are politicians
who are trying TO perfect themselves in
the art Of epicurean appreciation. The
average New York politician IS always
attracted 10 restaurant patronized by
brokers. aud he will never knock under TO
any man in praise Of anything that can
be eaten. The Hon. James Oliver, better
known as Paradise Park Oliver, once told
Jerry Hartigan that none but epicures ate
at Pedro's. aud invited Mr.. Hartigan
there to dinner. Two hours afterwards
Jerry met the Hon. Fattie Walsh.
"Wbats an epicure, Tom!' asked Har-
tigan.
IAN epicure is one of those buffers that
eats anything" Mr.. w alsh replied.
Il thought So" Jerry remarked. give
just ate meal at PedrO's and il makes
me sick to pick me teeth"
Within the past two months several
prominent persons have given select din
ner parties at the Chinese restaurant In
Holt street. One given by Com. homas
4. Falls, formerly superintendent OF the
Imperial Arsenal at Tsin. Tsin. cost Falls
$3.50 There were twelve at the table, IN
Guiding six Cinnamon. Birds nests,
sharks ins, dried locusts, bamboo
sprouts, and smoked and pressed rats
from the celestial shores are said TO have
been on the bill OF fare. The Commodore
MaXed enthusiastic la praise OF the rats.