Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-04-28

Union square are number OF tabled note
restaurants with Italian names, but having
but little Italian about the cooking, except
ing, possibly, the spaghatti, which is al
WAYS good, and the alleged chianti, in rust
covered TASKS, which is as uniformly ex-
ecrable.
As a matter of fact, though the quaint
shape and rush covers of the bottles are,
as Bret Harte says, ''got up with intent to
deceive" there is precious little of the
chant which you can buy in New York
ever saw sunny Italy. 1t Is made by doc
toring cheap French or native wines, and a
good deal of it is innocent even of acquaint-
ance with grapes. The menu Of the alleged
italian restaurants is choice mixture of
French, German and Italian cookery, and
the places are largely patronized by would
be Bohemians, people with aspirations to
be seen in the society of actors, artists and
literary men. The cooking is generally fair
enough, but there is nothing distinctive
about il. The trouble is that it is but a
weak imitation of the results achieved by
the master hands of the chefs in the larger
places further up town.
As you come further toward the Battery
and away from the haunts of wealth and
fashion, following straight down Fifth av-
enus, if you will. you cross University
Park at the lower end Of that aristocratic
thoroughfare, and you are in the heart Of
the French quarter. Here are French
restaurants in plenty, and right palatable
dinners do they serve, too, in the style of
the Partisan bourgeois, we'll cooked and at
ridiculously low prices.
To be sure, they are for the most part,
small in size and rather dingy in appear
ance, but the service is good, the cheap
table wine is not the poisonous mixture Of
logwood and chemicals which is placed be-
fore you in the more pretentious establish.
msnts further up town and the society is a
study. 1t is only by visiting restaurants of
this type that we can realize the cosmopoli-
tan character Of our civilization. Here we
see the sturdy French citizen and his
plump. jolly wife, and the ancient beau
arrayed in the Partisan style of ten years
ago The proprietor of the place is generally
the chef and his wife is cashier. The same
customers visit the same restaurant night
after night and gossip goes on from table to
table. There is always fair sprinkling Of
Americans. Clerks, artists and young lit
erary men who enjoy Bohemia and VINO
readily fall into the ways Of the place
French newspapers lie on the tables and
AClN IA W AitNS VI kSDO lAGlltN are
generally in the cellar At the service of those
who care to pay for them. The bread and
butter in these places is uniformly excel
lent, the latter being made up into tiny
pats without salt in true Partisan style
One place l have in mind, where thev
furnish a wonderfully good dinner for fifty
cents, makes an extra charge for napkin.
but when they bring it it is as large as
small tablecloth. Their coffee is always
above reproach and their salads al ipspira-
ton. A bill of fare which viii serve as
type of the average ffty-cent dinner on
Becker street in the vicinity Of the French
quarter runs about as follows:
PotasEe, consomme colbert; poisson. baked
mackerel; entree, chicken croQuettes; rotj,
lamb with tomato sauce; salad, e'licory;
demi-tasse cafe. pint OF win or6inaire.
The portions are liberal, and in contrast 70
the plainness of the rooms the table APP
pointments are FOR the most part exquisitely
neat
There is an odd little italian restaurant on
University place presided over by po-
litical refugee, fancy. At any rate he is q
man with a grievance, and he surrounds
himself with the most remarkable set of
bandits ever seen on the operate stage.
Xhsy are peacsfu! enough IN SO, far -