Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1886-07-30
QUEER RESTAURANTS
Two OF New York'S Odd Eat
ing Houses Described.
Places with National Reputation Whose
Surroundings are Unsavory'

A New York letter to the Troy Times
says: Morcttis is a restaurant that has
achieved a national reputation, although
as unprctentious as Oliver Hitchcocks
beanery. 1t is on Fourteenth street, near
Third avenue. You enter narrow and
dirty hallway, ascend a dusty flight OF
stairs and are ushered into a diningroom
| filled with tables covered with linen any
thing but snowy in color. The chairs
are rickety, there is little ventilation and
the rooms are usually filled with the
fumes of garlic, coffee and tobacco. The
walls are lined with pictures of illustri-
Gus Italians, from Cavour down to Cam
/ panini aud Cristadoro. The portraits are
rusty and musty, the restaurant is stuify,
the plates and cups are nicked and
cracked, the walters are slovenly and out
ward appearances are far from appetizing.
/ Yet some of the most noted men and wo-
men of New York dine there. Morctti
himself does the cooking, and everybody
praises and apparently enjoys it. The
proprietor Frequently leaves his stew pans
and chatting dishes and wanders out among
| his guests in his shirt sleeves. He usually
has a cigar in his mouth. lie always
wears a soiled apron and invariably looks
as though he had just come out Of
stable. Yet millonaircs and literati press
his hand with delight, and the ladies of
| the haut ton greet him with their sweet
est smiles. lie has been the rage for
years. The artist Page first discovered
him nearly thirty years ago. William
Henry Fry, Charles A. Dana, William
Stuart George Arnold, Ftz Greene Hal
leck, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Ward
Beecher William Henry Hurlbet, Joseph
Howard, Jr., and men of that ilk quickly
recognized the importance ofthe discovery
and the cook began to get on his feet
Politicians, merchants, brokers and men
| about town took the cue and followed
suit, and Morctti became famoul. His
| place has been thronged for years. 1t is
almost impossible to secure a seat at a
table at the 6 o'clock dinner hour. All
the dishes are Italian in concoction and
decoction. To the uneducated American
palate they are simply nauseating; yet
bon vivants revcl in them. You get SCUM.
fish, meats, game, maccaroni salads and
desserts, all Favored with oil and garlic.
and to a farmers boy all tasting alike
Half the native Americans who drop in
there masticatc the food with an imagin-
ative relish, and are sick for days after
ward. Yet all vie with the bon vivants
in praising Morctti's 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 Moretti's
tables who would pitch them out of the
window if they were served at home.
Moretti is as shrcwd in a business way as
he is in the gastronomic line. He makes
no effort to branch out in gorgeous mag
nifcencc like Martinelli and Moreli. He
sticks to his original plant and let's his
cooking speak for itself. He enjoys his
squalid surroundings and makes no effort
to gild them He takes no vacations.
He spends no money in pleasure. His
life is bounded by his coo&shop; beyond
its confines there is no happiness for him.
Morning, noon and night, both summer
and winter, you will find him stewing
and sweating in his Italian kitchen and
ladling out his dollar meals. How much
he is worth is secret known only to
himself. The figures must run up among
the hundred thousands.
Lately, however, competition has reared
its head A beetle-browed little Span
lard of the name of Pedro, some years
ago started a small restaurant in Duane
street. 1t is in little squatty wooden
building, within stones throw of O'Don-
ovan Rossa's den on one side, and of the
Five Points on the other. Pedro de-
votes his attention to Spanish dishes.
His table linen is rarely clean, and his
crockery looks as though it had just
come out of tenement house. Untutored
stomachs would declare the cooking to be
execrable. The smell of garlic is about
suffocating, the bread is the color of ma
hogany, ard the wine as sour as cider
vinegar; yet William Stuart, Charles
Gaylor and other veteran gourmands
assert that the cooking is perfection IT.
self, and 90 into ecstacies over his din
ners. Stock brokers give select dinner
parties in his shanty, and armies OF flies
welcome them. Tom-cats scattered among
the tin cans littering the yards near by
furnish class music, and Pedro himself,
arrayed in badl soiled garments dlsheS
ola podrida and other choice Spanish
dishes, streaming with onions and garlic
Ladies frequently grace the swaTthy
Spaniard's gastronomic sactum, and re
lro is on the highway of fame, gathering
in fortue. He already sells more cham
pagne than Morctti, but whether this i
bwing to the digestible or indigestlDle
aature of his dinners is a question. one
hing is certain It takes well tralnea
stomach to appreciate his cooking q
thorough Western cowboy would probaoy
shoot him on sight if confronted by On'
of his dishes.
Kind Of IIeadwOrk He Did.
} Chow is this, Bromley? You tola nv