Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-02
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who is himself a gastronome, famed
from Paris to Paraguay, that he and the
San Francisco club men who dined
with him there were agreed that these
gentlemen kept restaurants that were
not surpassed in the world for the ster-
ling worth of their cuisines and the re-
liability of their cellars. have no pre-
tensions to being gastronomic con-
noisseur myself, but my fork has been
in many viands prepared by chefs Of
distinction, and must say that the
tables these gentlemen set were alto
gether out Of the common. They served
a French dinner of liberal courses for
fifty cents and gave with 1t an excel
lent French vim ordinaire without ex-
ira charge. For seventy-f1ve cents
Bordeaux wine of capital grade was
served with the dinner, a wine quite of
the grade of Pontet Canet, such
wine as would be put down on card
of the Angelus at $1.50.
drank-and, with few exceptions, they
little deserved to be. The progress
made by our vignerons in the past
thirty years is simply incredible. They
produce a sound and nourishing wine,
both red and white, which a commits
sioner of the French government told
me gave excellent promise, and which
promise has been redeemed. But at
the time of which write the triumphs
of Charley Wetmore and his coadjutors
were in the future.
And Good Dinners
The dinners which Louis and Dol
served their patrons. with wine inclu-
sive, for seventy-five cents, would have
cost, at the same time, at Delmonico's,
at the Hotel Brunswick or the Hotel
st. Denis, from three dollars and sew
enty-five cents to four dollars and a
half, or more.
Having made an allusion to California
wines, and as illustrative of their i'm
provement, will state that President
Cleveland told me, in a conversation /
had with him in the White House in
the fall of 1887, that he drank the wines
made by De Turk of Santa Clara coun-
ty in preference over the imported. He
had stocked his cellars with that gen.
tleman's brands.
1t was wonderful what the house
keepers and restaurateurs could buy
for little money in those days. A dol
lar would capture dozen canvasback
ducks and teals beyond count or meas
ure. The very finest cuts of beef were
only ten cents a pound, and so in all
lines of marketing, including the finest
kind of fish. For such luxuries as can
vasback duck the buyer is obliged to
pay through the nose now.
Another famous caterer of those days
was crazy Frenchman named Eugene
Aunc. His intellect might have been
faulty in ordinary matters, but when
1t came to a kitchen this man was a
downright necromancer. When Santa
Monica was undergoing it's first boom
Eugene carried his pot paraphernalia
down there, where he had built himself
a snug little place, with a cave behind
the restaurant in which he stored his
wines. AS soon as the bon vivants
knew where Aunc had planted himself
there was a regular pilgrimage to his
shrine. He was short, wiry, little fell
low, brimming over with nervous ex-
element. If he thought you could as
simulate a good dish or enjoy a fine wine
he was the most devoted Of hosts, but
If he found that he was throwing away
his time on an unappreciative guest he
would boil up into an ungovernable
fury.
BriswaIter's Coup