Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-09
lUNcHEONS EATEN AT EASE,
Don't Hurry Clubs Growing AMONG
New York Business Men,
(NeW York SUM-

The American quick lunch, that worn
Subject of British jest, seems to be
passing, so far as the habits of the bus
mess man go, though it must ALWAYS
remain for the clerk, stenographer or
other employee whose noon meal must
be eaten in hurry.
The completion of the new Stock Ex-
change building calls attention to the
growing number of luncheon clubs. The
restaurant on the top floor of the new
building is to be the finest as well az
the most exclusive and expensive of the
many handsome downtown clubs.
The men who eat lunch in places like
the Hardware, the Arkwright and the
Wool clubs can hardly be pictured as
victims of the American quick-lunch
hablt. Nor can the men who lunch at
the Fifth Avenue the Hoffman and the
Holland be taken as illustrations of
that so-called life-shortening follv of
American life. Yet the number of men
who eat leasurely and well at these
places up and down town grows every
week.
AS this is true of the downtown bus
mess life and of the trade in the Tween
ty-thlrd street belt, so it is becoming
the custom in the Wholesale district.
which lies between. and recently orr
restaurant owner has opened three
places in or near Broadway, If, tho
wholesale territory. These are nounter-
parts of the downtown place., of the or
der of the Savarin and DeImonicos.
The thousand of men whose noon
day patronage makes possible and nro-
| fit9 hla thnSe oh
lcannot be quick-lunch victims. from the
very order of things, Their meals are
served with as much style and formal
ity as their dinners would be in the
might restaurants further up the Broad
way line.
There is no hopping on a stool, no
baWllng to the waiter for piece of pie
and glass of milk. The lunch is an
preached leisurely, sometimes with the
preamble of a cocktail and the latter
accompaniment of a bottle of white
wine. The time spent by the man at
his eating place will average an hour
or more. Generally he arranges to meet
friends or business associates there reg
ularly.
| 1t is not alone in the clubs that the
club element is found. Men in the same
pursuits whose business permits them
to lunch at about the same hour get in
the habit of dropping into the same
cafe every day.
If they are not of the same line of
trade they may have common tastes
land find some dishes or some style of
cooking at this particular place pleas
ing to them. After while, the waiter,
1ra nd l,os,,
get into the habit of reserving a table
for them in some corner of the place
which he has noticed they take to when
it is not occupied. The table clubs are
growing to be feature of the down.
town cafes.
| The head waiter in one restaurant
said the other day:
| Five men, all in the same business,
as I have learned from their conversa-
ton. come in here every noon. I save
a corner table for them. They like it
and so do 1. for each gives me 81 every
Saturday, so that 1 get IS a week from
this little club.
"By keeping on the alert I hold the
table for them so that they know it is
always waiting for them. Mr.. A. gen.
erally comes along about 12.15 o'clock.
He's the first. and he looks at his watch
and wonders how long before Mr. B.
will get in. But he won't order until
they're all here.
| ''Mr. 3. comes along in the course of
five minutes, and before they've got
the conversation on the market started
C. and D. come in together. Mr.. C. al
ways drops into Mr.. DIS office and gets