The sun., 1901-08-04
DINNERS m THE OPEN air.
A SUMNER PLEASURE THAT NEW
YORK rs LEARNING 70 ENJOY.

Germans ~ 1neb Eese W. ~ ''
New York Is slowly wakening to the
charms Of dining out OF doors. city
summer has little enough to recommend II.
The daytime is horror. The ordinary
house or apartment 10 too hot IN make the
. days end tempting. Tho hotel or res'an-
rant dining room holds out no promise
OF comfort.
For years there have been few places,
where one could get out OF weiI-baked
brick walls and enjoy what little fresh
ness the night air could offer as sauce Tor
the dinner. These places have been well
patronized, and the restaurants In the
Park and out ON the hanks Of the Hudson
have always been crowded on warm eve
nines. That has been just the trouble
they were crowded. Then. too, the crowd
was likely to be trine, just trife, ex-
uberant. Not that that shocked any oac.
Conventionalities thaw out along with
everything else. in hot weather. Still the
bachelor girl, offending Dame Grundy
BY dining alone with man. retains few
scrvples as to time and place, and the bache-
lor girl Is a very prominent feature OF sum-
wer dinners in the city. Then. too, the
chaperoned girl found her chapcron raising
protesting eyebrows when the few al fTesco
places were proposed.
Altogether, there was need OF place
where one could dine in the open air and
the odor OF respectability at one and the
same time. A well-known restaurant
keeper saw the neei and hlled II 70 limited
extent by a terrace adjoining his regular
dining room and shut away from passereby
on the street by a hedge OF blossoming
hydrangeas. The experiment was sue
cess from the start and on warm nights
the tables are never empty. Pretty women
In exquisite airy gowns tratl their ioamY
frills and furbelows over the terrace. until
the observer refuses TO believe that all OF
the socially elect are out OF town. Never
did a winter night crowd OF diners succeed
in looking 40 picturesque as the gay groups
that flock to this terrace and another that
this season overlooks the Park.
The soft -colored lights shine over SHIN
mering frocks Of mo,isseline and organdy.
Pretty faces look out from under picture
hats such az winter never evolves The
men, when they are WISE have forsworn
regulation dinner clothes and are out In
cool ducks or white fannels. There is
mighty tinkllng OF ice against glasses.
There are crisp green salads and delicious
cold edbles on every side. Overhead
the stars twinkle down a. the diners and
f1irt with the champagne bubbles that.
ambitious and ardent, climb sSyward,
The air is many degrees cooler than in
the adjoining dining foom. There Is an
inforlnai'y about the situation that pTeaks
down reserve and loosens tongues. There
is a picturesqueness about II that invites
sentiment.
What did YOU have to eat?' asked the
srt student chum OF the who came back
o. the studio. after dinner on a terrace.
She wrinked her brows.
why, why, l really. don't remember,
the acknowledged with some surprise.
Then she added irrelevantly: You zee
we dined out Of doors.
So do summer nights make havoc Of
gourmandizers. and the dinners OF the fault
lest chef may pass muster II served under
the open sky
The old New Yorker who dimes at one Of
the swell open-air restaurants will realize
that he Is not seeing his own New York
The faces so familiar In winter are miss
ing. Az least, the familiar feminine faces
are gone, for the women with any pre-
tensions to social prominence have fled To
mountains and sea shore, and even the
popular actresses are out OF town. But
many Of the men one knows are In evil
dence, The student Of men and things
wonders who the women are for whom
the deserted husbands and sons and
brothers are ordering dinners.
There are cnaTtlinB WOfieil, nice WOHnen,
too. Even a novice can tell that.
Friends from the West and South are
drifting through the city all summer long
while the regular urbans are out OF town.
Scores OF Southern women are spending
the summer in New York, with short ex-
onrsions to ueighboring resorts. and en-
Joy ing the season more than they would
At crowded summer resort. They arc
the most fetching OF the al iresco diners,
these Southern women with their grace and
charm and their genius in the matter OF
summer clothes. and while their New York
sisters are contending for the one or two
lone summer men OF the summer resort.
they are sorting invitations aRd trying to
find time to accept al least fair percent-
age Of them.
Then there is the bachelor girl who In
working in New York and whose vacation
In not yet in sight. She is ont In stronger
force on summer evenings than on win
ter evenings. For one thing her boarding
house room or studio or fiat is probably
more uncomfortable She can't light the
the lights and read, and even the pluckiest
girl finds long summer evenings trying to
the spirits and conducive to restlessness.
So she longs for a lark, and opportunities
are usually forthcoming. SO many men
folk are left adrift and need consoling
and, after ALL isn't II Christian charity to
offer solace to lonely men who miss their
accustomed feminine nIinistrations.
The men, il is only fair to say. show a
spartan courage under their trial and lend
themselves readily to consolation. Not
hat they don't miss their women folk.
Perish the thought But why give way
20 vain longing, when there is balm in
.iilead? So the bereaved one turns philoso-
,her and, serene in the consciousness that
10 one il in town to criticise, has many
! jolly harmless dinner that would be i'm
possible in any other season.
There are other terraces and gardens
sot so swell. but, possibly in their way.
more entertaining places where vim ordi-
,aire is substitute for champagne cup.
But there, too, there are pretty women
n summer gowns. and. II the gowns are not
mite 80 elaborate, who cares for that out
unong Pickering shadows and night winds?
rhe eyes are as bright and the voices are
S soft and the stars are "a benignant.
Possibly, too, the men and the women are
ess blase and get more intoxlcation out
" the win ordinaire and their filtration
han do the swells from their champagne
md Irritation.
One little downtown restaurant, dear
10 certain artistic and literary clique
md a few foreigners. has tiny terrace
hat isn't half bad-place for diner
here night after night. a mixed crowd
Nith a touch OF long-haired soulfulness. a
lash Of emancipated ecklessness. an under
,r,Ist OF stoid bourgeoisie. Monsieur and
madame are there, placid, fat and 20. Tne
poung artis, and his adoring wife are at
.heir corner table. The yonn; artist and