The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-11-05
New York Has So Many Different
Kinds Of Lunch Rooms That
No One Can Ever
Become Biase.
SOME ARE ORIGINAL
Niekie in the Slot, Trust in the Lord,
and Grab Counter Are Some
Of tho Very
Latest.

UNITED Press Special Service.l
NEW YORK, Nov. 5.--If Lucullus,
that Roman person, whom our best
authorities tell us, was the first man
to put artificial thrills into the food
consuming job, should be waited back
to terra firma, there's only one place
where he'd be happy. That would be
| in New York, eagerly scanning the
restaurant advertisements, and won
dering just where he would go next.
1 Lucullus. and other vanished charao-
tiers Of like fame, may have been the
first to know the delicious pangs OF
acute indigestion, or the sweet com
fort OF dyspepsia, but when it came
to manners, methods, ways, means
and varieties of food and its service,
they were but the rariest selling
platers. To them. a meal meant
merely several tons of assorted
meats and earth products, placed on
a long table, to be grabbed gently
with natures own devices-the hands
and blithely gulped down. OF course,
there was the attendant slaves, hand
imaidens, twinkling fountains, End
other things, but for variety and de-
vice, be 1t asserted again, New York
conQuers all.
An enormous percentage OF New
York's population dimes away from
home at least once day. They are
the workers, and for them, willy lunch
room owners have made elaborate
preparations. There are thousands OF
serve yourself places, where one
waltzes up, grabs an armful OF food,
and gets his check. at the end of the
line. A more recent development, is
the trust in the Lord places, where
the diner, or luncher, as the case may
be, placidly lopes around long series
|os counters, picking up whatever
strikes his fancy. from coffee to
pickles, and retiring to a broad arm
chair, eats his fill. Then computing
the total cost of what he has consum.
ed he steps to the cashier and an.
nounces the amount to her, as he
hands her the money
4 Strange to say, these places are Inn
mensely popular, and do a landof1ce
business. It's probably because they
are the only things in New York
where anybody will trust anybody
else. But the latest of the places
where the great &C. p" 60 to really
/ eat, is the automatic restaurant. Old
Ilucullus, if he ever caught sight Of it,
4 would probably suffer CONFUSION.
It reduces the science Of eating to the
most simple form. The restaurant,
an enormous room, filed with tables,
has at all sides, little square cubby
holes that lock like letter boxes. Each
'lseries Of them, is designated: Hot
Puddings," Gold Pastries, Sand.
wiches,' Gold Drinks" Hot Drinks, =
and so on, sort of progressive menu
4 At the door as one enters cashier
will give you nickels in change for
larger coins. The seeker after food
Icasually makes the rounds OF the let
ter. or rather. food boxes, reads be
meath them the contents, and finding
one he likes, drops the required coin
in the slot. Immediately the letter
box window flies up, and the pudding
sandwich, pastry, ice cream, chocolate
clair, or hot turnips, slips forth. To
secure anything from hot coffee to
Iginger ale. one drops his coin in a
slot above highly ornamented lions
head. Then he places cup under
meath. There is momentary pause
full of delightful expectation, and
then there spurts forth a need OF
cream, and the required coffee, tea OF
what not.
Then there are the eateries, where
one stands up at l''tle round tables
land check puncher, watching you
as you grab your food from the count.
eTs, punches check and calls the
amount aloud to the cashier, evident.
ly for fear you might change checks
ion him, before you reached the fl.
Inancial department. These comprise,
in the main, the regular places for
common appetites.
But, zowie, and Bingo, for good
measure the places where eating Is
made an after theatre ceremony
with a starched shirt and long
coat. Wouldst dine in a castle car.
ried piece meal from Germany? Then
HE to a gaily decorated place on
Broadway. where they will serve you,
Sauce Remoulade. ~ and above all,
this: Rosy hued steaks, rice fed
chickens, an exquisite duck filled
with aromatic apples, and Drowned 80
finely, it makes ones mouth water ).