Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-01


W York Press
rants Of the best type not to permit
any more persons In room than can
be seated at the tables. The Knicker-
oocker will seat 1900 persons at table
between ii O'Clock ON New Years eve
and O'Clock the next morning. several
| OF the parties comprising from twelve
| 10 tWenty-four persons. Some of these
places were engaged as long ago as
the frst week the hotel was opened.
anu anu LOT the last fortnight there
mas NOT Deen single seat to be had.
according to the present plans of the
maitre d'hotel, all the regular dining
rooms VIII be closed at 10 o'clock on
the evening of December 31 for an
| hour, TO enable the servants IN re-
arrange them in preparation for the
influx of New Years parties nj If
O'Clock. only one OF the regular cat
ing rooms is not sacred to reservation
on tnat night. This is the cafe on
.ne horty-second street corner, where
every one may take HE chance of
being served with things to eat and
drink; but the wayfaror cannot saw.
! 'ye did not take me in"
Up on the other side OF I,ongacre
| square, Churchill's Is to have its first
experience of the New Years eve IN
Its new home with the demure facade
There no on can secure table before
hand Tor love nor money, and the
seating capacity is there for the first
corners to seize possession of and hold
on to. The manager does not expect
to get more than 1000 persons at his
tables that night. for the simple reason
that he knows those who come early
will stay long and early.
Across the square. I'm Rector's all
they have to do nowadays is to refuse
tables to prospective patrons with the
best grace they can. Every place in
the restaurant has been taken for more
than fortnight and that means that
fully 800 persons will be entertained
within its doors at an average expen-
diture of IS for food-and drinkables.
Another hotel where the spirit of
anticipation runs high for the best OF
all reasons-that conditions warrant
this optimism-s the Cadillac. Ordin-
arily they require ninety tables In the
three dining rooms to accommodate
the regular daily patrons of the house,
but for New Years eve 110 extra tables
are pressed into service, and they have
to hire 250 extra chairs. Every one
of these tables is already engaged for
the night, and disconsolate individuals
are being turned away every day who
cannot be accommodated. They can
take care of $50 persons at one time i'm
this house, and the manager estimates
that 2O00 persons will drift in and out
of his dining rooms on New Years
eve this year. A faint idea of the
amount of drinking that is done that
night may be estimated when 1t is
stated that $2300 was taken in last
year for liquors of various kinds.
OF all the hotels along Broadway the
Marlborough is the only one that calls
attention publicly to the coming of
New Years eve This is done by a
sign hung in the main corridor, which
states that tables may be reserved
for that occasion by applying to the
head waiter. BY this time the sign
is nothing but means of provoking
bad temper or bad language, for every
table is already engaged. The Marl-
borough management is going in for
a fixed tariff for the table dhote sup
per on New Years eve, 50 being the
price of the meal, and the place can
accommodate about 1900 at that. To
take care of the overflow they are to
set a good many more tables in the
reception room on the first floor.
The Imperial can take care of 900
persons at one time in its several
dining rooms, but the trend of business
here is toward haStier meals and the
management counts on being able to
use each table about three times dur
ing the passing of New Years eve
celebration. The Gilsey house also has
q crowd with the move on" habit,
and it's accommodations for 500 per-
sens at one time will be used several
times in the course of the six hours
the festival lasts. This is one of the
few hotels that has not already ex
hausted it's reservations, but there is
no danger that they won't be taken
UP by the dawn of the last day of
1906. The end of the passage comes
at Martins, and the man who could
get a table there now would have to
persuade the management to sell him
the place outright. Martins will pre-
serve its custom of refusing to serve
anything but champagne in two of it's
rooms.
one hotel manager summed up the
story of the New Years eve celebra
ton in a brief phrase: ION that night"
he said. New Workers drink more and
eat less than on any other night of
the year" And then he added another
sentence that will please the moralists
| nightly: "And then the bars don't
do any business for two weeks" 1t
seems we take our sackcloth and ashes,
our days of repentance not on New
Years day but afterward.