The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-22
THE TABLE D'HoTsR."
He and His Ways Are n Distinct Prod
ucs Of N,vw Vark CirfItyaflo,

/ He and His Ways Are n Distinct Prod
uct of New York Civilization.
1 A new bit OF New Yorkese dialect Is table
| d'hoter, applied 70 man who regularly
and fearlesSly eats public dinners served
/ in courses. The name Is a purely New
/ York one. for no other city in the onion
serves table dhote dinners In the same
way that this town does. Chicago never
had an evening table d'hote dinner until
two or three years ago. The people in that
town take their diunsr early in the after
noon, between - and , o'clock. in the good
old fashioned way that holds good through
ont the west.
SO with the other western cities. 81.
Louis Cincinnati and all the rest clear out
10 San Francisco, where the merican
traveller again strikes the evening course
dinner in that cosmopolitan town. Boston
and Philadelphia have a very few table
d'hote restaurants OF that kind. but Brook
Ign, with all its 10000 eaters. hasn't
single one TO its name.
New York. on the other hand, IL honey
combed with them. IL requires cosmo-
politan and boarding house hating people
10 make table d'hOte restaurants success
full. IL requires n vast army Of people
with demi Bohemian instincts who roam
about from one eating house 70 another,
seeking in :his ray freedom and variety
they could find in no other way Here one
finds every variety Of cooking, from the
Chinese Of Mott strect through the Swiss
Of Fulton street and the Spanish Of Maiden
lane up 20 the French Of Bleecker street
and the Italian and Hungarian Of upper
New York. Of broadway and Union
Square.
You can get seven course dinner az
O'Clock at night as far down town "a Full
ton street, and as far up town as One Hun
drcd and Twentvffth. You can pay al
most any price from thirty cents up 20
$50, but the average is seventy-fve cents
without wine or 81 with n pint Of elAret.
No table d'hote place can live that does
not average at least sixty customers per
night. So one can see 1t glance the great
number of diners they serve
But everybody who eats n table d'hots
dinner isn't table drhoter by a great deal.
A man doesn't become a table d'hoter &C
once; he grows into IL. lie begins by nib
bling at the bait, takes n dinner now and
then. and little by little the now and then
merges into every night until, before he
knows 10, he blossoms out into a confirmed
table d'hoter. Then the walters all know
him as their prey and treat him accord
ingly.
There are certain signs about the table
d hotter that mark him out TO the most
casual observer. He comes in with an air
Of proprietorship, and even when afar or
the waiter pulls out particular chair in n
particular corner for him. lie calls the
white aproned servitor Alphonss and asks
cenfidentiAlly which OF the two soups ~
tho better. He gets an extra supply Of
salad, not out of tho mass which Il already
dressed, but fresh variety which he
dresses himself lie f. very loyal 20 his
restaurant, and ropes in young men who
are yet new in the ways and wiles Of table
d'hotism. He tells them IL Is "the best
dinner in town for the money"
This becomes = catchwOrd with him. He
sticks 70 the restaurant fer four months
and then tries another, 20 which be Is tust
as loyal As long rs he patronizsz any
place that place serves the best dianer in
New York for the money" Three restau.
rants year. ranging from Sixth avenusto
Broadway. he tries, and In two years IL
back again and goes over the "a me ground.
He rarely reforms and Is always bachelor.
Once welded 20 the table d'hots he never
msrries. and never knows the delights of
home cooking. The table d'hoter "a a
distinct product Of New York CIVILIZATION
and Is growing in numbers with the growth
Of the town and its attendant growth Of
bacbelorhoOd.-Eew York World