The sun., 1918-10-05
WAR PUTS SWEETS
INTO BANKRUPTCY
Noted Restaurant, Founded %
Years Ago, Has Been Mecca
Of Mariners.
ONCE HAD 6 CENT STEAKS
Present Proprietor Did Not
Have Heart to Keep Pace
With Rising Prices.

Back in the days when the bay was
misty with clouds OF canvas on clipper
ships and packets from all the world
hungry shippers ard mates bowled home
ward through the Narrows with two
prime objects gripping their attention
first, to warp into an East River dock
so closely that the white bowsprits and
gold figureheads doomed out over the
pavement of South street and reached
to the low buildings beyond like great
flying buttresses, and. second, TO jump
ashore and get sirioin steak at
Sweets.
That was almost four score years
ago. and as time went on the packets
and clipper ships had to give way to
the snubnosed craft shot along by
steam. But Sweets hotel and res
taurant. down where the toe Of Fulton
street steps on the western edge OF
South street, kept ON its even way
through the '40s and sos on through
the civil war and up to present war
days, when things began to go badly.
Yesterday Jesse L. Sweet. now in his
SCNthsS sCai yoeh6SSS sO's
OF the founder of the famous old res
taurant. had to admit defeat. Jesse's
warmest friends. among whom were
the venerable restaurateur's chief cred
itors had long talk in the dingy old
Office of what had been the. business
like headquarters of the house Of Sweet
when Jesse was a boy Thoughtful
lawyers took a part in the conference.
And after the gloomy discussion had
been ended Jesse filed a voluntary pc
tition in bankruptcy.
A Friendly Petition.
1t was a 'friendly petition" in bank
ruptcy that was filed. but with the
entry OF the petition upon the records
Jesse's particular world came to an
end. For a time the restaurant will
remain open and Jesse hopes to pay his
creditors 100 cents on the dollar: but
the legal action of yesterday marked
the beginning OF the end
Heavens above" sighed Jesse late In
the afternoon, as he sat in the gather
ing twilight that made 1t impossible Ia
see across the old gray office, when
came back from serving my time In
the civil war and started in again
here to help out my father we used to
cook and serve the finest steaks In the
world for six cents-and make money
on them too. And many years after
that we could still go across the stree,
20 Fulton market and buy the finest
fish in the world at a few cents q
pound and serve it at ouI tables nj
very few cents more than we paid fol
It wholesale.
But now IL walk over to the marke
I pay % cents, % cents. even more thar
that some times, for a pound OF codfst
-.
we couldn't charge in our restaurant tn,
prices that would have to be obtained t.
make a profit. Maybe some of the hotel
and restaurants can do 1t nowadays
suppose they can or they wouldn't be IL
business but honestly I didn't have th'
heart to do it."
Founding of Restaurant.
Hence the beginning OF the end o
Sweets. which Jesse's father. the lat,
Ab-am NJ. Sweet. founded when he cam
| from his home, down on Long Island. T.
| the big city In 1S45 and started at Full
ton and South streets the hotel ant
restaurant which Immediately becam
! noted. Negro walters were installe'
then to serve the best steaks and tn
finest of sea foods brought into Man
haitian. and negro walters. many o
| lIicHi III yCcLs Stiii "CIC
mcurnfully about the old dining room
when the beginning of the end came yes
| terday,
| Old Uncle Bob Sawyer, the venerab!
Jim Nixon, Jim's equally dusky skinne
side partner, Old Bill Fisher; Olive
! Pitts, Johnny Mutter. the chef-all o
them had stuck TO the house OF Swee
until the end. Old Uncle Bill Fisher
whose memory runs back to SLAYER
days, liz too aged darby to wait o
table now as he did in the days whe
Jesse Sweet was fighting on Souther
cornfields to free Bits people: but, age
as the kinky haired veteran is, he wa
still able yesterday to come to the res
taurant and mourn with the little grou
of sad faced colored men who stood i
a corner of the restaurant beside III
vacant tables discussing in low tones thi
terrible thing that had happened.
In the glad days Of Sweets the corne
iof South and Fulton streets was IL
cation worthy Of even the momentou
, Sweets. The Black Ball sailing liner
made port so closely that one could a
most climb along the bowsprit TO tn
restaurant windows overlooking the bus
waters of the river. And just around tn
corner was the great tea importing hous
belonging TO the father of Seth Low
with Its string of tea packets coming I
port near by with teas and spices fIoI
China and Indian seas.
Warm Spot for Sweets.
Then there was the old ferry froi
Brooklyn to bring it's crowds of hungr
folk almost to old Abram Sweets doc
And up and down the Manhattan shor
from the Battery far to the north Of I'll
spot where one day the Brooklyn Bride
was to spring its span across the water
came the ships from the seven seas. NJ
one of them was sailed by a skipper {
mate who did not have a warm spot
his heart--and stomach-for Sweet
To and from the nearby docks also ra
the Harlem boats. jammed with sti
more hungry passengers on their way
the business heart of things.
As the demand for food arose so d.
the demand for drink, but for almo
thirty-flve years Abram Sweet ran h
hotel without installing a bar. In 1877
however. the pleadings of the thirst
could no longer be ignored. and on Jul
s Of that year a bar was opened
the hotel--on the same day, incidentally
that Jesse Sweets brother, Milton, ar
tho late James Breslin opened Il
Brighton Beach Hotel.
The bar at Sweets served its la
drink last Saturday night. Many thin
and combinations of things had brougl
about this first actual capitulation. r,
one thing there was the opening OF Il
Brooklyn Bridge. an engineering fe
!. which was as loudly acclaimed
Sweets as anywhere else on the gre
day; but with more and more Long II
anders using the bridge instead OF Il
l thA n SuFAA hAar