ces were six cents a plate
of meats and three cents a plate of vegetables. In the more pretentious
restaurants the rates were of course considerably higher. Chamberlain's
Saloon in Pearl Street was a famous restaurant in 1851. Here is its
advertised bill-of-fare. Soups: beef, mutton, chicken, six cents; roast
pig, turkey, goose, chicken, duck, twelve and a half cents; beef, lamb,
pork, mutton, six cents; beefsteak pie, lamb pie, mutton pie, clam pie,
six cents; boiled beef, any kind, six cents. Made dishes: pork and
beans, veal pie, six cents; oyster pie, chicken pot-pie, twelve and a
half cents.

Philip Hone lived in a house on Broadway, facing City Hall Park. When he
wished to dine out he did not have to go far, for almost next door was
the American Hotel, one of the most famous hostelries of the period. Its
cooking was as sturdily patriotic as its name, although the menu is
flavoured with badly written French. Here is a sample bill-of-fare,
bearing the date of June 10, 1848.

Soup.
Rice Soup.
Fish.
Blackfish.
Boiled.
Leg of Mutton.
Fowl, oyster sauce.
Corn beef.
Ham, Tongue, Lobsters.
Entrees.
Fricassee of chicken, a la New York.
Tete de Veau en Tortue.
Cotellettes de mouton, saute aux pommes.
Filet de veau, pique a la Macedoine.
Tendon d'Agneau, puree au navets.
Fois de volaille, sautee, a la Bordelaise.
Croquettes de pommes de terre.
Stewed oysters.
Boeuf bouilli, sauce piquante.
Macaroni a l'Itallienne.
Roast.
Beef, Veal, Lamb, mint sauce, Chicken, Duck.
Vegetables.
Mashed potatoes. Asparagus.
Spinach. Rice.
Turnips. Pears.
Pastry.
Rice custard. Roman punch.
Pies. Tarts, etc.
Dessert.
Strawberries and cream. Almonds.
Raisins. Walnuts, etc.

The day came when the hotels farther downtown yielded the palm to the
Metropolitan, opened in the middle fifties at Broadway and Prince
Street. The late Alfred Henry Lewis thus rhetorically pictured the
Metropolitan, in the winter of 1857-58, when to dine there was the thing
to do. "Over near a window are Bayard T