, 1890-10-24
THE TABLE D'HOTER."
II. and E,s Ways Are a Distinct Prod
uet OF New York Civilization.


He and E,s Ways Are a Distinct Prod
uet OF New York Civilization.
A new bit Of New Yorkese dialect is table
d'hoter, applied to a 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 Union
serves table d'hote dinners in the same
way that this town does. Chicago never
had an evening table d'hote dinner until
two or three years age. The people in that
town take their dinner early in the after
noon, between IL and 2 o'clock, in the good
old fashioned way that holds good through
out the west.
Sc with the other western cities, St
Louis, Cincinnati and all the rest clear out
to San Francisco, where the American
traveller again strikes the evening course
dinner in that cosmopolitan town. Boston
and Philadelphia rave a very few table
d'hote restaurants Of that kind, but Brook
Ign, with all its 10000 eaters, hasn't a
single one to its name.
New York, on the other hand, is honey
eombed with them. 1t requires a cosmo-
politan and boarding house hating people
70 make table d'hote restaurants success
full. 1t requires a vast army of people
with demi-BohemiRn instincts. who roam
about from one eating house to another,
seeking in this way a freedom and variety
they could find In no other way. Here one
find every variety OF cooking, from the
Chinese of Mott street through the Swiss
OF Fulton street and the Spanish Of Maiden
lane up to the French Of Blocker street
and the Italian and Hungarian OF upper
New York, OF Broadway and Union
Square.
You can get n seven course dinner at 6
O'Clock at night as far down own as Full
ton street, and as far up town as One Hun
dred and Twenty-ffth. You can pay al
most any price from thirty cents up TO
Sl.50, but the average is seyenty-ive cents
without wine or 81 with a pint OF claret.
No table d'hote place can live that does
not average ut least sixty customers per
night. So one can see at a glance the great
number of diners they serve.
But everybody who eats a table d'hote
dinner isn't a table d'hoter by a great deal.
A man doesn't become a table d'hoter at
once; he grows into it. He begins by nib
bling at the bait, takes a dinner now and
then, and little by little the now and then
merges into every night until, before he
knows It, he blossoms out into a confirmed
table d'hoter Then the walters all know
him rs their prey and treat him accord
ingly.
There are certain signs about the table
d'hoter hat mark him out to the most
casual observer. He comes in with an air
of proprietorship, and even when afar OFF
the waiter pulls out a particular chair in a
particular corner for him. He calls the
white aproned servitor Alphonse and asks
conidentially which Of the two soups is
the better. He gets an extra supply OF
salad, not out of the mass which Is already
dressed, but a fresh variety which he
dresses himself, He is very loyal to his
restaurant, and ropes in young men who
are yet new In the ways and wiles OF table
d'hotism- He tells them it is 1.-THE best
dinner in town for the money"
This becomes n catohword with him. He
sticks to the restaurant for four months
and hen tries another, to which he Is Just
as loyal As long as he ~patronizes any
place that place serves the best dinner in
New York for the money" Three restau-
rants a year. ranging from Sixth emu to
Broadway, he tries, and in two years is
back again and goes over the same ground.
He rarely reforms and is always n bachelor.
Once welded to the table d'hote he never
marries. and never knows the delights of
home cooking. Thu table d'hoter is a
distinct product OF New York civilization
and is growing in numbers with thegrowth
OF the town and its attendant growth of
observation-disclosures York World.