Evening star., 1933-09-10
SIDEWALK CAFES !
ISSUE IN GOTHAM
They May Go or Stay, De-
pending on Who Wins
CoIorfuI Contest.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press
NEW YORK, September e.-Battle
lines were finely drawn tonight over the
general question, May q New Yorker
sit at a sidewalk cafe to dunk dough-
nut in his coffee If he chooses?"
There were pros and there were cons
and there were those who thought the
whole situation a bit absurd-while in
exorably September 18 crept on as the
date on which sidewalk cafes were to
be tabooed.
Lined up in defense Of the Manhat-
tanite effort to bring q continental
touch to the cold granite CANYONS Of
New York were such celebrities as:
George Jean Nathan, the critic: Hem
rik Willem Van Loon, the historian;
Arthur Garfield Hays, the lawyer. and
Sinclair Lewis, vro writes of Main
streets.
Against them were various business
associations and Borough President
Samuel Levy who recently issued an
order banning the sidewalk eating and
drinking places.
Grew Up With Beer.
Most Of the cafes involved are on
lower Fifth avenue. They sprang up,
with their prop potted palms. their ev-
and chic tables with the return of beer.
With the issuance of Levy's order,
based on a city ordinance forbidding
"encumbrances to sidewalk traffic"
arose many neat distinctions. Just
what, upholders of the right to drink
beer on the sidewalks wanted to know.
did the law mean? Why, they asked,
were storekeepers permitted to display
tomatoes, fruits and other wares. hile
men and women were not permitted to
patronize cafes occupying the same gen.
eral area?
Round l of the cafe set-to was won
by the pros when Assemblyman Her
bert Brownell, jr.. as counsel for the
cafe owners, obtained a stay on Mr..
Levy's ban order
Cozy Little Place Blooms.
In the midst OF the situation there
arose a coZy little cafe right in the
heart OF Manhattan, seating 500 per-
sons.
The new cafe was ballyhooed as the
largest bar in the world" nice. quiet
place under an elevated traffic highway,
across from Grand Central Terminal.
with street cars jangling and auto horns
honklng all around it, and trains run
ming underneath it.
Inc new place QuCked the sidewalk
issue by limiting its tables and para
phernalia to the area just within the
sidewalk on large piece of vacant real
estate.
The proprietor Of one Fifth avenue
place deplored the cafe ban, aside from
purely financial reasons, as an attempt
TO curb the finer instincts" Of AmerI-
cans and others who would drink and
eat as do the French on their Rue de
la PaiX
Plans Fight to Finish.
Jean Barrere. manager of another
Fifth avenue cafe-on-the- concrete, said
he would fight attempts to ban such
places as his to the limit" He said
he had the backing OF Montague Glass.
the writer. as well as Van Loon, Lewis
and the others.
Barrere said he had letters from
many notables giving him their sup
port. Placards reading Save the Fifth
avenue sidewalk cafes" appeared at
many places
Prince Girolamo Roepigliosi, the Ital-
ian nobleman. said he didn't see any.
thing to get excited about in the mat
ter. He said the few tables placed be-
fore drug stores with a few palms
around, could hardly compare with the
places in Europe"
And from Lou Irwin. Broadway the
atrical agent. who has had occasion
now and then to engineer q publicity
stunt or two. saw the whole thing as
lust another gag" to drum up trade
for the cafes.