The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-03
CHEAP EATING IS
FOUND IN NEW YORK
Prices Compared With the
European Capitals
WHAT so CENTS WILL BUY
Meals Are Naturally Higher in Lon
don Because Law Makes All
Restaurants Close at
Midnight.

justify the conclusion that you may live
In New York as cheaply as in Europe.
I'm going to take first some of the
places in this city," the international cit
izen told The Sun reporter after he had
propounded this theory to him, land
show how superior they are to many
found abroad
GU are always told that economy is
found in taking the table dhote meals in
European restaurants, and there is some
truth in that; but do not know a hotel
in Europe at which man can dine as
we'll as he can at hotel on Fifth avenue,
where for 81 an excellent dinner is to be
had. 1t is only for men, but it is good
and satisfying to a degree that dinner
abroad is not likely to be. A five franc
table d'hote in Paris is not equal to it.
IT know so cent dinner at an Italian
restaurant which cannot be beaten any
where abroad that I have been There
is an excellent assortment of hors
doeuvres, a good soup. good Italian
paste of some kind, whether ravoi or
spaghetti; roast, salad fruit and cheese.
If there is any place in Rome. for in
stance, or any other Italian city where
for two lire and half you can get as
much I should like to see 1t. In the
Italian restaurants eating is likely to be
la carte. Few hotels offer a dinner at
any such price.
1.-THE dinner for 81 in the mems cafe
of the hotel referred to is far more elab-
crate than the italian table d'hote, and
Is at twice the price cheaper, for there
are hors doeuvres, CLAIMS at this season,
soup, fish and entree two kinds of meat
and salad as<well as desert, cheese and
coffee. None of the Paris restaurants
offer so much at that price.
1.-The table d'hote restaurants in Paris
are not likely to be good except for
luncheon. The bill of fare is in many
of them practically the same for dinner
that it is in the middle of the day, and
the increase in the price of dinner over
luncheon does not give a different bill of
fare only the right to select more dishes
from the list. The result is that food is
not nearly so good by dinner time as
earlier
'I found the last time was in Paris
that these places were much more popu-
lar in the middle of the day than they
are at night Dining Is more likely to be
la carte at night. Parisans patronize
the fixed price establishments chiefly for
lunch.f
For New Workers who want a hearty
luncheon there is not as much chance to
be economical. The lunch that may be
had for 40 cents is not always so good
as that in Europe for two francs, but 1t
is only little inferior. Americans make
less of luncheon than foreigners, and for
that reason the lunch at a fixed price is
not so easily obtained as the dinner
There is one point In restaurant eating
which it did not seem possible the in
vestigator of gastronomic affairs could
declare more advantageous for the GUS
toner here than 1t is in Europe. This is
the morning coffee. That meal is so much
o1rotrr in fhan Ic haPa
that greater provision is made for it.
1T is true that coffee and rolls in the
morning here" he said ARE out of all
proportion to the cost of other things. In
this very hotel for instance, at which
men may dine well for 81, 1t costs 30
cents In the morning for one very meagre
cup of coffee, two rolls and little cream
That is high, although cheaper than in
some other hotels and restaurants.
You must look about here just as in
Europe to discover where the best things
are to be had. I know a small restaurant
on Sixth avenue In which I get ex-
,cellent coffee and cream for Is cents. The
bread and butter are Just as good as in
one OF the large restaurants. There If
you are in the habit of eating a heavy
breakfast you may get half portions, and
an excellent omelet with hat costs only
a quarter.
Now | do not know any hotel res
taurant in Europe where for any less, or
in fact, for the same amount, you may
get such good food. Where, for instance
under the most desirable conditions In
Berlin can you get an omelet for mark
and coffee and cream for half a mark?
I know Of no such place there or in
Paris
breakfast hardly seems to count in
Italy In all my travelels there l have
never discovered when Italians eat their
breakfast On an Italian steamer on
T
and tea in the morning along with beef
steaks and other such food for the Amer
leans. I never saw one of the Italians
go into the dining room for breakfast,
which was scarcely necessary, since
luncheon, which was very ample affair,
was at 1920.
I'm Rome / used to see men sitting on
the sidewalks at o'clock in the morning
eating ices and cakes, which l supposed
were their breakfast. / asked one Italian !
what he took for his breakfast and he
told me vermouth and settler Yet he
was perhaps more temperate than the
average Italian.
"In the hotels one sees Americans TAX
ing their regular coffee, but that costs
much more than the 10 cents / pay over
in Sixth avenue and costs from a franc |
and a half to two francs.
There are, of course cheaper places |
abroad than those which the returned
traveller mentioned, but cheaper places
also exist here If one wants to go to
them, and it is probably true that food
In the very humblest restaurants here
for the submerged costs no more than
1t does abroad. And the quality of food
here is likely to be better than 1t is
abroad, especially In these very cheap
restaurants. Some of the food served In
Europe would get an American restaurant
keeper into the hands of the police.
In one respect the high priced London
restaurants are cheaper than those in
New York In number of them there
are luncheons and suppers in the even
ing described as "de luxe" and costing
from three to six shillings They enable
a person to entertain five or six people
at much less expense than would be pos
sible in any New York restaurant of the
same class. But the plan would never be
successful here according to the testi-
mony of the manager of the most popu-
lar restaurant for supper after the thea
tire.