Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-04

restaurants are cheaper than those of New
York. In a number OF them there are
luncheons and suppers in the evening, de-
scribed as de luxe and costing from 3 to
6 shillings. They enable a person to enter
tain five or six people at much less eX-
pense than would be possible in any New
York restaurant Of the same class. But
that plan would never be successful here
according to the testimony of the manager
Of the most popular restaurant for supper
after the theater.
one reason for the fixed priced meals
At night in London" he said, is the short
time in which 1t is possible to serve supper
there. The law requires the restaurants
to close at midnight, and that leaves little
lime after the theater. So it is easier to
have a supper all ready to serve.
But that is only possible when 1t is the
same for everybody and costs the same.
So all the restaurants have a supper a
certain pkce and all the guests take that
except when as a special luxury the sup
per has been ordered by the host in ad-
vance.
But New Workers. would never be salts
fled TO take their supper in that way. They
want to order for themselves. In the ma
jority of cases there are very few heavy
dishes ordered for any of our suppers, and
the women who order a bird nave usually
gone as far as anybody. In many cases
men take only whisky.
The rare visitors to a restaurant for
supper are likely to go in much more
heavily f6r food, but the regulars eat little.
l don't believe that the average price paid
by our guests would be found to exceed
the cost Of one Of those London suppers,
but New Workers are not accustomed to
ordering from a bill Of fare mat has al
ready been arranged for them.
Much Display, Little Money. .
Another aid to cheaper entertaining in
London is the costly table d'hote dinner.
In some Of the hotels there it costs as much
as -. II is a very elaborate meal and
makes a good show for the money.
"A host may entertain four persons in
Guiding himself for 81, without ountinR
the wines, much more deliberately than he
could in any New York restaurant. But in
spite OF that advantage New Workers will
not even accept tie table d'hote dinner
when 1t comes to an expensive meal.
That was shown several years ago when
one OF the most fashionable restaurants
charged 50 for an elaborate dinner on Sun
day nights to try the public and had to
report a failure after a few weeks. In the
London restaurants that offer these So
called de luxe meals at fixed prices It is
usually impossible to order a la carte"
The question Of wines is Of course one
that does not come into consideration when
one speaks Of the cheap New York dinners.
o course, the European diner who pays
the same price that the New Yorker does, e"
said the international authority on cheap
eating. has an advantage when IL comes
TO the question OF wine and the prices men
toned here for cheap food must be consid-
cred as without wine.
Il ave noticed that the only persons here
who do not seem to have a horror OF the
American wines from the west are The for
elgn restaurant keepers, who declare that
they are better than the cheaper grades OF
imported wines. II the New Yorker who Is
dining cheaply Is willing 10 take the Cali
fornia wines he Is going TO do much better
for his money than II he Insists on the
cheap imported stuff"-New York Sun