Wichita eagle., 1888-05-13
GOTHAM GASTRONOMY.
THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK CITY
WHO LIVE TO EAT.
Barbarians in the Midst Of High Civili-
kation-The Enormous Importance of
Dinner Giying-The Modern Style-A
Burlesque of Hospitality.

kation-The Enormous Importance of
Dinner Giying-The Modern Style-A
Burlesque Of Hospitality.
The essential difference between barbarism
and civilization, according to epicures, is
that then men eat TO i've and now they live
to eat In American cities, notably in New
York, there are, it must be confessed, many
SO called civilized beings of this order. When
they are not eating, they are talking or
thinking about it, and their faces show what
an absorbing idea and habit it is. They may
be seen, any evening, at Delmonicos, the
Brunswick, the Hoffman, or at some one of
the fashionable clubs, intent upon the dinner
they have ordered and enjoying with repel-
lent sensuality their various dishes and rare
wines They are apt to have round pro-
truding eyes, large coarse mouths, double
chins, ford, oleaginous compilations, gen.
eral expression of matter dominating and
controlling mind They are barbarians in
the midst of high civilization, for they are
consecrated to their appetites, and imperyi-
Gus to the finer issues OF life
A far larger class relish fine food; but they
relish other things, things appertaining to
literature, art and science They wish it IN
derstood that they are delicate in all their
tastes; that the refinements of the table adj
minister to the refnements of the mind, and
that the two are natural and proper accom-
paniments, depending on one another. They
may be right, in a measure; but even they
are inclined, Notwithstanding their modera-
ton, to set too much store by the pleasures
of the palate. The metropolis leans the same
way. You see it particularly in the region
between Twenty-third and Fifty-ninth
streets, and between Fourth and Sixth ave
nues, where cooking and catering are con-
sidered fine arts, and eating is elevated into
an elegant recreation. There are the great
hotels, the choice restaurants, the fashionable
clubs, with most of the elegant residences
where dinner giving is thought to be the
sumptuous symbol of hospitality.
Dining and dinner giving have assumed
enormous Importance there-an importance
out of all proportion, l might say, to the
serious concerns Of life, if dinners were not
regarded as among the most serious Every
day during the season scores and scores of
dinners are served within those boundaries
that have never been surpassed, seldom
equaled, for variety, elaboration, elegance
and cost. Paris has long been accounted the
culinary capital Of the world; but within
twenty-five years New York has rivaled it in
this particular. We have imported many of
the best French and Italian cooks who admit
that the Old World does not furnish half our
dishes, and that those it has are in no way
superior to ours. This is the land of constant
invention and Improvement. Our cooks,
native well as foreign, are continually
producing new and remarkable combina-
fiOnC aVnlinO D0Ual dishes bo
sources of their growing knowledge Vet
eran gastronomiSts who have Travelled widely
and lived much abroad say that there are
restaurants in New York eclipsing those of
the Reform club, the Maison Doree, the Cafe
Richie, Vefour's or the Vachette Brebant
Fifty years ago, l have heard, prosperous
New Workers invited their friends TO din
ners of four or five courses, with one or two
kinds of wine, and they doubtless had more
comfort and solid satisfaction than are got
now out of twelve or fourteen courses with
six wines. The swell dinner of today is
really british. Nobody but a trained gour-
mand, not to say glutton, can eat it. l
rarely see a man who does not neglect sew
eral courses, often five or six. After oysters,
soup, fish, roast Tor game, salad, what
natural stomach wants moro than sweets
fruit and coffee: 1 am usually satiated with
what seem solids after fish, and have, l
think, fair appetite.
At formal, public dinners, you may expect
a long menu, but in dinners in private
houses you ought to be content with some
thing simple. But it is at such houses that
expense is carried to point of ostentatiors
and, therefore, becomes vulgar A public
dinner at Delmonico's or the Brunswick is
commonly served at S12 per plate, wines
extra. The dishes can hardly be better or
more numerous at private houses but their
accompaniment are altogether more elab-
crate and costly. know of private dinners
for twenty, where the flowers in the dining
room have cost $500, and where the menus
are works of art, done by hand, at $40 to $50
each. Such banquetS are not provided for
less than several thousands Of dollars, which
is, to my mind, pecunious burlesque of
hospitality.
If Croesus is resolved to demonstrate his
wealth, why should he not put two or three
81, 900 bonds under the plate of each OF his
guestss This would be simpler, director and
a more practical method of self advertising,
which would appear TO be the chief object of
such senseless prodigality. A dinner for
twelve is seldom given bya man or woman
of any pretense to fashion-which commonly
signifies deal of money-for less than from
$500 to $780, What waste of cash! What
an abuse of appetite, and the simple privi-
leges of homel Such dinner might be de-
licous, elegant, perfect in its kind, for 500,
or considerably less | was told recently of
a genuine lady, of slender means, who de-
lighted dozen Of her friends with what is
called an exquisite dinner, the total cost Of
which did not exceed $50, claret being the
only wine. Why can not such simplicity
and delicate taste be widely imitateda 1t
never will be in New York circles that as
sumo to be fashionable, for the ordinary
definition, locally, of fashion is display and
pecuniousness. in Globe-D Demo
crat
rcrsian Wine Jars.
l. d - l. 4. ]