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A Citadel of Food: Delmonico's
Few restaurants have a better claim on being an integral part of New York Restaurant History than Delmonico's. From its beginnings on Wall Street to its expansion uptown, Delmonico's was the first and last word on Gilded Age fine dining.
Delmonico's Restaurant, 44th Street
Standing on outside 44th and 5th, today you might see an office building, but on December 5, 1905, a stream of carriages pulled up to the door of Delmonico's restaurant, dropping off the country's literary, financial, and retail elite to celebrate Mark Twain's 70th birthday.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, 44th Street
A 40-piece orchestra greeted guests who included Andrew Carnegie and Emily Post, novelist and future queen of manners. The Master of ceremonies read greetings from Theodore Roosevelt during a nine-course dinner that included turtle soup, filets Kingfish Meuniere, and Red Head Duck with fried hominy and currant jelly.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, 44th Street
Perhaps more than any other establishment, Delmonico's restaurant epitomized the Gilded Age. It was premiere public place for the elite to dine and hold lavish affairs, and it set trends in dining and entertaining that people across the country - and even the world- aspired to.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, 44th Street
Upper and middle-class women read about the restaurant's linens, oyster spoons, and flower arrangements for ideas on how to set their own tables. And silver purveyors like Reed and Barton clamored to sell the restaurant their place settings so customers would buy them.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, (The Citadel)
The original owners, brothers Peter and John Delmonico, started out in 1827 with a shop at 23 William Street that served cakes, ices, and fine wines. By the 1830s, they had created the "restaurant" as we know it today. Before Delmonico's, men went to restaurants to eat, not dine. They visited sparse rooms where employees ran back and forth between the kitchen and the tables to serve from a handful of dishes that were written on a big board.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, (The Citadel)
By contrast, Delmonico's offered an elaborate printed menu of French and Italian dishes in an opulent setting with waiters who catered to patrons' every need.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, 44th Street
Like other restaurants and hotels in the 1880s, Delmonico's opened a midtown location to be closer to the city's nightlife and patrons.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, 44th Street
Now diners could walk just a few blocks form a meal after an evening at the Metropolitan Opera.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, (The Citadel)
In 1923, the combination of high rents and prohibition caused Delmonico's to close. Though the current Delmonico's downtown is under new management, you can still order two of the original dishes- Egg's benedict and Chicken a la Keene.
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