Michael Batterberry - On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution

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ON THE TOWN IN NEW YORK

On the Town in New York

The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution

Michael and Ariane
Batterberry

Published in 1999 by
Routledge
711 Third Avenue,
New York, NY 10017

Published in Great Britain in 1999 by
Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park,
Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1999 by Michael and Ariane Batterberry

Typography updates: Jack Donner

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Batterberry, Michael and Ariane
On the town in New York: the landmark history of eating, drinking, and entertainments from the American Revolution to the food revolution / by Michael and Ariane Batterberry.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York: Scribner, 1973.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0415920205

1. RestaurantsNew York (State)New YorkHistory. 2. Hotels-New York (State)New YorkHistory. 3. AmusementsNew York (State)New YorkHistory. 4. New York (N.Y.)Social life and customs. I. Batterberry, Ariane Ruskin. II. Title.
TX909.B32 1998
647.95747'1'09dc21 9823443
CIP

For our parents, who first taught us to love New York

Table of Contents

For the 1998 anniversary edition, our thanks go to Melissa Rosati, Routledge s unflaggingly helpful and attentive Publishing Director, Food and Culture; her tireless assistant Eric Nelson; and the members of the Routledge staff who have worked so effectively to make this updated version a seamless reality. For their hospitality and support, we wish to express gratitude to Director Betsy Gottbaum and the New York Historical Society. We also thank Food Arts magazine Publisher M. Shanken Communications, and most especially the photographers Courtney Grant Winston, Brooks Walsh, Paul Warchol; and thanks to Laurence D. Harvey, Executive Director of Catering, The Plaza Hotel, for his photographs. Needless to say, no amount of applause would repay our debt to the many talented and resilient friends who have made New York's restaurant and hotel industries the gold standard of the world.

For the first edition of On The Town in New York published in 1973, we again wish to thank Mr. Albert K. Baragwanath, Senior Curator of the Museum of the City of New York, for his invaluable advice regarding points of historical accuracy in our manuscript. We also wish to thank the following for their generous aid: Miss Grace Meyer of the Museum of Modern Art, and the staffs of the New York Historical Society Library and Print Room, the New York Public Library Print Room and Picture Collection, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Sleepy Hollow Restorations, as well as Mr. James E. Brodhead III, Mr. Jordan Mayro of the Burlington Book Shop, The Picture Decorator, Inc., and Mrs. James Thurber.

O N THE T OWN IN N EW Y ORK

Chapter I
1776-1800

Little Birds are choking
Baronets with bun,
Taught to fire a gun:
Taught, I say, to splinter
Salmon in the winter
Merely for the fun.

Lewis Carroll

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced, as by a good tavern or inn.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

American history books do little to describe the plight of New York City during the Revolution for the simple reason that it was an enemy base. Washington prepared to defend Manhattan early in January of 1776, and within a month fully a quarter of the panicked residents had fled. By August, Staten Island and New York harbor were in the clutches of a monster army of thirty-two thousand redcoats under the command of two brothers, Admiral the Right Honorable Richard, Lord Vincent Howe, of the Kingdom of Ireland, more commonly known as "Black Dick," and General William Howe, who, but for his dark eyes, so closely resembled Washington that he could be mistaken for him at a distance. Washington's eighteen thousand inadequately trained troops were no match for this, the largest expeditionary force in British history, and in September the British were able to land unimpeded at Kip's Bay as the last of the revolutionaries retreated to Harlem and then to Westchester. For the duration of the war such patriots as there were in the vicinity lurked in the north, descending into New York for an occasional raid.

The British marched into a ghost town of about four thousand buildings, a thousand of which were swept away within a month by a mysterious fire. But soon the city took on the character of a wartime capital as the deserted houses became crammed with soldiers, officers and their families, and refugee Tories of all classes from all thirteen colonies.

Meanwhile captured revolutionaries, the only men of patriotic persuasion on Manhattan, were crushed into squalid jails or rotting prison ships anchored in the East River. New York settled down to seven years of something like the life of an eighteenth-century siege town, with the horrors of crowded quarters, black markets, disease, and cold, offset by the glamor of military assemblies, dress uniforms, and the general suspense of war.

The Tory tavernkeepers, those who had remained behind or emigrated to the city, made a fortune serving the heavy-drinking English. And it is important to remember that taverns were the local hotels, restaurants, and meeting houses of the eighteenth century. As competition became heated, a flurry of freshly painted shingles went up throughout the city, bearing such staunchly partisan legends as The Sign of Lord Cornwallis, The King's Arms, and The Prince of Wales. More impressed by the boom than by protestations of loyalty, the authorities proclaimed in Rivington's Royal Gazette on January 8, 1780, that "many evils daily arise from unlimited numbers of Taverns and Publick Houses within the City and its Precincts" and restricted licenses to two hundred, any of which would be immediately withdrawn "from such as shall be known to harbor any riotous or disorderly companies."

The more astute tavernkeepers, far from soliciting the company of the riotous and disorderly, posted advertisements for such entertainments as would theoretically appeal to tasteful young bloods straight from London.

John Kenzie, proprietor of Ranelagh Gardens, formerly of the Mason's Arms, offers dinners on the shortest notice, breakfast, relishes, etc. all the forenoon; tea, coffee, etc., all the afternoon; a band of music to attend every Saturday evening ... the best wines that can possibly be had in this city... and being a veteran in this Most Gracious Majesty's service, he shall hope for the Smiles, Protection, and Encouragement of the gentlemen of the army and navy as well as the Respectable Public. N.B. In the superb Garden there is the most elegant boxes [sic] prepared for the reception of the Ladies, and the most perfect enjoyment of the evening Air.

Precisely how superb Mr. Kenzie's Garden was is a matter for conjecturealmost every tree on Manhattan Island had long since been chopped down for firewood.

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