New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-04-23

plebelan and this confession Is made merely 10 show
that he Is not supposed TO know what he is talking
about and that nothing he says Is TO be believed.
For after ALL and in all seriousness. there Is no
spot In the world where tie stranger can I've more
luxuropSly fed than In NewYork. lie may have
acquired his tastes through years OF study q the
best things all the world. but Il he cannot find
Just what he wants in the best restaurants Of Fifth
ave and upper Broadway II Is because men OF long
experienc. have tried and have found Il physically
impossible to get It for him. Taose who snecr at
these dining palaces because Of their fancy prices
consider them too hastily. suppose you can get
dishes called By the for twOhlrds OF the
money elsewhere. and suppose the waiter In his lin
Culsc enthusiasm does say "Oui. mein Herr" and
Nein. Monsieur" II IS worth something 10 BE-
every dish will be well cooked and well served
that the waiter will not put the knives the forks
on the wrong side Of the plate, that the plates them
selves will be warm when they ought TO be and cold
when they ought TO be; that the wines will be Of the
right temperature. and that the bottles will rot be
shaken. Yes. and 1t is worth something even TO be
sure that the cloth will be- clean.
Some Of the most essentially American restaurants
are found in the nclghborhood Of CITY Han square
and lower broadway. Their Amerlcansm Is seen in
their strictly busnesslike character Again IT may be
a false view and mere scntmcntality that leads
sen>v, taste to prefer that restaurant shOu1 have
the air OF a d!ning-room about 1t rather than the air
Of a shop, but the places under discussion are
undeniably shops. The men who frequent them come
from other shops and offices In the n"iGhborloof. You
do not here TO dine. come to get something to
eat. Very well YOU tell the waiter what Won want
10 buy h. brings It you. eat II. pay for II
and yOu 20 away. That IS what the shop is for.
You do not sit here for half hour after dinner dly
slipping coffee smoking cigar and exchanging
comfortable views of life with friend across TIE
table There IS Of that nonsense about the
downtown restaurant You simply order what
came to buy OF the clerk who in tbs instance hap
pens to be called a waiter. and you have right 80
complain II IT Is not Of standard quality and good
measure or II he loses time In bringing II 10 you.
You have no right to complain simply because BE-
throws dishes at you instead OF setting them before
you tccs'is" he spills water on the table when lie
fills your GLASS. or because he gives Won cod plate
for a mutton chop ard q hot one for tongue sand
wich. II YOU don't like Ills shop yoii can buy vour
goods at some other. can't you You are business
man and YOU oncht 10 understand that
Some men pretend that they know next to nothing
about the cake shops which scattered
pretty nearly all town. But most real New
York men know all they want TO about them ana
the honest admit IT, some men are forced 10
,corn about them because Of having learned much
previously about the kind OF restaurants where the
s,ucco and the palms are. Yet they Interesting
enough studies for who goes into them Nolull-
,arily and not because he cannot go anywhere else
Some Of them are reasonably clean. TOO. Non do
not have a table to Yourself. You sit with from two
TO nine others The opposite YOU eats with hiS
knfe-hat Is TO say In nineteen cases ont OF twenty
he docs--and the he does not tuck his napkin
under his chin is because there not any napkins
But Won have TO get used to all that. There Is no
tabecoth. and that IS good thing, because smooth
board is much easier TO keep clean than cloth