NYC Existed For 200 Years Without Restaurants

You wouldn’t know it today walking down West 46th Street in Manhattan or Smith Street in Brooklyn, but until 1827, New York City did not have a single restaurant. That's the year when a pair of Swiss brothers named Delmonico opened their eponymous William Street confectionery and café, ending 200 years of restaurant-less history and setting "the tone for fine dining in New York almost overnight," according to a new book detailing the city's evolution as a restaurant capital. Before then, anyone forced to eat out had two choices at their local boardinghouse or chophouse: “a slab of beef or mutton with potatoes and gravy."

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By Ben Muessig in Food on November 1, 2009 5:02 PM

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Snoopy

The book I was thinking about was "On the Town In New York" by Michael and Ariane Batterberry published in 1973. It covers the same topic from 1776 to the time of its publication.

Bring back Zum Zum.

Såkandulæredet

Yay for Monk's Diner!

H.F. Peterman

Monk's Diner in real life is Tom's Restaurant.

S.K.

You mean there was once a time when New Yorkers actually had to cook their own food?

Think2wice

What exactly defines "a restaurant"? The use of a menu?

Charles

Would that big board behind the Micky D employee be considered a "menu"

NannyState

No, it's considered "that big board behind the Micky D employee".

movi

There were other 18th- and early 19th-century taverns besides the Fraunces that served food, such as The Dove, The Old Grapvine, and The Bulls Head.

That book is full of it.

Snoopy

It is true that there were many taverns in New York City in the late 18th and early 19th century, but none of them were "restaurants". It comes from the French word "Restaurant" meaning small portions and high prices for food you have no idea what it is by reading ze menu.

NannyState

there were automats in the city as early as the 1630s but it wasn't food being served under those dutch doors...

Snoopy

Perhaps the author meant that the beginning of the "restaurant" era was at the beginning of the use of menus, the use of same gave the "diner" a choice of victuals rather than the sit down and shut up kind of dining that was more the common means of dining out.

AnnaZed

http://www.frauncestavern.com/index2.htm

...and that's just a restaurant that's still in business. It does some good to approach press releases and self-promoting spew with some degree of cynicism. I know that this isn't real journalism that you are practicing here, but try to make a small effort. For people at your level of erudition Goggling will be just fine, no one would dream of expecting more.

Snoopy

How about all those oyster barges on the North and East rivers? But I believe the big oyster thing was later than 1827, more like mid century.

There was a book done about thirty years ago that was a history of dining out in NYC. I forget the name of the book (something like "Out on the Town"), and it was re-printed about fifteen years ago. It appears this "new" addition", unless it has better graphics, is just a rehash of the info found in the older publication.

lexicondevil

There were actually tons of oyster taverns in the early days, as per Kurlansky's "The Big Oyster", so your last sentence isn't really correct.

nicemarmot

And 200 years later we have 6000 sushi places and 6000 crappy pizza places...

Snoopy

I thought George Washington went to Fraunces Tavern to get his Big Mac and fries, along with a supersized rum toddy. And he died in 1799 so what gives?