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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4857a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #53304 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53304) diff --git a/old/53304-0.txt b/old/53304-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 038836d..0000000 --- a/old/53304-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11815 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Gourmet's Guide to London, by Nathaniel Newnham-Davis - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Gourmet's Guide to London - -Author: Nathaniel Newnham-Davis - -Release Date: October 17, 2016 [EBook #53304] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO LONDON *** - - - - -Produced by Clare Graham and Marc D'Hooghe at Free -Literature (online soon in an extended version, also linking -to free sources for education worldwide ... MOOC's, -educational materials,...) Images generously made available -by the Internet Archive. - - - - - -THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO LONDON - - -BY - -LIEUT.-COL. NEWNHAM-DAVIS - -_Author of -"The Gourmet's Guide to Europe"_ - - -NEW YORK -BRENTANO'S -1914 - -PRINTED BY THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED -EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - -[Illustration: THE CHESHIRE CHEESE -_From a drawing by Harry Morley_] - - - -_The pleasures of the table are common to all ages and ranks, to -all countries and times; they not only harmonise with all the other -pleasures, but remain to console us for their loss.--_ - -BRILLAT SAVARIN. - - - - - -TO ALL GOOD GOURMETS - - - - - - -PREFACE - - -In describing in this book some of the restaurants and taverns in and -near London, I have selected those that seem to me to be typical of the -various classes, giving preference to those of each kind which have -some picturesque incident in their history, or are situated amidst -beautiful surroundings, or possess amongst their personnel a celebrated -chef or _maître d'hôtel_. - -The English language has not enough nicely graduated terms of praise to -enable me to give to a fraction its value to each restaurant, from the -unpretentious little establishments in Soho to such palaces as the Ritz -and Savoy, but I have included no dining-place in this volume that does -not give good value for the money it charges. - -Twelve years ago I wrote a somewhat similar book, "Dinners and Diners," -which ran through two editions, but when I looked it through last -year I found that there had been so many changes in the world of -restaurants, so many old houses had vanished and so many new ones had -arisen, that it was easier to write a new book than to bring the old -one up to date. Mr Astor very kindly gave me permission to use in this -volume any of the series of "Dinners and Diners" articles that appeared -in _The Pall Mall Gazette_, but it will be found that I have availed -myself very sparingly of his kind permission. The chapters of this -book appeared, with very few exceptions, in _Town Topics_, and I am -indebted to the editor of that paper for his leave to gather them into -book form. - -Mr Grant Richards, the publisher of this book, quite agrees with me -that no advertisements of restaurants shall find a place within its -covers. - -Should "The Gourmet's Guide to London" find a welcome from an -appreciative public, and should, in due time, other editions of it be -called for, I shall hope to broaden its scope to include in it some of -the hostelries of Brighton and other seaside towns, also those of the -great cities and great ports, and to describe some of those fine old -country inns scattered about the kingdom where good old English cookery -is still to be found in good old English surroundings. - -For the French of the menus I do not hold myself responsible. The -kitchen writes the French that it talks and who am I, a mere Briton, -that I should attempt to alter it? - - N. NEWNHAM-DAVIS. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - -I OLD ENGLISH FARE 1 - -II SIMPSON'S IN THE STRAND 6 - -III A WALK DOWN FLEET STREET 12 - -IV THE CARLTON 19 - -V TWO LITTLE SOHO RESTAURANTS 26 - -VI A RAG-TIME DINNER 32 - -VII THE CAFÉ ROYAL 38 - -VIII OYSTER-HOUSES 46 - -IX WHITEBAIT AT GREENWICH 53 - -X THE CECIL 59 - -XI CLARIDGE'S 67 - -XII THE EUSTACE MILES RESTAURANT 73 - -XIII THE PRINCES' RESTAURANT 81 - -XIV THE CRITERION 86 - -XV SOME CHOP-HOUSES 92 - -XVI SOME GRILL-ROOMS 99 - -XVII ROMANO'S 105 - -XVIII IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 115 - -XIX A REGIMENTAL DINNER 122 - -XX "JOLLY GOOD" 128 - -XXI IN THE SHADOW OF THE PALACE THEATRE 134 - -XXII THE WELCOME CLUB 141 - -XXIII GOLDSTEIN'S 147 - -XXIV THE MITRE 152 - -XXV IN THE HANDS OF PI(E)RATES 158 - -XXVI APPENRODT'S 166 - -XXVII THE BURFORD BRIDGE HOTEL 174 - -XXVIII THE RITZ 180 - -XXIX SOME OUTLYING RESTAURANTS 190 - -XXX THE KING'S GUARD 195 - -XXXI THE OLD BULL AND BUSH 201 - -XXXII THE BERKELEY 206 - -XXXIII THE JOYS OF FOREIGN TRAVEL 214 - -XXXIV A SUPPER TRAIN 220 - -XXXV THE ADELAIDE GALLERY 226 - -XXXVI THE COMPLEAT ANGLER 235 - -XXXVII ARTISTS' ROOMS 241 - -XXXVIII THE PICCADILLY RESTAURANT 249 - -XXXIX THE RENDEZVOUS 255 - -XL THE PALL MALL RESTAURANT 261 - -XLI IN JERMYN STREET 267 - -XLII THE MEN WHO MADE THE SAVOY 272 - -XLIII THE DUTIES OF A _MAÃŽTRE D'HÔTEL_ 279 - -XLIV THE SAVOY TO-DAY 283 - -XLV THE RESTAURANT DES GOURMETS 290 - -XLVI THE MAXIM RESTAURANT 294 - -XLVII BIRCH'S 300 - -XLVIII A CITY BANQUET 308 - -XLIX THE CAVENDISH HOTEL 313 - -L THE RÉUNION DES GASTRONOMES 320 - -LI THE LIGUE DES GOURMANDS 325 - -LII THE CAVOUR RESTAURANT 333 - -LIII VERREY'S 338 - -LIV THE CATHAY RESTAURANT 345 - -LV THE WHITE HORSE CELLARS 353 - -LVI THE MONICO 360 - -LVII THE ITALIAN INVASION 365 - -LVIII THE HYDE PARK HOTEL 371 - -LIX YE OLDE GAMBRINUS 378 - -LX MY SINS OF OMISSION 384 - - - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - -THE CHESHIRE CHEESE _Frontispiece_ - - TO FACE PAGE - -M. ESCOFFIER 24 - -M. RITZ 184 - -JOSEPH CARVING A DUCK 276 - -MRS LEWIS 314 - - - - - - - - -I - -OLD ENGLISH FARE - - -When a foreigner or one of our American cousins, or a man from one of -the Colonies, comes to England, the first question he generally asks -is: "Where can I get a typical good old English dinner?" Good old -English fare is by no means too abundant in London--and old English -fare I would define as being the very best native material, cooked in -the plainest possible manner. We talk of English cookery, though it -should really be termed British cookery, for Irish stew and Welsh lamb, -Scotch beef and cock-a-leekie soup, and even a haggis, can fairly be -included in the comprehensive term. - -When men on short commons on an exploring expedition, or on a sporting -trip, or on active service, talk of the good things they will eat when -they get home to England, the first idea that occurs to most of them -is how delightful it will be to eat a good fried sole once again; and -with fried sole may be coupled English bacon, for no bacon anywhere -else in the world is as good as that which the kitchenmaids fry in -thousands of British kitchens. Perhaps the Channel sole and the bacon -of the Southern Counties, Oxford marmalade and Cambridge sausages -belong to the home breakfast-table more than to meals in the haunts -of the gourmet, though the sole plays a most important part in many -dinners, and the Christmas dinner turkey would be unhappy without its -accompanying sausages. It is, however, at lunch-time, the time of -pasties, puddings and pies, that old English cookery is seen at its -best. - -I do not know of any eating-house that makes a speciality of the -mutton-chop pudding with oysters, that Abraham Hayward praises so -unrestrictedly, but now and again I meet in restaurants such good -English dishes as Lancashire hot-pot and gipsy pie, which is an -admirable stew of chicken and cabbage; shepherd's pie, in which the -minced meat is covered with a well-browned layer of mashed potato, -I am given sometimes at shooting luncheons. Toad-in-the-hole and -bubble-and-squeak are pleasant memories of my schoolboy days, but if -some Frenchman, who has studied Dickens, asked me where he could eat -the stew described in "The Old Curiosity Shop," which consisted of -tripe, and cow-heel, and bacon, and steak, and peas and cauliflower, -new potatoes and asparagus "all worked up together in one delicious -gravy," I should have to admit my inability to direct him. A fish pie -is excellent at any meal, but a woodcock pie or a snipe pudding, I -think, should be reserved for the dinner-table. The pork-pie now seems -sacred to railway refreshment-rooms, picnics and race-courses. Oysters -are real British fare, though other countries have learned from us -to appreciate them; but I fancy that the old Romans first taught the -gentlemen who clothed themselves in woad tattooings what delicacies -they had waiting for them in their shallow waters. Oysters are -admirable creatures when eaten out of their deep shell, and they play -their part well in oyster soup and scalloped oysters and oyster fries. -And there are many puddings and "made dishes" that would be incomplete -without the presence of oysters in them. Jugged duck and oysters is a -good old British dish, and there are oysters in the majestic pudding of -the Cheshire Cheese. I may perhaps be allowed to suggest to some cooks -who put the oysters into puddings and pies with the other raw materials -that a better way is to cook the dish, then remove the crust or paste, -slip in the oysters, fix the crust again and cook till the oysters are -warmed through. - -The typical British dinner most often quoted is that which the Lord -Dudley of the thirties, a noted epicure, declared was a dinner "fit -for an emperor," and it runs thus: "A good soup, a small turbot, a -neck of venison, duckling with green peas, or chicken with asparagus, -and an apricot tart." Of British soups turtle always takes precedence -in the list of honour, but as the turtle comes from Ascension or the -West Indies, it can hardly claim to be a denizen of these islands. -Hare soup and mock turtle, mulligatawny, mutton broth and pea soup are -distinctively British, though the curry powder in the mulligatawny--a -soup which takes its name from two Tamil words: MÅllÄgă = pepper, and -Tunni = water--comes, of course, from India. Oxtail soup has a good -British sound, but I fancy that French housewives first discovered the -virtue that there is in the tail of an ox. - -Lord Dudley loved a turbot, but other judges of good British dinners -sometimes give the preference to cod. Walker, of "Original" fame, gave -a Christmas Day dinner to two friends, and the fare he provided for -them was: crimped cod, a woodcock a man, and plum pudding. One of the -most typical British dinners I have eaten was that which a gallant -colonel, who very worthily filled the mayoral chair at Westminster, -used to give annually at the Cavour Restaurant. It consisted of -a large turbot, a sucking-pig nicely roasted, and apple pudding. -Roast sucking-pig is a dinner dish better understood in England than -anywhere else in the world, except, perhaps, in China. When the Duke of -Cambridge, brother of George the Fourth, was entertained in princely -fashion at Belvoir, and was shown the menu of a dinner on which a great -French chef had exhausted all his inventiveness, and was asked if there -were any dishes not included in the feast for which he had a fancy, -answered that he would like some roast pig and an apple dumpling, both -good British dishes. His son, the Commander-in-Chief of our days, also -had a liking for pork, and, at one time, word went round the British -army that at inspection lunches it was wise to give his Royal Highness -pork chops. Of course, the British army overdid it, and the old Duke -had so many pork chops put before him in the course of a year that -at last their presence on the menu was far more likely to assist in -the securing of an unfavourable report on a regiment than was their -absence. Gravy soup, a grilled sole, a boiled hen pheasant stuffed with -oysters, and an open tart formed the favourite dinner of a renowned -gourmet of my acquaintance. - -Of the made dishes that belong to British cookery, jugged hare, I -think, has the leading place. Yorkshire pudding is as British as -Stonehenge is, and mince pies can claim to be to-day exactly what -they were when the Puritans used to preach against them. Marrow bones -and Welsh rarebits, buck rarebits, and stewed tripe and onions are -old British supper dishes, but the early closing laws have killed the -old-fashioned British supper in eating-houses. - -Good British cookery in London has not fared well in its battle against -the invasion of good French cookery, and the number of houses which -made a speciality of British fare has decreased woefully in the last -twenty years. The old Blanchard's and its half-a-crown British dinner -is a memory of the past (for the new Blanchard's turned towards the -goddess A la), and the "Blue Posts" in Cork Street has been converted -into a club. It was curious that the prosperity of this typical old -English house depended to a great extent on a German head waiter; for -Frank, who had all the best traditions of British cookery at heart, -had served under the old Emperor Wilhelm in the great war, and had -been wounded by a French bayonet thrust. There were certain rules of -the house that were excellent. One was that, no matter what orders you -might give beforehand, no fish was ever put near the fire until the man -who had ordered it was inside the building, which ensured it going to -table cooked to the second; and another was that the steaks, which were -a great stand-by of the house, were cut from the mass of beef just in -time to be transferred at once to the grill, thus making sure that none -of the juices should drain away. - -But there are still some temples of British cookery left in Cockaigne, -and to some of them presently I will direct your steps. - - - - -II - -SIMPSON'S IN THE STRAND - - -A wide entrance glowing with light, with Simpson's plain to see, on a -wrought-iron sign above it, is in the great block of the Savoy Hotel -building in the Strand, for the new Simpson's, though it retains all -its old associations and its old manager and its old head cook--Mr -Davey, the polite, white-haired little ruler of the roast, who wears a -velvet cap, and who for forty-six years has seen the joints turn before -the vast open fire in the kitchen--is now under the rule of the great -organisation that controls the Savoy. - -Come into the entrance hall, where you can give up your hat and coat -to an attendant; though if you have been accustomed all your life to -take them into Simpson's you will still find in the dining-room stands -on which to hang them. The hall, with its marble pillars, white panels -and groined roof, is light and airy; a staircase runs down from it to -the smoking-room, and another one runs up to the dining-rooms upon the -first floor. There is a tobacconist's stall in it, and if the door -of the expense bar to one side be open you see through it shelves -of bottles and flasks. Through the wide door leading into the big -dining-room you see white-jacketed waiters moving hither and thither, -and white-coated and white-capped carvers pushing the dinner waggons, -crowned with big plated covers, before them, and as a background the -fine fireplace, with its carved wooden overmantel and its little -marble pilasters, and a picture of a knight and lady of Plantagenet -days feasting let into the central space. - -Mr N. Wheeler, the rosy-faced manager, white-haired, and wearing the -frock-coat of ceremony, will probably greet you as you go into the -dining-room. He has seen all the various transformations of Simpson's -Chess Divan, which was originally Ries's Divan, and he probably knows -more about good old English fare than any man living. When we have -eaten our turbot and saddle of mutton we will ask him how it is that -these two best of British dishes are sent to table at Simpson's in such -absolutely perfect condition. But before we choose our seats at one of -the tables let us look round the room. The old Simpson's is still fresh -in my memory. The painted garlands of flowers and studies of fish, -flesh and fowl on the walls, glazed to a deep rich colour by the London -atmosphere, the ground-glass windows, the big bar opening into the -room, with Rembrandtesque shadows in its depths; the great dumb-waiter, -which looked like a catafalque, in the centre of the room; the folded -napkins in the glasses on the mantelpiece; the horsehair-stuffed, -black-cushioned chairs and benches; the divisions with brass rails and -dingy little curtains on the rails. - -The pens with their brass rails are still in the old place, but they -are modernised pens; the wood is oak, and there is a comfortable -padded back of brown leather to lean against. The eating-room has been -transformed into a banqueting hall. The walls are panelled with light -oak, with pilasters to give variety, and an inlay of lighter wood at -the corners of the panels. There is a white frieze with good modelling -on it, and round the white-clothed tables which fill but do not crowd -the floor space are chairs copied from a fine Chippendale example. A -good old English clock is on a bracket, and fine cut-glass lustre -chandeliers hang from the ceiling. In old days the waiters at Simpson's -were mostly British veterans, and in the upstairs room Charles -Flowerdew, the head waiter, a genial old soul who always offered his -favourites amongst the customers a pinch from his snuff-box, had a -wealth of anecdotes about the great men of the Victorian era who were -habitués of Simpson's. The waiters of to-day are Britons, but they -are young men, and if anyone has doubts whether Englishmen properly -trained can be as quick and silent in the service of a dining house as -foreigners are, I would advise the doubter to eat a meal at Simpson's -and to watch how the waiters do their work. The boys who take round -the vegetables become in time full-blown serving-men. The waiters no -longer wear the dress-coats, heroes of many clashes with sauce-boats -and plates of soup, which used to be the official garb of the British -waiter. They wear white washing jackets, with at the breast a little -black shield, and on it the crest of the house--the knight of a set -of chessmen. All the tips are pooled, with the result that all the -serving-men work for the general good. - -And now to look at the bill of fare. There are no such foreign -innovations as _hors d'Å“uvre_ allowed at Simpson's, where the only -concessions to France are in the wine cellar and that little French -rolls as well as household bread are in the bread baskets. You can -obtain a fish dinner of three kinds of fish for three and ninepence; -but we will order just what we feel our appetite demands, and take -no account of set dinners. If your taste is for turtle soup, a plate -of that luxury will cost you three shillings, but, if one of the -simpler British soups will content you, hare, pea, mock turtle, Scotch -hotch-potch, oxtail, giblet or mulligatawny are priced at one shilling -or one and sixpence. Then comes the important question of fish, and -the choice really lies between a _Sole Souchet_, which Simpson's ought -to write _Zouchet_, boiled codfish and oyster sauce, and boiled turbot -and lobster sauce--the last one of the dishes on which Simpson's -prides itself. Until I chatted with Mr Wheeler on the subject I always -understood that a turbot to come to table in perfection should be hung -for several days, but Mr Wheeler denounces this as rank heresy. A -turbot should be nicked to draw off the blood of the fish, it should -be soaked for twenty-four hours, and then it is ready to be boiled. It -is instructive to watch a real habitué of Simpson's who prefers cod -to turbot when a portly white-clad carver wheels his waggon up to the -table. There must be the right proportion of liver with the fish and -the due quantity of oyster in the sauce, or there will be dire threats -of report to higher quarters. A boiled potato to anyone who knows what -is good English fare is not to be accepted without criticism, and -he would be a bold carver who dared to give the knowledgeable man a -helping of saddle of mutton without a slice of the brown. But before -we go on to the supreme matter of the saddle let me point out to you -that whether you eat sole, or cod, or turbot, it means an item of two -shillings on your bill. - -The joints ring the changes on roast sirloin, boiled beef, boiled leg -of mutton, roast loin of veal and bath chap, and saddle of mutton, and -it is the saddle that is the favourite dish. Forty saddles a day is the -quantity consumed at Simpson's, and now that the new room is opened -sixty are required. Simpson's employs a buyer whose duty in life is -to travel about England buying saddles wherever the finest mutton is -to be procured. For fourteen days the saddles hang in the stock-room -at Simpson's in a temperature of 38°, then they are moved for two -or three days to another store, through which there is a current of -air, and then they are ready for the fire. And whether you eat of -the mutton, the beef, or the veal, your portion and the accompanying -vegetables will cost you half-a-crown. - -We will not trifle with such kickshaws as _salmi_ of game, or Irish -stew, or jugged hare, and to finish our dinner we will take a helping -of one of the pies or puddings on the bill of fare, or, better still, a -good scoop of Stilton cheese or a wedge of Cheshire. - -If you wish to be as British in your drinking as in your eating, there -is cool British ale from the cask, which comes to table in a tankard, -and cider, and the whisky of Scotland and that of Ireland. The house is -also celebrated for its moderate-priced Bordeaux and Burgundy wines, -bottled in the cellars. - -If we go upstairs before leaving we can see the dining-room to which -ladies are admitted--a handsome room of white with marble pillars--and -you will notice the great bunches of wild flowers which adorn all the -tables. On this floor there is a smaller private banqueting-room, and -the new white Adams' Room, the double windows of which look into the -Strand on one side and the entrance courtyard on the other. It is a -handsome room, with settees by the window tables, and at night hanging -baskets and lamps on the cornice throw light up to the ceiling to be -reflected down into the room. - -Down in the smoking-room on the basement level you will find a little -band of chess-players, faithful to the old Divan, hard at the game, -using the old chess-boards and the huge pieces of the Divan days, and -it may further gratify your love for antiquarian lore to know that -Simpson's stands on the site occupied by the old Fountain tavern, of -which Strype wrote: "A very fine tavern, with excellent vaults, good -rooms for entertainments, and a curious kitchen for the dressing of -meat." It was at the Fountain that the opponents of Walpole held their -meetings and that the Earl of Derwentwater and the other Jacobite -lords on trial for rebellion, being taken daily backwards and forwards -between the Tower and Westminster, made favour with their jailer to let -them halt for an hour to eat what they expected to be their last good -dinner on earth. - - - - -III - -A WALK DOWN FLEET STREET - -THE CHESHIRE CHEESE - - -Doctor Samuel Johnson stands in bronze before St Clement Danes and -faces his beloved Fleet Street. If the great dictionary maker took his -eyes off the book he holds in his hands, got down from his pedestal -without knocking over the inkpot which is perilously near his clumsy -old feet, and started for a walk down the street he loved so well, his -remarks on the changes that have been made by time and the architects -would be instructive. What would he say to Street's Law Courts? And -with what sesquipedalian words would he lament the disappearance of -Temple Bar and the appearance in its stead of the pantomime Griffin? -And how the old man would snort and fume to find the taverns he was -used to frequent altered out of recognition, or moved from their old -places. The Rainbow's lamp would bring him to a halt, for the Rainbow -stands to-day where Farr the barber set up his coffee-house, "by -inner Temple Gate." Farr was "presented," in 1657, as an abuse by his -neighbours, who protested against the smell of the coffee, but were in -reality afraid that the new drink was going to oust canary and other -wines. Johnson knew the old tavern in the brave days when Alexander -Moncrieff was the host, when it still, though its "stewed cheeses" -and its stout were celebrated, called itself a coffee-house, and the -largest room was the coffee-room, with a lofty bay-window at the south -end looking into the Temple. In this bay the table was set for the -worthies who frequented the house, and they could, through a glazed -screen, see all that went on in the kitchen. The old Doctor, reading -on the door-jamb that the Rainbow is occupied by the Bodega Company, -would discourse learnedly on the meaning and uses of a Bodega. He would -note with approval Groom's little coffee-house, a few steps farther -on, which, though it did not exist in his days, for it dates back only -to 1818, is one of the few establishments still existing which lives -by the sale of coffee as a beverage, and prospers on its best Mocha at -threepence a cup. - -The Cock in its present condition would puzzle the old man most -consumedly, and he would look across the street to see what has become -of that tavern's old site; but if he went inside the house he would -find that Grinling Gibbons' wood-carving of the cock had flown across -the street, and that in the upper room is the panelling from the old -alehouse in which the festive Pepys drank and sang and ate a lobster -and afterwards "mightily merry" took Knip for a moonlight row on the -Thames. It would be useless to talk to the Doctor of Tennyson and the -plump head-waiter of the Cock, but pilgrims following the footsteps of -those poets who have lunched in Fleet Street will find that the Cock is -still a house where the "perfect pint of stout" and the "proper chop" -are reached out with deft hands to customers, and that no head waiter -unless he be plump is ever engaged for the upper room. - -The Devil Tavern, which Ben Jonson made so famous by his Apollo Club, -and which stood between Temple Bar and the Middle Temple Gate, was -bought by Messrs Child, the bankers, in 1787, some years after the -death of Samuel Johnson, when it had fallen into disuse, and was -pulled down and dwelling-houses erected on its site. Ben's "Welcome" -and the Apollo bust were transferred to the bank. The most famous of -all the Johnsonian taverns, the Mitre, was another of the old houses -to fall a victim to bankers, for four years after the Doctor's death -it ceased to be a tavern, became in turn Macklin's Poets' Gallery and -Saunders's auction-rooms, and was finally pulled down that on its site -"Hoare's New Banking-house" should be erected. Joe's Coffee-house -in Mitre Court borrowed the derelict name when the Mitre closed its -shutters, and set up a copy of Nollekins' bust of the Doctor as homage -to his memory. - -Opposite to Wine Office Court, the Sage of Fleet Street would stop in -his shamble and would wait for an opportunity to cross the road. If -Doctor Johnson hated the transit of the roadway when the traffic was -but of hackney carriages and the coaches of aldermen and stage coaches -and horsemen, how would he face the hurtling streams of taxi-cabs and -motor omnibuses which nowadays jostle in the road? And what, when he -had crossed the road, would he think of Fuller's little sweet-stuff -shop which, gay with colour, has fastened itself, where there used to -be a dingy wine merchant's office with cobwebbed bottles of old port in -its dim, solemn windows, on the Fleet Street front of the Old Cheshire -Cheese? The new-comer looks like a bright stamp stuck on some musty old -parchment deed. Doctor Johnson would, I am sure, growl as he rolled -through the narrow entrance into the court and on to the door of the -old tavern. - -And as he and you and I stand in the narrow doorway and look to the -right at the little bar, a harmony in dark colours with the old china -punch-bowls in their accustomed corner, and glass and pewter and -silver catching reflections of light amidst the black of old oak; and -to the left at the old dining-room kept exactly as it was in Doctor -Johnson's time; and to the front at the old oak staircase leading -to the rooms above, let me explain to you that each white-haired -generation of frequenters of the Cheshire Cheese finds fault with the -arrangements made for the newer generation. When Johnson and Goldsmith -ceased to use the house I am sure that the comfortable gentlemen who -had sat at the long table and had listened to their conversation found -that of an evening the talk had grown dull; and when Colonel Lawrence, -who had carried one of the colours of the 20th Regiment at the battle -of Minden, had been a crony of Goldsmith, and had hobnobbed with him -and with Johnson over the port at the Cheese, died, the company at the -long table must have lamented that all the "good old sort" and the good -old customs were passing away. A sturdy supporter of the Cheese, who -is some fifteen years older than I am, sighs for the days when he was -first allowed to sit at the table where the Deputy-Governor of Newgate -and a head clerk of Somerset House led the conversation. And when I go -into the Cheese nowadays and find that two score belles from Baltimore, -or half-a-hundred pretty Puritans from Philadelphia, have taken -possession of the lower room, are drinking tea with their lunches, are -talking like an aviary in commotion, and are more intent on buying -souvenirs of Johnson than on appreciating the delights of the pudding, -I sigh for the days thirty years ago when the Cheese was a grumpy man's -paradise. I am quite sure that when Mr Dollamore, a host of the Cheese -who has grown to heroic size as seen through the mists of time, died, -people of that day thought that the great pudding would never again -be mixed and carved by a master hand. I look back now to the serious -expression, the sort of expression we all assume as we enter a church -door, that used to come upon the face of smiling Mr Moore as the vast -pudding was carried in and he prepared to pierce its snowy covering. -When Henry Todd, a waiter who entered Mr Dollamore's service two years -before the battle of Waterloo, left the house and his portrait was -painted by subscription and given as an heirloom to be hung in the -dining-room, no one believed that young William Simpson, then just -entering the service of the Cheese, would live to be even a more famous -head waiter, to have _his_ portrait painted to be hung in honour in the -coffee-room, and to give his name to one of the rooms upstairs. - -And now, having explained that if an old frequenter of the Cheshire -Cheese sometimes grumbles at changes it is only through affection for -the old house, let us go into the dining-room and sit down and look -around us. We will leave Doctor Johnson's seat at the long table, with -its brass tablet and his portrait above it, for the Shade of the great -man. You shall sit in Oliver Goldsmith's seat with your back to the -windows looking out into Cheshire Cheese Court, roofed in now to make -a second dining-room; I will sit opposite to you, and we will take -note of our surroundings. The approval of the old Doctor can be safely -guaranteed. The sawdust on the floor; the wide grate with a shining -copper kettle on the hob; the old mirror; the churchwarden pipes on the -window-sill; the green-curtained cosy corner by the door, just like the -squire's pew in many old churches; the black-handled knives and forks -arranged in a row of black oak hutches; the willow-patterned plates and -dishes; the queer old receptacle for umbrellas in the middle of the -floor; the wire blinds, and the old tables and oak high-backed settles -are to-day exactly as they were when Johnson in the flesh frequented -the tavern. The "greybeard" and the leathern jack, gifts from Mr -Seymour Lucas, R.A., are quite in keeping with the room, and such of -the pictures as are not old deal with incidents in Johnson's life or -are sketches of the room and of the worthies who have frequented it. -The manager of to-day keeps the house just as it used to be a century -and a half ago, and being so, it is one of the most interesting old -buildings in London. - -Upstairs are the kitchen, where the woman cook responds to the verbal -shorthand shouts of the waiters by putting chops and steaks on to the -grill and clanging the oven door as good things to bake go into its -recesses, and other old rooms, in which are some interesting relics of -the old lexicographer, the chair in which he always sat at the Mitre, -and other things curious and quaint, but they must await inspection -till after lunch, for to-day is a pudding day, and the fat waiter with -a moustache is waiting for our orders. - -The pudding in its great earthenware bowl stands on a little table -in the middle of the room. It is a triumph of old British cookery. -In it are larks, kidneys, oysters, mushrooms, steak, and there are -ingredients in the gravy which are a secret of the house. There are -many imitations of the Cheshire Cheese pudding, but no such pudding -unless it comes from the Cheshire Cheese kitchen has quite the right -taste and quite the right richness of gravy. There is no stint in the -helpings at the Cheshire Cheese. Any man with an appetite has only to -ask for a "follow" to obtain it, and there are traditions that some men -of mighty capacity have even had three helpings. Monday, Wednesday and -Friday are pudding days. There is generally Irish stew on non-pudding -days, and the Cheese Irish stew is admirable. Marrow bones are another -speciality of the house, and a Cheshire Cheese bone holds much marrow. -The typical Cheshire Cheese meal, however--and I am sure Doctor -Johnson would agree with me--is The Pudding, and the strong Scotch -ale of the house therewith; stewed cheese, which comes to table in a -shallow little pan accompanied by hot toast, and to finish up a bowl -of the Cheshire Cheese punch served from an old china bowl with a good -old-fashioned silver ladle. But beware of drinking too much of this -punch, being deceived by its apparent innocence. I know one man who, -saying it was as mild as mother's milk, drank the greater portion of a -bowl of punch, remarked that he was a boy again, and behaved as a boy, -and not until noon next day came to the conclusion that he was a very -elderly man with a headache. - - - - -IV - -THE CARLTON - - -If all the great French chefs all the world over were canvassed for -an opinion as to which amongst them is the greatest cook of the day, -I am sure that the majority of votes would be in favour of M. Auguste -Escoffier, the Maître-Chef of the Carlton Restaurant in London. When -any restaurant is exceeding successful, whether it appeals to popular -taste, or to the taste of the most cultured classes, there is sure to -be amongst those men who have brought it fame or brought it popularity, -some strongly marked personality, a great organiser, a great cook, or, -perhaps, a great _maître d'hôtel_, such as poor dead Joseph was. And -the commanding personality at the Carlton is M. Escoffier, who, had he -been a man of the pen and not a man of the spoon, would have been a -poet, and who, wearing the white cap and the white jacket, makes the -sense of taste respond to the beautiful things he invents, just as -the sense of hearing thrills to the cadence of a poet's words, or the -melody of a great composer's music. And M. Escoffier holds that things -which are beautiful to the taste should be fair to the eye, and should -have pleasant-sounding titles. He, for instance, rechristened frogs, -making them "nymphes," and _nymphes à l'Aurore_ has a place in his -great book on modern cookery. - -The following is a typical Escoffier menu. It is for a little supper -after the Opera, and was published in _Le Carnet d'Epicure_, a -magazine, to the pages of which M. Escoffier is a prolific contributor. - - Gelée de Poulet aux Nids d'Hirondelles. - Soufflé d'Ecrevisses Florentine. - Côtelettes d'Agneau de Lait Favorite. - Petits Pois Frais. - Ortolans au Champagne. - Salade d'Oranges. - Asperges de Serre. - Pêches à la Fraisette des Bois. - Baisers de Vierge. - Mignardises. - -The menu reads as delicately as the dishes would taste. The _baisers -de Vierge_ are twin meringues, the cream perfumed with vanilla and -holding crystallised white rose leaves and white violets. Over each -pair of meringues is a veil of spun sugar. This is worthy of the man -who conceived the _bombe Nero_, a flaming ice, who gave all London a -new _entremet_ in _fraises à la Sarah Bernhardt_, and who added a new -glory to a great singer by creating the _pêche Melba_. - -M. Escoffier is a little below the middle height, grey haired, and grey -of moustache. His face is the face of an artist, or a statesman, and -the quick eyes tell of his capacity for command. The quiet little man -who, amidst all the clangour of the great white-tiled kitchen below -the restaurant of the Carlton, seems to have nothing to do except to -occasionally glance at the dishes before they leave his realm or to -give a word of counsel when some very delicate _entremet_ is in the -making, to taste a sauce or give a final touch to the arrangement of -some elaborate cold entrée, has organised his brigade of vociferous -cooks of all nations as thoroughly as Crawford organised the Light -Division of Peninsular fame. There is never any difficulty, for every -difficulty has been foreseen. Only a man who has climbed the ladder -from its lowest rung possesses such knowledge and such authority. M. -Escoffier began his career as a boy in the kitchen of his uncle's -restaurant in Nice. He went to Russia to the kitchen of one of the -Grand Dukes, he served in the Franco-Prussian War as the Chef de -Cuisine to the General Staff of the Army of the Rhine, and he knows the -bitterness of captivity in the hands of an enemy. He was with Maréchal -MacMahon at the Elysée and left the Grand Hotel at Rome when Ritz and -he and Echenard came to London to make history at the Savoy. He writes -with a very pretty wit on subjects connected with his profession, -and he is married to a lady who, under her maiden name of Delphine -Daffis, is well known in France as a poetess, and who has recently been -decorated with the violet ribbon as Officier d'Académie. - -If I have given so much space to a sketch of the great Maître-Chef, it -is not that he is the only man of talent amongst the personnel of the -Carlton. M. Kreamer, the manager, is eminent amongst his fellows. In -the restaurant M. Besserer, light of hair, and with a light curling -moustache, is an admirable Maître d'Hôtel, and the Carlton grill-room -(to which I shall give attention when I write of the grill-rooms of -London) owes much of its popularity to its manager, Signor Ventura. - -And now for a little ancient history. Her Majesty's Opera House, with a -colonnade surrounding it in which were shops and a little restaurant, -Epitaux's, where the Iron Duke and other famous men gave dinner-parties -in the early Victorian days, stood at the corner of the Haymarket and -Pall Mall. If I wrote of the glories and the disasters of the big -house of song I should have to write a book. When a company bought -the site, and the Carlton and His Majesty's Theatre rose on it, the -colonnade disappeared from three sides, and all the shops on those -sides also vanished except the offices of Justerini and Brooks. These -wine merchants held to their old position, and their window front was -encased in the building of the new hotel without the business of the -firm suffering a day's interruption. A cigar store has since then found -an abiding place on the Pall Mall frontage. The name of Epitaux's was -taken by the restaurant next door to the Haymarket Theatre, but was -eventually dropped in favour of a more attractive title, the Pall Mall. - -The tall porter outside the entrance of the Carlton in Pall Mall sets -the swing door in motion to let us through; coats and hats, cloaks and -furs are garnered from us as we pass through the ante-room, and then we -are in the palm lounge, that happy inspiration of the architect which -has been copied in other hotels through the length and breadth of the -habitable world. The double glass roof, letting in light but keeping -out draughts, was a novelty when the hotel was built. But, though this -palm court has been copied far and wide, it has never been bettered. -The terrace breaks up pleasantly the great width of floor space. The -tall palms, and the flowers and smaller palms before the terrace, and -the green cane easy-chairs give a sylvan touch to this great hall in -the heart of London; and, as an instance of perfect taste, notice the -little medallions of Wedgwood ware dependent from the capitals of the -creamy marble pilasters. - -Up the broad flight of steps we go into the restaurant, a restaurant -the colouring in which is such that it never clashes with the hues -of any lady's dress. The garlands of golden leaves on the ceiling, -the artful use of mirrors and evergreens to give the illusion that -outside the windows north and west there are gardens, the cut-glass -chandeliers converted into electroliers, and giving a soft rosy light, -the brown and deep rose of the carpet, the lighter rose of the chairs, -the gilt cornice, the _Å“il de bÅ“uf_ windows towards the palm lounge, -all form a perfect setting for charming people eating delicate foods. -The keynote of the restaurant in decoration, as in the dinners which -come from Escoffier's kitchen, is refinement. It is a pity, perhaps, -that there is not daylight to brighten the restaurant from end to end, -and that the electric lamps are always alight; but at dinner-time this -is no drawback. An excellent string band plays on the terrace, but it -is as well at dinner-time to choose a table far enough away from the -musicians to ensure comfortable converse. - -And now to describe to you a typical Carlton dinner. It is not easy, -for I have so many memories of so many typical dinners there. Once the -annual banquet of my old regiment was held at the Carlton in a great -space of the restaurant screened off from the other diners. That was a -noble feast! Again a memory comes to me of a silver wedding dinner, for -which the table was decorated with creamy white and light pink roses, -with silvered leaves. Escoffier composed for the occasion a dinner all -white and pink, in which the Bortch was the deepest note of colour, the -_filets de poulets à la Paprika_ halved the two hues, and the flesh of -an _agneau de lait_ formed the highest light in the picture. That was -the second occasion on which M. Escoffier sent to a dining-table the -_pêches Aiglon_, the first occasion being a supper which Madame Sarah -Bernhardt gave to Sir Henry Irving and other stars of our stage. - -But most distinctive of all the dinners of ceremony at which I have -been a guest at the Carlton was the dinner which Mr William Heinemann, -the well-known publisher, gave to celebrate the publication by his -firm of Escoffier's great work, "A Guide to Modern Cookery." The -dinner was the idea of the Maître-Chef, who suggested that the best -way to criticise the book would be to invite some of the men in whose -judgment the publisher had faith to eat a dinner cooked by the man who -had written the book. We were fourteen in all, mostly "ink-stained -wretches," and amongst the signatures on the menu, which I religiously -pasted opposite the title-page of my autographed copy of the work, are -those of Sir Douglas Straight and of T. P. O'Connor, of a member of the -great house of Harmsworth, and of other men whose palates are as keen -as their pens. - -This was the menu of the dinner and the list of the wines we drank that -30th May 1907: - - Melon Cantaloup. - Caviar de Sterlet. - Tortue Claire. - Velouté Froid de Volaille. - Mousseline d'Ecrevisses Orientale. - Jeune Agneau Piqué de Sauge. - Morilles à la Crème. - Petits Pois à l'Anglaise. - Poularde Ena. - Trou Normand. - Cailles aux Raisins. - Asperges d'Argenteuil. - Pêches Sainte Alliance. - Mignardises. - - VINS. - Vodka. - Amontillado, Dry. - Berncastler Doctor, 1893. - Heidsieck and Co., Dry, 1892. - Pommery and Greno, Nature, 1900. - Château Lafitte, 1878. - Dow's Port, 1887. - Café Double--Grandes Liqueurs. - -[Illustration: M. ESCOFFIER] - -The _velouté froid_ is a test dish, for only a master hand can give -it the right consistency without allowing it to become pasty. The -_mousselines_ were beautifully light, each in the form of a cygnet, -surrounding a central figure of a swan. The _poularde Ena_ was the one -dish in the banquet to which, because of its richness, I kissed my hand -and passed it by. The combination of quails and grapes is one of M. -Escoffier's happiest inspirations, and the _pêches Ste Alliance_ is one -of those delicate _entremets_ in which Escoffier excels any other great -chef of to-day, or of the past. The _trou Normand_ is rather a violent -stimulus to appetite, and consists of a liqueur-glass of old brandy. -When M. Escoffier came with the coffee, to ask us what our verdict -was on his dinner, our only difficulty was to find a sufficiency of -complimentary adjectives. - - - - -V - -TWO LITTLE SOHO RESTAURANTS - -AU PETIT RICHE. MOULIN D'OR - - -There is a little restaurant in Old Compton Street, the Au Petit Riche, -with the outside of which I was acquainted for some years before I -put foot inside it. It so evidently kept itself to itself that I felt -that my presence might be resented. It has little casemented windows -in white frames, and inside the windows are muslin curtains, on a -rail, hung sufficiently high to prevent anyone from looking over them. -Below the windows are green tiles, and above it a stretch of little -panes of bottle-glass in white frames to give additional light to the -rooms inside. A little ground-glass lantern hung outside the door, and -the name of the restaurant was painted over the window, but there was -no bill of fare put up outside, no attempt to draw in a diner unless -he had made up his mind to dine at the Au Petit Riche and nowhere -else. I had been told all about the restaurant by those gallant souls -who experiment at every new eating-place that springs up between -Shaftesbury Avenue and Oxford Street, and though all I heard about the -little place was pleasant and interested me, I felt that the Petit -Riche was not anxious to make my acquaintance. But when the Petit Riche -put up outside its windows an illuminated sign and its number, 44, in -big figures, I felt that it had abandoned its haughty reserve and was -beckoning to me, and the rest of London, to come in. And in I went, and -have been going in at intervals ever since, for the little restaurant -is artistic and French and amusing. - -When you open the glazed door and go in you are faced by the question: -"On the level or down below?" A door to the right leads into the little -series of rooms on the ground floor, and a flight of stairs plunges -down into the basement. Come, first of all, through the door to the -right. We are in the first of three little rooms, with light-coloured -walls. A row of small tables is on either side of each room, and in the -first room a white desk, with palms on it, faces towards the door. A -score of pretty little French waitresses, Bretonnes all, in white and -black, are bustling about, and Mademoiselle, if she is not sitting at -the white desk, will probably receive you at the door and smile and -pilot you to a table. And I should, before going any further, explain -to you who Mademoiselle is, and tell you the story of the Au Petit -Riche. A good Breton and his wife came to London and established a -little restaurant in Old Compton Street, and with them came their two -very pretty daughters. And they made the Au Petit Riche a corner of -Brittany in London. The chef, who had graduated at the Escargot d'Or, -a big bourgeois house near the Halles in Paris, is a Breton by birth, -and all the merry little waitresses are from Brittany. The elder of -the two daughters married a young journalist and for a while left the -restaurant, but when her father and mother thought that the time had -come for them to retire, she and her husband took up the management of -the restaurant, with her sister to help them. And Mademoiselle, fresh -and smiling, with a bunch of roses pinned to her blouse, is in command -in the upper rooms, while Madame, as gracious as she is handsome, sits -at her desk in one of the lower rooms with a great bowl of flowers -before her, and laughs with the young artists, who form a large portion -of the clientele of the Au Petit Riche, and controls the waitresses, -and sends the waiters, of whom there are two, out to fetch the wine, -which comes from a wineshop a few paces away. - -Established at a table in the first of the upstairs rooms, a glance -at the walls will tell anyone that the place is a haunt of artists, -for the pictures are just the omnium gatherum of artistic trifles that -an artist generally puts on the walls of his den. Pencil drawings, -rough things in charcoal, etchings, mezzotints, caricatures, sketches -in colour, Japanese coloured prints--a gallery of scraps at which a -Philistine would turn up his nose, but which look comfortable and -homelike to the eye artistic. And at the head of the _carte du jour_, -which a little waitress holds out to you, there is a good black and -white of the exterior of the little restaurant--there is the atmosphere -of art about the place. - -Let us look down the list of dishes and order our dinner. The little -waitress, on chance, has addressed us in French, but if she is answered -in English can carry on a conversation in that language. There are -two soups on the list, _consommé Colbert_, which costs sixpence, no -doubt because of the egg, and _crème Cressonière_, which costs only -threepence, and we will choose the cheaper of the two. Amongst the fish -dishes, the salmon and the sole cost a shilling, but we will choose -the _vol au vent de Turbot Joinville_, which costs ninepence. Amongst -the entrées is an item, two _quails en Cocotte_, for a shilling. -Curiosity prompts me to suggest that we should order this, having in -mind what the price of a single quail is on a club bill of fare, but we -shall be on safer ground in ordering one of the dishes of the house, -the _filet mignon Petit Riche_, which costs a shilling, and with it -some peas, fourpence, and some new potatoes, also fourpence. Amongst -the _entremets_ is a _Pêche Petit Riche_, which the little waitress -strongly recommends, but _beignets de pommes_ at threepence seems to me -a more fitting ending for our repast. - -There is no long waiting for one's food at the Au Petit Riche; the soup -arrives almost immediately and is wonderful value for threepence. The -_vol au vent_ is an admirable little fish pie, and the _filet mignon_ a -most toothsome morsel of meat, while the _beignets_ are all that they -should be. The little waitress, when we have arrived at the _filet -mignon_ stage of the dinner, asks with the utmost solicitude: "Do you -like eet?" and I have replied for both of us "Very much indeed." At the -table to one side of us are a young couple whose dinner has consisted -of curried chicken and plum pudding au Rhum, and at the table to our -other side, two ladies are eating a typical woman's dinner of _hors -d'Å“uvre_, poached eggs and spinach, and a vanilla ice. The Au Petit -Riche finds room on its small _carte du jour_ for dishes to suit all -tastes. - -The little waitress brings the total of the bill on a bit of green -paper; and having finished our dinner, and having paid for it, we -will go down into the lower rooms before leaving the restaurant. In -the lower rooms every table is always occupied, and I fancy that the -habitués of the restaurant prefer them to the upper ones. One of them -is decorated with golden fleurs-de-lis on a blue ground, and another -is an admirable representation of the kitchen of a Breton farmhouse, -crockery and all complete. There is a great buzz of talk in these lower -rooms, and Madame la Patronne, sitting at her desk amidst the tables, -takes her share in the conversation and attends to the making out of -the bills at one and the same time. - -If you go to the Au Petit Riche in the right frame mind you will be -abundantly amused and interested, and you will get wonderful value for -the very small sum your dinner will cost you. - -And now for my other little restaurant in Soho. It is the Moulin d'Or -at 27 Church Street. When Karl Thiele, who was in the employ of Peter -Gallina at the Rendez-Vous Restaurant, married the pretty book-keeper -at the Richelieu Restaurant, they determined to set up in business -on their own account, and took a ground-floor room in Church Street, -gave it a good-looking window, put a row of little trees outside, hung -baskets of ferns within, and christened it Le Moulin d'Or, hoping that -their mill would grind golden grist. It was a doll's house restaurant -when I first discovered it two years ago, and the great ambition -then of its proprietor and proprietress was that they might in time -become sufficiently prosperous to add the first-floor room to their -establishment. They have prospered, and when I lately went to dine -there I found that the lower room with a restful green paper had been -increased in size by taking in the passage, and that upstairs is a new -restaurant room also with green walls and a large window, the dream -realised of the young couple. And not only have these improvements -and additions been made, but quite close to the Moulin d'Or there -has been put up a wonderful windmill with electrically lighted sails -which revolve, and below it a hand pointing in the direction of the -restaurant and a transparency whereon see inscribed the prices of the -_table d'hôte_ meals, luncheon, and dinner, and supper, for the Moulin -d'Or has both its _carte du jour_ and its _table d'hôte_ meals. For -half-a-crown, on the occasion of my last visit, I could have eaten -_hors d'Å“uvre_, made my choice between a _consommé_ and a _crème soup_ -and partaken of salmon, _filet de bÅ“uf_, roast chicken and caramel -cream, but I preferred to turn my attention to the _carte du jour_, -and ordered _crème Suzette_, 6d.; _truite au bleu_, 1s. 3d.; _escalope -de veau Viennoise_, 10d.; _haricots verts_, 6d.; and an _omelette au -Rhum_, 10d., all very well cooked and served piping hot. The restaurant -has not yet a wine licence, but for all that a special wine is reserved -for it at a neighbouring wineshop, an excellent light burgundy, -_Château Villy_, at 4s. 6d. a quart, and 2s. 6d. a pint, and, besides, -there is a quite comprehensive wine list. Karl Thiele and his wife, -looking for new kingdoms to conquer, have moved to Brighton, where they -are established in St James's Street, and the new host at the Moulin -d'Or is M. Combes, a very young man, assisted by a very young wife. -They are, in spite of their youth, maintaining the reputation of the -house for good cookery. - - - - -VI - -A RAG-TIME DINNER - -AT THE IMPERIAL RESTAURANT - - -My little French cousin who has married the Comte de St Solidor (if -that is not his exact title it is, literally, next door to it) has -brought her Breton husband across the Channel to make the acquaintance -of his English relatives, and is desperately anxious that he shall not -be depressed by London. He is a jolly, round-faced Frenchman, with -a rather straggly light beard and a great head of intractable light -hair, and, were it not that he cannot speak a word of our language, -might pass for a young Yorkshire squire. My little French cousin -was particularly afraid that Robert, that is his first name, would -suffer all the tortures of ennui on Sunday, for her mother, who was -English-born, had told her that the English in England spend their -Sunday afternoons, when they are grown-up, in singing hymns, and -when they are children in repeating aloud the catechism. I told my -little cousin to have no fear, that London Sundays are no longer what -they were when her mother was a child, and I offered to take charge -of Robert and herself on their first Sunday in London, from after -lunch-time till bed-time, and to try and keep them amused. - -I asked my little French cousin whether rag-time had penetrated to -Brittany, and she, pitying my ignorance, told me that at Dinard, last -summer, they had talked to rag-time music, and bathed to it, and had -even played syncopated _chemin de fer_ to it, as well as danced to -it. But, when I asked her if at Dinard she had ever eaten to it, she -said, "But no," and gave a mimetic sketch of eating food to the air of -"Everybody's doing it now," which was very funny. That settled where -we should dine on Sunday, and I wrote off at once to the Imperial -Restaurant to secure a dinner-table for four, and asked another cousin, -a British one, to complete the _partie carrée_. - -The afternoon of Sunday caused me no anxiety. Robert is devoted to -music, so I took him and the Comtesse to the Queen's Hall to one of Sir -Henry Wood's concerts, and on to the Royal Automobile Club to tea, and -neither of them showed any sign of being oppressed by Sabbath gloom. - -At ten minutes past eight I was waiting in the vestibule between the -street entrance and the restaurant, where a marble bust of the late -King Edward smiles at each customer who enters. I had ordered my -dinner, a very simple one--_potage Germiny, truites au bleu, noisettes -de mouton,_ new peas and potatoes, ham and spinach, asparagus, and a -_bombe_, and a magnum of Goulet, 1900, to drink therewith. For ten -minutes I sat in the window-seat watching pretty ladies and men of all -ages and types pass through the vestibule, give up their coats and -cloaks, shake hands, and go in little coveys into the restaurant. The -orchestra in the distance was sawing away at an operatic overture, the -ante-room was comfortably warmed, and as dinner was the only event -of the evening I did not fidget because my little cousin delayed in -her coming. I was not the only solitary man waiting. In front of the -fireplace stood a beautiful young man, with sleeve-links and studs and -buttons to his white waistcoat that must have cost a fortune. Now and -again he glanced at the clock, a work of art, in which a gilded cupid -points with a finger to the revolving girdle of hours on a vase, and -when he had ascertained how late _she_ was already he surveyed the -other human creatures about him with tolerant pride and slight hauteur. -I have no gift of telepathy, but I was quite sure that he was waiting -for some very beautiful lady of the stage, and pitied those of us who -had no such divinity to be our guest. - -The British cousin arrived to time, and not very long afterwards my -French cousins appeared. She looked at the clock and declared that they -were late because Robert could not find his evening studs, and Robert -laughed, as men do when called upon to substantiate a white fib told by -their wives. She had asked me whether she ought to dine in her hair, or -in a hat, and I had answered that either way would be quite correct. -She had decided not to wear a hat in order to be quite English, and she -looked entirely charming. I could not help glancing at the beautiful -young man who monopolised the fire to see what he thought of my star -guest. He was slightly interested, but he answered my glance by one -which meant "Wait and see." - -I had secured a corner table at a reasonable distance from the band, -which occupies a platform about half-way down the room, and we -enthroned the little cousin on the chair in the angle, so that she -could see everybody and everything in the room. Every table but one was -occupied, and that I knew was reserved for the beautiful young man whom -we had left looking with a frown at cupid's finger. My little French -cousin was in high spirits, and Robert acted as an amiable chorus. -She recognised that the room was French--it is a copy of one of the -salons at Fontainebleau, and perceived that the pictures of cupids, -which are between the round windows and the tall casemented glasses, -were inspired by Boucher. She liked the carved marble mantelpiece and -the crystal and gold electroliers. I was called upon to tell her who -everybody was at the other tables, and I launched out recklessly into -fiction. I knew by sight a dozen of our fellow-diners, and the rest -I described as M.P.'s and ladies of title, officers of the Household -Brigade, and divettes of the Gaiety, Daly's, the Lyric, and the -Shaftesbury, which they probably are, celebrated painters and prima -donnas, according to their appearance. My British cousin choked over -a bone of the trout, so he said, but my little French cousin and her -spouse were much impressed by my exhaustive acquaintance with all the -celebrities of my native city, which was just the effect I wished to -produce. - -Little Oddenino, going the round of the tables, saying a word or two to -all his clientele, came to our corner, asked if all was as it should -be, took up the menu, and lifted his eyebrows. Of course I know that -to follow the _noisettes_ by ham was inartistic, but being in the -vein of romance I said that my little French cousin was passionately -fond of ham, and demanded it at all her meals, and not that I prefer -ham to mutton, which would have been the truth. The little man bowed -and smiled and passed on; My cousin asked who he was, and when I -replied, "Oddy," she inquired if it was he who would presently make -the rag-time. Pleased to be on bed-rock truth at last I gave her a -shorthand sketch of Oddenino's career; how Turin is his native town; -how he opened one of the great hotels at Cimiez, and earned the thanks -of the late Queen Victoria and a fine tie-pin when she stayed there; -how he was manager of the East Room at the Criterion, and of the Café -Royal, and from the latter restaurant stepped two doors farther down -Regent Street and built the Imperial Restaurant. I described story -upon story of banqueting-rooms that are to be found on the Glasshouse -Street side, and how Freemasons--good, charitable British Freemasons, -not troublesome political French Freemasons--feast in them in great -numbers every night in the year. I sketched out the little man's other -ventures, and I ended by telling her that Oddenino is a man of much -consideration in the Italian colony in London, and has been decorated -by his king. Surely she did not expect a Cavaliere to make rag-time -music? And my little French cousin said "assuredly not." - -When we had come to the _noisettes'_ stage of our dinner the beautiful -young man whom we had left waiting in the vestibule came in--alone. He -looked as gloomy as Hamlet, and held in his hand a letter, which he -tore into small pieces and thrust into the ice pail beside his table. -"The poor animal!" said my little cousin pityingly. "He is dining with -an excuse." He drank two glasses of champagne in quick succession, and -then felt strong enough to sup his soup. - -About this period a change came over the music of the band, which had -conscientiously worked off the barcarole from "Hoffman," a Viennese -waltz and a minuet. A clean-shaven young man, Mr Gideon, the clever -composer of the rag-time successes who had been eating his dinner -like the rest of us, took his place at the piano, and the orchestra -subordinated itself to his leadership. Mr Gideon can make the piano -speak as few men can, and my little French cousin and Robert both -pricked up their ears and even let the asparagus get cold in their -new-found interest. When Mr Gideon, dispensing with orchestral aid, -sang "Honolulu," and here and there a girl's voice joined in the -refrain, my little cousin turned sharply to me. "Ought one to sing?" -she asked, and I told her that it was as she pleased. She listened with -all her ears to catch the words, and at last trilled out with the rest: -"Ma onaleuleu oné leu," and then laughed at her own boldness. - -A quarter of an hour later my little French cousin, with both elbows on -the table, a cigarette between her fingers, and sipping at intervals -some _crème de menthe_, was singing "Hitchy Koo" with the best of -them, and Robert was booming away harmonising a bass _bouche-fermeé_ -accompaniment. It was curious how this general singing brought together -those who dined. We had been separate little parties before, but the -humanity of song made us into one big friendly audience. Even the -beautiful young man recovered his spirits sufficiently to try to start -an eye flirtation with my little cousin. - -The heat in the room grew and the atmosphere thickened with tobacco -smoke, but we all sat on till close on eleven o'clock, when the -vestibule doors were opened to let out the smoke and let in the cold -air, and the ladies put their stoles round their necks, and the men -called for their bills. Mine, including cigars and liqueurs, came to -exactly a guinea a head. - -Before bidding me good-night my little cousin, speaking for herself and -Robert, said that they had well dined and had amused themselves, and -that the Britannic Sunday was not frightening. But I told her that all -our Sunday entertainment was not yet at end, that Robert, when he had -taken her home to their hotel, was going to drink a whisky-and-soda -with me at the club, and that then I would take him on to an hospitable -house, where _chemin de fer_ is played, and that if there was no police -raid she would see him back about five A.M. - -My little French cousin looked at me to see whether I was serious, -laughed in my face, and taking Robert by the arm led him to the taxi -that was waiting for them. - - - - -VII - -THE CAFÉ ROYAL - - -One of the questions people are fond of asking and, like "jesting -Pilate," do not stay to have answered, is, "Which is the best place in -London at which to dine?" This is generally only a prologue to their -opinion on the subject, but when it is an inquiry, and not an overture, -I always reply by another question, "Whom are you going to take out to -dine?" for there are so many "best places" that the selection of the -right one depends entirely on what are the tastes of the person, or -persons, you wish to please.--If a man were to answer _my_ question -by saying that he wished to entertain some bachelors of his own ripe -age and ripe tastes, and that he would like to go somewhere where the -food is very good, the rooms comfortable, and where there is no band to -interfere with conversation, I should diagnose his case at once as a -Café Royal one. - -The Café Royal is pleasantly conservative, and it is more like a good -French restaurant of the Second Empire than is any other dining-place -I know in London. Its fame has reached to all other countries in -the world, and a French waiter who hopes to become in due time a -manager looks on an engagement at "The Café" as a step in his career. -Therefore, if ever you feel inclined to be tight-fisted in the matter -of tips to the waiters at the Café Royal, reflect that you may meet -them again where their good word can help to make a meal comfortable -for you. Once in Paris, when I went to dine at Maire's, far up the -boulevards, a restaurant into which I had not been for years, I was -surprised to be received as though I was the prodigal son of the -establishment, a _maître d'hôtel_ taking especial care to find a -pleasant table for me, and suggesting various dishes from the _carte du -jour_, which shaped into a dinner after my own heart. I asked him if I -had ever seen him before, and he replied: "I waited on monsieur at the -Café Royal in the days when he used to drink the _Cliquot vin rosée_." -I pause here to sigh regretfully over the memory of that _cuvée_ of -Cliquot, at which many men shied because of its colour, but which was -the most delightful wine that ever came from the great house of the -widow of Rheims. On the first occasion that I entered the restaurant -of the Esplanade Hotel in Berlin, feeling rather like a boy going to a -new school, I was received by a _maître d'hôtel_ who knew that I liked -a table at the side of the room, suggested to me three of the lightest -dishes on the _carte_ as my dinner, and told me that he remembered that -at the Café Royal I always asked for the table in the far corner of the -first room and that I liked short and light dinners. - -It may be that in a few years, when the Quadrant of Regent Street must -be rebuilt, and all the other houses in it will be obliged to conform -in some respects to the Piccadilly Hotel, the sample building of the -new style, the Café Royal as we know it to-day may be altered in -appearance and in the arrangement of its rooms, but I hope that this -will not happen in my time. It was the first restaurant at which I -learned the joys of dining out in pleasant company--a _sole Colbert_, -a _Chateaubriand_ and _pommes sautés_, an _omelette au rhum_ and a -bottle of good Burgundy was my idea of a suitable dinner in those my -strenuous days, and I have for the house all the affection I have for -old friends. The influence of Madame Nicols is against any unnecessary -change. An old lady with white hair and dressed in black walks every -day through the rooms of the Café Royal, and the habitués know that -this is Madame Nicols on her tour of inspection. She still gives -personal supervision to the work in the linen-room, as she did in the -early days of the café, and her wish is that everything should remain -as much as is possible as it was when M. Nicols was alive. - -There is a romance in the history of most restaurants that have existed -for any length of time, and the rise of the Café Royal from small -beginnings is interwoven with the Franco-Prussian War and with the rise -and destruction of the Commune. On 11th February 1865 M. Daniel Nicols, -who had been in the wine trade at Bercy, that part of Paris where the -great wine depots are, opened a modest little café-restaurant in the -lower part of Regent Street. It occupied the space where the entrance -and hall now are. A photograph of the front of the house at that time -is extant, showing the plate-glass window with a broad brass band below -it, and on the glass in white letters announcements of the good things -to be found within. In front of the modest doorway stands M. Nicols, -looking very proud of his establishment, while two of his friends lean -gracefully against the pilasters of the entrance, and the head waiter -stands respectfully a step or two farther back. On the little balcony -before the windows of the entresol stand the ladies of M. Nicols' -family. The interior of the window was in those days decked with -salads and with any foods that looked tempting, to catch the attention -of the passer-by. In fact, it was just such an unpretentious little -restaurant as any young foreigner coming to London and determined -to make a competence might start nowadays hoping that Fortune would -turn her wheel in his direction. But most young foreigners do not -have the chance, or the judgment, to establish themselves in Regent -Street. I have a dim memory when I was a schoolboy of being impressed -by some stuffed pheasants in the Café Royal window, and at the time -of the great war I was first taken inside it to meet there a distant -connection of my family, a Buonapartist, who had been one of the -Empress's ministers during the short period when the Government of -France fell into her hands and had gone into exile when the Republic -was proclaimed. Those are my first two recollections of the Café Royal. - -It was the flood of non-combatants and political exiles, business men, -authors and actors; Red Republicans, Monarchists, and Buonapartists, -whom the war and the political upheavals in France sent over to this -country, that made the fortune of the little restaurant. However -they might differ as to the colour of their politics, they were all -Frenchmen, they all sighed for the blue skies of France; they found -in the Café Royal a little corner of their beloved native land, and -they naturally all gravitated to it. The house was much too small for -the number of its frequenters, when, fortunately, the old Union Tavern -in Glasshouse Street came into the market, was bought, and converted -into the café as we know it, with its painted ceiling and its wealth -of gilding, and the restaurant and the private dining-rooms were -established on the other floors. This was the first of many extensions -and alterations. A building on the Air Street side was absorbed, -and a billiard-room established on the ground floor, but very soon -the billiard-tables were given marching orders, and the space they -occupied was turned into a grill-room. An enlargement of the kitchen, -the installation of a lift on the Air Street side, the making of a -little ante-room and cloakrooms outside the restaurant--before this -improvement any man waiting for a lady who was going to dine with him -did so in the passage leading to the café or on the stairs--and the -construction somewhere very near the roof of a masonic temple and a -ballroom were all additions. - -M. Nicols and Madame Nicols gave personal attention to all details, and -the experience M. Nicols had gained at Bercy was of great use to him in -laying down the fine cellar of wines, particularly of red wines, which -is the great pride of the house. To draw a very fine distinction, I -would say of the Café Royal that it is a restaurant to which gourmets -go to drink fine wines and to eat good food therewith, while at other -first-class restaurants gourmets go to eat good food and to drink -fine wines therewith. The only cellar of red wines that I know which -can compare with that of the Café Royal is the cellar of Voisin's in -Paris. The wine-list of the Café Royal is splendidly comprehensive, -and in its pages are to be found all the fine wines grown in Europe, -even Switzerland being recognised, and the wines of the Rhone Valley -above the Lake of Geneva being given a place in the book. M. Delacoste, -the first manager I remember at the Café Royal, under M. Nicols, was a -great authority on wines, and he bought so largely that there came a -time when M. Nicols recognised that his clients with the utmost good -will could never drink all the wine laid down for them, and sold a -portion of it by auction. Other managers of the Café Royal have been -Wolschleger; Oddenino, who was appointed when M. Nicols died in 1897, -and during whose tenancy of the post many of the improvements in the -house were made; Gerard, mighty of girth, who had been in the kitchen -of the Café Anglais under Dugleré, and who moved on to the Ocean Hotel, -Sandown; and now Judah, who had been manager of the Cecil, and who -keeps a very steady hand on the tiller. M. Judah, on the occasion of -the visit of the President of the French Republic to London in 1913, -was created an officer of the Order of Mérite Agricole. - -Sportsmen have always had a special affection for the Café Royal. The -men who were prominent in the revival of road-coaching were all patrons -of the restaurant, and any night you may see half-a-dozen well-known -owners of race-horses dining there. The Stage, the Stock Exchange, and -Literature also have a liking for the old house, and hunting men love -it. - -When I mentioned it as the ideal place for a dinner of bachelor -gourmets, I did not mean that men do not bring their wives and sisters -and sweethearts there. They do. But the Café Royal does not lay itself -out to capture the ladies. I never heard of anyone having afternoon tea -there, and when a lady tells me that she likes dining at the Café Royal -I always mentally give her a good mark, for it shows that she places in -her affections good things to drink and good things to eat before those -"springes to catch woodcock," gipsy bands in crimson coats, and palm -lounges. - -In the great gilded cage of the restaurant and the big room the windows -of which open on to Glasshouse Street, the custom is to eat the lunch -of the day, or to select dishes from it, while dinner is an _à la -carte_ meal. If one entertains a lady at dinner one probably orders a -dinner which canters through the accepted courses, and I have by me the -menu of such a one: - - Hors d'Å“uvre Russe. - Pot-au-feu. - Sole Waleska. - Noisette d'agneau Lavallière. - Haricots verts à l'Anglaise. - Parfait de foie gras. - Caille en cocotte. - Salade. - Pôle Nord. - -And with this dinner we drank a good bottle of St Marceaux. - -But men when they dine together think little of the rightful sequence -of courses, and order what their taste prompts them to eat. I have -dined at the Café Royal, and dined well on _moules Marinières_--and -one can eat _moules_ at the Café without fear, half a cold grouse, a -salad and a _petit Suisse_ cheese. When the ham is a dish of the day it -always tempts me, for the Café Royal hams are princes of their kind, -and the cold _mousses_ that the _chef de cuisine_, M. François Maître, -makes are beautifully light. The specialities of the cuisine of the -Café Royal are _Å“ufs Magenta, Å“ufs Wallace, homard Thérmidor, sole -Beaumanoir, filet de sole Simone, darne de saumon à l'Ecossaise, truite -Dartois, turbotin Paysanne, poularde bisque, faisan Carême, perdreau à -la Royal, caille Châtelaine, poulet sauté Sigurd, suprême de volaille à -la Patti, tournedos Figaro, noisette de pré salé moderne, côte d'agneau -Sultane, filet de bÅ“uf Cambacères, selle d'agneau favorite._ - -Down in the café a _table d'hôte_ meal is served, wonderful value -for very few shillings, but I am not smoke-proof, and I like eating -my meals without the taste and smell of tobacco added to them. The -grill-room is always full, and perhaps more solid eating, of juicy -fillets and grilled chops and cutlets, is done there than anywhere else -in the house, except in the banqueting-rooms. I have banqueted with -the Bons Frères, a club of cheery connoisseurs who like their dinner -to be light and the songs that follow it also to be airy, in the great -gilded banqueting-room with, as part of its decoration, many crowned -N's, which might stand for Napoleon, but really indicate Nicols; I -have dined in smaller rooms with the Foxhunters' Lodge, and with many -other groups of good Freemasons and good diners; I have assisted at "Au -Revoir" banquets without number, and I know when I am bidden to feast -in a private room at the Café Royal that I shall be given a good dinner -on sound if perhaps conservative lines. This menu of a banquet given -not long since, which is typical, will convey more what I mean than -many words of description: - - Natives. - Petite Marmite. - Saumon Sauce Genévoise. - Blanchailles. - Caille à la Cavour. - Jambon d'York aux Petits Pois. - Caneton de Rouen à la Presse. - Salade d'Orange. - Asperges Sauce Divine. - Bombe Alexandra. - Friandises. - Os à la Moëlle. - Café. - Dessert. - - VINS. - Graves Monopole, Dry. - Heidsieck and Co., 1898. - Louis Roederer, 1899. - Ch. Le Tertre, 1888. - Martinez Port, 1884. - Denis Mouniés, 1860. - Liqueurs. - -As a final word of praise for the Café Royal, let me record that just -as many of its waiters grow grey-headed in its service, so the steps of -any man who is a lover of good cheer and who has been an habitué of the -restaurant seem unconsciously to lead him to its doors. It was my first -love amongst the restaurants, and--well, you know how the proverb runs. - - - - -VIII - -OYSTER-HOUSES - - -The great catastrophe of my life, I think, was that the first oyster -I ate was a bad one. I was at school for a year or two at Dedham, as -a preparation for Harrow, and Dedham is in Essex, and not far from -Colchester. An old man used to wheel a barrow of oysters to the playing -field, and dispensed his shell-fish at a penny an oyster. One day when -I was in funds I thought that I would begin to enjoy the luxuries of -life, and bought an oyster. That oyster was a bad one. Not just an -ordinary bad oyster, but of a superlative badness, the most horrible -oyster that any small boy ever tried to swallow--and failed. The memory -of that oyster kept me for many years from making a second attempt. -When I was first bidden to a Colchester oyster feast and sat amidst -Cabinet Ministers and mayors and aldermen in their robes of office, -and generals and admirals all pitching into the bivalves like winking, -I, to the great surprise of the waiters, ate twice as many oysters -as any alderman present. Had I been given an opportunity of making a -speech after lunch I should have told the assembled company that my -unparalleled feat in the absorption of Colchester natives that day was -my revenge for the horrors of the first Colchester oyster I tried to -eat one sunlit spring afternoon on the Dedham playing field. I have not -yet been invited by a Mayor of Whitstable to accompany him to sea to -eat oysters afloat on the first day of the dredging season, but I have -eaten many oysters plain and oysters scalloped at the "Bear and Key," -and I never have had a grudge against any individual Whitstable oyster, -so there is no injury to redress. - -All this, I know, should be reserved for my autobiography; but as I am -never likely to autobiograph myself it has to be set down here. - -And now to talk of some of the oyster-houses of London. If on the "Roof -of the World," the great tableland of Thibet, one British explorer met -another British explorer, and the first man suddenly said "Scott's!" -the second man inevitably would answer "Oysters," for Scott's window at -the top of the Haymarket, with its little barrels of oysters and its -crimson lobsters reposing on beds of salad stuff, and its big crabs -lying on their backs and folding their vandyke-brown claws, as if in -pious meditation, over their buff stomachs, is one of the landmarks of -London. The old Scott's, before the fire that gutted it, has faded from -the memory of most Londoners, and the new building, with its pillars, -which are apparently of mother-o'-pearl pressed into black marble, -with bands of ornamental brass about them, and its red blinds and -red-shaded lamps in the upper storeys, is accepted as being the hub of -the West End of London, just as the old one was. Inside the doors are -the two marble-topped counters with piles of plates upon them, and on -their fronts long napkins hanging from rails. Behind the counters men -in white jackets are busy opening oysters and pouring out tumblers of -stout and glasses of Chablis all day long. There are on the counters -stacks of thin slices of brown bread and butter and other stacks of -sandwiches of various kinds of fish and plates of prawns of coral-pink. -I know of no better place than this wide oyster hall of Scott's for a -theatre-goer to eat a very light meal before going early to a theatre -when he intends to sup luxuriously after the show. Scott's, though -its shell-fish are its trump cards, desires to be all things to all -men, and to all women. It possesses a "dive" in its basement with tiled -walls, on which Japanese fish swim in and out through Japanesy weeds, -and behind the oyster hall is the grill-room, shut off from draughts by -a great glass screen, in which a white-clothed cook stands with a table -of viands at his elbow, turning the chops and steaks, sausages and -rashers on the big grill. Upstairs there is an _à la carte_ restaurant, -where all kinds of luxuries are obtainable, and Scott's is a very -popular place at which to sup after the theatre. - -If you would like to see how popular oysters are with Londoners at -lunch-time, come with me to the Macclesfield in the street of that -name leading out of Shaftesbury Avenue. When "Papa" De Hem first took -over the Macclesfield it was just a public-house in the Soho district, -but "Papa," who is a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, and who was -through the Siege of Paris, brought the thorough methods of an old -soldier to bear upon the house. He turned all the old clientele out of -its doors, and, though he kept a bar in the premises, it was by selling -very large quantities of Whitstable oysters at a price that left him -a very small profit that he saw his way to a fortune. Journalists and -actors and artists and other dwellers in the realms of artistic Bohemia -soon learnt of the new resort. Dagonet chatted of it in _Mustard and -Cress_, Pitcher told tales concerning it in _Gals' Gossip_, and took -the chair at the smoking concerts for charities held in the grotto -upstairs, and as the prices have been kept rigorously low, and as the -oysters have always been excellent, the Macclesfield is now one of -the most popular oyster-houses in London. Come in through the glass -door, and you find on one side the long bar, and on the other side -little tables, at which every seat is occupied by lunchers who are -eating Whitstables on the deep shell, or oyster stew, or oysters -fried, or oysters grilled, or broiled lobsters, or the mayonnaise -of lobster which is one of the specialities of the house. There are -luncheon dishes of meat and fowl also obtainable, but when I go to the -Macclesfield I go there to eat shell-fish, and am not to be turned -from my purpose by any roast chicken or grilled chop. We are not in -the least likely to find a vacant seat at any of these first tables, -so we will move on into the wider space where is the oyster bar, with -men in white behind it, busy with their oyster knives, and behind them -a background of barrels of Meux's stout. Here is the entrance to the -grotto--an entrance beautified by trellis-work and Japanese lanterns. -The walls of the grotto are of oyster-shells, with here and there an -irregular piece of mirror showing through, and all Papa De Hem's best -customers have written their names on the oyster-shells. The tables -in the grotto are set close together, and there are two of them in a -snug corner, towards which every customer first makes his way, only -to find nine times out of ten that there is no place for him. The -waitresses bustle about, and the proprietor has a word to say to all -old friends. Upstairs on the first floor is another grotto, larger than -the downstairs one, and quieter, and here ladies are often brought to -lunch. - -Stout is the classic accompaniment to oysters, and it is possible to -eat the bivalves actually in the shadow of Meux's great Horseshoe -Brewery, for the Horseshoe Tavern next door has an oyster dive down in -the basement, just below its grill-room. On the way down to the dive -you pass the great spirit casks of the Horseshoe safely placed behind a -grille, the biggest cask of all being that of the ten-year-old "Annie -Laurie" whisky, which holds 1000 gallons. The oyster bar resembles a -horseshoe in shape, and behind it is a wall of small kegs of Meux's -stout. The Horseshoe is a good old-fashioned British house, with one of -the largest open fires in London, and I remember that once when there -was an especially splendid haunch of venison to be cooked for a party -of gourmets Mr Baker was approached, and the venison feast was held at -the Horseshoe. - -Rule's Oyster-house, in Maiden Lane, in the window of which are two -huge shells from Singapore and many big champagne bottles, is a house -of many associations with the men of the pen of Victorian days. Albert -Smith was the demigod of the establishment. Mark Lemon, Douglas -Jerrold, Henry Irving, Besant and Rice, Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, -Yates and Sala were some of the men who used to eat oysters in Maiden -Lane and who have accorded appreciation of them. There are busts and -portraits on the walls of the rooms of many theatrical celebrities, and -in one room is a fine collection of Dighton caricatures. - -White's and Gow's, in the Strand, both old-established fish and oyster -houses, each deserve a word, and the Chandos, over against the National -Portrait Gallery, gives its oyster-eating patrons six oysters, a glass -of stout, and bread and butter for a shilling. - -Sweeting's, in Fleet Street, is especially dear to me, because of -its sawdusted floor. The front of the house has been set back in the -widening of the street, but the house remains very much as it was. By -the marble-topped counters are wooden stools, on which the lunchers -perch like sparrows, and besides the oysters there are fish snacks and -big lobsters, and on one of the counters is a selection of sandwiches -of all kinds. Upstairs there are two floors of dining-rooms for people -who want something more solid than oysters or sandwiches. - -No chapter on oyster-houses would be complete without reference to -Driver's in Glasshouse Street, and Wilton's in King Street, both -houses which supply the clubs and great restaurants with oysters, and -which, as well, open oysters for hungry customers at their counters. -At Driver's a little screen of stained glass only partially conceals -the oysters which are spread out on the broad space behind the glass. -On the door is the simple legend, "Driver, Oysterman," and inside -are three black-coated men opening oysters behind the counter. In a -little glass box sits a lady cashier. This in old days used to be where -Mrs Driver sat, and could always spare time for a smile and a word -to an old customer. On the wall behind the counter is a board with -the orders for oysters contained by clips, and two shelves, on which -are rows of big shells, showing wide surfaces of mother-o'-pearl. A -little staircase leads to an upper room, where sybarites can sit and -eat oysters and caviare and bread and cheese, and there is a little -table downstairs tucked away behind the staircase; but I am one of the -stalwarts who have always stood at the counter at Driver's to eat my -oysters and to wipe my fingers afterwards on the pendant napkins. - -Behind Wilton's plate-glass windows there are warrants suitably -framed, and the proprietor is generally to be seen either behind his -counting-desk or the little oyster bar in the spacious shop. Wilton's -at one time used to purvey Irish oysters, as well as other British -varieties, but the supply was so uncertain that they have been taken -off the list. - -If I have omitted to give the prices of the oysters at the various -oyster-houses, it is because they vary so much. One can buy native -oysters in the shops at Whitstable for 1s. a dozen, or 1s. 9d. for -twenty-five. By the time they arrive in London their cheapest price is -1s. 6d. a dozen, and the specially selected ones, which are sometimes -called "Royal Natives," cost as much at some oyster-houses as 3s. 6d. -a dozen. Seconds, Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-Portuguese are each a step -lower down in price. American oysters are to be obtained in Paris at -Prunier's, but I know of no house in London at the present time which -imports them. Ten years ago they were obtainable at two of the houses. - - - - -IX - -WHITEBAIT AT GREENWICH - - -Gone are the great days of the whitebait dinners at Blackwall and -Greenwich. No longer does _The Morning Post_ ever publish such a -paragraph as this, "Yesterday the Cabinet Ministers went down the -river in the ordnance barges to Lovegrove's West India Dock Tavern, -Blackwall, to partake of their annual fish dinner. Covers were laid -for thirty-five gentlemen," which appeared on 10th September 1835. No -longer is there a great rivalry between the two Greenwich taverns, the -Trafalgar and the Ship. The Ship still remains and the whitebait have -not deserted the Thames, but though at intervals I read paragraphs that -fish dinners are still to be obtained at the Ship, I never meet anyone -who has journeyed to Greenwich to see whether this is so, and the last -time that I went there to dine my reception was so chilly that I have -not experimented again. But the account of that dinner may interest -as showing what a Greenwich fish dinner was in the days of good King -Edward. - - * * * * * - -It was pleasant to see Miss Dainty's (of all the principal London -theatres) handwriting again. She had been very ill--at the point of -death, indeed--owing to a sprained ankle, which prevented her going -to Ascot, for which race meeting she had ordered three dresses, each -of which was a dream. When was I going to take her out to dinner? The -parrot was very well, but was pecking the feathers out of his tail. -She had some new pets--two goldfish, whose glass bowl had been broken -and who now lived in a big yellow vase. The cat had eaten one of the -lovebirds, and was ill for two days afterwards. The pug had been -exchanged for a fox-terrier--Jack, the dearest dog in the world. Jack -had gone up the river on the electric launch and had fought two dogs, -and had been bitten over the eye, and had covered all his mistress's -white piqué skirt with blood; but for all that he was a duck and his -mother's own darling. - -This, much summarised, was the pretty little lady's letter, and I wrote -back at once to say that the pleasure of entertaining a princess of -the blood-royal was as nothing to the honour of her company, and if -the foot was well enough, would she honour me with her presence at -dinner anywhere she liked? And, as the weather had turned tropical, I -suggested either Greenwich or the restaurant at Earl's Court. - -For Greenwich the fair lady gave her decision, and then I made a -further suggestion: that, if she did not mind unaristocratic company, -the pleasantest way was to go by boat. - -This suggestion was accepted, and Miss Dainty in the late afternoon -called for me at a dingy Fleet Street office. I was delighted to see -the little lady, looking very fresh and nice as she sat back in her -cab, and I trust that my face showed nothing except pleasure when I -perceived a small fox-terrier with a large muzzle and a long leash -sitting by her side. Miss Dainty explained that as she had allowed her -maid to go out for the afternoon she had to bring Jack, and of course I -said that I was delighted. - -We embarked at the Temple pier on a boat, which was as most river -boats are. There were gentlemen who had neglected to shave, smoking -strong pipes; there were affable ladies of a conversational tendency -and there were a violin and harp; but there were as a compensation all -the beautiful sights of the river to be seen, the cathedral-like Tower -Bridge, the forest of shipping, the red-sailed boats fighting their way -up against the tide, the line of barges in picturesque zigzag following -the puffing tugs; and all these things Miss Dainty saw and appreciated. -There was much to tell, too, that Miss Dainty had not written in her -letter, and Jack was a never-failing source of interest. Jack wound -his leash round the legs of the pipe-smoking gentlemen, was not quite -sure that the babies of the conversational ladies were not things that -he ought to eat, and at intervals wanted to go overboard and fight -imaginary dogs in the Thames. - -Arrived at Greenwich, at the Ship (the tavern with a rather dingy -front, with two tiers of bow windows, with its little garden gay with -white and green lamps, and with its fountain and rockery which had bits -of paper and straws floating in the basin), I asked for the proprietor. -Mr Bale, thick-set, and with a little moustache, came out of his room, -and whether it was that Fleet Street and the Thames had given me a -tramplike appearance, or whether it was that he did not at once take a -fancy to Jack, I could not say, but he did not seem overjoyed to see -us. Yet presently he thawed, told me that he had kept a table by the -window for us, and that our dinner would be ready at six-thirty as I -had telegraphed. - -In the meantime I suggested that we should see the rest of the house. -"Would it not be better to leave the dog downstairs?" suggested Mr -Bale, and Jack was tied up somewhere below, while we went round the -upper two storeys of dining-rooms--for the Ship is a house of nothing -but dining-rooms. It is a tavern, not a hotel, and there are no -bedrooms for guests. We went into the pleasant bow-windowed rooms on -the first floor, in one of which a table was laid ready, with a very -beautiful decoration of pink and white flowers, and in the other of -which stand the busts of Fox and Pitt. We looked at the two curious -wooden images in the passage, at the chairs with the picture of a ship -let into their backs, and at the flags of all nations which hang in the -long banqueting-room; and all the time Jack, tied up below, lifted up -his voice and wept. - -I asked if Jack might be allowed to come into the dining-room and sit -beside his mistress while we had dinner, giving the dog a character -for peacefulness and quiet for which I might have been prosecuted -for perjury; but it was against the rules of the house, and Mr Bale -suggested that if Jack was tied up to a pole of the awning just outside -the window he would be able to gaze through the glass at his mistress -and be happy. - -A fine old Britannic waiter, who looked like a very much reduced copy -of Sir William Vernon-Harcourt, put down two round silver dishes, -lifted up the covers, and there were two _souchés_, one of salmon -and one of flounder. I helped Miss Dainty to some of the salmon and -filled her glass with the Pommery, which, after much thought, I had -selected from the wine list. But she touched neither; her eyes were on -Jack outside, for that accomplished dog, after doing a maypole dance -round the pole, had now arrived at the end of his leash--and incipient -strangulation. Miss Dainty went outside to rescue her pet from instant -death, and I, having eaten my _souché_, followed. Jack wanted water, -and a sympathetic hall porter who appeared on the scene volunteered -to get him a soup-plateful, and tie him somewhere where he could not -strangle himself. - -The _souchés_ had been removed, and some lobster rissoles and fried -slips had taken their place. Miss Dainty took a rissole and ate it -while she watched the hall porter put Jack's plate of water down, and -I made short work of a slip and was going to try the rissoles when -Jack, in a plaintive tone of voice, informed the world that something -was the matter. His mistress understood him at once. The poor dear -would not drink his water unless she stood by; and this having been -proved by actual fact, Miss Dainty, with myself in attendance, came -back to find that whiting puddings and stewed eels had taken the place -of former dishes. - -Miss Dainty took a small helping of the eels, looked at it, and then -turned her eyes again to Jack, who was going through a series of -gymnastics. I ate my whiting pudding, which I love, in fevered haste, -and had got half-way through my helping of eels when Miss Dainty -discovered what was the matter with Jack. The boys on the steps below -were annoying him, and the only way to keep him quiet would be to give -him some bones. The sympathetic hall porter again came to the rescue, -and Jack, under his mistress's eye, made fine trencher play with two -bones. - -There was a look of reproach in the veteran waiter's eye when we came -back and found that the crab omelette and salmon cutlets _à l'indienne_ -were cooling. I tried to draw Miss Dainty's attention away from Jack. I -told her how Mr Punch had called her Faustine, and had written a page -about her; but when she found there was nothing to quote in her book of -press notices she lost all interest in the hump-backed gentleman. - -With the advent of the plain whitebait a new danger to Jack arose. -A turtle was brought by three men on to the lawn and turned loose, -and Miss Dainty had to go out and assure herself that Jack was not -frightened, and that the turtle was not meditating an attack upon him. - -The turtle was found to be a harmless and interesting insect, and -having been shown, with practical illustrations, how the beast was -captured by savages, Miss Dainty took great pity on it, collected water -in the soup-plate from the fountain, poured it over its head, and tried -to induce it to drink, which the turtle steadfastly refused to do. - -The veteran waiter was stern when we returned and found the devilled -whitebait on the table. I told him to bring the coffee and liqueurs and -bill out into the garden, because Miss Dainty, having been separated -from her dog so long, wanted to nurse and pet him. - -This was the bill: Two dinners, 14s.; one Pommery, 18s.; two liqueurs, -1s. 6d.; coffee, 1s.; attendance, 1s.; total, £1, 15s. 6d. - -We sat and watched St Paul's stand clear against the sunset, and Miss -Dainty, her dog happy in her lap, suddenly said: "If you give this -place a good notice, I'll never speak to you again." - -"Why?" I replied. "The whitebait was delicious, the whiting pudding -capital, the omelette good. I liked the fried slips and the rissoles." - -"Yes, perhaps," said Miss Dainty, with a pout. "But they wouldn't let -me have my dog in the dining-room!" - - - - -X - -THE CECIL - - -I wonder whether Jabez Balfour, the genius who jumped at Park Lane and -landed on Broadmoor, ever comes to London from his country retreat, -where, under another name, he earns his daily bread, and looks at -the great palaces which were one of his money-spinning schemes and -notes the changes that are made in them. He certainly would scarcely -recognise to-day in the modern Hotel Cecil the great red-brick and -stone block of chambers and flats which first grew up, some seventeen -or eighteen years ago, next to the Adelphi Terrace overlooking the -Embankment Gardens. A company with some very distinguished gentlemen -on the list of the directors was formed to buy the great building, and -they have worked with indomitable perseverance to make a house that was -not intended to be an hotel into one of the most comfortable hotels -in London, and to popularise a restaurant which at first refused to -respond to their efforts. - -The Cecil Restaurant opened with a great flourish of trumpets, with -M. Bertini, a clever, quick-eyed, bearded Italian as manager, and M. -Coste, who was one of the greatest of the great chefs of the close of -the Victorian era, in command of the kitchens. But the company had been -in too great a hurry to begin to earn money, and the arrangements were -not yet working quite smoothly when London that dines and thinks about -its dinners was first asked to sit in judgment on the new dining-place. - -The first roughnesses soon wore off; M. Bertini was an admirable -_maître d'hôtel_--I have lost sight of him of late years, but I think -he went for a time to South Africa, and he made a short appearance as -proprietor of a small restaurant in the Haymarket--and M. Coste, "the -old man," as the rest of the staff affectionately called him behind his -back, sent out through the doors that separate the kitchen from the -restaurant little dinners that delighted the palates of connoisseurs. -This propinquity of kitchen to restaurant is a great advantage. As you -sit at your table in the Cecil Restaurant you can, if you listen for -it, hear the voices of the men who call out the orders to the cooks--an -unceasing chant, a hymn to Gastronomy, and as a result no dish ever -comes cold to table at the Cecil Restaurant. - -What, however, was radically wrong at first with the Cecil Restaurant -was its decoration. It is a very large, very high pillared hall, with -a glazed balcony overlooking the Victoria Gardens, and big windows on -the west giving a glorious view of Westminster; but its decorations -were at first too sombre in colour. The panelling was of walnut wood, -a large square of deep crimson velvet was embroidered with the Cecil -arms, the great mantelpieces of purple-grey Sicilian marble conformed -to the quiet scheme of colour, and the pillars and great window -casings all harmonised in the minor key. The mantelpieces are all -that remain to-day of the original scheme of colouring, and they are -scarcely noticeable amidst the shimmer of pink and white and gold. -A minor drawback was that the restaurant had no ante-room, and that -a dinner-giver had to await his guests in the bustling hall of the -hotel. People who dined at the Cecil Restaurant in those days praised -the cooking, and had nothing except good words for the attendance and -wine, but they said it was not "cheery." Nine out of ten ladies or men -did not trouble to analyse their feelings, but it was the coldness of -their surroundings that affected them. - -To tear down all the decorations of a newly built hall is an heroic -remedy which no board of directors would willingly face, and before -this was done other less expensive remedies were tried. A separate -entrance for the restaurant was made in the courtyard, and a lounge -built and quite charmingly decorated. M. Paillard, the great Parisian -restaurateur, crossed the Channel and became for a time manager of -the restaurant, making with M. Coste in the kitchen a remarkable -combination of talent. A Roumanian band, fierce-looking gentlemen in -embroidered garments, who had been sensationally successful at one of -the great exhibitions in Paris, were imported, were perched up on a -rostrum and made the roof reverberate with their czardas. The services -of "Smiler," a curry-cook of great renown, were exclusively retained -for the Cecil. (Sherry's in New York offered "Smiler" large sums of -money to transfer his services, and he crossed the Atlantic with a -little band of underlings of his own nationality. "Smiler" travelled -first class, and the reporters on the other side not unnaturally -took him to be an Indian Prince on his travels. "Smiler" did not -undeceive them, and enjoyed for some days all the privileges given -to royalty in a republic. Then he reported at Sherry's.) Mr Hector -Tenant, the managing director of the Empire, joined the Cecil board, -and a series of variety performances after dinner on Sundays filled -the big restaurant to its holding capacity on those evenings. Harry -Lauder, concerning whose talent and fine voice everybody was talking -at that time, sang, I remember, on one of those occasions. But there -must have been some excellent reasons for not continuing these variety -performances, for after a time they ceased. - -At last the board took its courage in both hands and redecorated -the restaurant from floor to ceiling. It is now a hall of white and -gold and pink. The panels are of Rose du Barri silk, the pillars are -gleaming white, while the frieze is of the lightest blue. A dark rose -carpet gives relief to this shimmering, shining restaurant, and in its -centre is a handsome table of many tiers for fruit and sweet things, -a table of gilt sphinx heads and many electric lamps. The waiters -wear knee-breeches; the band plays in an ante-room. The redecorated -restaurant at once jumped into the affections of the world that dines, -and further to add to the good temper of this place of butterfly -colouring, the directors engaged as the _maître d'hôtel_ in charge -of the restaurant, M. Califano, who is known to the patrons of the -Cecil as "Sunny Jim." One of the advantages with which M. Califano has -been endowed by Nature is a smiling face, and some wit at the time -that "Sunny Jim" was a favourite figure on all the hoardings, gave M. -Califano his nickname. - -To complete their work of betterment, the board added to the restaurant -and hotel the new palm court, a sumptuous lounge, upholstered in -powdered blue and gold, which has eaten up more than a half of the -great forecourt of the Cecil. This forecourt, which was almost of -the size and shape of a Roman hippodrome, was a great comfort in -past days to the cabdrivers of London, for there was unlimited room -in it for them to wait to take up guests at the hotel; but it was a -great waste of space. The new palm court is a very splendid place, -and besides giving the restaurant a noble reception-room, it has shut -away from the hotel all the noise of the street and all the bustle of -the reception hall. It has, however, done away with the most American -spot in London, the space of paving outside the front entrance of -the Cecil which used to be known as "The Beach." Here used to be cane -chairs and rocking-chairs and piles of luggage, and a newspaper stall, -and in the summer-time pretty girls sunning themselves, and waiters -hurrying to and fro with cold drinks and long straws in them; and the -American guests of the hotel who loved the brightness and the bustle -of the spot christened it "The Beach," and preferred it to any of the -gilded parlours inside the hotel. The new palm court, however, in a -stately manner, has taken the place of "The Beach" as a meeting-ground -for the hotel guests. Mr Kaiser, the general manager of the Hotel -Cecil, tells me that the building of this fine lounge has been of -benefit to the restaurant as giving a finishing touch to its comforts, -and I have no doubt that this is so, for dining in the restaurant, I -found it comfortably filled by people staying in the hotel, and guests -from outside, and "Sunny Jim" told me of the vast numbers whom on -such special occasions as Christmas and New Year's Eve he manages to -accommodate in the restaurant and balcony. - -I ate the Cecilian dinner, a seven-and-sixpenny _table d'hôte_ meal, -which I found quite excellent. This is the menu: - - Huîtres Natives on Hors d'Å’uvre. - Consommé Princesse. - Crème Parisienne. - Filets de Sole Carême. - Quartier d'Agneau Arléquine. - Pommes Macaire. - Caille en Cocotte au Jus d'Ananas. - Salade. - Asperges, Sauce Hollandaise. - Glacé à l'Andalouse. - Friandises. - -The delicate sauce with the sole, the neatness of the garnish of the -vegetables with the quarter of lamb, the plumpness of the quail and -their contrast of taste with the pine-apple, would have assured me that -the kitchen is in first-class hands, even had I not known that M. Jean -Alletru, a chef who stands very high in the estimation of his brother -chefs, had succeeded M. Coste, when that great man retired. - -I might have spent a shilling less and have eaten an alternative dinner -without the oysters in it, or I might have taken advantage of an -arrangement by which anyone dining at the Cecil can pay a fixed price -for his or her dinner, and choose practically anything they like from -the _carte du jour_, which is a very ample one, and which generally -contains some of the _spécialités_ created by M. Alletru. This is the -list of these _spécialités_ and a couple of very pretty little dinners -can be arranged from amongst them, the only thing needed in addition -being a soup. _Tomate en surprise au caviar, turbotin Prince de Galles, -filet de sole Clarence, timbale de truite froide Norvégienne, ris de -veau St Cloud, caille à la Salvini, poitrine de volaille Providence, -selle d'agneau Cecil, poularde à la Jacques, fraises Tetrazzini, -bouteille de champagne en surprise._ - -I have given high praise to M. Alletru, but the highest praise that a -_maître-chef_ can receive is that which comes from his brothers in art, -and no higher compliment could be paid to the management of the Hotel -Cecil and their _chef de cuisine_ than that the Ligue des Gourmands, -the association of all the principal French chefs in England, when they -held their first Dîner d'Epicure under the presidency of M. Escoffier, -placed themselves in the hands of the Cecil and of M. Alletru, who, -with his brigade of cooks, sent to table the dinner that M. Escoffier -had designed. If I print the menu of this banquet, a banquet at which -there were three hundred guests present, in preference to that of -any of the many banquets at which I have been a guest in the great -banqueting halls of the Cecil, it is because in my opinion it is the -perfection of a dinner of ceremony. The _Dodine_ and the _Fraises -Sarah-Bernhardt_ were the two sensational dishes of the feast, but -it is not a dinner of many courses of rich food, and is interesting -without being heavy: - - Hors d'Å“uvre. - Petite Marmite Béarnaise. - Truite Saumonée aux Crevettes Roses. - Dodine de Canard au Chambertin. - Nouilles au Beurre Noisette. - Agneau de Pauillac à la Bordelaise. - Petits pois frais de Clamart. - Poularde de France. - CÅ“ur de Romaine aux Pommes d'Amour. - Asperges d'Argenteuil Crème Mousseline. - Fraises Sarah-Bernhardt. - Dessert. - Café--Liqueurs. - Bénédictine. - -Whether the Cecil was the first of the great banqueting houses to -effect a reform in the service of public banquets I am not sure, but it -was at the Cecil that I first found that such a reform had taken place. -In old days it was the custom for the waiters to trail a dish along the -whole length of a banqueting-table, and the salmon, which went up the -room a noble-looking fish, came down five minutes later to starvation -corner, a head, a tail and a skeleton. It was at the Cecil that I -first noticed the breaking up of the tables into manageable sections -of guests, with a waiter and his aids to each section, and the dinner -served straight from the kitchen to that section. The restaurant and -the banqueting halls and the private dining-rooms by no means exhaust -the list of the accommodations of those who dine that the Cecil -affords. There is below the Rose du Barri room another one, the Indian -room, decorated in Oriental fashion with blue and yellow tiles, and in -this a grill dinner and a _table d'hôte_ dinner are both served, and -when this room overflows another equally spacious room is opened and -becomes the grill-room. - -(As I correct the proofs of this chapter news comes to me that "Sunny -Jim" will in 1914 become a joint partner in the management of the St -James's Palace Hotel in Bury Street and will give special attention to -its restaurant.) - - - - -XI - -CLARIDGE'S - - -I reach back in memory farther in touch with Claridge's than with any -other hostelry in London, One of the stories of her early life that my -mother often told me when I was a small boy was how my grandfather, -as crotchety an elderly widower as ever ruled an Indian district, -when he finally retired from the service of John Company, arrived in -London with his bullock trunks and sandalwood boxes lined with tin, his -bedding rolled up in bundles, his guns, his fly-whisks, and palm-fans, -and all the strange paraphernalia that an Anglo-Indian official -gathered about him in those days. With him came his faithful bearer, -and an ayah, and his little pale daughter, and they all descended at -Claridge's Hotel--though perhaps in those days it might have been -Mivart's. The first great grief of the little girl's life was that -the "Nabob," as my grandfather was called in the family, delivered a -"hookum" to the manager of the hotel that an English nurse must be -provided directly for his small daughter, as the ayah ought to return -at once to her own country, and my mother was obliged to say good-bye -to her devoted Indian attendant. My first personal introduction -to Claridge's was when, as a schoolboy, I was invited by another -schoolboy, who wished to show off, to go with him to visit a German -_Graf_, a nobleman with a very long string of minor titles, whose -greatest glory was that he owned a castle on the Rhine. The _Graf_ was -very polite to the two little English boys, and talked to us in very -bad English; and when we took our departure he saw us to the door as -though we had been persons of the greatest importance. Mr Claridge, -wearing a skull-cap of velvet, happened to be in the hall as we passed -through, and I remember well the beautiful bow that he gave to the -Count. Mr Claridge's bows were celebrated; they were of a different -depth, according to the rank of the person to whom he bowed, and there -was even a delicate difference in the salute that he gave to a Serene -Highness to that with which he welcomed a Royal Highness. Claridge's in -those days consisted of half-a-dozen houses connected with each other, -and the best rooms in these houses formed the suites where the various -royalties who patronised the hotel lodged, Mr Claridge and his staff -of servants being always on the watch that the privacy of his guests -should not be invaded. On one occasion, when a famous caricaturist took -a room at the hotel, Mr Claridge waited on him and informed him that -he must transfer his custom elsewhere, for, though he, Mr Claridge, -was a great admirer of the artist's talent, and decorated the walls of -some of the rooms with his work, he could never allow a royal personage -to be caricatured within the walls of his hotel. Not that Mr Claridge -himself always spoke too respectfully of the great ones of the earth. -Archbishop Temple used to tell a story that when in 1846 the Pope -seriously thought of taking refuge in England, Mr Claridge remarked -that he was so full up with kings and royal dukes that he could only -offer his Holiness a small back room, but that, being a bachelor, he, -the Pope, would probably not mind. - -The old Claridge's was pulled down and the new Claridge's built in -the nineties, and I remember the opening day, when a great crowd of -fashionable people came to look at its _salons_ and ballroom and -restaurant, and the royal suite. The india-rubber roadway in the -entrance, then a novelty, was much admired, and the six footmen in the -hall, in their state livery, looked mighty splendid. Mr D'Oyly Carte, -who more than anyone else had been the moving spirit in the creation of -the new hotel, was wheeled about in a chair through the crush of pretty -ladies and distinguished gentlemen, for he was then very ill. - -The new Claridge's soon found its own particular atmosphere, an -atmosphere of perfect serenity. The little army of footmen, who were -too gorgeous for ordinary occasions, were reduced in numbers, and now -only one superb being in plush and silken calves moves about the hall -and arranges the papers in the reading-room. The inner hall, with -its pillars and walls of white, and its reflected light, is a most -comfortable lounge in which to sit after dinner and listen to the -orchestra, and out of this open two rooms, one of Wedgwood blue with -Wedgwood designs on it, and the other of old gold. The restaurant has -been considerably altered since its first opening, for it has been -divided into two rooms, the colouring of it has been brightened, and at -night an abundance of light is now thrown on to the painted ceilings -from cunningly concealed lamps. The bases of the great arches which -support the roof are cased in dark oak, with an inset of olive wood; -the carpet is of rose and grey and the chairs are of green leather with -the arms of the hotel stamped upon it. - -It is a restaurant in which dinner takes its right place as one of the -tranquil pleasures of life. The music of the band is never too loud, -the fine napery and the admirable glass are pleasant to the touch, the -flowers in the silvered stands of the table lamps give an agreeable -touch of colour, the cut glass of the pendent electroliers sparkles, -and the first and the second _maîtres d'hôtel_, M. Invernizzi, who -comes from the Palace Hotel, at St Moritz, to London for the season, -and M. Castelani, who is a permanency at Claridge's, are tactfully -attentive, while M. Gehlardi, the manager of the hotel, walks through -the rooms during the course of dinner to bow here and there at a -table, and to assure himself that all is well. It is the clientele -of Claridge's that has made its atmosphere, for the well-dressed, -good-looking, quiet people who dine at the tables, put a comfortable -distance apart, are folk whose names bulk largely in the Society -columns of the newspapers, and the list of the diners on any given -night in Claridge's Restaurant would be for the most part a string of -titles. Good manners are in the air, and I do not think that even the -rawest plutocrat could be unmannerly amidst such surroundings. - -On the night that I last dined at Claridge's, I had written beforehand -asking that a table for three should be reserved for me, and I had -intended to give my guests the larger of the two dinners of the -restaurant, the twelve-and-six one, which runs through the usual -courses, and which is by no means a set dinner, for any dish which does -not exactly match the fancy of a dinner-giver is changed for another to -suit his whim or his palate. But I found that a special little feast -had been ordered for me by M. Gehlardi, and the menu of it was as -follows:-- - - Melon Cantaloup. - Bortch à la Russe. - Filets de Sole Newnham-Davis. - Noisette d'Agneau aux Fines Herbes. - Petits pois frais. Pommes Noisettes. - Coq en Pâte. - Salade de Romaine à l'Estragon. - Fraises Parisienne. - Friandises. - -The _chef de cuisine_ at Claridge's is M. Maurice Bonhomme, who had -passed through the kitchens of two great Parisian restaurants, the -Café de Paris, and Ledoyen's, in the Champs Elysées, before he came to -London. He is a chef of high repute, and these are the specialities -of his kitchen:--_filet de sole Tosca, suprême de sole Pré Catalan, -Coulibiac de saumon, suprême de volaille d'Orléans, cailles Hacchi -Pacha, Coq en Pâte Claridge's, pêches Caprice, fraises Delphine_. - -Of the dishes of my dinner, the excellent _Bortch à la Russe_ was -served as it is in Russia, with little _pâtés_ to break into it. The -list of these _pâtés_ in the menu of a Russian dinner is often a long -one. The _filet de sole_, which M. Bonhomme paid me the compliment of -christening to my name, is a quite admirable _sole poché au Madère_, -with all the fumet of the fish retained and served with sliced -_champignons_ and _pointes d'asperges_. I sent my very best compliments -to M. Bonhomme on his masterpiece. The _coq en pâte_ is an ornamental -dish, for the fowl stuffed with all manner of rich things is encased in -a paste shaped like a cock, crest and all. The outer covering is broken -before the bird is carved. It is a dish of almost terrifying richness. - -Quite a number of the great people of the land give their banquets at -Claridge's, and out of the sheaf of the menus of these feasts I select -one of the Surrey Magistrates' Club Dinner, which shows that our Solons -across the Thames dine and wine with much discretion and taste: - - Royal Natives. - Hors d'Å“uvre. - Consommé Monte-Carlo. - Bisque de Crabes. - Turbotin braisé au Champagne. - Whitebait diable noir. - Selle de Béhague à l'Estragon. - Haricots verts de Nice. - Pommes nouvelles au Beurre. - Timbale à la Galoise. - Caneton d'Aylesbury à l'Anglaise. - Salades d'Oranges. - Asperges vertes Sauce Hollandaise. - Pêches Melba. - Friandises. - Bonne Bouche. - - VINS. - Oloroso Fine Old. - Piesporter, 1904. - George Goulet (mag.), 1900. - Moët et Chandon. - Dry Imper., 1904. - Dow's 1896. - Courvoisier Brandy. - Fine Champagne, 1865. - -I wonder how a club dinner of magistrates of fifty years ago would -contrast with such a dinner as the above. - - - - -XII - -THE EUSTACE MILES RESTAURANT - - -Old "Rats," which is the disrespectful title by which most of his -friends call Major-General Sir Ulysses Ratbourne, late of the -Bundlekund Fusiliers, was holding forth to his crony, Colonel -Bunthunder, late of the same distinguished regiment, in the hall of -the Cutlass and Cross-bow Club as I passed through it, and the General -paused for a second in his denunciation of Radicals and Socialists -to say that he wanted to have a word with me, and then finished his -peroration. Colonel Bunthunder muttered: "Very true, very true," and -went on into the smoking-room shaking his head sorrowfully, and the -General turned to me. - -"Look here, my lad"--anyone under seventy is "my lad" to the -General--said he, "I want you to give me a bit of advice." - -I said the correct platitude, and awaited developments. - -"My nephew Bill, the one in the Hussars, has just married, and he and -his wife are coming up to town, and I want to know where to take 'em to -dine." - -I reeled off the list of the half-dozen most fashionable restaurants; -but the General cut me short. "Ay, my lad, that's all very well; but -the girl that poor old Bill's been and married is a vegetarian. What -d'ye say to that, now?" - -The General had put into the word "vegetarian" just the tone of -astonished disgust he would have employed had he told me that the young -lady was a militant suffragette; but I did not echo that at all. "Take -them to the Eustace Miles Restaurant in Chandos Street," I advised; -"and whatever your niece's fads may be, you can give her what she wants -there." - -Old "Rats" thanked me with the chastened thankfulness that men show -when given the address of a specialist for some obscure disease of -which they think they are a victim, wrote the address down on a card, -and went after Colonel Bunthunder into the smoking-room to tell him all -about it. - -It occurred to me, however, directly the old General had left me, that -I was sending him to a restaurant into which I had never myself been, -and concerning which I knew nothing, except that I always look into its -windows and at its bill of fare whenever I pass down Chandos Street; -and, therefore, in order that I might be able to give the old man some -detailed information from my own experience, I went next day to Chandos -Street to lunch. - -Before I set down what my experiences were, I wish to express my -personal admiration for the single-mindedness of Mr Miles and his -wife in doing the work they have set themselves to do. That Eustace -Miles, half trained, went into a tennis court to defend his title of -amateur world champion against a young American gentleman trained to -the second, and that he made a fine fight for the championship with -the odds desperately against him, shows that a diet of non-flesh food -doesn't kill pluck or stamina. And before the authorities asked Mrs -Miles not to send the E.M. soup barrow down to the Embankment on winter -nights, as they wished to clear that thoroughfare of derelicts, she -and her helpers had done much to feed the hungry and to reclaim some -of those who were not irreclaimable, which shows that a kind heart -thrives on Emprote and Protonnic and Compacto, and the other meatless -foods with strange names. Lastly, that the Eustace Miles Restaurant -celebrated last year the seventh anniversary of its opening, shows that -London wanted such a restaurant, and that it has kept its clientele. - -The big windows of the Eustace Miles Restaurant are "dressed" as if -they were shop-windows. Sometimes they are full of tins and packets -of the non-flesh foods arranged in piles and pyramids; sometimes they -look like the windows of a book shop, piles of literature and charts -of the human frame being in evidence; and sometimes boxing-gloves -and foils and pictures of young men holding themselves upright and -sticking out chests as full as those of pouter-pigeons draw attention -to the fact that a physical school high up in the building is one of -the Eustace Miles activities. Sometimes the windows look like those -of a pastry-cook's shop, and sometimes they bristle with copies of -_Healthward Ho!_ the monthly magazine which Mr Miles edits. Always -outside the door in a glazed case is the bill of fare for the day -printed in red and green type, and I have often wondered what "Egg and -Mushroom Fillets and Duxelles Sauce with Asparagus and New Potatoes -(N.)," or "Pinekernel Quenelles and Onion Sauce with Spring Cabbage -and Potatoes (N., F.U.)," or "Hazel-nut Sausages and Gravy with -Cauliflower and Roast Potatoes (N., F.U.)," taste like, and what the -capital letters after each dish mean. Now, however, there was no reason -to linger and look at the card. I was about to plunge into the great -unknown, to sample the dishes with strange names, and to learn the -secret of N.N. and F.U. - -A commissionaire, looking just like other commissionaires, though he, -like all the other employees of the restaurant, eats the food of the -restaurant, opened the door to me and gave me a card for my bill, and -my first impression was that I was in a Food and Cookery Exhibition, -for in front of me was a stall piled high with tins of Emprote and a -cash desk with a little model of the E.M. barrow by it, a stall for -pastry and biscuits, and a book-stall; but beyond this first line of -defence I saw little tables with white cloths on them, and many people -sitting at them, and I walked on looking for a vacant seat. I came to a -table with only one occupant, and sat down; a little waitress in a neat -brown dress put the red and green printed bill of fare into my hand, -and I found myself suddenly faced by a puzzle to which the purple ink -_carte du jour_ of a small provincial French restaurant is as ABC is to -a jig-saw puzzle. However, in larger print than anything else on the -card was the announcement that a half-crown _table d'hôte_ luncheon and -dinner was served, so I said to the waitress in an offhand manner, as -though I were an habitué: "I'll take the half-crown lunch, please." She -never budged. "Compacta _croûtes_ or roasted cashews?" she asked me, -and I gasped out, "Compacta," and wondered what on earth I was going to -eat. - -Then, while the little waitress had gone to get me the first instalment -of the unknown, I looked down the menu and made up my mind which of the -two soups, the two entrées, the two sweets and two savouries I would -order when the waitress came back again, and then turned my attention -to the room and the people at the tables. There is a suggestion of a -gymnasium about the restaurant, for it is a high room with a broad -gallery running round it about half-way up its height, and it is -lighted by a great space of skylight. All the boarding, and there -is a good deal of it, is painted dark green, and on the walls is a -dark green and white paper. A tea-stall, green and white, and a long -buffet of green wood, with pots of flowers on it, are at one end of the -restaurant; the floor is covered with oilcloth, with strips of crimson -cocoa-nut matting laid over it, and there are flowers in vases on the -little white-clothed tables which occupy all the floor space below and -in the gallery. There is a sense of airiness and spotless cleanliness -about the place. Big notices draw attention to the Normal Physical -School and other of the Eustace Miles activities, and a request to -gentlemen not to smoke till after six P.M. was just above my head. - -The people at the tables were just like the people one sees at any -other restaurant where the prices are not high--ladies who might be -stenographers, or country cousins up for a day's shopping, young -men who, I daresay, are bank clerks--a good, level, healthy-looking -gathering. A man with clear blue eyes and a close-clipped white -beard sat down in the seat opposite to mine, and ordered something -without looking at the menu; a youngster in golfing kit took the other -unoccupied place at the table, and a wrinkle came across his forehead -as he plunged mentally into the intricacies of the _à la carte_ sheet, -until the waitress helped him by pointing with her pencil to some dish -printed in red ink, and he joyfully assented to her suggestion. A young -man brought in a bull-dog on a leash, and the dog was petted on his -progress up the floor by all the little waitresses. - -The waitress who had me in her charge returned with the Compacto -_croûtes_, two little angles of hot toast with something spread on -them, and she took my order for the next course, of lettuce and -sorrel _potage_, and for some ginger ale, which I ordered as having a -vague feeling that it would be in keeping with the meal. The Compacto -had a far-off taste of potted meat, and I had noticed that it was -labelled N., F.U., which a note at the top of the menu told me meant -nourishing and free from uric acid. The dishes marked N.N. are "Very -Nourishing." The lettuce and sorrel soup, when it came, was distinctly -to be commended, a trifle thin, perhaps, but having the taste of the -vegetables in it, and being excellently hot. This also, I was pleased -to see, was noted as N. and F.U.; and had I been subject to gout, -which--"touch wood," I am not, I should have been eating an admirable -non-gouty meal. Then came what on the menu was described as a main -dish. It was asparagus and lentil timbale, cucumber sauce, stuffed -vegetable marrow and new potatoes _sautés_. I rather hope that this -will not be the main dish that old "Rats" will stumble up against when -he takes his niece to dine at the Eustace Miles Restaurant, for the -timbale did not seem to me to have any strong taste of asparagus in -it--perhaps the lentils had killed it. The stuffed vegetable marrow was -rather a watery delicacy, but I ate up the _sautés_ potatoes, feeling -quite glad that I knew what their taste was going to be. The next dish, -however--honey shortbread and stewed apricots--I can unreservedly -praise; the shortbread was excellently light and the stewed apricots -were good things of their kind. I had told the waitress that as a -savoury I would have _matelote_ eggs on toast, but I cancelled that -order, for I look on savouries as superfluities, and ate some cheese as -a finish to my repast. - -The little waitress totalled up my bill on the card that the -commissionaire at the door had given me, and I was making my way to -the pay-desk when I saw in a corner by the book-stall a lady engaged -in opening letters; and, thinking that this must be Mrs Eustace Miles, -I asked her if such was the case, and when she said "Yes," introduced -myself. She welcomed me to the restaurant, explained that her husband -was away playing a championship game at tennis, and said how sorry she -was that she had not met me before I lunched, as she would have liked -to suggest to me the dishes that best suit anyone making their first -essay on non-flesh foods. I told her, however, that I had wished to -make my first attack just as any other meat-eating member of the public -would do, and I was very glad to be able to compliment her on the -cook's soup and the shortbread. I had bought at the book-stall the May -number of _Healthward Ho!_ and had carried off from the dinner-table -a sheaf of leaflets giving information concerning the restaurant and -the _salons_, and in addition to these Mrs Miles gave me a leaflet -describing the exhibit that the then chef of the restaurant, Mr Blatch, -N.C.A., sent to the Food and Cookery Exhibition in 1910, and which -won a gold medal there, and an account of the _déjeuner_ at which M. -Escoffier and the editor of _Food and Cookery_ and _The Catering World_ -were present, and which was described by the latter in glowing terms, -"excellent," "delightful" and "delicious" being adjectives used for -every course. This was the menu of the feast: - - Milk Cheese and Celery Mayonnaise. - Salsify and Barley Cream Soup. - Cashew Nut Timbale and Cranberry Sauce. - Nut and Vegetable en Casserole. - Vegetables (Conservatively Cooked). - Jamaican Fruit Salad. - Devilled Compacto. - -It was recorded that M. Escoffier very much enjoyed the devilled -Compacto, and praised the work of the chef who had prepared the -_hors d'Å“uvre_ and the entrées. As, however, since the date of this -_déjeuner_, which was in March 1910, M. Escoffier has given the world -his famous _Dodine_, and his not less famous _Poularde Poincaré_, he -was evidently not weaned from the errors of flesh-eating by his visit -to the Eustace Miles Restaurant, nor shall I be lured away by any -stuffed vegetable marrow from creamy salmon and plump quails. - -But I shall say no word to dissuade old "Rats" from going to dine at -the Eustace Miles Restaurant, for I am quite sure that what he will eat -there will certainly do him no harm, and if he chooses F.U. dishes may -probably do him a lot of good, but I should like to be present when the -old man first looks down the green and red bill of fare of the day and -finds himself faced by all the strange new dishes, for his remarks will -be worthy of the occasion. - - - - -XIII - -THE PRINCES' RESTAURANT - - -When the house for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water -Colours--that classic stone building with busts of great painters -in the ovals that ornament its façade, busts on which the sparrows -perch and watch the traffic in Piccadilly--was put up in the early -eighties, there was space below the galleries for some shops and for -a large hall. It occurred to somebody, probably M. Benoist, whose -great charcutier's shop was just over the way, that Princes' Hall was -eminently suitable to be a dining-room, and Princes' Restaurant came -into existence, M. Benoist being the moving spirit, his brother-in-law, -M. Fourault, being the manager, and M. Azema, a chef of much fame, -being at the head of the kitchen. - -Princes' Restaurant, as I first remember it, was not the beautiful room -it is now. The painted ceiling with its concealed lights, as fine an -example of this kind of art as we have in London, was a later addition; -the garden outside the windows of the restaurant had still to be made, -and I think that the windows which look towards St James's Church were -not in the great room when it was first built. The hotel, which has -an entrance in Jermyn Street, and in which there are some noble rooms -for banquets and balls, was another afterthought. The lessees of some -of the shops on the Piccadilly front were bought out before the palm -garden, in which impatient gentlemen wait for ladies who are late, and -where satisfied diners smoke their after-dinner cigars and drink their -coffee, could be made, and comparatively lately communication has been -established between the restaurant and the galleries above, in order -that when there is a ball in the picture-hung halls the dancers can -troop down to sup below. - -If Princes' Restaurant and Princes' grill-room and Princes' Hotel are -like Rome in that they were not built in a day, they are very good to -look upon in their finished state. The restaurant has a great height, -and the early diners can smoke there without the least taint of tobacco -greeting the later comers. Its ceiling is, as I have already written, -a beautiful example of decorative art, and a bill of exceeding length, -the sum total of which astonished me when I was told how many figures -it comprised, was paid for this embellishment. Its walls are creamy -in colour, the curtains are of soft pink, and the tall windows south -and east are reflected in mirrors, looking like other windows on the -northern side, where the space is not occupied by the Palm Lounge. A -musicians' gallery runs along the western side, and the doors into the -kitchen are below this, but the red-coated musicians have forsaken -their aerie, which now forms a way to ballrooms and galleries, and have -found a snug corner on the floor of the restaurant. There are some fine -marble statues of nymphs on pedestals and palms and banked-up plants -and flowers in the restaurant, and the general effect suggests that one -has stepped out of London greyness into some Southern clime where all -is light and bright and spacious. At night the electroliers are shaded -so as to give a mixed golden and pink light, which is most comfortable -to the eyes, and is, I am sure, very becoming to the complexions of the -ladies, and the carpets and the upholstering of the chairs carry on -the harmony of deep rose and pink. - -The history of the present success of the Princes' Restaurant is the -story of the triumph of the short dinner over the long one. As a -lunching place Princes' was a great success from the day its doors -first opened. The ladies of Mayfair and Belgravia and Tyburnia found -that it was comfortably near their shopping centres, and the little -ladies of the stage also liked to lunch there. The musical comedy -ladies monopolised the first half-dozen tables to the right as one -entered, leaving the rest of the tables to the other ladies, and Stage -looked at Society's hats, and Society looked at Stage's furs, and no -doubt each envied what the other wore. But for quite a while--it seemed -a long while to the shareholders--Princes' did not find its destiny -as a dining place. M. Benoist wished it to be a great _à la carte_ -restaurant such as he has made the restaurant of the Hermitage at -Monte Carlo, but for some unexplainable reason diners did not flock to -Princes' to eat expensive dinners, nor did a long _table d'hôte_ dinner -tempt them. At last it was determined that new methods should be tried -and new men came on to the Board of Directors to try them, that very -energetic and very successful organiser, Mr Harry Preston, of Brighton, -being one of them. A short theatre dinner became the trump card of the -restaurant in the evening, the Princes' ballrooms became the scene of -most of the dances organised in theatreland, and when the company began -to earn an annual dividend for its shareholders the advantages of brief -dinners became very apparent to them. - -This was the dinner of the day that I took a lady to eat at seven -o'clock on an evening on which Sir George Alexander produced a new play -at the St James's:-- - - Hors d'Å“uvre à la Russe. - Petite Marmite Henri IV. - Crème Lamballe. - Suprême de Saumon Doria. - Agneau de Pauillac à la Grecque. - Boutons de Crucifères aux Fines Herbes. - Chapons à la Broche. - Salade. - Biscuit Glacé au Chocolat Praliné. - Friandises. - -This was the six-and-six theatre dinner of the day, not too long to be -eaten during the hour that theatre-goers allow themselves for a meal, -and quite long enough for those for whom dinner is the one event of an -evening. M. Roux, the _maître d'hôtel_, who has been at the Princes' -for eighteen years, also showed me the menu of a half-guinea dinner -which the Princes' holds in reserve should the little dinner not be -impressive enough for some of its clients. The dinner was excellently -cooked, and the tiny _pilau_ which came to the table with the lamb -would have caught the appreciative attention of any gourmet, and -assured me that M. Génie, the present head of the kitchen, who had -previously won his spurs at the Carlton and the Brighton Metropole, -and had at one period learned all there is to learn in Egypt, the land -of _pilau_, is a worthy successor to M. Azema and M. Granvilliers. The -lady who dined with me was much impressed by the two Pierrots sitting -on the moon, a work of art which came to table with the _biscuit_, and -was enthusiastic as to the playing of the orchestra. I thought myself -that the musicians insisted a little too much that their music and not -my conversation was what the pretty lady had come to Princes' to hear, -but the question of music in a restaurant is a matter on which the -gentler sex and the denser one are never in accord and the managers -of most establishments find it a thorny question. If an orchestra of -distinction is engaged nothing in the world will persuade its head that -his music should be merely an accompaniment to conversation, and the -opinion concerning music of a young man who has so much to say to a -pretty girl that a dinner never lasts long enough to allow him to say -it all, is very different to that of a bored husband, who has nothing -in particular to remark to his wife after they have reached the soup -course. - -At seven, when we commenced our dinner, two other tables were already -occupied. By half-past seven the room was comfortably full, and at a -quarter to eight, when we left to go to the St James's, diners were -still coming in to their tables. Most certainly what the dwellers in -the leafy lanes of Mayfair and by the snipe-ground of Belgrave Square -required was a restaurant in Piccadilly, where they can dine well and -at not too great a length, nor at too great a price, on their way to -the theatre, and Princes' has at last given them what they wanted. - - - - -XIV - -THE CRITERION - - -The East Room at the Criterion is a trophy of one of woman's victories -over man, for it was one of the first, if not the very first, -restaurant-rooms designed and decorated to harmonise with feminine -frocks and frills, and made beautiful that mankind should bring -beautiful womankind there to eat things delicate. In the sixties, -restaurants were few and far between, and were mostly places where -men dined without their feminine belongings. But all this was changed -in the seventies, and the East Room did its full share in persuading -man that it added pleasure to a good dinner in a restaurant to be -faced by a pretty woman. The East Room of to-day is twice the size of -the one that Messrs Spiers and Pond first built, and its decoration -of white and gold, and panels painted with Watteau subjects, its -harmony of greys and pink in carpets and furniture and curtains, its -ante-room with old French furniture, and the satisfactory arrangement -by which the music of the orchestra, perched in a gilded cage above -the big entrance hall, comes softened by distance to the diners in -the East Room, are all happy second thoughts. But the East Room was, -in 1873, when it was first opened, the dining place to which every -lady asked her husband to take her, and it has held its own against -ever-increasing competition through the years. Its windows look down -on the rush and swirl of Piccadilly Circus, a wonderful scene either -by day or night, and it adds to the pleasure of an unhurried meal to -watch the hurry of thousands of one's fellow-creatures. - -At one period, after the extension of the building, there were two East -Rooms, a dividing wall being where the arches and curtains now are. The -one of these nearest the grand staircase was a strictly _à la carte_ -restaurant, while in the other, approached through a corridor, a _table -d'hôte_ meal was served. The East Room of to-day smiles on both classes -of diners. When a man sits down at his table there at dinner-time, -M. Kugi, the _maître d'hôtel_, puts before him the _carte du jour_, -an ample one, with any special delicacies in larger print than the -others, and also lays on the table the menus of the half-sovereign and -seven-and-six _table d'hôte_ dinners, and it is his experience that -the greater number of diners look at the _carte du jour_ and then, -mistrusting their own judgment, order one or the other of the _table -d'hôte_ meals. - -This was the menu of the seven-and-six dinner one night when I dined at -the East Room at a tiny dinner-party, before going to the theatre down -in the cellars of the big building to see the play running there: - - Hors d'Å“uvre. - Consommé Rossolnick. - Crème aux huîtres. - Truite de rivière Dona Louise. - Selle d'Agneau Mascotte. - Pommes nouvelles. - Poularde du Surrey à la broche. - Salade. - Parfait au moka. - Friandises. - Dessert. - -It was a very well-selected, well-served dinner. Had we chosen the -half-guinea dinner we should have had an addition to this menu -of _cailles à la Grecque_ and _chou de mer, sauce vierge_. The -_Rossolnick_, with its flavour of cucumber, was excellent, the trout -were fresh and firm, and the Surrey fowl as plump as any foreigner -from Mans. M. Auguste Pannier, the chef of to-day, is worthy of the -great men who have preceded him in the kitchen of the East Room. And -not only have there been great cooks, but great managers as well at -the Criterion, with the East Room as the particular object of their -care. Oddenino, Mantell, Gerard, who all moved on to other posts, were -predecessors of M. Emile Campenhaut, the manager of to-day, as was -also M. Lefèvre, whose health broke down, but whom I remember as being -an enthusiast on the subject of the art of cookery, a man who brought -plenty of brain power to bear on the subject of delicate food. I think -that the best of the many dinners I have eaten _à deux_ in the East -Room was one ordered in consultation with him, and I subjoin it as a -good specimen of an East Room _à la carte_ feast: - - Caviar. - Consommé à la Diane. - Filets de sole aux délices. - Suprêmes de volaille grillés. - Carottes nouvelles à la crème. - Laitues braisées en cocotte. - Cailles à la Sainte-Alliance. - Salade de chicorée frisée. - Croûtes à la Caume. - Soufflé glacé à la mandarine. - -The _caille à la Sainte-Alliance_, in imitation of Brillat Savarin's -_faisan à la Sainte-Alliance_, consisted of a truffle in an ortolan, -the ortolan being in the quail. The _Croûte Caume_ is an admirable -banana dish in which the tastes of the banana and pine-apple and -apricot and kirsch all mingle. - -The East Room is, of course, only one of the many restaurant-rooms -in the great stone building. Immediately under the East Room are the -Marble Restaurant and the grill-room. The Marble Restaurant, in old -days, when men of position did not think it undignified to stand at a -bar and drink brandy and soda, was the Long Bar, and a wonderful sight -this bar, running the whole length of the building, used to be at -midnight, crowded with Londoners of all the leisured classes and with -a score or more of good-looking barmaids in black behind the bar. When -the habits of the men of London began to change, and the Long Bar did -not draw so many devotees, the firm of Spiers and Pond was not quite -convinced for some time that the "palmy" days of the bars were gone, -and they made the Long Bar one of the most beautiful saloons in London, -decorating it with marbles and inlay of Venetian glass. That beautiful -saloon is now the Marble Restaurant, in which a five-shilling _table -d'hôte_ meal is served, and where singers on Sundays discourse music to -the diners. - -The American Bar had its period of great success, and in the -grill-room, which formed part of the bar's surroundings, chops and -steaks, unsurpassed anywhere in London, used to be grilled. But -the character of some of the habitués of the American Bar was too -pronouncedly sporting to be altogether satisfactory, and the American -Bar passed away from the front part of the building as the Long Bar -did. There is a buffet now at the Jermyn Street side, but it is no -longer the haunt of the gentlemen who were so overwhelmingly devoted to -sport. The grill-room, without the American Bar, is a very flourishing -section of the Criterion. It differs from most other grill-rooms in -having plenty of sunlight and fresh air, and has this distinctive -feature, that there is an American cook in its kitchen and that -American dishes can always be obtained there even when they are not -on the bill of fare. I have eaten clam broth, terrapin, dry hash, -scalloped sweet potatoes, and Graham pudding, when dining there with -Americans. - -The Criterion contains a score of banqueting-rooms, including a -huge one at the top of the house, where a statue of Shakespeare -looks down upon the diners. The West Room, which is now one of the -banqueting-rooms, has been used by the management for many experiments. -For a long time a _Dîner Parisien_ was served there, and as its cost -was only five shillings, and as one got a great deal of very good -food to eat for that sum, I used to patronise it very regularly in my -subaltern days, when a dinner in the East Room could not be budgeted -for. At one time it was given over to the vegetarians, and good-looking -damsels in art clothing brought the diners dishes of nut cutlets and -vegetable steaks; but the nut-eaters did not hold possession of the -room for long. - -It is not easy to-day to associate the great stone building in -Piccadilly Circus with the revels of miners in an Australian township. -But it was in Melbourne, during the gold fever, that the seed was sown -which blossomed into the big stone house in the centre of London. Felix -Spiers and Christopher Pond were both young Englishmen. Felix was born -in one of the old houses on Tower Hill, which was then the office of -the General Steam Navigation Company, whose agent his father then was. -The family of the Spiers moved to Paris, and young Felix was put into -a banking house, where he remained until he was eighteen. Then he went -to Melbourne, with the gold fever upon him, to make his fortune. In -Melbourne, he met young Christopher Pond, also an Englishman, and also -determined to make his pile. Spiers had become, for the time being, a -wine merchant, an experience which later was to serve him to excellent -purpose at the Criterion, for he laid down some admirable wine there, -amongst it some hock which as long as it lasted I used to drink in -preference to any other wine on the Criterion list. The miners were -spending money in Melbourne as though it were water, and the Theatre -Royal, Melbourne, received much of the golden shower. It occurred to -young Spiers and young Pond that it would be a profitable undertaking -to start a restaurant next door to a theatre, and they established, in -Collins Street, the Café de Paris. Their next enterprise was to become -caterers for the Melbourne and Ballarat Railway. They were full of -ideas in those days, and one of these was to bring out to Australia -a team of English cricketers and to tour them as a speculation. This -was the thought of which the test matches were born. Spiers and Pond -came to England intending to persuade Charles Dickens to make a great -reading tour in Australia, and then it was that they espied the -nakedness of the land in regard to railway catering. Dickens came to -their aid with his attack on Mugby Junction, and he wrote an article in -_All the World_ entitled "The Genii of the Cave," in which he described -the then novelty of the "Silver Grill" under the arch at Ludgate -Circus, which Spiers and Pond established. The Criterion was the pet -child of the two great caterers. It rose on historic ground, for it -occupied the site of the old "White Bear," which had been a celebrated -coaching-house, one of those fine old inns of many galleries. The -theatre was opened four months later than the restaurant; but it was -not until 1879 that Sir Charles Wyndham, with whom so many of its -successes are associated, took over sole management, though he had been -a partner for the previous three years with Mr Alexander Henderson in -its control. - - - - -XV - -SOME CHOP-HOUSES - - -Many of the City chop-houses nestle together in the alleys and courts -between Cornhill and Lombard Street. There, on either side of one of -the narrow little passages, you will find Simpson's Chop-houses, with -pleasant grey-green walls to their rooms and a window in which simple -food, cooked and uncooked, is shown as bait to draw in the hungry -passer-by; and there in Castle Court is the George and Vulture, which -is also Thomas' Chop-rooms, which dates back to 1660, is proud of its -Dickens' traditions, and is more ambitious in its bill of fare than -most of the chop-houses. - -There also, in Chance Alley, is Baker's Chop-house, which, that there -may be no mistake as to its pretensions, describes itself on a board at -the Lombard Street entrance to the alley as a tavern, and a chop-house, -a coffee-house, and soup-rooms. It is a dignified little house, which -bears its years well--it was founded in the seventeenth century--and -which, with its two bow-windows with small panes of glass and its glass -door in between, commands confidence even before one has crossed the -threshold. Inside one of the windows are wire screens to give privacy -to the company in the house, but the other window begs all men to -look in and see the fish and the joints, the vegetables, the salad -stuff, and, perhaps, a loin of cold beef, samples of what the larder -contains. Beyond this rampart of good things edible you may see dames -and damsels attired in black, busy in a glassed-in little room drawing -beer, taking payment from satisfied customers for what they have eaten, -and a grave gentleman, with white hair and beard, making entries in -a large ledger; for the little portioned-off space you are looking -into serves as bar and counting-house, some old punch-bowls on a shelf -giving it its right old-world note. - -Once inside the door you find yourself in as snug and cosy an -eating-house as you can find in London. The ground floor is partitioned -off into many boxes. There is one to your left as you come in, the -counting-house being on your right, and two, one of them with a curtain -to give it privacy, facing you, and another just beyond the grill, -and yet another one below the round clock in a black frame which is -on the back wall. The partitions and the walls are of wood panelling -painted and grained to resemble light oak, but whoever the craftsman -was who worked at it with feather and comb, he must have passed away -long ago, for the painting, like everything else in the house, has -been mellowed by time. The partitions are carried up high wherever -there is any possibility of a draught reaching anyone sitting in one -of the boxes, and in the high partitions the top panels are of glass. -There are pegs for hats and coats on the wall and a stand for umbrellas -near the fireplace. The fireplace, a big grill in a stone frame, is in -one of the side walls, and close in front of it, his body partially -sheltered by a wooden screen, stands the cook, white-bearded and in -white cap, white jacket and apron. At his elbow is a compartment, -a big box without a lid, in which are chops, steaks, and all other -things grillable, and any man who thinks he is a judge of a raw chop -or steak, looks over into this box before he finds a seat for himself, -and indicates to the cook which particular fragment of red meat he -wishes to have prepared according to his liking. Above the fireplace -is a framed water-colour picture of the outside of the house, and on -either side of this work of art are pewter plates in a splendid state -of polish. The other interesting work of art on the walls is a portrait -of "James," who was a waiter at Baker's for thirty-five years. James -was, I imagine, early Victorian. He has a benign appearance, and his -watch-chain is almost as large as a cable. The waiters of to-day are -as British as James was, and they go about their business with much -quickness and dexterity. To complete my description of the lower room -at Baker's, I should add that there is sawdust on the floor, and that a -narrow staircase, the steps of which are covered with lead, leads up to -the rooms on the other floors. - -You will have seen written in little frames on one side of the -counting-house window looking into the chop-room some of the dishes -of the day that are ready--curried chicken, Irish stew (one-chop and -two-chop portions), stewed steak, and the like, and your waiter will -tell you of other good things--pies and puddings, each a portion for -one--that are ready. If you are for something from the grill, you make -your selection from the cook's stores. If a cut from the joint is to -your taste, you go upstairs to the big room on the first floor, where -there are red walls and no partitions. - -A basket of great chunks of household bread is on the white-clothed -table at which you find a place; your chop, if you have selected -a chop, will come to you on a willow-patterned dish, and you will -transfer it to a willow-patterned plate. In old days all meat at -Baker's used to be served on pewter. But if the four plates over the -fireplace are the only survivors of the pewter set, your beer will -be brought you in a pewter tankard, and most of the glass is of old -pattern. When you come to the cheese stage your slice of Cheddar and -pat of butter are both excellent. Indeed all the food at Baker's is -good. No eating place which does not give good food at reasonable -prices ever survives in the City, and Baker's has seen nearly three -hundred years pass away. Who the original Baker was who gave his name -to the chop-house no one knows, but a guess is made that he was a -relation of that Mr Baker who was Master of Lloyd's Coffee-House in -Lombard Street in 1740, and who carried to Sir Robert Walpole the news -of Admiral Vernon's taking of Portobello, being suitably rewarded as a -bringer of good tidings. - -The customers of Baker's Chop-house are excellent walking -advertisements of the house. They all seem to be prosperous City -men, young and old; they are well groomed and they look well-fed and -contented. - -When you have finished your meal at Baker's you leave twopence by your -plate as the waiter's tip, you give the grill-cook another penny, if -you have eaten grilled fare, as you pass him on your way out, and then, -pausing at the wicket of the counting-room, you recite to the lady who -faces you the things you have eaten and what you have imbibed, and she, -doing a sum of mental arithmetic, tells you instantly what you have -to pay. As a souvenir of the house she will give you a post card, if -you ask for it, carrying a miniature copy of the work of art over the -fireplace. - -But there are chop-houses in London outside the City limits, and I -know of three of them within arrow-flight of Piccadilly Circus. There -is Snow's, for instance, in Sherwood Street, almost in the Circus. -Snow's has a reputation for its steaks, and I know men who declare -that the best bacon and eggs in the world are those brought in between -two plates from the kitchen and placed on the tables at Snow's. It has -lately been rebuilt, and is a modern reproduction of a Tudor house, -its three little gables and the green gallery before its upper windows -being very picturesque. The old tables and the old partitions are in -their old places in the lower rooms, but the walls of glazed tiles and -the curved brass hangings for coats and hats are scarcely Tudor. The -company at Snow's at its busy times of the day is a curious mixture. -Your neighbour at table may be a clergyman up from the country, or the -man who shaves you at Shipwright's round the corner, or a young artist, -or a taxi chauffeur. - -Stone's in Panton Street, which dates back to 1770, is another -chop-house, though it is better known as a wine-house. It has its -coffee-room, where good, plain grilled food is obtainable, though it -rather sinks the title "chop-house" in the more aristocratic "_à la -carte_ restaurant." Stone's has always been a favourite resort of men -of the theatre. - -Not very many Londoners know of the Sceptre Chop-house, Number 5 -Warwick Street, a little street which runs parallel, on the east, to -part of Regent Street, for it is not in a main thoroughfare. It is -a typical early Victorian chop-house, and it used to be a haunt of -Charles Dickens when he was making his first successes as an author. -The front of the house has been newly painted, but the interior remains -as it was in 1830, when it first opened its door. Its window is frosted -half-way up to obviate the necessity for blinds, with a pattern and -announcements that the house supplies chops and coffee left in plain -glass amidst the frosting. I warrant that window created considerable -enthusiasm in Warwick Street in 1830. At least three of the -proprietors, past and present, of the Sceptre have their names recorded -on the front of the building. Sanders' name is almost obliterated on -the length of brass that forms the window-sill, and shows faintly on -the glass of the door. Gosling is preserved to memory by his name in -gold letters over the door, while Purcell's is very large above the -window. Inside, the long room is a harmony of quiet colours. There -is brown boarding half-way up the walls, and above that green that -rests the eye. By the door is an enclosed cosy corner, with a mirror -in an old black frame over the fireplace. All down the room are low -mahogany partitions with seats cushioned in black. The tables are of -mahogany, polished by constant rubbing of the waitresses' napkins, and -no tablecloths ever hide the deep colour of the old wood. At the end of -the room is a screen of three arches of dark wood. The two side arches -are filled with panelling and mirrors; but through the centre arch can -be seen the kitchen with its sawdusted floor, its ranges of plates -and dishes, and the cook and the cookmaids in print dresses going -about their work. The waitresses in black dresses and white aprons -and caps bustle up and down the room and in and out of the kitchen. A -stove heats the long room, and glazing in the roof gives it light. A -staircase of black wood leads to the upper rooms, and by the doorway -into the street is a little compartment, no larger than a sentry-box, -which is the pay-desk. - -The food at The Sceptre is of the simplest kind, and a haricot chop or -roast chicken are about its highest flights. Your soup, mutton broth, -or mock turtle or kidney costs you 4d. or 6d., according to the size -of the soup plate. You can pay 9d. or 10d. for your chop and 10d. for -your steak. A cut from the joint, for The Sceptre gives you a choice of -three joints, is a 9d. matter; but you can get a very ample helping of -apple tart for 3d. It is under the heading of entrées that The Sceptre -puts such high flights of cookery as curried mutton and rice, boiled -tripe and onions, Irish pie and mixed grill. - -Many men distinguished in art and music and literature have felt, and -still feel, the fascination of The Sceptre Chop-house. You may, very -likely, amongst the company at the old mahogany tables, see one of the -brightest writers on _Punch_, or our greatest living painter of battle -pictures, or the man who composed "In the Shadows." - -Upstairs are two delightful old rooms, browned by time and the London -climate, with old wooden shelves, old clocks, old brass candlesticks, -old chairs and tables. In one corner of the front room, by a window, -stands Dickens' chair, for it is here, so the tradition of the house -has it, that Dickens used to come in his early days to write, and it -was in this corner that many of his "Sketches by Boz" were jotted down -on paper. The Sceptre was a spruce, new little house at this period of -Dickens' life, and probability as well as tradition is on the side of -its having been one of his early haunts. - - - - -XVI - -SOME GRILL-ROOMS - - -The modern grill-room we owe, I think, to the Americans, for the -travelling American, who has his own very sensible ideas as to what -comfort is, does not wish every night of his life to attire himself in -a "claw-hammer" evening coat, but he feels that without that garment -he would be out of place in the restaurant of any of the fashionable -hotels. The grill-room gives him an excellent dinner, just as long or -just as short as he likes, served quickly, in luxurious surroundings, -and he can dress as he likes, to eat it. An American always knows what -he wants, asks for it, and keeps on asking until he gets it. Quite a -number of Britons of both sexes wanted all the conveniences of the -grill-rooms long before the modern grill-room came into existence. -(Hard-working men of business who had not time to go home to the -suburbs to change their clothes, men of the theatre, authors and -managers who work late in the evening, actors and actresses who like -a very light meal before going to the theatre, and to sup after their -work without wearing gorgeous raiment, and a host of other people who -get their living by their brains.) But they had not the pertinacity of -the American in demanding what they wanted. - -Quite the beginning of the modern grill-room was that silver grill -which Messrs Spiers and Pond established some time in the sixties under -the arch at Ludgate Hill; but I look to the little grill-room in the -old Savoy Hotel in the days before the new building had pushed through -to the Strand as being the ideal of a modern grill-room, and I always -measure any grill-room of to-day by the standard of that little place -of good eating. It was small, and its windows looked up an unlovely -cul-de-sac of which it formed the end. The people who controlled the -Savoy Hotel and the Savoy Theatre all used it as their own dining-room; -the general public scarcely knew of its existence; the food there was -excellent. Besides the chops and steaks and other real grill-room fare, -there were always one or two savoury entrées kept hot in metal pots and -pans on a miniature hot plate in the middle of the room, and when the -_maître d'hôtel_ brought over one of these and took off the cover under -one's nose, the savour of its contents alone gave one an appetite. - -The present Café Parisien at the Savoy, which the russet-bearded -Gustave steered to a great success, is the legitimate successor to that -other grill-room which was hidden away in the midst of the building, -but it has not the charm of discovery felt by those who used the old -grill-room. The Café Parisien, which has its entrance in the Savoy -forecourt, where gorgeous servitors in French-grey uniforms of State -take one's coat and hat just as they do if one is going to spend one's -money in the restaurant, is a great Adams room painted a very light -grey, with _portières_ of light pink, and with chairs and carpets of -a deeper rose. It has a little space outside, a _terrasse_, as the -French would call it, which is railed off from the courtyard by a white -trellis, over which roses are trained. This is a very pleasant spot in -hot weather, if so be that no motor sighing out deep breaths of petrol -is standing in the vicinity. This Café Parisien is a place of pleasant, -clean-shirted Bohemianism, much patronised by the aristocracy of the -theatre. There is an elaborate _à la carte_ menu with stars against -those dishes which are ready. A man in a hurry can eat a four-course -dinner here in half-an-hour without risking indigestion, but a couple -who wish to talk over their meal can make a cutlet and an ice an excuse -for sitting out an hour. - -The grill-room of the Princes' Restaurant, to which one descends from -an entrance in Piccadilly, is a comfortable white room, with white -pillars and mirrors in the panelled walls, where quite good food is -served, and where there are always the dishes of the day ready as well -as the chops and steaks, kidneys and sausages, and other legitimate -grill fare. The Brussels carpets and the dark leather of the chairs are -restful to the eye, and the lights in the crystal bouquets which hang -from the ceiling are not too glaring. - -Almost across the way, in the great building of the Piccadilly Hotel, -quite an unpretentious entrance and a small staircase with marble walls -lead down to the grill-room. There is a lift by the stairs which is -much used by the people coming up from the grill-room, though only -lazy folk use it to go down there. This unpretentious entrance and -staircase are the portals to a suite of very high, very spacious rooms, -running the full length of the building. There are pilasters with -gilt capitols; and casemented mirrors in the walls. The electroliers -holding imitation candles give abundant light. The grill is behind a -great glass screen; carvers in white wheel about big joint waggons -and a Turk in gorgeous raiment is ready to make Oriental coffee. The -deep rose of the carpet contrasts with the white of the walls. At a -multitude of tables are hundreds of people of every comfortable class -in life, from the bank clerk to the field-marshal, and from the typist -to the duchess, eating meals simple or elaborate, just as they will. -This grill-room, like most of the others, caters for every taste; for -there is an elaborate _carte du jour_, two _table d'hôte_ luncheons -at half-a-crown and three-and-six, and a _table d'hôte_ dinner at -five-and-six. Electric fans keep the atmosphere pure. This grill-room -is all day long a very busy place, and as many as five hundred dinners -are served nightly. - -Of the Criterion grill-room, the great airy hall on the ground floor of -the building, I have already written in another article. - -On the other side of Piccadilly Circus the Monaco has a grill-room with -light buff walls and light buff marble pilasters. Its entrance gives -on to Shaftesbury Avenue. Near by is the Trocadero grill-room, down to -which a staircase of green and grey marble descends, and which, with -its walls of grey marble and gold and buff, its mirrors, its hammered -copper-work, its great grill and its orchestra, is handsome almost to -the point of gorgeousness. A _table d'hôte_ dinner is served here, as -it is now in most modern grill-rooms. - -In Regent Street the Café Royal possesses a heavily gilded grill-room, -with entrances through the café and from Air Street, a grill-room in -which the best _entrecôte_ and the best pint of Burgundy in London -are obtainable; and on the other side of Regent Street, its entrance -hidden away in that dead little road, Haddon Street, is the grill-room -restaurant of the New Gallery Cinema Theatre, in the basement of -that establishment. It consists of two rooms, panelled with oak and -hung with copies of old tapestries. From these it takes its name Les -Gobelins. Mr Goetz, of the Vienna Café, opened this little place of -refreshment, and there were always Austrian and German dishes on its -bill of fare, but it has now changed hands, and M. Victor, late of the -Imperial and Les Lauriers, is in command. Its cookery remains very good. - -The Carlton grill, which has its own entrance in the Haymarket, is -as good a specimen of the grill-room of to-day as one could select to -show to anyone who wished to understand the differences between the -chop-houses of yesterday and the grill-rooms of to-day. The staircase -which leads down to it is oak-panelled. In the little ante-chamber -where hats and coats are given up there is a newspaper stall, and in -another ante-room are easy-chairs, dark green in colour, and small -tables with tops of burnished copper. The grill-room itself is all -white, little pilasters breaking the smooth sides of the walls. Blue -china stands on the shelves, a Cromwell clock ticks on a bracket, and -at one side of the room are arched recesses with stained glass windows -at the back of them. The lights in the electroliers burn here day and -night, but the atmosphere is never stuffy. A glass screen keeps the -heat of the grill from the room, and in front of this screen are piles -of crimson tomatoes, and chops and steaks of deeper red, and mushrooms -yellow, grey and warm brown, a harmony in reds and greys. Its _carte -du jour_ is all-embracing, and some of the dishes are always ready. M. -Ventura is the presiding spirit in this grill-room. He knows the tastes -of his clientele and which tables they prefer, and when there are no -unoccupied tables and people have to be turned away, as sometimes -happens, or asked to wait in the ante-room until tables are free, his -grief is really heartfelt. - -At the very gateway of the Strand the Grand Hotel has a popular -grill-room, walled with shining tiles of white and buff; the Cecil has -a great Indian room of blue and yellow tiles; and, indeed, every big -hotel from the great pile of the Kensington Palace, in the west, to the -hotel of the Great Eastern Railway in Liverpool Street in the east, has -its grill-room, the simplicity of the fare and the fact that the raw -material is always on view to the diner before it is placed on the -grill being a guarantee of the quality of the meat. - -Most of the restaurants also have their grills. - -Romano's turned its old kitchen into a reproduction of a room in a -Russian farmhouse with horns on the walls and an icon up in a corner, -and even at one time carried realism to the point of putting the -waiters in this part of the establishment into white blouses with red -sashes at the waist, the dress the Tartar waiters in Moscow wear. You -get the restaurant food in this grill-room at about half the restaurant -prices. A new electric grill has been installed in this Russian room -which grills just as well and far more quickly than a charcoal or a -coal grill. - -The Frascati, in Oxford Street, has a grill-room on the ground floor -with walls of white marble veined with grey, and with mirrors in -Oriental frames; and at the entrance to Tottenham Court Road the -Horseshoe has an excellent grill above its oyster saloon. - -The Holborn shows originality in devoting a grill-room to ladies, -and in the old Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, which now -calls itself the Connaught Rooms, there is in the basement a large -grill-room, with a choice of three joints at luncheon time as well as -an extensive _carte du jour_, a grill which is much patronised by the -lawyers from Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the evening a dinner is served -in a smaller room, and I have dined there before going across the way -to the Kingsway Theatre. Those who dine are, I think, mostly connected -in some way or another with Freemasonry, and the talk that goes on at -the tables has reference to high offices in the Craft and Mark, to -"raising" and "passing," and to that ancient and sacred ritual which -ladies still believe to be in some way connected with a red-hot poker. - - - - -XVII - -ROMANO'S - - -Alfonso Nicolino Romano, a head waiter at the Café Royal, in 1874 -bought with his savings a small fried fish shop in the Strand, -converted it into a bar and restaurant, and in addition to his own -name on its front added Café Vaudeville, for it was, and is, almost -next door to the Vaudeville Theatre. Romano's in those days possessed -a central window flanked by two doors, one leading into the bar and -the other to the rooms above. In the window as an ornament was a small -aquarium which contained goldfish, and those fish must have lived -exciting, if short, lives, for the patrons of the bar tried to feed -them with cigar ash, lemon rind, burnt almonds, and torn-up notepaper, -and it is even said that "Hughie" Drummond, one of the most amusing and -most reckless of the clean-shirted Bohemians who made "the Roman's" -known all the world over, tried to take a swim with them. - -Romano was a curly-haired, humorous, quick-witted little Italian who -talked a strange Anglo-Italian jargon--"Pore ole Romano e got badda -addick this morning" his usual morning greeting, was an example of -it--and who was on the easiest terms of familiarity with most of his -clients without ever overstepping the line. He had not very many -rules as to the conduct of his business, but one from which he never -departed was that he would under no circumstances make a reduction -in the total of a bill. He would give an aggrieved customer some of -the very best "cognac" of the house or split a bottle of the most -expensive champagne with him or ask him to dinner next day, but what -he would not do was to reduce any item in the account. One of the -most frequent forms of verbal invitation given by "The Roman" was to -a Sunday midday inspection of his cellars in the Adelphi arches. "You -coma see my cellars, Mister So-and-So Eskwire, best in London" was the -actual wording. Romano had come from a good school, and he laid down an -excellent cellar. The food in the restaurant was also beyond reproach. - -Behind the bar, a bar which was always full of racing men, journalists, -coaching men, men from the Stock Exchange, men about town--for those -were the days when no man in the movement thought it undignified to be -seen standing up in a place of refreshment--was the restaurant. It was -little more than a corridor, a long, narrow room with space for one -line of tables only; but at those tables used habitually to sit the -merriest gathering of good fellows, and I include the ladies in that -term, that ever came together in a London restaurant. There were witty -journalists such as Shirley Brooks, "Pot" Stephens, "Jimmy" Davis, -and "Shifter," and there were men of the theatre--Cecil Raleigh, for -instance, and "Charlie" Harris, who when the waiter called the order -for his dinner down the speaking-tube always added himself "pour le -patron," for Romano, who lunched and dined at the table nearest the -bar door, was not likely to get a tough steak or a thin quail. There -were Guardsmen, such at "The Windsor Warrior," "Billie FitzDitto," -"Haddocks," and "The Bonetwister," and men about town, of whom Hughie -Drummond and Fred Russell were perhaps the best known, and coaching -men, "Dickie the Driver" and "Swish" and "Partner," who used to -delight in bringing jolly old Jim Selby to dine; and Arthur Roberts, -then at the very top of his form, and "Mons" Marius, as representatives -of the actor fraternity. And around this kernel of good-fellowship -formed a fringe of other good fellows who came and went, men from -the country, men from the far parts of the world, soldiers, sailors, -planters, explorers, country squires. It was rather a clannish -gathering, for everybody seemed to know everybody else at the line of -tables, and people who were not taken into companionship, no difficult -matter if they were kindred souls, felt "out of it," and went elsewhere. - -Between the Gaiety Theatre and Romano's there grew up an indefinite -alliance, and golden-hearted Nellie Farren would lunch there when a new -burlesque was in rehearsal, and "the Child" and dear "Jack" St John -and others of the principals looked with favour on the restaurant, and -on Lord Mayors' days made a brave show of beauty at the windows of the -first floor. The Gaiety Girls of those days, splendid women and jolly -good fellows, who enjoyed life, and by their beauty and sociability -helped other people to enjoy life, lunched and supped at the Roman's. -I have a dozen names at the tip of my pen, but if I wrote them down I -should stray into a gossip over the ladies of the burlesque and light -opera stages in the seventies and eighties, and should require columns -and columns of space to deal adequately with such a subject. Most -of them married, and, as the fairy tales have it, "lived happy ever -after." And the "halls," we didn't call them variety theatres then, -were also represented at the Roman's. Jolly, humorous Bessie Bellwood -lunched there five days out of six, though she kept the Roman humble -by asserting that she preferred the tripe and onions at Chick's to -anything his kitchen could produce, and when she was in good anecdotal -form kept everybody near her tremulous with laughter. And the sisters -Leamar, who used to sing a duet as to Romano's being "a paradise, sure, -in the Strand" and added the information that "the wines and the women -are grand," naturally paid frequent visits to the restaurant to assure -themselves that the description was a correct one. - -The Roman gathered about him a staff which exactly suited the tone of -the restaurant, proof thereof being that so many of them remain in -its service to this day. M. Luigi Naintre, the manager of Romano's, -has climbed the ladder of promotion steadily through all the grades -at the restaurant, and though for a while after Romano's death he -wandered into other folds, one of the first acts of the company which -now controls the restaurant was to ask him to come back to it. Long -experience has taught him the art of making each frequenter of the -restaurant believe that the establishment is maintained entirely to -meet his or her taste and whims, and he is essentially the right man in -the right place. M. Minola, his second in command, also graduated in -the "Roman" school. The cellarman, L. Bendi, and the wine-butler, L. -Villa, have been in the restaurant as far back as I can remember. - -I must pass quickly over the fire which burned down the old Romano's -and its rebuilding on the site of the old restaurant and on that of -another house next door. The panelled hall and, in the restaurant, the -Moorish arches with the pictures of the Bosphorus seen through them -were features of the new building, and remain to-day as they then were. -In the nineties Romano died of pneumonia, contracted by standing one -cold winter day outside the restaurant door with no great-coat on, and -the restaurant came under the Court of Chancery. - -The Court of Chancery was not at all sorry to hand over its duties to -a company, with Mr Walter Pallant, the then chairman of the Gaiety -Company, as its chairman, which was formed to purchase the restaurant. -Mr "Teddy" Bayly, who as a patron of the restaurant had helped -materially in making the fortune of the Roman, became manager, and -Luigi was appointed as second in command. When Mr Bayly left Romano's -for a restaurant of his very own M. Luigi mounted one rung more of the -ladder of promotion and was appointed manager. - -The first business of the company, after giving the building "a wash -and brush up," was to find a chef of celebrity and experience to take -charge of the kitchens. They found in M. Ferrario exactly the man for -whom they were looking. M. Ferrario had learned his art under M. Coste -in the kitchens of the Cecil, and when he himself became the commander -of the kitchens of a restaurant of the first class he showed that he -had used his powers of observation, that not only did he know all that -there was to be learned concerning the _haute cuisine française_, -but that he had an open mind with regard to the cookery of all other -nations. The _mouzakkas_ that M. Ferrario sends from his kitchen are -the best I have eaten outside Bucharest. He makes a ground-nut soup, -the one delicacy that Nigeria has added to the cookery book, quite -admirably, and Romano's is the only restaurant that I know of in Europe -where one can eat a Malay curry cooked as it is cooked in Malaya and -served in the Malay fashion, with sambals and with shining Malayan -shell spoons for the rice. What substitute M. Ferrario has found for -the fresh cocoa-nut pulp which is the foundation of all Malay curries -I do not know, but he has found something which replaces it admirably. -In the winter at lunch-time north countrymen say that Romano's -Lancashire hot-pot is the real thing, and there is another British -luncheon dish, gipsy-pot, which I eat at Romano's, a savoury stew of -chicken and cabbage and other vegetables and other meats, which I find -exceptionally good. - -But perhaps I had better give you in detail what are the specialities -of Romano's kitchen. They are, for lunch: Malay curry of chicken, -Lancashire hot-pot and gipsy-pot. For dinner: _poule au pot, bortch à -la Russe, potage Normande, potage Nigérienne, filets de sole Romano, -filets de sole Sportive, sole au plat aux courgettes, sole à la crème, -truite George V., poulet nouveau Valencienne, perdreau Romano, mousse -de volaille au curry,_ the last being an admirable _mousse_ with just a -far-away reminiscence of India, a sort of dream of all the good curries -of the East, in it. - -If I gave you the menus of all the nice little dinners for two of which -I have been one of the participators at Romano's I should fill a fat -volume. But here is a little spring dinner which will serve my purpose -very well: - - Crevettes Roses. - Fumet de Volaille aux Å“ufs Filés. - Filets de Sole Sportive. - Epaule de Pauillac Bergère. - Petits Pois Nouveaux à la Crème. - Asperges d'Argenteuil. - Sauce Divine. - Fraises Diva. - -And the wine I drank with this was a bottle of 1900 St Marceaux, which -was the choice of the lady who honoured me with her company. The -_filets de sole Sportive_ are soles which bring to table with them just -a dream of Chablis, and which are nobly backed up by crayfish. - -The old Romano's in its first period was very clannish. The new -Romano's, though it is a comparatively small restaurant, finds room for -all men and all ladies who love good food and who like the slightly -Bohemian, pleasantly Parisian, atmosphere of the "Paradise in the -Strand." I have seen a duchess dining at one of the corner tables, -and I do not suppose that there is a man about town, from dukes to -the latest emancipated Oxonian, who does not know Romano's and its -ways. The clientele varies with the different meals. At lunch-time, -particularly, if there are rehearsals in progress at the Adelphi or the -Gaiety or any of the other light opera or revue theatres, a host of -pretty little ladies go to Romano's and very probably the "Governor" -and the librettists and composers, and a stage director or two, will -be lunching at a corner table. Half-a-dozen other managers are sure -to be somewhere in the restaurant, and there will be ladies not of -the stage, and solicitors, and barristers from the Law Courts and a -plaintiff or two, and a journalist or two, a very interesting _salmis_ -of the stage world and the business world and the world of Law, with a -good seasoning of men from the far parts of the world, and men about -town and soldiers and sailors. At dinner little parties going on to -the theatre finish their feasts about the time that the habitués of -the restaurant, who are going on nowhere or to a variety theatre, make -their appearance. At supper-time the stage is once again the most -strongly represented element, and there is no restaurant in Paris which -can show at this hour prettier faces or more unforced gaiety. The -bright young spirits from the 'varsities all love Romano's, but Luigi -has a wholesome fear of the "Twenty-firsters," as the boys call their -coming-of-age feasts, and the numbers at these gatherings at Romano's -are kept within very strict limits. - -There is one happy young Oxonian who absolutely defeated Luigi at -a birthday feast. He had been solemnly warned that the spirits of -his party must not rise too high, and he and they had all behaved -with quite suspicious decorum during supper. The band had finished -playing, and the bandmaster, on departing, had locked the door of the -pulpit-like Moorish bandstand that projects high up into the room. -When closing hour came and all the guests were moving out except the -party of young Oxonians Luigi told them that they also must take their -departure. But their leader begged to be allowed to sit on for a few -seconds longer, even though the lights were turned out. Out went the -lights, and then here and there a single light was put up again that -the waiters might see to pile the chairs on the tables and put the -restaurant into its night attire. Luigi, looking at the supper-party, -thought that their numbers had diminished, and from the bandstand came -the sound of someone playing the piano. In the two seconds of darkness -the giver of the feast had performed a really wonderful gymnastic -feat. Jumping off from the back of one of his guests, he had climbed -up into the bandstand and had taken his seat at the piano. The door -was locked and the key gone home with the bandmaster; his fortress -was unstormable, and he was in complete possession. For a quarter of -an hour or so he played little selections at the piano, inquiring of -Luigi, who stood below, what were his favourite airs, and it was only -when his musical repertoire ran out that he climbed out of his aerie -and dropped to the floor. - -On occasions, generally on the evening of first nights at the theatres, -when an extension has been obtained, suppers at Romano's sometimes -end in little dances. But the great dance of the year at Romano's -is the "Twelfth Night," one which is not so much a party given by -the restaurant as a party given to themselves by the habitués of the -restaurant. All the tables for this night are secured weeks in advance, -each host pays for his own party, but Romano's supplies all the toys -and the presents, the masks and tambourines, and anything new in -trifles that is to be bought in any city of the world. The shops of -Paris and Vienna are ransacked to provide novelties for this evening. -The spirit of Paris always hovers above Romano's, but this particular -night in its fun without rowdiness is the most Parisian night of the -year. - -Romano's as it now is is very different in its arrangements from the -restaurant that the company took over from the Court of Chancery. What -was the linen room is now a gallery, which is nicknamed the "Bird -Cage," looking down on to the restaurant. The kitchen has been taken -away from below the restaurant and put behind it, and where the kitchen -was is now a grill-room with lattice-work arbours decked with vines and -a vista leading up to a little fountain. The whole scheme of decoration -of the restaurant is now of the lightest of light Moorish design, the -details being copied from the Alhambra at Granada. The most important -change of all is the disappearance of the old bar, a bar which in its -day made history, its place being taken by a little waiting-room, -which is a reproduction in most of its details of the Henri IV. room -in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A good deal of loving care has been -bestowed on all the details of the decoration and equipment of the -restaurant. Look at the brass handles on the doors leading into the -hall, and you will see that they are admirable works of art. In the -same way the napery put on the table at dinner-time before coffee is -served is well worth a glance. Some of the china is quite beautiful -in pattern, and the gilt finger-bowl brought you at dessert is very -probably a copy of some of the loot taken by Attila and now preserved -in the Budapest museum. - -Banquets are sometimes given at Romano's in the private room looking -down on the Strand, which has been shut off from the balcony, and no -better indication of the type of these could be given than by setting -down the menu of the latest dinner of the Wine Connoisseurs' Club, at -which there were forty guests: - - Cantaloup Glacé. - Tortue Claire. - Velouté de Volaille Duchesse. - Truite George V. - Ris de Veau aux Perles Noires. - Selle de Béhague aux Primeurs. - Pommes Ideal. - Granite au Clicquot. - Poularde Flanquée D'Ortolans. - Salade Romaine. - Asperges Vertes, Sauce Divine. - Pêches Orientales. - Mignardises. - Paillettes au Parmesan. - Dessert. - -The _Truite George V._ which has a place in this menu is one of the -specialities of the house. It is a salmon trout, braized in port, -served cold on ice with sliced oranges and a luscious jelly. - -Little Romano used to allude to his cellars, as I have written, as -"best in London," and the restaurant has always had a celebrity for -the great choice of champagnes of the great brands and great years it -offers its patrons. Most of the profits made during the last few years -have been expended on champagnes, and no restaurant in London is better -prepared to face that champagne famine which will so soon be upon us. - - - - -XVIII - -IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS - - -One of our legislators had very kindly asked me to dine with him at -the House of Commons, at eight-fifteen P.M., and had told me that he -would meet me at the public entrance. When I mentioned his name to the -civil young policeman at the outer door he touched his helmet and said -that my host had just gone through, so I followed on his tracks. I went -past Westminster Hall, which was in splints, for the ceiling was under -repair, and along that other great hall where statesmen of the past -stand looking their very best in marble. There were two lines of the -public sitting on the benches in between the marble statues, no doubt -hoping eventually to obtain admission to the Strangers' Gallery, for it -was the winding-up night of the Marconi debate. I mentioned my host's -name to every policeman I came across, because I found that when I -did so they touched their helmets and looked pleased, and I am always -delighted to give inexpensive pleasure to any policeman. - -In the public lobby the legislator, who, incidentally I may mention, -is Chairman of the Kitchen Committee, found me and took me in the -direction of the dining-rooms. We passed the new fireplace that the -House of Commons has presented to itself, quite the most tasty thing -in fireplaces I have ever seen, with a sort of glorified ingle-nook -seat on either side of it. I peeped through the glass door into the -members' dining-room with its handsome panelling, and the Ministerial -Room, where some fine portraits hang on the walls, and eventually we -went down the staircase with the good napkin panelling on either side, -looked at that other staircase which was in course of construction -for the convenience of lady guests, came to the long corridor where -the photographs taken by Sir Benjamin Stone hang, and going down it -had glimpses through open doors of dinner-parties in which ladies -predominated, all mighty merry, and twittering like the birds in an -aviary. From the chairman's own room, which he occasionally lends to -his brother members, sallied forth a Ministerial Whip, who seized my -host by the arm, held an open wine list before him as though they -were going to sing hymns out of the same book, and asked him what -champagne he ought to order for his guests. That knotty point being -settled I gave up my hat and coat to an attendant, and followed my -host, who threaded his way through the tables in the largest Strangers' -dining-room to his own particular dining spot in a recess which -commands a view of the whole of the room. - -It is an exceedingly pleasant dining-room. The walls are of panels of -grey and white, framed in light wood, with on them good prints in black -frames, the gifts of M.P.'s who love their House just as ordinary men -love their pet clubs. The four-square pillars which support the roof -are painted cream colour; light is thrown up on to the ceiling from -glass electroliers, shaped like round shields, and here and there a -palm and some green screens give a restful note of cool colour. At -one end of the room a clock on the wall reminds M.P.'s of the passing -time, and at the other end, on a roll of paper, which passes through a -wooden frame, is printed the name of the member who at the moment is -addressing the House. The windows of this pleasant dining-room look -out on to the terrace and across the river to the great hospital, -behind which the sky still held some of the rose of sunset. There were -dinner-parties innumerable being held in the room, and the manager -informed us later that he had been obliged to tell many would-be hosts -that he could not find room for their parties. - -A great debate means a gala night in the dining-rooms of the House, and -had I not known where I was, looking at the pretty and smartly dressed -ladies and their smiling hosts, I should have thought that I was in one -of the smaller dining-rooms of one of our great restaurants. Here and -there amongst the guests and the dinner-givers were faces I recognised, -and the legislator told me during the course of our dinner who were the -other hosts at the different tables, for he probably knows personally -more men of all the different parties than does any other member of the -House. - -"I have ordered a very small dinner," said my host, as a waiter brought -us a pot of caviare ensconced in a basin of crushed ice, and this was -the menu of the said small dinner: - - Caviare. - Consommé d'Aremberg. - Homard Sauté Paillard. - Noisettes d'Agneau aux Primeurs. - Pommes Suzon. - Cailles de Vigne sur Canapés. - Salad CÅ“ur de Laitues au Citron. - Asperges Anglo et Française. - Sauce Mousseline. - Pêches Flambées. - Dessert. - -The lobster was an admirable dish, the rice served with it being a -corrective to the exceeding richness of the liquid, and when the -chairman and myself had eaten it with great relish I suggested to him -that part of the pleasure it had given us was the fact that neither -of us ought to have touched it at all, for the chairman had only just -recovered from a second bout of influenza, and my tame doctor would -have had a fit if he had known that I made a clean plate of such a rich -delicacy. The dinner throughout was admirable, and I asked my host who -was the _chef de cuisine_, and what was his history. The chef to the -House, he told me, is M. Roux, who looks to M. Escoffier as the great -master under whom he learned his art. - -My host had told me to ask him any questions I liked concerning the -catering and the management of the kitchens and dining-rooms, and I -learned that the committee consists of sixteen members drawn from -every party in the House, and that it meets once a week; that the -allowance made by the House for the upkeep of its dining-rooms is £2600 -a year, and that the turn-over is usually about £17,000 a year, but -that in 1912, being an exceptionally busy one, it rose to £25,000. I -also learned that there is always first-class specialist advice ready -to be called in, for no matter what subject is under discussion--be -it tablecloths, or cutlery or glass--there is sure to be amongst the -members of the House someone who is the highest authority on the -subject, and who willingly comes to the assistance of the Kitchen -Committee. - -When I began to ask questions about the regular House dinner and -about that celebrated shilling dinner of which the outside public -hear so much, the Chairman sent for the manager, a young man who has -stepped from the post of assistant into the full-blown dignity of the -managerial frock-coat, and asked him to show me the menus of the day -and the wine list. There was a tone of pride in the manager's voice -when he said that 300 dinners had been served that evening in the -upstairs rooms, and he also told me the number of the guests in the -downstairs rooms--186, I think he said, in all. The shilling dinner, -of which about 150 are served each night, consists of fish or entrée, -or joints, two vegetables, bread or plain toast, a pat of butter -and Cheddar or Cheshire cheese. There is also a vegetarian dinner -ready at a quarter of an hour's notice, from six till nine o'clock, -which on that particular night consisted of _crème d'asperges, Å“ufs -a la tripe, carottes à la crème,_ or _haricots verts au beurre_ or -_macaroni Milanaise,_ and cheese and butter. And there is a half-crown -dinner of the day of four courses, vegetables and cheese and butter. -Sixpence table money is charged for guests. This is the menu of the -five-shilling dinner of that day, and it reads to me a very good one: - - Melon Glacé. - Consommé Froide or Crème d'Asperges. - Filets de Sole Dejazet. - Quartier d'Agneau à la Broche. - Pommes Fondantes. - Petits Pois au Beurre. - Cailles de Vigne Casserole. - Salade Romaine. - Bombe Fraisalia. - Croustades Maltaises. - Dessert. - -There is also a grill menu and a long list of cold joints. To make the -list of menus complete, the manager showed me that of the two-shilling -dinner, which is ready at six o'clock, served in the dining-room of the -Press Gallery. Later on in the evening I was shown the separate kitchen -which serves the dining-room of the Gallery and saw that it was as well -organised as is everything else in the kitchen department of the House. -Looking through the wine list, I noticed that some of the sherries have -come from Windsor Castle, Marlborough House and Sandringham; the most -expensive of these being that--bottled 1875--from Windsor, for which -12s. 6d. a bottle is charged. But a glass of Amontillado costs no more -than 4d. Sixpence a glass is the lowest price charged for any port, and -the most expensive on the list is Cockburn's 1847, bottled 1850, which -is a guinea a bottle. There are some 1898 champagnes still on the list, -and some 1900. The wines of 1904 make the longest list, Veuve Clicquot -heading the roll at 13s. 6d. a bottle; Heidsieck Dry Monopole, Pommery -and Greno, Pol Roger, Moët and Chandon, Krug and Monte Bello varying in -price from 13s. 6d. to 10s. a bottle. The brand Deutz and Gelderman is -represented by pints at 6s. 6d., and the magnums of Monte Bello cost -18s. 6d. - -Our dinner finished and all the questions that I could think of asked -and answered, my host took me out on to the terrace to drink our -coffee. All the light of the sunset had died out, and the long lines -of lamps on the Embankment across the river were shining brilliantly. -Across Westminster Bridge the tramcars, all blazing with light, were -passing and repassing each other, an effect I commend to Mr Arthur -Collins for use in some future Drury Lane production. The terrace -itself is dimly lighted by gas lamps, but this half light, pleasant and -in keeping with the solemn mystery of the great, dark river that flows -past, seems to frame fittingly the brilliance of the wonderful night -scene. Little groups of ladies were about the tables in that centre -space where members may dispense hospitality. The talk of the men who -came to speak to my host was all of what was in progress in the chamber -of debate upstairs, of the pity of it that no agreement had been come -to and that a division was necessary, of the admirable speech that Mr -Balfour had made in the afternoon, and such-like matters. - -I felt that I had kept my host too long from his place and wished to -bid him good-night there and then, but he said that though he had -failed to obtain a ticket for me in the afternoon to hear the debate, -he would try again; so upstairs we went, and he left me in charge, in -the Members' Lobby, of a benign old gentleman with a pointed white -beard and wearing knee-breeches, while he went inside to see what he -could do. He returned waving a card, the white-bearded gentleman looked -even more benign, and took my hat and coat, and I was sent with the -card up a little flight of stairs. In perfect comfort I listened to -Mr Bonar Law making his points on the Unionist side, rapping with his -finger-nails on the big box on the table as he did so, and then heard -Sir Edward Grey, tucking his right hand under his frock-coat as though -that garment pinched him below the arm, reply for the Government; -watched the members stream out for the division, heard the numbers read -out, and saw the end of an historic debate. - -A most pleasant and interesting evening. - - - - -XIX - -A REGIMENTAL DINNER - -AT THE TROCADERO - - -The Commissionaire at the centre entrance to the Trocadero greets me -with "Regimental dinner, sir? First floor, leave your coat and hat to -the right." A very intelligent man this commissionaire, an old soldier -who knows another old soldier when he sees him. I leave my coat and -hat as directed, ascend in the lift, and am disgorged into a corridor, -the walls of which are covered with an inlay of gold Venetian glass -tesseræ, pay the very small sum that subscribers to the Regimental -Dinner Club are mulcted, and go into a screened-off space of the large -banqueting-room in which the feast is to be held. Here two score -gentlemen, old and young, most of them with a bar of miniature medals -on the lapels of their evening coats, are talking, laughing, moving to -and fro, and shaking hands with great heartiness. It is by no means a -_mauvais quart d'heure_ these minutes of assembling before a regimental -dinner, for old friends who see each other only once a year meet -then, and the inquiries as to each other's health and prosperity and -happiness are no formal compliments, but a real desire to know how the -world wags with old comrades in arms. - -The screens that divide the room in two are withdrawn and the company -take their places at the table in no set order, though the veterans -all try to sit next to some old friend of their soldiering days and -the subalterns cling together in little swarms at the far ends of the -table. The room in which we are dining, the Alexandra, is panelled to -a man's height with dark marbles, with central squares of light marble, -and there are at one end pillars of black wood fluted with gold. -It is a room with a dignity of its own. Through the lace-curtained -windows can be seen the electric advertisements on the other side -of Shaftesbury Avenue, advertisements which set forth in a blaze of -alternating red and green and white light the virtues of somebody's -whisky and somebody else's cigarettes, and through the open windows -come the roar of the traffic and the hoots of the motor horns. We -are dining on the very hub of London. The table for the dinner is of -horseshoe shape, with another length of table running up the centre. -There are candles with pink shades, and pink flowers in vases and -strewn on the table in garlands. The Major-General, who is the full -Colonel of the regiment, who served in it for many long years, and -was at one time the Adjutant of one of the battalions, sits at the -top of the bend of the horseshoe, and chance, not precedence, has put -me on one side of him. The two Brigadier-Generals who are amongst -the diners, each of whom wears, as our chairman does, his C.B. cross -at one end of his long bars of miniature medals and decorations, are -somewhere farther down the curve of the horseshoe, and brevet colonels -and subalterns and captains and lieutenant-colonels and majors all sit -where fancy leads them, some of the seniors to talk to the son of an -old friend, a boy who has just joined, some to talk polo, or fishing, -or gardening, or shooting, or the iniquities of the Land Tax with -friends of like tastes. - -A Regimental Dinner ought to be described by some lady novelist who -has never been to one and is in no way hampered by any unromantic -facts. Grizzled men bearing the scars of old wounds should talk to -each other of midnight marches and fierce charges and hand-to-hand -combats, and tell the tale over their port of how Billy Bright Eyes, -the curly-headed drummer of Company B, won the Victoria Cross on some -day of awful slaughter. Unfortunately for picturesqueness' sake the -grizzled men talk about nothing of the kind. The man who could narrate -as moving stories as ever Othello dropped into Desdemona's willing ear -tells his next-door neighbour of the fishing in Norway he has taken -this year and of the advantages of travelling to it from the port in a -motor car instead of going on the old country conveyances. The man who -really earned a V.C. in South Africa, though there were no lookers-on -to write glowing accounts to headquarters, is discussing with another -man of many battles the advantages of Waterloo over other late-bearing -strawberry plants, and laments that there are no pears this year on -any of his trees. Tales of a big night at mess in "The Shiny," when -a Highland regiment, passing through, was entertained at a dinner -which only ended when the pipes were playing "Hey Johnnie Cope" in the -grey before sunrise, may stray casually into the conversation, and a -regretful word or two may be said that the regimental polo fund in -India had not enough ready money to buy a certain pony which would just -have won a match for the regiment in an important tournament. Cricket, -polo, grouse moors, the coming hunting season, the present play at the -Gaiety, the merits of the various revues are the things talked about, -and "shop" is almost as rigidly excluded from the conversation as -though the dinner was taking place in the regimental mess. - -The length of a regimental dinner is as difficult to curtail as is that -of a City feast or a Masonic banquet, for any manager of a restaurant -or any _maître d'hôtel_ considers it to be an "important" meal, and -believes that the guests will not think they have dined satisfactorily -unless they have eaten prodigiously. But the three officers who manage -our Regimental Dinner Club are happily men of the world as well as old -soldiers, and they insist that the dinner shall be ordered to please -the tastes of those who dine, and not of those who serve the dinner. -This is the menu of the Trocadero dinner. The little circle of beef -offered to each man is the only heavy dish in it, and the chicken with -its tempting stuffing is the only rich dish that it contains: - - Melon Glacé. - Hors d'Å“uvre de Choix. - Tortue Claire. - Truite de Rivière au bleu, Beurre fondu. - Pommes nature. - Poularde du Mans Favorite. - Médaillon de BÅ“uf Rossini. - Spoom au Kummel. - Caille de Vigne sur Croustade. - Salade Romaine. - Asperges nouvelles, Sauce Maltaise. - Fraises à la Zouave. - Corbeille de Friandises. - Pailles au Parmesan. - Dessert. - Café. - - VINS. - Punch. - Johannisberger, 1900. - Chas. Heidsieck, 1904. - Moët et Chandon, 1904. - Château Branaire Ducru, 1900. - Dow's 1890 Port. - Courvoisier's 1831 Brandy. - -The menu, according to custom immemorial, is decorated with the crests -of the regiment, with the date of its raising, 1572, and with a little -picture of the uniform of the regiment in the year 1684, when the full -privates wore black boy-scout hats, bands such as barristers still -wear, and coats with very long skirts. - -Twenty years ago no regimental dinner could have been held without -interminable speeches, which were sometimes listened to with scant -patience by the subalterns, who wanted to get to the Empire or the -Alhambra before the performance ended. Nowadays there are no speeches, -at all events at our dinner, and the only toast proposed is that of -"The King." After this loyal toast has been drunk and the cigars -lighted, all formality vanishes, every man moves from his place and -goes to talk to those of his old friends who have been out of earshot -during dinner; the subalterns make inquiries as to whether the Cabaret -Club or the Four Hundred Club is the most amusing place in which to -keep awake after all the restaurants are shut, and as eleven o'clock -comes some of the guests go off to the Service clubs, some have to -catch last trains, and the commissionaire downstairs has a busy time -whistling for taxis. - -There is not much ancient history to delve into with regard to the -Trocadero Restaurant. Part of it stands on the ground which, when Great -Windmill Street was a cul-de-sac, before Shaftesbury Avenue was made, -was occupied by the Argyle Dancing Rooms, familiarly known as "The -Duke's." "The Duke's" played its part in the night life of London in -the sixties and seventies, when Kate Hamilton's and the other night -houses still existed in the Haymarket, and though there were occasional -rows there, some of the officers of one of the Household cavalry -regiments being on one occasion marched off to the police station, -it was on the whole a well-conducted establishment, with an admirable -orchestra to play dance music. But the spasm of morality which passed -over London towards the end of the last century swept the Argyle Rooms -out of existence, and their proprietor, Mr "Bob" Bignell, converted -the vacant rooms into the Trocadero Music Hall. Mr "Sam" Adams was the -next proprietor of the music-hall, and then Mr Joseph Lyons, who was -not yet a knight, saw the possibilities of the site for a restaurant, -and gave a very large price for the old hall. The Trocadero Restaurant, -when it first was built, was only half as large as it is now, for that -red-brick portion of it which faces Shaftesbury Avenue was a nest of -flats and chambers, and the conversion of this building when Lyons & -Company bought it, into restaurant premises, was an architectural feat. -Where the old building ends and the additions begin can be clearly seen -by the difference in the architecture. - -It is a curious fact that Sir Joseph Lyons, the head and mainspring -of the great organisation which controls the scores of restaurants -and hundreds of tea-shops belonging to Lyons & Company, wished in his -youthful days to be an artist, and that his amusement now, whenever he -has any leisure, which he rarely has, is to paint sunsets. - - - - -XX - -"JOLLY GOOD" - -A HALF-GUINEA DINNER AT THE TROCADERO - - -No account of the Trocadero would be complete without an allusion to -the _table d'hôte_ dinners which are served in the great hall of the -restaurant, and I do not think that I can do better than reprint the -account of a half-guinea dinner I gave there some ten years ago to a -small Harrow boy. The Mr Lyons of the article is now Sir Joseph, and -I fancy that the Messrs Salmon, who are now County Councillors and -members of many other important bodies, are too busy to show even -such an important person as a young Harrovian all the glories of the -restaurant. But in all essentials the half-guinea dinner of to-day at -the Trocadero is much as it was ten years ago. It was excellent then -and is excellent now. - - * * * * * - -I dined one day early last week at the Trocadero, a little specially -ordered _tête-à -tête_ dinner over which the chef had taken much -trouble--his _Suprêmes de sole Trocadéro_ and _Poulet de printemps -Rodisi_ are well worth remembering--and while I drank the Moët '84, -cuvée 1714, and luxuriated in some brandy dating back to 1815, the -solution of a problem that had puzzled me mildly came to me. - -An old friend was sending his son, a boy at Harrow, up to London to -see a dentist before going back to school, and asked me if I would -mind giving him something to eat, and taking him to a performance -of some kind. I said "Yes," of course; but I felt it was something -of an undertaking. When I was at Harrow my ideas of luxury consisted -of ices at Fuller's and sausages and mashed potatoes carried home in -a paper bag. I had no idea as to what Jones minor's tastes might be; -but if he was anything like what I was then he would prefer plenty of -good food, combined with music and gorgeousness and excitement, to -the most delicate _mousse_ ever made, eaten in philosophic calm. The -Trocadero was the place; if he was not impressed by the dinner, by the -magnificence of the rooms, by the beautiful staircase, by the music, -then I did not know my Harrow boy. - -Jones minor arrived at my club at five minutes to the half-past seven, -and I saw at once that he was not a young gentleman to be easily -impressed. He had on a faultless black short jacket and trousers, a -white waistcoat, and a tuberose in his buttonhole. I asked him if he -knew the Trocadero, and he said that he had not dined there; but plenty -of boys in his house had, and had said that it was jolly good. - -When we came to the entrance of the Trocadero, an entrance that always -impresses me by its palatial splendour, I pointed out to him the veined -marble of the walls and the magnificent frieze in which Messrs Moira -and Jenkins, two of the cleverest of our young artists, have struck out -a new line of decoration; and when I had paused a while to let him take -it in I asked him what he thought of it, and he said he thought it was -jolly good. - -Mr Alfred Salmon, in chief command, and the good-looking _maître -d'hôtel_, both saw us to our table, and a plump waiter whom I remember -of old at the Savoy was there with the various menu cards in his hand. -The table had been heaped with roses in our honour, and I felt that all -this attention must impress Jones minor; but he unfolded his napkin -with the calm of unconcern, and I regretted that I had not arranged to -have the band play "See the Conquering Hero Comes" and have a triumphal -arch erected in his honour. - -I had intended to give him the five-shilling _table d'hôte_ meal; -but in face of this calm superiority I abandoned that, skipped the -seven-and-six _table d'hôte_ as well, and ordered the half-guinea one. -I had thought that three-and-sixpennyworth of wine should be ample for -a growing boy, but having rushed into reckless extravagance over the -food I thought I would let him try seven-and-sixpenny worth of wine. I -personally ordered a pint of 277, which is an excellent wine. I told -Jones minor that the doctor told me not to mix my wines, and he said -something about having to be careful when one got old that I did not -think sounded at all nice. - -While we paused, waiting for the _hors d'Å“uvre_, I drew his attention -to all the gorgeousness of the grand restaurant, the cream and gold, -the hand-painted ceiling-panels, on which the cupids sport, the -brocades and silks of the wall-panels, the broad band of gold of the -gallery running round the room, the crimson and gold draperies, the -glimpse of the blue and white and gold of the _salon_ seen through the -dark framing of the _portières_; I bade him note the morocco leather -chairs with gold initials on the back, and the same initials on the -collars of the servants. It is a blaze of gorgeousness that recalls -to me some dream of the Arabian Nights; but Jones minor said somewhat -coldly that he thought it jolly good. - -We drank our _potage vert-pré_ out of silver plates, but this had no -more effect on Jones minor than if they had been earthenware. I drew -his attention to the excellent band up above, in their gilded cage. I -pointed out to him amidst the crowd of diners two ex-Lord Mayors, an -A.D.C. to Royalty, the most popular low comedian of the day, a member -of the last Cabinet, our foremost dramatic critic and his wife, and one -of our leading lawyers. Jones minor had no objection to their presence, -but nothing more. The only interest he showed was in a table at which -an Irish M.P. was entertaining his family, among them two Eton boys, -and towards them his attitude was haughty but hostile. - -So I tried to thaw him while we ate our whitebait, which was capitally -cooked, by telling him tales of the criminal existence I led when I was -a boy at Harrow. I told him how I put my foot in the door of Mr Bull's -classroom when it was being closed at early morning school time. I told -him how I took up alternate halves of one exercise of rule of three -through one whole term to "Old Teek." I told him how I and another bad -boy lay for two hours in a bed of nettles on Kingsbury race-course, -because we thought a man watching the races with his back to us was Mr -Middlemist. And I asked him if Harrow was likely to be badly beaten by -Eton in the coming match at Lord's. - -This for a moment thawed Jones minor into humanity. Harrow, he said, -was going to jolly well lick Eton in one innings, and before the boy -froze up again I learned that the Headmaster's had beaten some other -house in the final of the Torpid football matches, and several other -items of interesting news. - -The _filets mignons_, from his face, Jones minor seemed to like; but -he restrained all his emotions with Spartan severity. He did not -contradict me when I said that the _petites bouchées à la St-Hubert_ -were good; but he ate three _sorbets_, and looked as if he could tackle -three more, which showed me that the real spirit of the Harrow boy was -there somewhere under the glacial surface, if I could only get at it. - -Mr Lyons, piercing of eye, his head-covering worn a little through by -the worries of the magnitude of his many undertakings, with little -side-whiskers and a little moustache, passed by, and I introduced the -boy to him, and afterwards explained the number of strings pulled by -this Napoleon of supply, and at the mention of a "grub shop in every -other street" Jones minor's eyes brightened. - -When Jones minor had made a clean sweep of the plate of _petits fours_, -and had drained the last drops of his glass of Chartreuse, I thought I -might venture to ask him how he liked his dinner, as a whole. This was -what he had conscientiously eaten through: - - Hors d'Å“uvre variés. - Consommé Monte Carlo. Potage vert-pré. - Petites soles à la Florentine. Blanchailles au citron. - Filets mignons à la Rachel. - Petites bouchées à la St-Hubert. - Sorbet. - Poularde de Surrey à la broche. - Salade saison. - Asperges nouvelles. Sauce mousseux. - Charlotte russe. - Soufflé glacé Pompadour. - Petits fours. Dessert. - -He had drunk a glass of Amontillado, a glass of '89 Liebfraumilch, -two glasses of Deutz and Gelderman, a glass of dessert claret, and a -glass of liqueur, and when pressed for a critical opinion, said that he -thought that it was jolly good. - -Impressed into using a new adjective Jones minor should be somehow. So, -with Mr Isidore Salmon as escort, I took him over the big house from -top to bottom. He shook the chef's hand with the serenity of a prince -in the kitchen at the top of the house, and showed some interest in the -wonderful roasting arrangements worked by electricity and the clever -method of registering orders. He gazed at the mighty stores of meat and -vegetables, peeped into the cosy private dining-rooms, had the beauties -of the noble Empire ballroom explained to him, and finally, in the -grill-room, amid the surroundings of Cippolini marble and old copper, -the excellent string band played a gavotte, at my request, as being -likely to take his fancy. - -Then I asked Jones minor what he thought of it all, and he said that he -thought it jolly good. - -I paid my bill: Two dinners, £1, 1s.; _table d'hôte_ wine, 7s. 6d.; -half 277, 7s.; liqueur, 2s. 6d.; total, £1, 18s.; and asked Jones minor -where he would like to go and be amused. He said he had heard that the -Empire was jolly good. - - - - -XXI - -IN THE SHADOW OF THE PALACE THEATRE - -KETTNER'S LE DINER FRANÇAIS - - -I know as a result of my early training in Miss Woodman's school for -the "sons of the nobility and gentry" in Somerset Street, off Orchard -Street, that a piece of land almost entirely surrounded by water is -called a peninsula. But I was never instructed in any school as to -there being a special name for a theatre almost entirely surrounded by -restaurants. If there is such a name it should be applied to the Palace -Theatre, for restaurants have sprouted up about it just as grass grows -round the foot of a tree. - -Of this group of restaurants two at least that I know deserve special -mention, one as having been the pioneer of clean restaurant kitchens -and the other, a very cheap restaurant, as having made the fortune -of one restaurateur and of being in the course of making the fortune -of his successor. Kettner's, in Church Street, was the first small -restaurant that dared to show its kitchen to all comers at a time when -the kitchens of most little foreign restaurants were places of horror. -M. Auguste Kettner was a chef who had learned his art in his native -country, and who, as an investment of his savings, started a small -restaurant, in 1867, in Church Street, Soho. Those were the days before -Shaftesbury Avenue was driven through the slums, before Cambridge -Circus was made, before the Palace Theatre was built, and when Soho was -a maze of little streets. So puzzling to a stranger was its geography -that the district inspired W. S. Gilbert to write a "Bab" ballad -concerning Peter the Wag, the policeman with a taste for practical -jokes who always sent the people who asked the way of him in the wrong -direction. Retribution came to Peter when he lost his way near Poland -Street, Soho. - - "For weeks he trod his self-made beat, - Through Newport--Gerrard--Bear--Greek--Rupert--Frith--Dean--Poland Streets, - And into Golden Square." - -Kettner's was discovered by a correspondent of _The Times_, and the -readers of the Thunderer, which in those days took very meagre notice -of the amusements and enjoyments of life, were surprised to be told -of a little restaurant in the centre of Soho where the kitchen was -as clean as a new pin and where excellent food was to be obtained at -surprisingly cheap prices. That article made the fortune of Kettner's -just as other articles in less august papers have made since then the -fortunes of other restaurants. Journalists, artists and actors, the -swallows who herald prosperity, came to the restaurant, and George -Augustus Sala, the author, who was a _fin gourmet_, with a knowledge of -the practical side of cookery as well, became the great patron of the -restaurant. - -In the early seventies, as a young subaltern with a microscopic income -and a desire to make it stretch as far as possible, I used often to -dine at Kettner's. It was a real chef's restaurant in those days, an _à -la carte_ establishment where one ate one or two dishes quite admirably -cooked, and where a walk through the kitchen and an inspection of the -larder always preceded or followed a dinner. I never hurried over a -meal to be in time for the rising of the curtain at a neighbouring -theatre, for there were no neighbouring theatres then, but enjoyed -my dinner to the uttermost. M. Kettner then was so successful in -business that he was gradually absorbing house after house, and his -restaurant, instead of being in one little house, occupied the ground -floor of several houses, doors being driven through the party walls. -The private rooms on the first floor were favourite dining places of -couples who wished to be _tête-à -tête_, and I fancy that when the -popularity of such little dinners at restaurants was dimmed it was a -blow to the restaurant in Church Street. I have always thought myself -that the almost entire disappearance of the small private dining-room -from restaurants coincided with the building of innumerable houses of -flats, and that the dinners which used to be given in the _cabinets -particuliers_ are now eaten in flats. - -In 1877 two events of great importance to M. Kettner happened: he wrote -his "Book of the Table" and he died. His table book, of which a second -edition has recently been published, is a curious mixture of very -useful recipes and scraps of information concerning all matters under -the sun that can in any way be connected with cookery. Achilles, for -instance, is brought into the book that reference may be made to the -Achilles statue in Hyde Park, and then to the great Duke of Wellington, -of whom the story is told that his cook, Felix, left his service in -despair because the Duke could not distinguish between a dinner cooked -by an artist and one horribly mauled by a kitchenmaid. - -When at the height of his fame and prosperity M. Kettner died and left -a widow, and Madame Kettner, when her days of mourning had passed, -married M. Giovanni Sangiorgi, who also became her partner in the -business, a kindly man who keeps a watchful eye on the restaurant which -is now controlled by a company. The restaurant was in comparatively -late years rebuilt and an entrance hall given to it, and the two rooms -to the right of the hall were in 1913 very tastefully redecorated, -but it still retains its characteristic of being several small houses -joined together. The first sight that greets one's eyes on entering the -hall is a view of the kitchen, generally with a cook in white clothing -busy about his work as the centre of the picture, and those who lunch -and dine are, as of yore, asked to walk through the white-tiled, -beautifully clean domain of the chef. A grill-room now forms part -of the establishment, and the character of the meals is changed in -that _table d'hôte_ dinners at various prices are the trump cards of -the establishment. I fancy that the propinquity of the Palace, of -the Shaftesbury Theatre, and now of the Ambassadors' may have had a -great deal to say to this change, for when I dine at Kettner's before -going to the Palace or the Shaftesbury I can see that most of my -fellow-guests are theatre-goers. A three-and-six _table d'hôte_ dinner -in the grill-room and five-shilling and seven-and-six ones in the -restaurant are the early evening meals of the establishment, and below -is quite a fair specimen of the menu of the five-shilling dinner. It -is the one I ate on the last occasion that I made a pilgrimage to see -Madame Pavlova dance. The quail was fat and tender, and the _crème -Victoria_ a good soup: - - MENU - Hors d'Å“uvre. - Consommé Bortsch. - Crème Victoria. - Turbotin Bercy ou Blanchaille. - Poulet Poëlé Derby. - Côtelette de Mouton Maréchale. - Pommes Nouvelles. - Caille Rôtie. - Salade. - Glacé de Moka. - -But Kettner's now has to encounter many rivals, for young men such -as Kettner himself was when he made the fame of his restaurant are -following his example, and all the Soho district bristles with little -restaurants which give wonderfully good food for the small prices -they charge. Kettner's will always, however, be famous for showing -its clients a spotlessly clean kitchen when such kitchens were the -exception, and this excellent custom and example it maintains to-day. - -The other noticeable restaurant of this group is one founded by M. -Roche, which bears in large letters on its front "Le Dîner Français," -and which occupies the ground floor of No. 16 Old Compton Street. -A story I have been told of the origin of the restaurant is rather -picturesque. M. Roche was a baker and _pâtissier_, and one day two -Frenchmen came into his shop and asked where they could get a good -French meal. M. Roche replied that he and his family were about to -eat their midday meal, and that if the strangers from his native land -cared to join them he would be delighted. The two Frenchmen enjoyed -their midday meal so thoroughly that they asked to be allowed, during -their stay in London, to take all their meals at the bakery, paying -their share, and M. Roche's establishment gradually changed its -character, becoming a full-blown restaurant. That M. Roche served his -apprenticeship under Frederic at the Tour d'Argent in Paris does not -militate against the probability of this story. M. Roche, having made a -fortune in Old Compton Street, returned to France and bought an hotel -near Granville. _Le Dîner Français_, from which the establishment -takes its name, was always an eighteen-penny meal, and continued to -be so under the present proprietor, M. Béguinot, until the epidemic -of "lightning strikes" came in the spring of 1913, when, to cover -the extra expense entailed by giving cooks and waiters their weekly -holiday, the price was raised to one-and-nine. M. Roche always had the -reputation of buying the best material in the market, and M. Béguinot -has maintained this reputation. The restaurant at dinner-time is -generally filled to its holding capacity, and as many as four hundred -dinners are sometimes served on one evening. The restaurant is narrow, -but it runs far back, three rooms being thrown into one. The walls are -of cream colour, with a skirting of deep orange; the floor is covered -with oilcloth; the knives are black-handled, but cheapness in M. -Béguinot's establishment does not mean dirt, for everything is as clean -as clean can be, and the waiters, who all talk excellent English, wear -shirts and aprons as clean as the walls. Near the door in the first of -the rooms are two long tables, and at these any man who is by himself -takes a seat. - -For one-and-nine one is given a choice of either _hors d'Å“uvre_ -or soup, fish, an entrée and an _entremet_, and there is quite -a reasonable choice of dishes under each heading. I dined at M. -Béguinot's restaurant one Sunday night, and Sunday is by no means a bad -day on which to dine there, for the rooms are then less crowded than -on weekdays, and, sitting at one of the long tables, I selected from -the _carte_ of the dinner cold _consommé_, fried sole, sweetbread and -spinach, and an ice. The _consommé_ was reasonably strong, the sole -was really a little slip, but quite fresh and well fried; the small -sweetbread was excellent, and the diminutive portion of ice was all -that it should be. There was a liberal supply of bread on the table, -and the crisp sound of the cutting of the long yards of bread at a side -table was almost continuous throughout dinner. When I had finished my -meal I certainly did not feel full to repletion, but it sufficed. -My neighbour on one side of me had ordered a _hors d'Å“uvre_, and the -globule of butter given him with his two sardines was a tiny one. He -followed fish with fish, and I noticed that the slice of cold salmon -of a pale pink came from the tail end. He followed my suit in ordering -sweetbread, and finished his meal with a tartlet. I was extravagant in -my order for wine, for, passing over the elevenpenny Graves and the -next wine on the list, I recklessly commanded a pint of Sauterne, which -cost me 1s. 10d., so that my bill came to 3s. 7d., and I got very good -value for my money. - -My fellow-guests on Sunday night were a selection from all the -respectable classes, little parties of ladies, married couples and that -contingent from the artistic colony which is always to be found in -every Soho restaurant. - - - - -XXII - -THE WELCOME CLUB - - -In the days when I was still an enthusiastic amateur actor, I was once -"cast" for the insignificant part of an aged peasant--the organiser -of the performance assured me that though there were only a dozen -lines in the part, it nevertheless "stood out"--and in a smock-frock, -a pair of second-best trousers tied up with hay-bands, fishing boots, -a bandana handkerchief round my neck, a long, straggly white beard, a -red nose and an old tall silk hat, brushed the wrong way to give it the -appearance of beaver, I depicted the rude forefather of the village. I -spoke in a trembling, squeaky voice and I was addressed by the lads and -lasses, yes, and even by the noble old squire and by the black-browed -villain, as "Granfer." The part did not, apparently, stand out enough -to catch the notice of our audiences, but to those who played with me -that drama of village life I have remained "Granfer" to the present -day, and every summer I ask three of them, my Pet Grandchild, my Tiny -Grandchild and Little Perce to dine with me one evening at the Welcome -Club and to go the round of the side-shows afterwards, that being very -much the sort of entertainment that every real grandfather ought, I -think, to give his grandchildren. - -I made my acquaintance with the Welcome Club in the year that it was -first built, at the beginning of all things at Earl's Court. Mr Alec -Knowles was the first secretary of the club. The idea of the Welcome -Club, of which distinguished foreigners could be made honorary members, -originated at the great Chicago Exhibition, in the grounds of which -there was a club of this name. - -The trees that were planted in front of the lawn of the club have grown -to a good size now, but even more picturesque than the formal lines -of planes are the thorns and other old trees which were on the ground -before the makers of the exhibition gardens took things in hand, and -which were left there. Year after year, additions and improvements have -been made to the Welcome Club. What was originally a dining-room and a -lawn has become a club-house in a garden. The long shelter, a pleasant -place in which to dine on a summer's evening, has been enlarged more -than once, and now, with its alcoves, each a tiny dining-room, with -vines growing up its supports and flower beds edging its railings, it -pleases the eye of the artist and architect as well as the eye of the -diner. On the other side of the club-house is a pretty drawing-room -for ladies, and Time, which always works in sympathy with a clever -architect, has done its share in deepening the colour of the tiles, in -bringing the lawn to velvety perfection, and in drawing up the young -trees inch by inch. Never before have the garden beds been so gay with -flowers as they were in 1913, and the interior of the club-house has -been brightened up to concert pitch. - -To organise the staff of a club that is only open for four months in -the year is no easy matter, for the pick of _maîtres d'hôtel_ and cooks -and waiters do not as a rule care to accept engagements that only last -for a third of a year. A club as far from its bases of supply as is -the Welcome cannot arrange its catering so easily as can clubs in the -centre of London, which have their fishmonger's and butcher's shops -just round the corner, and a wet or a cold night means almost empty -dining-rooms at Earl's Court. Difficulties, however, only exist to -be overcome, and Mr Payne, the chairman of the Earl's Court Company, -determined that it shall no longer be said that it is impossible to get -a good dinner in any exhibition, has brought all his energy to bear on -the problem, and with Mr Charles Bartlett, as secretary, with a Bond -Street firm of caterers responsible for the personnel and material -and with M. G. Thuillez in charge of the club kitchens, I think that -Mr Payne made good his promise. I certainly have never before at the -Welcome Club eaten a dinner so satisfactory in every way as the one I -gave one fine evening last July to my three grandchildren. - -I had written word to the secretary, an old friend, saying on what -evening I was coming to dine and asking him to give the manager a hint -whether to reserve for me a table in the dining-room or the shelter, -according to whether the evening was warm or cool. The weather that day -was fine, but the temperature kept about the temperate line. As the -manager was unable to guess whether the ladies would find the shelter -chilly and as there was that evening no great rush for tables, he -reserved until I should appear upon the scene, a table for four in the -dining-room and another for the same number in one of the alcoves of -the shelter. - -When I came to the club, five minutes before the hour of dinner, I -opted at once for the table in the alcove, looked at the menus of -the _table d'hôte_ dinners, one a five-shilling one and the other a -seven-and-six one, and chose the latter, ordered my wine, a magnum of -Krug, and then sat in one of the big wicker chairs on the lawn and -waited for my guests. - -The scarlet-coated band of an infantry regiment had taken their -places in the band pavilion in the centre of the gravelled space and -the bandmaster was rapping on his music stand to command his men's -attention. There were already many people sitting on the circle of -seats which surrounds the pavilion. Away to the left men in dress -clothes and ladies in evening frocks were going in little parties into -the Quadrant Restaurant, and opposite to the Welcome Club, with the -breadth of the open space in between, there were groups of men about -the American bar and the tea pavilion. The great tower, which is part -of one of the mountain railways, loomed big to the right, but the -cars that run on the rails had for a time ceased to rattle and splash -through the stream of real water which forms part of the scenery. The -flying machines still farther to the right were also still for the -moment, the wire hawsers which support them looking like the rigging of -a ship. Presently I saw my three guests approaching, having come into -the gardens by the most westerly entrance, and we were soon seated in -the alcove, where an electric lamp hung from the ceiling and another -lamp on the table was alight, though the sun had only just set. This -was the menu of the dinner that we ate: - - Melon Rafraîchi. - Consommé Tosca. - Crème Bonne Femme. - Turbot Bouilli Sauce Homard. - Tournedos Doria. - Pommes Rosette. - Noix de Ris de Veau en Cocotte Demidoff. - Sorbet Mandarinette. - Caneton d'Aylesbury rôti au Cresson. - Salade CÅ“ur de Laitue. - Glacé Comtesse Marie. - Friandises. - Dessert. - -Our conversation naturally enough drifted on to stories of amateur -acting; but not until my Tiny Grandchild had first described a deed -of heroism she had done while staying at a country house. In the -dead of the night she heard a bell ring continuously, and assuming -that burglars were in the house and had carelessly set an alarm bell -ringing, she woke up her husband in the next room and proposed that -they should there and then rouse all the inmates of the house and -capture the burglars. But her husband looked at his watch and as -an amendment suggested that, as the ringing was probably an alarum -clock, set by a diligent housemaid, instead of alarming the household -it would be better for my T. G. to sleep out her beauty sleep. We -re-christened the daring lady "The Little Heroine" as we supped our -_crème bonne femme_ and declared it to be good. With the _tournedos_ -my imperfections of memory with respect to "words" were cast into my -teeth, and especially of a sentence. I introduced into _His Excellency -the Governor_, when, as Sir Montague, I declared to Ethel that I would -"dower her with the inestimable guerdon of my love," words that Captain -Marshall never wrote. And, further, it was recalled that most of us who -had played together in this comedy, and its author, went one evening to -see Mr H. B. Irving and Miss Irene Vanbrugh and Mr Dion Boucicault and -Mr Marsh Allen and others play the comedy, and how a shout of delight -went up from our row of stalls and puzzled our neighbours sorely when -Mr Irving, primed, no doubt, by Captain Marshall, declared that he -would dower _his_ Ethel with the "inestimable guerdon" of _his_ love. - -To change the subject I drew the attention of my three grandchildren to -their surroundings, for there are a few minutes of supreme loveliness -at the Welcome Club when the light is fading from the western sky and -all the electric lamps suddenly spring into brilliancy. The tower of -the mountain railway no longer appears to be a thing of wood and -canvas, but stands a great, dark, solid mass against the sky, with -the twinkle of some letters of electricity upon its battlements. In -the trees on the lawn, lamps, red and blue and golden, shimmer like -fireflies; all about the bandstand are garlands of white light, and the -flying machines, shadows dotted with coloured light, go swinging round -in the distance. - -When we had finished our dinner we sat in contentment for a while on -the lawn, listening to the music of the band and drinking our coffee, -and then, as an aid to digestion, went in to The Hereafter side-show, -almost next door, where skeletons dance and a bridge swings and rocks -over a torrent of painted fire; and then on to the booths where the -china of "happy homes" can be broken up at a penny a shot, where the -two ladies did desperate execution against the kitchen service. And -next to the revolving cylinders, where we watched enterprising young -gentlemen stand on their heads involuntarily, and to the variations -on hoop-la stalls, at one of which we all tried unsuccessfully to win -watches. And on to the summer ballroom; and to the bowl-slide; and -finally, as the supreme digestive, we all four went down the water -chute, I taking the precaution of leaving my tall hat below in charge -of the gate man: for one year going down this chute my Tiny Grandchild, -being shot into the air by the bump on the water, descended on my hat, -which I held in my hand, and turned it into a good imitation of an -accordion. - - - - -XXIII - -GOLDSTEIN'S - - - HORS D'Å’UVRE. - Smoked Salmon. Solomon Gundy. - Olives. - - SOUPS. - Frimsell. Matsoklese. - Pease and beans. - - FISH. - Brown stewed carp. White stewed gurnet. - Fried soles. Fried plaice. - - ENTRÉES. - Roast veal (white stew). - Filleted steak (brown stew). - - POULTRY. - Roast capon. Roast chicken. - Smoked beef. Tongue. - - VEGETABLES. - Spinach. Sauerkraut. - Potatoes. Cucumbers. - Green salad. - - SWEETS. - Kugel. Stewed prunes. - Almond pudding. - Apple staffen. - -When I looked at the above I groaned aloud. Was it possible, I thought, -that any human being could eat a meal of such a length and yet live? I -looked at my two companions, but they showed no signs of terror, so I -took up knife and fork and bade the waiter do his duty. - -The _raison d'être_ of the dinner was this: Thinking of untried -culinary experiences, I told one of the great lights of the Jewish -community that I should like some day to eat a "kosher" dinner at a -typical restaurant, and he said that the matter was easily enough -arranged; and by telegram informed me that dinner was ordered for that -evening at Goldstein's and that I was to call for him in the City at -six. - -When I and a gallant soul, who had sworn to accompany me through thick -and thin, arrived at the office of the orderer of the dinner, we found -a note of apology from him. The dinner would be ready for us, and his -best friend would do the honours as master of the ceremonies, but he -himself was seedy and had gone home. - -On, in the pouring rain, we three devoted soldiers of the fork went, in -a four-wheeler cab, to our fate. The cab pulled up at a narrow doorway, -and we were at Goldstein's. Through a short passage we went towards -a little staircase, and our master of the ceremonies pointed out on -the post of a door that led into the public room of the restaurant a -triangular piece of zinc, a Mazuza, the little case in which is placed -a copy of the Ten Commandments. Upstairs we climbed into a small room -with no distinctive features about it. A table was laid for six. There -were roses in a tall glass vase in the middle of the table, and a -buttonhole bouquet in each napkin. A piano, chairs covered with black -leather, low cupboards with painted tea-trays and well-worn books on -the top of them, an old-fashioned bell-rope, a mantelpiece with painted -glass vases on it and a little clock, framed prints on the walls, two -gas globes--these were the fittings of an everyday kind of apartment. - -We took our places, and the waiter, in dress clothes, after a surprised -inquiry as to whether we were the only guests at the feast, put the -menu before us. It was then that, encouraged by the bold front shown by -my two comrades, I, after a moment of tremor, told the waiter to do his -duty. - -I had asked to have everything explained to me, and before the _hors -d'Å“uvre_ were brought in the master of the ceremonies, taking a book -from the top of one of the dwarf cupboards, showed me the Grace -before meat, a solemn little prayer which is really beautiful in its -simplicity. With the Grace comes the ceremony of the host breaking -bread, dipping the broken pieces in salt, and handing them round to his -guests, who sit with covered heads. - -Of the _hors d'Å“uvre_, Solomon Gundy, which had a strange sound to me, -was a form of pickled herring, excellently appetising. - -Before the soup was brought up, the master of the ceremonies explained -that the Frimsell was made from stock, and a paste of eggs and flour -rolled into tiny threads like vermicelli, while the Matsoklese had in -it balls of unleavened flour. When the soup was brought the two were -combined, and the tiny threads and the balls of dough both swam in a -liquid which had somewhat the taste of vermicelli soup. The master of -the ceremonies told me I must taste the pease and beans soup which -followed, as it is a very old-fashioned Jewish dish. It is very like a -rich pease-soup, and is cooked in carefully skimmed fat. In the great -earthenware jar which holds the soup is cooked the "kugel," a kind of -pease-pudding, which was to appear much later at the feast. - -Goldstein's is the restaurant patronised by the "froom," the strictest -observers of religious observances, of the Jewish community, and we -should by right only have drunk unfermented Muscat wine with our -repast, but some capital hock took its place, and when the master -of the ceremonies and the faithful soul touched glasses, one said -"Lekhaim," and the other answered the greeting with "Tavim." Then, -before the fish was put on the table, the master of the ceremonies told -me of the elaborate care that was taken in the selection of animals -to be killed, of the inspection of the butcher's knives, of the tests -applied to the dead animals to see that the flesh is good, of the -soaking and salting of the meat and the drawing-out of the veins from -it. The many restrictions, originally imposed during the wandering in -the desert, which make shell-fish, and wild game, and scaleless fish -unlawful food--these and many other interesting items of information -were imparted to me. - -The white-stewed gurnet, with chopped parsley and a sauce of egg and -lemon-juice, tempered by onion flavouring, was excellent. In the brown -sauce served with the carp were such curious ingredients as treacle, -gingerbread and onions, but the result, a strong, rich sauce, is very -pleasant to the taste. The great cold fried soles standing on their -heads and touching tails, and the two big sections of plaice flanking -them, I knew must be good; but I explained to the master of ceremonies -that I had already nearly eaten a full-sized man's dinner, and that I -must be left a little appetite to cope with what was to come. - -Very tender veal, with a sauce of egg and lemon, which had a thin, -sharp taste, and a steak, tender also, stewed with walnuts, an -excellent dish to make a dinner of, were the next items on the -menu, and I tasted each; but I protested against the capon and the -chicken as being an overplus of good things, and the master of the -ceremonies--who, I think, had a latent fear that I might burst before -the feast came to an end--told the waiter not to bring them up. - -The smoked beef was a delicious firm brisket, and the tongue, salted, -was also exceptionally good. I felt that the last feeble rag of an -appetite had gone, but the cucumber, a noble Dutch fellow, pickled -in salt and water in Holland, came to my aid, and a slice of this, -better than any _sorbet_ that I know of, gave me the necessary power to -attempt, in a last despairing effort, the kugel and apple staffen and -almond pudding. - -The staffen is a rich mixture of many fruits and candies with a thin -crust. The kugel is a pease-pudding cooked, as I have written above, -in the pease and beans soup. The almond pudding is one of those moist -delicacies that I thought only the French had the secret of making. - -Coffee--no milk, even if we had wanted it, for milk and butter are not -allowed on the same table as flesh--and a liqueur of brandy, and then, -going downstairs, we looked into the two simple rooms, running into -each other, which form the public restaurant, rooms empty at nine P.M., -but crowded at the midday meal. - -Mr Goldstein, who was there, told us that his patrons had become so -numerous that he would soon have to move to larger premises, and may -by now have done so, and certainly the cooking at the restaurant is -excellent, and I do not wonder at its obtaining much patronage. - -What this Gargantuan repast cost I do not know, for the designer of the -feast said that the bill was to be sent to him. - -I think that a "kosher" dinner, if this is a fair specimen, is a -succession of admirably cooked dishes. But an ordinary man should be -allowed a week in which to eat it. - - - - -XXIV - -THE MITRE - -AT HAMPTON COURT - - -We all know that in the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to -thoughts of love, but it is not such common knowledge that in the early -summer the thoughts of a man of mature age turn with equal agility to -duckling and green peas. And with duckling and green peas I always -associate the Mitre at Hampton Court. So it came to pass that I asked a -crony of like tastes to myself to meet me on a spring Sunday at Hampton -Court in the late afternoon, and suggested that we should walk in the -gardens of the Palace and see the rhododendrons, which were then in -great beauty, and that we should afterwards dine at the Mitre, sup -green pea soup and eat duckling and green peas. - -The Mitre is the most typically late Georgian, or early Victorian, -inn that I know of in the neighbourhood of London, and its great -attraction is that it has kept the old cookery, the old furniture, the -old pictures, the old china, the old plate, and last, but not least, -the old manners. It has been quite unconscious of the changes in the -outside world, it knows nothing of electric light and such newfangled -ideas, there are no French rolls to be found in its bread baskets, and -its ducklings are spitted and roasted before an open fire, being well -basted the while. - -This, very briefly, is the history of the Mitre. It is the direct -successor of the Toy Inn, an old house which stood on Crown property, -and the lease of which expired about the year of the battle of -Waterloo. The Toy was pulled down, and Mr Goodman, and Mr Sadler with -him, were obliged to look for a new home in which to carry on the old -traditions. This they found in three houses standing together near the -wooden bridge (alas and alack that the picturesque old bridge has given -place to the dull-red iron horror which was built in 1865!), and one of -the charms of the Mitre is the quaint irregularity of its architecture, -the brown bricks and red tiles of its face turned towards the Palace, -its white face and slate roof on the river side, the great wistaria and -the ivy knitting together all the various features. - -And parenthetically I wish to protest against the hiding away of the -Mitre from the view of the people as they cross the bridge, or of those -who row or go by launch or river. Just in front of the Mitre Hotel is -an eyot, which I believe is Government property. The willows on this -have been allowed to grow so high that they entirely blot out the -view from the river of the white face of the Mitre, and the long row -of windows of its banqueting-room; and equally, of course, the trees -obstruct the view of the river from the delightful little bowling-green -with ivied arches which is between the hotel and the backwater. If, -whoever he is, the Government official who has this eyot in his charge -will walk across the Hampton Court bridge or sit for ten minutes on the -lawn before the Mitre he will, I am sure, require no further prompting -to order the pollarding of the trees. - -Mr Goodman came to the three old houses and put up the name of the -Mitre in golden letters, and gave orders that the pillars that support -the great bow-window on the first floor should be painted as though -they were of very variegated marble, and with him from the old inn -he brought the little glass bow window which looks out from the bar -parlour into the Mitre hall, and he also brought with him all the old -Spode china from the Toy. Some of the original china is still preserved -at the Mitre, and whenever new plates and new dishes are required -Messrs Copeland, the successors to Spode, make them in the old moulds, -though those moulds are now wearing out; and the plates from which the -guests of to-day eat their lunches and dinners are identical with those -that came across the Green from the Toy. After a while Mr Goodman moved -on to the Whitehall Hotel, a big white-faced house which looks out on -to the Green, and which abuts on Cardinal Wolsey's old stables, and Mr -Sadler the First reigned in his stead. - -It was Mr Sadler the First who bought the old Sheffield plate which -makes such a brave show at the banquets at the Mitre, tureens in which -the soup comes to table, and the platters on which the fish is served. - -Six o'clock was the hour at which I had asked my crony to meet me on -the steps of the Mitre that we might consult together as to the menu of -our dinner, and I found him waiting for me chatting to Mr Sadler, the -elder of the two sons of Mr Sadler the First, and in the background was -Bagwell, the head waiter, who is a model to all British head waiters. -He has the appearance and the comforting manner of a high dignitary of -the Church, and I am quite sure would wear knee-breeches and an apron -and rosetted tall hat with as good grace as any bishop in the land. The -oldest inhabitants of Hampton Court, when I have sung Bagwell's praises -to them, have said to me: "Ah, but you ought to have known Smith," the -head waiter who flourished some thirty years ago. But to them I reply -that not having known Smith it is a comfort to me to be acquainted -with Bagwell. Bagwell had on a card a suggested menu for our dinner, -which ran thus:--Green Pea Soup, Grilled Trout, Stewed Eels, Duckling -and Green Peas and New Potatoes, cold Asparagus and Gooseberry Tart. -The eels I looked upon as a superfluity, though they are one of the -dishes of the house and are kept alive in the hotel in tanks until the -moment comes for their sacrifice. I also parried the suggestion that -sweetbreads should be included, for I hold that a duckling, if he be -a good duckling, well roasted and filled with savoury stuffing, is so -good a dish that he requires no supplement of any kind. - -When at seven we returned from our walk through the gardens of the -Palace a table had been spread for us in the bow-window, whence the -view of the river, and the house-boats, and the towing path, and the -walls of the Palace Gardens, and the big trees and the old gates, is a -very splendid thing. A quiet-footed, quiet-mannered waiter was ready -to attend on us, and on the table were the shining cruets and a little -loaf and a slab of beautiful butter, and to the tick of half-past seven -the soup in a plated tureen was put in front of me. - -The soup was excellently hot and of a strength unusual in a vegetable -soup. It had, I fancy, been laced with all manner of good things. It -made an excellent commencement to the dinner. The trout, a fine salmon -trout, of a beautiful pink, came straight up from the grill on a plated -dish, and with it the Tartar sauce in a plated boat. When the cover was -taken off from the duckling, set down before me to carve, the sweet -savour of good roasting and the perfume of the stuffing gratified the -sense of smell. And that duckling was as tender as a duckling should -be, and the peas were large and cooked to the requisite degree of -softness, and the apple sauce was excellent. That our plates were the -old Spode plates, soft blue in their pattern, and that the knives and -forks and spoons were all of an old pattern, were all tiny points of -enjoyment. The asparagus was good green English asparagus, and the -crust of the gooseberry pie was of meringue-like lightness. - -At the table to one side of us in the big bow sat a couple who were -also dining on duckling and drinking a bottle of champagne, for the -Mitre has an excellent cellar of wines at prices far below those of -London restaurants, and at the table on the other side were two ladies -and three men who had been on the river and had brought river appetites -and river good spirits to table with them. Farther back in the room -were other little parties of diners. I had asked host Sadler some -questions about the Masonic banquets which are held in the red-walled -rooms the windows of which overlook the bowling-green, and after our -dinner was finished he brought me a little sheaf of menus of banquets, -and he also brought a bottle of the old Cognac of the house, which -he was anxious that we should taste. I looked through the menus, and -the following of a banquet of the Bard of Avon Lodge seemed to me to -be that of a distinctly English feast. It has in it the _matelote_ of -stewed eels and the braised sweetbreads for which I did not find room -in our little dinner for two: - - SOUP. - Purée of Asparagus. Spring. - - FISH. - Grilled Trout. Sauce Tartare. - Stewed Eels en Matelote. - - ENTRÉE. - Braised Sweetbreads. - - REMOVES. - Roast Fore Quarter of Lamb. - French Beans. - Ducklings. Peas. - Asparagus. - - SWEETS. - Gooseberry Foule. Cream. - Madeira Jellies. - Iced Pudding. - - DESSERT. - -My crony and I sat sipping the old brandy, talking at intervals, and -watching how the daylight gave place to the afterglow, how the people -on the towpath thinned in numbers to single figures, and the homeward -bound boats on the river became fewer and fewer. As the light died out -the river became a sheet of dull silver, and the colour of the old -brick walls of the Palace gardens and its out-buildings grew to deeper -and a deeper purple, and the great trees became warm black silhouettes -against the darkening sky and the lights in the house-boats moored by -the bank began to throw reflections into the stream. - -Everything, even a spring evening at Hampton Court, must come to an -end, and at last I called for my bill. The dinner was eight shillings -a head, and so moderate had we been in our summer beverages--the -old brandy was host Sadler's contribution--that the total came to a -sovereign. - -We walked along the path up the river in the cool of the evening till -we could see the lights in Garrick's Villa, and then my crony and I -bade each other good-night and went our separate ways. - - - - -XXV - -IN THE HANDS OF PI(E)RATES - -THE CONNAUGHT ROOMS - - -When it was decided by the contributors to _Printer's Pie_ to entertain -their editor, "The Pieman," a little committee of artists and writers, -with the editor of _The Tatler_ as secretary, considered various plans -for giving Mr Hugh Spottiswoode a dinner with unusual surroundings. - -[Illustration] - -A decision was arrived at that the contributors to the _Pie_ should -become Pi(e)rates, for one night only, and in that guise should -entertain the Pieman in a pirate haunt, and then the next question -was the choice of a dining place and the difficult matter of finding -the proprietor or manager of a restaurant who would enter thoroughly -into the spirit of the burlesque and would provide a real pirate feast -with blood-curdling piratical surroundings. A member of the committee -suggested Mr George Harvey, who controls the Connaught Rooms in Great -Queen Street, as the very man, and to the next meeting of the committee -Mr George Harvey came, quiet, humorous and resourceful, and when he -heard the outlines of our scheme he smiled, and said that he thought he -quite understood what we wanted. - -It was essential to the success of our little joke that the guest of -the evening should know nothing of the reception he would get, and when -the Pi(e)rates were informed that the dress of a bold buccaneer was -to be the wear at dinner at the Connaught Rooms, they were entreated -to keep this a secret from the Pieman. Strangely enough, the secret -was kept; he had no inkling of what was going to happen to him. When, -heralded by a commissionaire, he came up the grand staircase of the -restaurant, faultlessly attired in his best evening clothes, he gave -a jump when the Master-at-Arms of the Pirates, attired in the levee -uniform of a pirate king, suddenly appeared before him with drawn -cutlass and a ferocious look, and told two stalwart members of the -pirate gang to "Arrest that man!" - -If it would interest you to know who the pirates are, when they are not -pirating, you have only to look at the contents pages of _Printer's -Pie_ and you can there read the list of the authors and artists who -were busy between seven and eight o'clock one Friday, in a little -room in Great Queen Street, transforming themselves from fairly -respectable members of society into the most shocking criminals that -ever went to sea. There were pirates of all kinds, all centuries and -all classes. There were gentlemen pirates with nickel-plated revolvers; -one pirate of particular ferocity from the Barbary Coast had given -himself an emerald-green complexion; another pirate, who feared that -his good-natured face might belie his costume, carried on his breast -a large placard with a photo on it for identification purposes, and -the legend "I am an [adjective] pirate." Some of the pirates wore -long false noses; many of them had the skull and crossbones on their -jerseys; cocked hats with feathers were quite fashionable wear, and no -belt had less than three pistols stuck into it. One writer of humorous -short stories came as an old growler cabby, explaining that cabmen were -the only pirates that he had ever met. The chairman of the dinner, who -had been selected for that onerous post because, as the designer of the -covers of all the _Printer's Pies_ he had always come first amongst its -contributors, had added an Afghan sheepskin coat to his other piratical -garment--luckily for him the night was very cold--and was attended by -a minor pirate, who carried on a long stick a triangular lantern as a -sign of authority. - -When the pirates' prisoner was arrested he was requested to step into a -little boat on wheels, the doors of the ante-room were flung wide open -and the boat was dragged into the presence of the pirate Captain, who -stood in the centre of the room, with the pirate band playing "Down -Among the Dead Men" on silvered papier-maché instruments to his left, -and to his right the pirate crew flourishing pistols and cutlasses. The -little boat paused for a moment while the pirates gave a blood-curdling -boarding yell, and then continued its career at hydroplane pace into -the dining-room, with the pirates following after. - -The Crown Room had become a pirates' lair prepared for a feast. The -walls had been shut out by scenery representing sea and mountain; the -floor was an inch deep in sawdust; in the corners of the room were -plantations of palm-trees, with parrots in cages in the midst of them. -These parrots missed the opportunity of their lives, for they were so -stunned by the noise the pirates made at their meal that they never -uttered a single scream. - -At one side of the pirates' lair was a great dhow, such as one sees -sailing in and out of Aden. It was really a stage for the band and the -after-dinner performers, but it had been converted into a dhow. In its -tall stern a piano was housed; it had high bulwarks, a tall mast and a -great lateen sail. From the mast-head flew the "Jolly Roger," and in -the rigging was a huge red lantern. - -A dozen round tables had been prepared for the pirates, with sheets -of brown paper laid on them as tablecloths. The room was lighted by -candles stuck into bottles and set on the tables. Of knives and forks -there were none apparent; the salt was great lumps of the rock variety, -the mustard was in teacups and the pepper in screws of brown paper. -The menu, which is reproduced at the head of this chapter, was written -with an inky stick on torn bits of brown paper, and each pirate's place -was marked for him by a card with blood spots on it. Every table had a -big card in a split cane set up to mark a pirate locality. There were -Skeleton Cove and Murder Gulch, Coffin Marsh, Gallows' Hill, Cannibal's -Creek, Dead Man's Rock and others, and the ship's officers, the roll of -which included the Stale Mate, the Hangman, the Powder Monkey and the -Ship's Parrot, presided each at a table. The first mate sat next to the -Captain, and it was his business to wave a black flag over his great -commander's head at intervals, and to beat constantly a big drum which -was concealed under the table. - -The waiters at the feast looked even greater ruffians than the -feasters, which is saying a great deal. They were the most shocking set -of criminals and marine cut-throats that ever carried a dish of salt -junk. Most of them had black eyes; their bare arms were wondrously -tattooed, and they all smoked short clay pipes as they went about -their work. The pirates, because of their superior station, smoked -long churchwardens, of which, and playing-cards, there was a plentiful -supply scattered about the tables. One waiter entered so thoroughly -into his part that he danced a little hornpipe as he took round the -dishes. - -When the feast had commenced with oysters, the pirate waiters suddenly -produced a supply of knives and forks, and menus of what the real -dinner was. Below is the menu of the real dinner, and an excellent -dinner it was. Pirates who had known better days nodded to each other -approvingly across the table when they had eaten the fish dish, which -was exceptionally good. Mr George Harvey most certainly has succeeded -in regilding the faded glories of the Freemasons' Tavern and in putting -the Connaught Rooms, which is the title of the rebuilt house, very -firmly on the dining map of London. - - Huîtres Royales. - Consommé Excelsior. - Timbale de Sole Archiduc. - Poularde Hongroise. - Nouilles au Parmesan. - Noisette de Pré-Salé Montmorency. - Pommes Anna. - Faisan en Cocotte à la Truffe. - Salade Jolly Roger. - Jambon d'York au Champagne. - Poires St George. - Friandises. - Barquettes de Laitances. - Dessert. - Café Double. - -The band, a real string orchestra, in white jackets, on the deck of -the dhow, played rag-time melodies and other inspiriting airs, and -occasionally made itself heard above the noise with which the pirates -settled down to their feast. The big drum was always in action, and -somewhere outside the hall a waiter shook a sheet of theatre-thunder -in a vain attempt to equal the noise of the drum within; pistols -were discharged in all parts of the lair, and the pirate with an -emerald-green complexion, whenever he thought the Captain looked dull, -walked over to his table and fired a pistol into his ear to cheer -him up. When this failed to attract the Captain's attention, a large -cracker was set fire to under his chair. - -One of the groups of pirates, thinking that the band were having far -too peaceable a time, suddenly drew pistols and cutlasses, boarded the -dhow, and put the musicians to the sword, which delighted the fiddlers -very much. There was also dancing during the dinner, for two of the -pirates, wishing to give a real society touch to the function, rose -and performed a wild Tango in and out of the tables. That was not the -only dance, for a fat carver, who wore a conical white cap and white -garments plentifully besprinkled with gore, had stood during the early -stages of dinner and had looked on at the pirates' antics, being much -amused thereat. One of the pirates, thinking that a spectator ought to -have some share in the active work of the fun, seized him and forced -him to dance, and dance the carver did, with such good will that he -finally tired the pirate out, and remained, perspiring and smiling, the -victor in the dance. - -When dinner was over the guest of the evening was tried by -court-martial. He was accommodated with a chair in the centre of -the room and given a cigar and a drink; a wide circle of candles in -bottles was put about him to give light to the proceedings, and all the -pirates sat in groups in the sawdust, the master-at-arms, with drawn -cutlass, behind the prisoner, the accuser, a picturesque ruffian, and -the prisoner's friend, an equally forbidding scoundrel, and the pirate -Captain being the only individuals standing up. This grouping formed -a really striking picture, and I have no doubt that many artistic -eyes took in its possibilities. The accusation brought against the -prisoner was that he had paid income tax (groans from the pirates), -that he was even suspected of paying super-tax (yells of fury from the -pirates), that he kept tame animals, notably Welsh rarebits, and that -he fed them. The pirate Captain had already warned the prisoner that -his sentence had been determined upon, and therefore that it was no -use for him, or anybody else on his behalf, to plead his cause; but -the prisoner's friend had a speech ready, and loosed it off, making -the case very much blacker against his client than it had been before. -Sentence was then duly pronounced, but as the pirate Captain had -mislaid the plank on which the victim was to walk, and as the goldfish -which were to represent sharks had been left downstairs, the doom of -the victim resolved itself into the presentation to him of a pair of -silver hand-cuffs with a tiny watch at the end of one of them. - -After the court-martial, the pirates gave themselves and their guest an -entertainment. One pirate sang admirably; another pirate, whose name, -I think, before he went to sea, was Walter Churcher, told excellent -stories, and a third pirate went through the whole performance that the -flashlight photographer inflicts on good-natured diners, his apparatus -being a whisky bottle and a tin mug, and then handed round photographs -he pretended to have taken of our guest. - -There was more fun to come, but as midnight was drawing near, and as I -belong now to the early-to-bed sect of sea-wolves, I departed quietly. -The lift boy at my flat, when he saw the brick-dust of my marine -complexion, said to me, as he took me up: "Good gracious, sir, whatever -has happened to your face?" - -It was a great night altogether! - - - - -XXVI - -APPENRODT'S - - -I had been, like every other Londoner, aware of the coming of -Appenrodt's shops into the panorama of the London streets; but I had -never gone into one of the Appenrodt establishments until a year ago, -and it was the dread of the armour-plate sandwich of the buffets that -sent me there. - -I often, when I am going to an early first night at the theatre, cut -matters so fine as to dinner that I have only time to eat a couple of -sandwiches at a buffet, and as often as not the barmaid, knowing that I -am not a regular customer, does a feat of sleight of hand and gives me -the roof, the two top sandwiches of the pile. If I protest I am assured -that they were fresh-cut not a quarter of an hour ago, and being a -moral coward in such matters, I eat them. If I postpone my sandwich -meal until after the theatre a second thickness of armour-plate has -been added to the bread. - -One evening, walking home after the theatre to my flat in the wild -north-west, I became aware when I reached Oxford Circus that I was -very hungry. Through the windows of Appenrodt's shop at Oxford Circus -I could see men in white jackets very busily slicing bread and making -sandwiches for the people who sat at the little tables. I went in, -ate a couple of ham sandwiches which had been made for me before my -eyes, and blessed the name of Appenrodt, for they were all that a ham -sandwich should be. - -When Appenrodt's headquarters at No. 1 Coventry Street were a-building -I watched with interest the putting in of the big plate-glass windows, -and after its completion I looked whenever I passed at the big _cartes -du jour_ which are put up outside wherever there is space for them. One -evening, on my way to a club in the Leicester Square district to dine, -I found, just as I arrived at the Coventry Street corner, that I had -cut my time very close, and that if I dined at the club I should not be -in my place at the rising of the curtain. I looked at the big bills of -fare outside Appenrodt's, and went up into the restaurant on the first -floor to see whether I could get there a quickly served meal. I had an -excellent plate of _chicken consommé_, a cut from one of the joints of -the day--roast veal and bacon--and a rice pudding. I found this simple -food quite excellent, and I got to my theatre in plenty of time. - -My first experience led me on to other dinners in Appenrodt's -restaurant on the first floor, and I found that the dishes, without -exception, were admirably cooked, and that the soup and the _soufflé -omelette_ with which I now always begin and end a repast at Appenrodt's -are noticeably excellent. There is plenty of choice, for the menu of -the day comprises four soups, ten fish dishes, at least the same number -of entrées, some of these being those that Germans love, vegetables and -sweets in due proportion, four joints at lunch-time and the same number -at dinner. - -This is a typical dinner that I ate one night at Appenrodt's, and these -are the prices I paid for the dishes:--_crème conti_, an excellent -white soup, 6d.; _suprême de brill Dugleré_, 1s. 6d.; _pilaff de foie -de volaille à la Grecque_, 1s. 3d.; and _omelette Mylord_, which is a -form of _omelette surprise_, 1s. 6d.; and I drank therewith a pint of -Rhenish sparkling muscatel with all the taste and bouquet of the grape -in it. - -The restaurant is all white and gold, and has a low ceiling, but as -it has a row of windows on two sides I have no doubt it will be quite -cool in summer. The curtains to the windows are of some pleasant -straw-coloured material, with pink spots on it; the carpet is dark. A -glass screen is in front of the lifts which bring the dishes down from -the kitchen at the top of the house. There are two staircases, one, the -main one, from Coventry Street, and another one from Wardour Street, -leading up to the restaurant. The waiters are mostly Germans, who speak -good English, and who have the bearing of drilled men. I have no doubt -that Mr Appenrodt, who at one time sacrificed a growing business to go -back to Germany to do his military training, does not engage any of his -countrymen who have shirked their years of service. The only drawback -to the restaurant that I have noticed is an unavoidable one owing to -the construction of the house, that the personnel of the coffee kitchen -have to pass through the restaurant coming and going about their work. - -The people who dine in the restaurant at Appenrodt's seem to belong -to all classes. When I have dined there early I have seen amongst the -customers men and ladies whom I recognised as belonging to the Variety -profession, and who eat an early meal before going to the theatres -where they perform. Many of Appenrodt's countrymen and countrywomen -dine in the restaurant, and the black-coated classes of respectable -Londoners and their womenfolk have already found out how good the food -is there. - -Having seen all these things, and feeling sure that Appenrodt, with -his many shops and his restaurants, meant a new power come into the -centre of London, I became curious as to the owner, or owners, of the -name and asked whether it was just a _nom de fantasie_ or whether there -really is such a person in the flesh as a Mr Appenrodt. I was assured -that there was a Mr Appenrodt and that if it would gratify my curiosity -to talk to him he would be very pleased to meet me. - -And so it came that I met Mr Appenrodt in his own restaurant, and found -him to be a very quiet, patently sincere German gentleman, with a round -face, pleasant, steady eyes, hair a little thin on the top and a large -dark moustache. He told me across a luncheon-table the story of his -life, and I was able to assure him that other people besides myself -would find the history of his early struggles in England an interesting -one. - -He was born in Berlin in 1867, and, having been a clerk in a Hamburg -shipping agency, came to this country when he was nineteen years old to -learn the English language. He soon found a billet in a City office, as -correspondence clerk at a pound a week, and he determined to stay in -England, though his father, who was a spirit distiller, wished him to -return to Germany and the distillery. - -When he was twenty years old he thought he knew London well enough to -engage in business on his own account. His father would not help him, -but he had £2000 left him by his mother, and with this he engaged in -various speculations, the thought of which now moves him to hearty -laughter. He wanted to induce the English to smoke the German students' -long pipes and to use washable india-rubber playing cards. - -These and other such brilliant ideas made a very serious inroad on -his capital. He held, amongst other agencies, one for a manufacturer -of preserves, and this brought him into touch with German provision -shops. These shops were all tucked away in little side streets in the -Soho district, and Mr Appenrodt thought that there would be a good -opening for German _delicatessen_ if it was possible to show them in -better premises and with more appetising surroundings. He opened in -a basement at the corner of Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street a -shop, in a room about twenty feet square. At that time there were no -light refreshment places in the City except the A.B.C. shops, and Mr -Appenrodt soon had a large clientele for his little shop. He saw that -there was a fortune to be made in catering for the wants of the middle -classes, but before he experimented on a larger scale he went back to -Germany to serve his one year of military service, having sold his -little business to a man who transferred it to some licensed premises -and made a fortune by it. - -When Mr Appenrodt came back, having completed his term of military -service, he found that his luck in the City had petered out, for not -one of the shops he opened in succession proved to be a success. The -last straw was a shop in the Commercial Road, which seemed likely to -eat up all the funds he had left. But it was during this last attempt -that his luck turned. He engaged a young lady as shop assistant, and -she brought him good luck and success; and his love story, for it -was a love story, led up to the right ending of all love stories, a -happy marriage. And he backed his luck, for he and his wife made a -last bold bid for fortune by taking a shop in the West End, at the -corner of Coventry Street and Whitcomb Street. This venture proved an -instantaneous success. Mr Appenrodt and his wife at first did all the -work themselves, and their business hours were from nine A.M. until one -the next morning. They had no afternoons or evenings off, and worked -all and every Sunday. - -Easier times came, assistant after assistant was engaged, and one -branch after another was opened. Not all of these proved successes, but -in spite of minor set-backs, the firm of two continued to flourish -more and more, and has now the big shop and restaurant at Coventry -Street, eight branches in various parts of London and a big depot in -Paris. Mr Appenrodt has refused many offers to turn his undertaking -into a company. He looks on his five hundred employees as his family, -and is not willing to put them at the mercy of strangers. - -That was Mr Appenrodt's story to me across the table, and when I asked -him questions he amplified his personal history in various ways. He -told me how the Parisian depot came to be established: that one day he -met a former employee, one of his own countrymen, who talked French -like a native of France. He knew his man, and he told him that he -was just going over to Paris, and that if he could find a suitable -shop to let there, he would take it and put his old friend in as his -partner and as the manager. He found the shop, put his friend into -it, and it has proved a most successful speculation. He told me of -the various obstacles he had to overcome in building his premises in -Coventry Street; of the large sums he expended to buy out the owners -of the three houses he required and of the difficulties he experienced -in obtaining a licence to sell beer and other liquors; how at last -he bought two public-houses and surrendered their licences, and how -the Licensing Magistrates then gave him permission to serve alcoholic -drinks, but only with food. His prices, Mr Appenrodt told me, are fixed -as being the lowest prices at which he can sell first-class food and -make a reasonable profit on it without looking to any profit from the -drinks that are sold, for no pressure whatever is put on the patrons of -his restaurant to drink anything stronger than water. - -I asked Mr Appenrodt what his special hobby was, and he told me -that it was to buy public-houses and to turn them into Appenrodt -establishments, which, if you come to think of it, is as true a work of -reform as any that is being carried out in London. - -He and his wife, he went on to say, love the work they do. They go -together frequently to the firm's factory in the country, where -workmen, many of them imported from Germany, make the sausages, the -glassed delicacies and other specialities of the house, and on fine -days to the farm they own at Hendon, a picturesque tract of country -through which the River Brent flows, where they breed pigs for the -pork sausages--though English pork is so firm that Dutch pork or other -foreign porks must be mixed with it to make it bind--and fowls and -other farm produce. - -Before I said good-bye to Mr Appenrodt he asked me if I would like -to see the kitchen and other parts of the house, and I said "With -pleasure," for I never think that the final word can be said regarding -a restaurant until one has seen the kitchen that supplies it. We -went upstairs to the top of the house, passing on the way a room in -which half-a-dozen women were peeling potatoes for the potato salads, -potatoes specially imported from Germany, for English potatoes crumble -too easily to be satisfactory material. And eventually we came to a -big kitchen at the top of the house, very airy and very clean, where -a French _chef de cuisine_ rules over cooks of all nationalities. -Descending again, we went into the basement to look at Appenrodt's -_Keller_, decorated after the German style with landscapes and figures, -where two bands play alternately all the afternoon and evening, -and where good Germans, and Englishmen who like good German beer, -congregate to eat simple food and drink the produce of Austrian and -German hop-fields. - -And finally I walked round the big shop on the ground floor, where at -the marble counter the men in white were busy cutting sandwiches, and -Mr Appenrodt explained to me the beauties of the glassed delicacies and -the great variety of sausages of all countries, and as he took up one -after another, sausages of majestic size, products of Germany or Italy, -cut so as to show a section, and smaller sausages in glass jars, and -bunches and packages of sausages, and Swiss sausages in a shape to take -up very little room in a knapsack, I felt coming over me exactly the -same feeling that I experience when a collector of beautiful china, or -priceless lacquer or wonderful metal-work explains to me the beauties -of his collection, a feeling that I too want to collect that particular -kind of curio. If I were much in Mr Appenrodt's company I feel quite -sure that I should become an enthusiastic amateur in the matter of -sausages. - - - - -XXVII - -THE BURFORD BRIDGE HOTEL - - -One of the pleasantest short runs out of London by motor car is to -Box Hill and the little hotel which lies just below it. In summer -the most picturesque way of getting to the hotel is either by one of -the Brighton coaches, which make it their lunching place, or by the -coach which goes to Box Hill and back in a day. And by no means an -uncomfortable, and certainly the cheapest, way of going down to the -hotel is to do as I did one Sunday--journey by the L.B. & S.C. Railway, -getting glimpses of Epsom and the great rolling common land of Ashtead, -of little rivers, and old mills, and wooded downs, on the way. - -The Burford Bridge Hotel, which takes its name from the wide brick -bridge near by, over the River Mole, stands alongside the high -road where it curves from the hill-side down to the level. It is a -picturesque building, for when the Surrey Trust, of which more anon, -took the house, it was a mere wayside inn. It has been gradually built -on to, and is now more a group of houses of white rough-cast and slate -roofs than one house. It has rambling tiled-roofed stables and a -garage alongside it, and is surrounded by tall trees. Behind it, just -where the hill begins to rise, are its gardens, with turf terraces and -geraniums in terra-cotta pots on white pedestals. A great cedar stands -in the midst of one of the lawns and another lawn is a bowling-green. -Some of the trees on the hill-side stretch out great branches which -give shadow to the garden-seats. - -Creepers climb over the house, there are rose-bushes by the paths, and -out beyond the bowling-green an orchard of old fruit-trees is on the -banks of the Mole, a brown stream in which the weeds wave gently as it -moves with a pleasant rustle through the down country on its way to -join the Thames. There are two dovecotes in the garden of the hotel, -and the flutter of white wings in the sunlight is pretty to see. Behind -the gardens is Box Hill, one part of which is steep, grassy down scored -with white footpaths, the other half stony slopes so steep as to be -almost cliffs, up which the woods and undergrowth climb. On the Sunday -of my visit the dark green of these woods was scarcely touched by the -russet and orange of the autumn tints. - -In the old portion of the house there are small rooms on the ground -floor, and above, a dozen little bedrooms with flower-boxes in their -windows and bell-pulls hanging by the fireplaces; for though there is -electric light all over the house, the old-fashioned bell-pulls and -the long line of bells in the corridor have been left as an old-world -touch. Out into the garden there juts a newly built part of the house, -with a large dining-room on the ground floor and bedrooms above. The -dining-room is panelled with chestnut wood to within a couple of feet -from the ceiling. It has on one side recesses, one of which forms an -ingle-nook for the fireplace, and opposite to them, in the wall facing -the garden, are many French windows which give on to the lawns. At one -end of this pleasant room is a great bow-window looking down the length -of the lawns and orchard, and the tables in this bow are the ones most -sought after. The strips of red carpet on the polished wooden floor -deaden the sound of the feet of the waiters as they go to and fro, the -chairs are handsome ones of red leather, and as they bear on their -backs a scroll with "The Gaiety" on it, I presume they were bought when -the Gaiety Restaurant breathed its last. - -All the classes for which the old inn, turned hotel, caters are -provided for. There is a refreshment-room for the chauffeurs, a bar for -the rustics. There is also a very pleasant sanctum, which I should have -called the bar parlour, but which is dubbed the lounge, in which are -the heads of some of the foxes killed by the local pack of hounds, and -a photograph of a meet at the hotel, some coaching prints, a picture -of a racehorse and its jockey, some little stags' heads which were -in the house when it was bought by the Trust, a grandfather clock, -some Japanese bronzes and Wedgwood vases, some old-fashioned wooden -arm-chairs and some big leather ones. It is in this comfortable room, -with a long stretch of window looking on to the road, that the worthies -of the neighbourhood assemble to talk over local politics and other -important matters. There is a little ante-chamber to the dining-room -with comfortable seats in it, a coffee-room and a drawing-room which -runs the full width of the old house and is the room in which the -ladies staying in the house sit after dinner. - -The Surrey Public House Trust, which bought the Burford Bridge Inn, -and in whose hands it has become one of the most flourishing small -country hotels in England, is an association of noblemen and gentlemen -of Surrey who have bought a dozen inns and hotels in the county, and -who run them on the sanest and soundest possible lines. The sale of -alcoholic drinks is not looked to as the principal source of profit, -and as none of the houses owned by the Trust are tied houses, the -goods, eatable and drinkable, are purchased in the best and cheapest -markets. The company has as its manager at Burford Bridge Mr "Mike" -Hunt, who comes of the family who were the lessees of the Star and -Garter at Richmond in its palmy days. Mr Hunt, plump, light-haired, -with a moustache somewhat resembling that of the German Emperor, knows -all there is to know of hotel management, and the eight and a half -years he has been at Burford Bridge are the years in which the hotel -has risen to its present fame. He knows pretty nearly every motorist -who uses the Brighton road, and is a keen supporter of local sport. - -The road to Dorking at certain times of the day, especially on Sundays, -is alive with motor cars and motor cycles, and the cars at lunch-time -and at tea-time cluster in front of the hotel like swarming bees. In -the big dining-room the lunch that is served is an excellent one. -There is a choice of two soups, one thick, one clear; fish--on this -particular Sunday there were some excellent lobsters--a great choice -of cold meats and one hot meat dish, and a choice of puddings. A cut -from the cheese is the ending of lunch, and then a cup of coffee served -under one of the trees on the lawn. Half-a-crown is the charge made for -this very ample meal. - -If you are making a day of it, as I did on this Sunday, it is pleasant -in the afternoon to stroll past the station, near which a little wooden -chapel stands thatched with reeds, and on through country roads where -the little roses of the brambles were turning to blackberries, and past -garden hedges where the box and holly mingle, out towards Updown Woods. -Once away from the clatter and roar of the main road one is soon in the -heart of the most beautiful country in Surrey, and one comes back to -the hotel, when the rush of the motors returning to town is lulling, -to find a little blue mist coming up from the valley before the distant -wooded hills, and all the rooks winging their way homeward to their -rookery in the great trees, and in the broad meadow by the Mole across -the road, scores and scores of rabbits out for a frolic. - -This is the dinner that I ate on that Sunday evening at Burford Bridge: - - Consommé à la Reine. - Thick Giblet Soup. - Boiled Turbot, Sauce Hollandaise. - Roast Leg of Mutton. - French Beans. Potatoes. - Roast Duckling or Roast Partridge. - Salad. - Beignets Soufflés. - Tartlets Confiture. - Cheese, etc. - -The giblet soup was excellent, the turbot fresh, and, though the -mutton might have been the more tender for another day of hanging, the -partridge and the salad were capital and the _beignet_ made with a very -light hand. The price of the dinner was 4s. 6d., and I drank with it a -pint of Rüdesheimer, which cost me 2s. 9d. - -A large party of ladies and men who were staying in the hotel had a -table in the centre of the big room and were very merry over their -meal. Two pretty girls and a young man, motoring up to London, who -stopped at the hotel to eat a dinner on their way, two pleasant-faced -ladies staying at the hotel, and various couples of men, were some of -the diners that night. After dinner I watched the departure of the -motorists, who were completing their journey up to London, sat for a -while by the fire in the drawing-room, for there was sharpness in the -September night air, and at ten o'clock, gently tired by my afternoon's -walk on the hills, went up to bed in a clean little bedroom with some -good old prints on its walls. Next morning the sound that woke me was -the cawing of the rooks on their way to the fields. - - - - -XXVIII - -THE RITZ - - -The Ritz Hotel and Restaurant will keep in the remembrance of Londoners -the name of the foremost _hôtelier_ of our days, M. Ritz, a man whose -genius is written across Europe and America, from Paris to Frankfort, -from Biarritz to Salsomaggiore, from Lucerne to Madrid, from Budapest -to New York. Too much quick brain work unfortunately has broken down M. -Ritz's health, and he is never likely to take any share again in the -control of the hotels which bear his name. He was the man who first -taught the mass of the rich English how to dine in cultured comfort in -their own capital; yet to the great majority of those who benefited -by his perfect taste and his genius for giving unostentatious luxury -to the gourmets of the world he was an unknown personality. Duchesses -and actresses, legislators and actors, explorers and curates, all are -known to the public by their photographs in shop windows and in the -newspapers, but I never saw a photograph of Ritz in a Regent Street -shop or in a journal. - -It was by chance that he first came to England. When the Savoy Hotel -was opened M. Ritz was manager of the Hotel National at Lucerne and of -the Grand Hotel at Monte Carlo: Mr D'Oyly Carte found him at the Grand -Hotel, and asked him if he would come to the Savoy for six months to -put the restaurant in order. He came, bringing with him M. Escoffier, -who had been chef at the Grand. Ritz at the Savoy made the supper -after the theatre the popular meal it still continues to be, though it -is, thanks to the Early Closing Act, a scramble to eat five-shillings' -worth of food in half-an-hour, and he also discovered, while at the -Savoy, that if a restaurant wishes a large number of its guests to -be of the softer sex a band is a necessity. He saw that an Austrian -band, engaged at the suggestion of Mr Hwfa Williams, kept the diners -half-an-hour longer at their tables over their cigars and coffee, and -that ladies soon came to consider a dinner unaccompanied by music -a tame feast. For the music, often over-loud, to the accompaniment -of which I eat my meals in most restaurants, I am not in the least -thankful to M. Ritz; but the majority of diners, especially those in -petticoats, if such things exist nowadays, think differently. - -The fight to obtain music at restaurants on Sundays was one of M. -Ritz's great battles. I remember the days, not so very long ago, when -a band could not play on Sunday in a restaurant unless some individual -dinner-giver engaged it to play for his guests, and had no objection -to the other diners listening to it. Another advance made by Ritz was -the obtaining of newly baked bread for those who lunched and dined -at the Savoy restaurant on a Sunday. The baker who at first supplied -this bread broke some law or some regulation in doing this, and was -summoned; but M. Ritz, not to be beaten, established a bakery in the -hotel to supply the bread. Other restaurants followed suit. He had -an enormous facility for quick work, no detail was too small for -him, and when he had made up his mind that a thing should be done he -took unlimited trouble to have it carried out. At one time, when he -managed the Carlton, he could not understand why the coffee made there -should not be quite up to the level of the coffee at his hotels on -the Continent. He tried every experiment possible, brought water from -all parts of England, took every precaution against the dampness of -our climate, and finally asked one of the Rümpelmayers, the great -pastrycook family of the south of France, to come to London to advise -him in this matter. - -I used to see M. Ritz at this period of his life very often, and used -to chat with him on matters of _gourmandise_. Very slim, very quiet, -with nervous hands clasped tightly together, he would move through the -big restaurant seeing everything, saying a word under his breath to a -head waiter, bowing to some of the diners, staying by a table to speak -to others, possessing a marvellous knowledge of faces and of what the -interests were of all the important people of his clientele. There was -a maxim, he said, which should be carved in golden letters above the -door of every _maître d'hôtel_, and that maxim was, in English, "A -customer is always right," and he always bore this in mind. Whenever -at that period M. Escoffier invented a new dish a little jury of -three, M. Escoffier, Madame Ritz and M. Ritz, used to sit in judgment -on it in solemn conclave before it was allowed to appear on a menu -in the restaurant. I once asked Madame Ritz, who has been M. Ritz's -real helpmate and counsellor throughout his married life, to what -quality she attributed her husband's success in life, and she answered, -"sensibility," giving the word its French meaning. - -M. Ritz had a talent for doing the right thing at the right time in -the right way. I once saw him in the early morning on the platform -of the station in Rome. He looked, as he always looked, as though he -had come out of a band-box, well-shaved and well-brushed, the ends of -his moustache pointed upwards, his whiskers brought down to the level -of his mouth, wearing those dark garments of extreme neatness which -one always associates with the manager of hotels. He was the one male -person on the platform that morning who was not dishevelled, nor tired, -nor unshaven; but he had raced across the Continent as fast as trains -could carry him to be there to receive a duke and duchess who were -going to stay at the hotel in which he had an interest. - -A _coup du maître d'hôtel_, of which he told me afterwards with a -smile, was the method by which he put a large luncheon-party of ladies -on easy terms with each other. It was a luncheon given at the Carlton -and attended by the ladies who were sending the hospital-ship out to -South Africa during the Boer War. Many of the ladies did not know each -other well, and M. Ritz, exceedingly anxious that the luncheon should -be a success, feared that they might not be easily conversational, so -at the commencement of the feast he took round a bottle of Château -Yquem and suggested to each lady that a little glass of white wine made -a good beginning to lunch. In two minutes every lady was chatting most -pleasantly to her neighbours whether she had ever seen them before -or not. Of the determination of M. Ritz in his early days to learn -everything that was to be learned in the restaurant world, I remember -one instance, told me by his wife. He held a well-paid post in one of -the smart Parisian restaurants, but left it to go to Voisin's at a -smaller salary, because he thought there was more to be learned in the -good old restaurant in the Rue St Honoré than in the other place of -good cheer. - -[Illustration: M. RITZ] - -But it is of the Ritz Restaurant, not of Ritz himself, that I am -writing in this chapter. I have read that the Ritz has swallowed up -the site of the old "White Horse" cellars, from which so many of the -coaches used to start, but the White Horse cellars had crossed the road -a century and a half before I began to know my London. The Isthmian -Club-house at one time occupied the portion of the site overlooking the -Green Park, and when the Club moved on to other quarters it became the -Walsingham, part chambers, part restaurant, one of the group of houses -and hotels which stretched from the Green Park to Arlington Street. -When M. Gehlardi managed the Walsingham, and M. Dutru was its chef, -there was no better dining place in London. - -The great white stone building of the Ritz, with its arcaded front and -its entrance to the restaurant and ballrooms right in the middle of the -arcade, is a comparative new-comer to London, in that it was opened -in 1906. It is a building, inside and out, of the Louis XVI. period, -with every modern luxury added. The Winter Garden, where one awaits -one's guests, is a delightful place of creamy marble pillars and gilt -trellis-work, casemented mirrors, carved amorini and a fountain with a -gilt lead figure of "La Source" looking up at the golden cupids poised -above her. The little orchestra of the hotel plays in this Winter -Garden, and its music in no way interferes with the conversation in the -restaurant. - -The restaurant itself may be said to be dedicated to Marie Antoinette, -for the gilt bronze garlands which hang from electrolier to -electrolier, forming an oval below the painted sky, were designed to -represent the flower decorations at one of Marie Antoinette's feasts, -and though the garlands have been much lightened, for at first they -were too heavy in design, they are still reminiscent of the poor -little queen who lived such a merry life and met so sad an end. It -is a restaurant of soft colours, of marbles, cream and rose and soft -green, of tapestried recesses and of handsome consoles in the niches. -Towards the Green Park long arched windows look on to one of the -pleasantest prospects in London, and below these windows and between -them and the Park is a little forecourt, in which a green tent is -pitched when a great ball is to be held in the suite of rooms below -the restaurant, and where on hot summer evenings dinner is served in -the open air. At one end of the restaurant is a gilt group of Father -Thames contemplating an exceedingly attractive lady who represents the -Ocean. Everything in the restaurant is of the Louis XVI. period, and -the Aubusson carpets and the chairs and all the silver and the china -and the glass used in the restaurant and the banqueting rooms harmonise -with that period. - -The restaurant is not a very large one, and sometimes tables for its -guests are set in the Marie Antoinette room with which it connects, -and in that portion of the corridor which forms an ante-room. But -though it is not of a very great size, the Ritz has a most aristocratic -clientele. Royal personages often lunch and dine there, and diplomacy -regards it as its own particular dining place, for tables are retained -by the secretaries and attachés of two of the Embassies, the German and -the Austrian, and, I fancy, by a third one also. - -Lady Amalthea had very graciously said she would dine with me at the -Ritz, so I went in the afternoon of a hot day to interview M. Kroell, -the manager, who stepped across Piccadilly from the Berkeley to succeed -M. Elles, who, for a time, managed both the Ritz in Paris and the Ritz -in London. With M. Kroell was M. Charles, the manager in charge of the -restaurant, and I asked that I might be given that evening a little -dinner for two, not of necessity an expensive dinner, but one suitable -for a warm evening, and I sent my compliments to M. Malley, the _chef -de cuisine_, and said that I hoped that I should find some of the -specialities of his kitchen amongst the dishes. - -M. Malley came from the Ritz at Paris when the London Ritz was -first opened, having acquired his art at the Grand Véfour and the -Café Anglais. He presides over a very spacious range of white-tiled -kitchens, in which all the rooms which should be hot are divided by -a wide corridor from the rooms which should be cold, and he has a -talent for the invention of new dishes, amongst these being a very -splendid dish of salmon with a _mousse_ of crayfish, which he has -named after the Marquise de Sévigné, a reminiscence of his days at -Vichy, and his _pêches Belle Dijonnaise_, of which more anon. Russian -soups are one of the specialities of the Ritz kitchen, and there is a -Viennese pastrycook amongst the members of M. Malley's brigade, who -makes exquisite pastry. The late King Edward had a special fancy for -the cakes made at the Ritz, and a supply used to be sent to Buckingham -Palace, but M. Elles told me that this was a State secret, for M. -Ménager, the King's chef, might not have liked it to be known that -anything from another kitchen entered Buckingham Palace. - -As I had left my dinner in the safe hands of the experts, so I also -left the question of the champagne we should drink, only asking that it -should be one recommended by the house. - -Before going on my way I reminded M. Kroell that on the last occasion -that I had word with him he was presented with a miniature in -brilliants of the order bestowed on him by the King of Spain, and I -asked him if he had been awarded any other decorations. M. Kroell -laughed, and then modestly owned to the German military medal, and -as he told me this he involuntarily squared his shoulders as an old -soldier. - -Lady Amalthea arrived with military punctuality (she is a soldier's -wife) in the best of spirits, wearing a dream of a dress, and her -diamonds and turquoises. A table had been kept for us at the upper end -of the room, where Lady Amalthea could both see all the guests and be -seen by them. She ran through a little selection from Debrett as she -took her seat, having scanned most of the diners as she came in, and I -was enabled to add to this by identifying a group at one of the tables -as some of the Peace Delegates from the Balkans. - -Then we settled down to the infinitely important matter of seeing what -the dinner was that M. Malley and M. Charles in counsel had arranged -for us. - -This is the menu, and though at first sight it seems a long one for two -people it is an exceedingly light dinner, and we neither of us ate the -tiny cutlets which were the _gros pièce_ of the feast. The wine to go -with it was a bottle of Roederer 1906: - - Melon. - Consommé Glacé Madrilène. - Filet de Sole Romanoff. - Cailles des Gourmets. - Côtes de Pauillac Montpensir. - Petits Pois. - Velouté Palestine. - Poulet en Chaudfroid. - Salade à la Ritz. - Pêche Belle Dijonnaise. - -The melon, delightfully cold, struck the right note in a dinner for a -hot evening; the Madrilène soup, beautiful in colour and flavoured with -tomato and capsicum, carried on the summer symphony; the Romanoff sole -was quite admirable, served with small slices of apple and artichokes -and with mussels, the apple giving a suspicion of bitter sweetness as -a contrast to the flesh of the fish. M. Charles happened to be near -our table at this period, not, I think, quite by chance. I assured -him that if there was such a thing as a gastronomic nerve M. Malley's -creation had found it. The quails formed part of a little pie brought -to table in a pie-dish of old blue willow pattern, and with them were -coxcombs and truffles and other good things. The _poulet en chaudfroid_ -was a noble bird, all white, and in it and with it was a pink _mousse_ -delicately perfumed with curry powder, a quite admirable combination. -The Ritz salad is of _cÅ“urs de romaine_, with almonds and portions of -tiny oranges with it. Last of the dishes in the dinner came the _pêche -Belle Dijonnaise_, which is one of the creations which have made the -fame of M. Malley, and which will become historical. It is a delightful -combination of peaches and black currant ice with some cassis, a -liqueur of black currants, added to it, and it is called _Belle -Dijonnaise_ because of the old Burgundian proverb: _A Dijon, il y a du -bon vin et des jolies filles_. - -I do not doubt that many people dined well in London on that hot June -evening, but this I will warrant, that no two people, however important -they might be, or whatever they paid for their dinner (my bill came to -£2, 10s.), dined better than did Lady Amalthea and I at the Ritz, and I -make all my compliments to M. Malley. - -I should not do the Ritz full justice if I did not refer to the -banquets which are served in the Marie Antoinette room and in the great -white suite below the restaurant. As typical of the Ritz banquets I -give you the menu of one that Lord Haldane gave to the foreign officers -visiting London in June 1912, and I also give the accompanying wines: - - Caviar d'Esturgeon. - Kroupnick Polonaise. - Consommé Viveur Glacé en Tasse. - Timbale de Homards à l'Américaine. - Suprême de Truite Saumonée à la Gelée de Chambertin. - Aiguillette de Jeune Caneton à l'Ambassade. - Courgettes à la Serbe. - Selle de Veau Braisée à l'Orloff. - Petits Pois. Carottes à la Crème. - Pommes Mignonette Persillées. - Soufflé de Jambon Norvégienne. - Ortolans Doubles au Bacon. - CÅ“urs de Laitues. - Asperges Géantes de Paris, Sauce Hollandaise. - Pêches des Gourmets. - Friandises. - Mousse Romaine. - Tartelettes Florentine. - Corbeille de Fruits. - - VINS. - Gonzalez Coronation Sherry. - Berncastler Doctor, 1893. - Château Duhart Milon, 1875. - Heidsieck Dry Monopole, 1898. - G. H. Mumm, 1899. - Croft's Port, 1890. - La Grande Marque Fine, 1848. - -The dinner looks at first glance to be an exceedingly long one, but it -is also an exceedingly light one, the saddle of veal being the only -substantial dish of the feast. The _aiguillettes_ of duckling from one -of the special dishes at the Ritz, and the _soufflés_ and the _mousses_ -that come from the Ritz kitchens are always ethereal. This banquet is -an excellent example of a feast which is important without being heavy. - - - - -XXIX - -SOME OUTLYING RESTAURANTS - - -In calling the restaurants about which I write in this chapter -"outlying" ones, I do not mean that they are in the far suburbs, but -only that they are some little distance from Nelson's Column, which I -take to be the centre of restaurant land, and that each of them is in a -part of London having its own entity--Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Sloane -Square and Bloomsbury. - - * * * * * - -Rinaldo, in the days when he was at the Savoy, used to stand at the -desk by the door and tell us all as we came in what tables had been -reserved for us. Of course, as _maître d'hôtel_, he had other duties, -but as he knew my whims concerning the position of my table, and as -he always sent me just where I wanted to be, I have him in grateful -remembrance for doing this. When he left the Savoy he set up on his own -account at No. 15 Wilton Road, which is just opposite Victoria Station, -and there, I am glad to say, he still flourishes. He is no longer quite -the slim Spanish don with a peaked black beard that he used to be, but -proprietorship has a waistcoat-filling effect on restaurateurs, and -time softens black hair with streaks of grey. - -Rinaldo's restaurant is quite spacious, a high and airy room with -plenty of light. Its walls are of pleasant grey with decorations -in high relief in the upper part, and on the stained glass of the -sky-light are paintings of game and fruit. Baskets of ferns in the -shape of boats hang from the roof, and there are always bunches of -roses on the tables. Behind a screen at the far end is the service -bar where the wines are served out, and in the centre of the room is -a very appetising table of cold meats and fruit; the melons and other -things that should be kept cold being on a long box of broken ice; -the mushrooms reposing in big wooden baskets; the crayfish and the -egg-fruit and the other delicacies, according to seasons, all being set -out with exceptional taste and looking very tempting. - -Quite an aristocratic clientele lunches and dines at Rinaldo's -restaurant. Many of the great people of Belgravia like to lunch in a -restaurant which is no great distance from their homes; the Monsignori -from the neighbouring Roman Catholic Cathedral often go there, and -quite a number of gourmets who like the Italian dishes--for Rinaldo, -though he looks like a Spaniard, is an Italian--of which there are -always some on the bill of fare, are very constant patrons. - -The restaurant has an extensive _carte du jour_, and most people who -lunch there prefer to order that meal from the card, though there is a -two-shilling lunch for those who are in a hurry. On the _carte du jour_ -which I took away with me on the last occasion I lunched in Wilton Road -I found amongst the entrées _ris de veau financière, Vienna schnitzel, -côte de veau Napolitaine, bitock à la Russe, entrecôte Tyrolienne_ and -_fritto misto à la Romaine_, which shows that the restaurant caters for -many nationalities and many tastes. My lunch on this occasion--it was a -warm summer day--consisted of a slice of cantaloup melon, 9d.; _fritto -misto_, 1s. 6d.; a cut of cheese; an iced _zabajone Milanaise_, 1s., -and a cup of coffee, which is always excellent at Rinaldo's, and which, -disregarding his early bringing-up--for Italians never allow metals to -touch coffee--Rinaldo pours out of a fascinating little metal pot. A -three-and-six dinner is the dinner of the house, and Rinaldo explained -to me that this rarely contains Italian dishes; for Englishmen in the -evening find them rather difficult to digest. This is a menu, taken by -chance in the autumn, of the dinner of the restaurant: - - Hors d'Å“uvre. - Consommé Tosca. - Crème Portugaise. - Turbot Bouilli. Sce. Homard. - Filet d'Hareng Meunière. - Mignonette d'Agneau Marigny. - Grenadine de Veau Clamart. - Grouse rôti. - Salade. - Choufleur au Gratin. - Glacé Napolitaine. - Mignardises. - - * * * * * - -Gretener, who is the proprietor of the New Albert Restaurant, 77 -Knightsbridge, also, in the past, scored good marks in my memory, for -he was manager of that very difficult proposition, the restaurant -of the Gare Maritime at Boulogne, and during his reign there it was -always possible, by giving him warning beforehand, to get an excellent -luncheon excellently served. As most of the business of that restaurant -is to put the greatest amount of food in the shortest possible time -into travellers who keep one anxious eye on the train outside, or to -cater for big parties of excursionists at the cheapest possible rate, a -manager must have a soul for the gastronomic art to keep his restaurant -under these conditions a place of delicate cookery. When M. Gretener -and his pretty wife came to England they established themselves at a -restaurant in Knightsbridge, which has a tessellated pavement and walls -of ornamented glazed tiles with mirrors at intervals, and a ceiling on -which cupids in high relief gambol on medallions with a blue ground. -A stained glass window is at the far end of the restaurant, a wide -staircase leads to the first floor, and under the staircase is a little -glassed-in serving-room. M. Gretener has collected a very faithful -clientele, and he also sends out meals to the dwellers in the houses -of flats which abound in Knightsbridge. In the summer-time many people -who go out of a morning to Hyde Park, strangers in the land, French, -Germans, and Italians amongst them, see Gretener's as they go through -the Albert Gate and make it their lunching place. A three-shilling -dinner is the dinner of the house, but whenever I have been there I -have ordered my meal _à la carte_ from the very moderately priced card -of the day, and this is a typical bill. _Crème Lentils_, 8d. Mayonnaise -of Salmon, 2s. _Noisette d'agneau Doria_, 1s. 6d. _Haricots verts -sautés_, 6d., and _Bavarois chocolat_, 4d. - - * * * * * - -The Queen's Restaurant, No. 4 Sloane Square, is one to which I often -go when there is a first night at the Court Theatre, for it is only -just across the road from that house. Its proprietor, M. Coppo, who -learned his business at the Café Royal, bustles about his restaurant -with a napkin under his arm doing the work of _maître d'hôtel_. The -restaurant, with cream-coloured walls and mirrors in white frames, -consists of several rooms thrown into one, the part by the entrance -door being narrow and just holding two rows of tables, while at -the back there is plenty of space. The clientele, on the occasions -that I have been there, has been a mixture of all the comfortable -classes--Guards' officers from the neighbouring barracks, fashionable -people of both sexes from Sloane Street and its neighbourhood, dramatic -critics making a hurried meal before going to the theatre, business -men, and an artist or two from the Chelsea studios. M. Coppo gives his -patrons a set dinner, the price of which, I fancy, is 3s. 6d.; but -I have always ordered my dinner from the _carte du jour_, and I have -found the food to be quite reasonably cheap and good. - - * * * * * - -I wonder how many people of the tens of hundreds who take their books -to Mudie's to be exchanged know that the Vienna Café just across the -road is an excellent place at which to lunch. In the upstairs rooms -I have eaten, in the middle of the day, Austrian and German dishes -excellently cooked, and there is a Viennese cheese cake which is a -speciality of the house for which I have a liking, and with a slice -of which I have always ended my meal. The coffee of the house is the -excellent coffee made in the Austrian manner, and at tea-time the Café -down below is always crowded with people, especially ladies, who like -the Viennese cakes and pastries that they obtain there. - - - - -XXX - -THE KING'S GUARD - -ST JAMES'S PALACE - - -"The best dinner in London, sir!" was what our fathers always added -when, with a touch of gratification, they used to tell of having been -asked to dine on the Guard at St James's; and nowadays, when the art -of dinner-giving has come to be very generally understood, the man who -likes good cooking and good company still feels very pleased to be -asked to dinner by one of the officers of the guard, for the old renown -is still justified, and there is a fascination in the surroundings that -is not to be obtained by unlimited money spent in any restaurant. - -Past the illuminated clock of the Palace, the hands of which mark -five minutes to eight, in through an arched gate, across one of the -courts, and in a narrow passage where a window gives a glimpse of -long rows of burnished pots and pans, is a black-painted door with, -on the door-jamb, a legend of black on white telling that this is the -officers' guard. - -Up some wooden stairs with leaden edges to them, stairs built for -use and not for ornament: and, the guests' coats being taken by a -clean-shaved butler in evening clothes, we are at once in the officers' -room. - -It is a long room, lighted on one side by a great bow-window, flanked -by two other windows. At the farthest end of the room from the door -is a mantelpiece of grey and white marble. The walls are painted a -comfortable green colour, and there are warm crimson curtains to the -windows. There are many pictures upon the walls; and a large sofa, -leather-covered arm-chairs, and a writing-table in the bow of the -window give an air of comfort to the room. A great screen, which, in -its way, is a work of art, being covered with cuttings of all periods, -from Rowlandson's caricatures to the modern style of military prints, -is drawn out from the wall so as to divide the room into two portions. -On the door side of the screen stands in one corner the regimental -colour of the battalion finding the guard, and here, too, are the -bearskin head-dresses of the officers. - -On the fireplace side of the screen is a table ready set for dinner, -the clear glass decanters at the corners being filled with champagne, -a silver-gilt vase forming the centre-piece, and candles in silver -candelabra giving the necessary light. By the fireplace the officers of -the guard, in scarlet and gold and black, are waiting to receive their -guests. - -In addition to the officers of St James's guard, the adjutant and -colonel of the battalion that finds the guard, the two officers of the -Household Cavalry on guard at the Horse Guards and some of the military -officials of the Court have a right to dine. But it is rarely that all -entitled to this privilege avail themselves of it, and the captain and -officers of the guard generally are able to ask some guests to fill the -vacant chairs. - -As, on the stroke of eight, on the evening I am writing of, we sat down -to dinner my host told me that he had ordered a typical meal for me. -This was the menu: - - Potage croûte-au-pot. - Eperlans à l'Anglaise. - Bouchées à la moëlle. - Côtelettes de mouton. Purée de marrons. - Poularde à la Turque. - Hure truffée. Sauce Cumberland. - Pluviers dorés. - Pommes de terre Anna. - Champignons grillés. - Omelette soufflée. - Huîtres à la Diable. - -The spatchcocked smelts, the boar's head, with its sharp-tasting sauce, -and the _soufflée_, I recognised as being favourite dishes on the -King's Guard. - -On this evening the wearers of the black coats, as well as the red, -had served his Majesty, at one time or another, in various parts -of the world, and our talk drifted to the subject of the various -officers' guards all over the British world. In hospitality the castle -guard at Dublin probably comes next to the guard at St James's, for -the officers of the guard fare excellently there at the Viceregal -expense. The Bank guards, both in the City of London and at College -Green, have compensating advantages, and the officers' guard at Fort -William, Calcutta, has helped many an impoverished subaltern to buy a -polo pony. The story goes that some rich native falling ill close to -the gate of Fort William, the subaltern on guard took him up to the -guardroom and treated him kindly, and in consequence, in his will, the -native left provision for a daily sum of rupees to be given to the -subaltern on guard. These rupees are paid to the officer minus one, -retained by the _babus_ as a charge for "stationery," and though all -the little tin gods both at Calcutta and Simla have exerted themselves -to recover for the subaltern that rupee, the power of the _babu_ has -been too strong and the imaginary stationery still represents the -missing rupee. We chatted of the Malta guard, with its collection of -pictures on the wall; of dreary hours at Gibraltar, with nothing to do -except to construct sugar-covered fougasses to blow up flies; and of -exciting moments at Peshawar, when the chance of being shot by one's -own sentries made going the rounds a real affair of outposts. - -Then I asked questions about the gilt centre-piece, which is in the -shape of an Egyptian vase with sphinxes on the base, and was told that -the holding capacities of it were beyond the guessing of anyone who -had not seen the experiment tried. Some of the other plate which is -put upon the table at the close of dinner is of great interest. There -is a cigar-lighter in the shape of a grenade given by his late Majesty -King Edward, a silver cigar-cutter, a memento of an inter-regimental -friendship made at manÅ“uvres, and a snuff-box made from one of the -hoofs of Napoleon's charger Marengo. Which hoof it was is not stated on -the box, but the collective wisdom of the table decided that it must -have been the near hind one. Excepting on days when the Scots Guards -are on guard, the Sovereign's health is not, I believe, drunk after -dinner--though I fancy that King Edward, when Prince of Wales, dining -on guard, broke through this custom. The regiment from across the -Border was at one time suspected of a leaning towards Jacobitism, and -while the officers were ordered to drink his Majesty's health they were -not allowed to use finger-glasses after dinner, lest they should drink -to the King over the water. - -Dinner over, the big sofa is pulled round in front of the fire and -a bridge-table claims its devotees. I asked my host to be allowed -to inspect the pictures which pretty well cover the walls. The most -important is an excellent portrait of Queen Victoria in the early part -of her reign. It is the work of "Lieut.-Col. Cadogan," and was begun -on the wall of a guardroom--at Windsor, I fancy. The surface of the -wall was cut off, the picture finished, and it now hangs, a fine work -of art but a tremendous weight, in the place of honour. There is an -admirable oil-colour of the old Duke of Wellington, showing a kindly -old face looking down, a pleasant difference from the alert aquiline -profile which most of his portraits show. There are prints of other -celebrated generals, mostly Guardsmen, and an amusing caricature of -three kings dining on guard. It is a very unfurnished guardroom, with -a bare floor, in which their Majesties are being entertained, but the -enthusiasm with which the officers are drinking their health makes up -for the surroundings. A key to the print hangs hard by, but the names -attached to the various figures are said to have been written in joke. -Many of the pictures are sporting prints and hunting caricatures; but -the original of _Vanity Fair's_ sketch of Dan Godfrey is in one corner; -and a strange old picture of a battle, painted on a tea-tray, hangs -over the door. - -On either side of the looking-glass, above the mantelpiece, are the -list of officers on duties and the orders for the guard, the latter -with a glass over them, which is supposed to have been cracked in -Marlborough's time. Some very admirably arranged caricatures, with -explanatory notes, are bound into a series of red volumes and kept in a -glazed set of shelves, and these, with a number of blue-bound volumes -of _The Pall Mall Magazine_, form the greater portion of the library -available for the officers on guard. - -As the hands of the clock near eleven, the butler, who has been handing -round "pegs" in long tumblers, takes up his position by the door. -Military discipline is inexorable, and we (the guests) know that we -must be out of the precincts of the guard by eleven o'clock. We say -good-night to our hosts, and as we go downstairs we hear the clank of -swords being buckled on. - -Outside in the courtyard a sergeant and a drummer and a man with a -lantern are waiting for the officer to go the rounds. - - - - -XXXI - -THE OLD BULL AND BUSH - - -There is no side of London life that has died out more completely, so -far as the upper classes are concerned, than the visits to the old -tea-gardens which used to be the resort of the well-to-do classes from -the days of King Charles II. up to the beginning of the last century. -Bagginnage Wells, to which Nell Gwynne first brought the bucks, is only -a name now, but Coleman, in his comedy, _Bon-ton_, defined good tone as -to - - "Drink tea on summer afternoons - At Bagginnage Wells with china and gilt spoons." - -Sadler's Wells was a tea-garden with a music-room before Rosoman -pulled down the building to put up a theatre. White Conduit House used -to take fifty pounds on a Sunday afternoon for sixpenny tea tickets, -and its white bread was considered a great luxury. The bowling alleys -of Marylebone Gardens were famous; and there were tea-gardens and a -bowling-green at the Yorkshire Stingo, opposite Lisson Grove. Kilburn -Wells advertised that its gardens and great room were adapted to the -use of "the politest companies," and at Jenny's Whim there was a great -garden, in different parts of which were recesses, and in a large piece -of water facing the tea alcoves big fish and mermaids showed themselves -above the surface. The Apollo Gardens in the Westminster Road, and -Cuper's Gardens opposite Somerset House, were amongst these old places -of amusement, most of which are now only names. There is, however, at -the present time a tavern with tea-gardens of the old-fashioned kind -quite close to London, which, besides its picturesqueness, has other -recommendations which give it a right to inclusion in a "Gourmet's -Guide." - -The Bull and Bush at North End, Hampstead, which is the tavern to -which I refer, has no very long history behind it. It was a farmhouse -when Jack Straw's Castle and the Spaniards were inns with tea-gardens -attached, the gardens of the latter house being laid out in the formal -Dutch style, which became fashionable after the Revolution. Tradition -has it that the Bull and Bush was at one time Hogarth's house, and Mr -Austin Dobson, who garnered information from all quarters into his book -on Hogarth, admits the claim of the house to this distinction, but -thinks that it was a house to which Hogarth went for "a visit." There -are long periods in Hogarth's life, before his father-in-law, Sir John -Thornhill, forgave him for his elopement with his daughter and took -the young pair to live with him in the family house in Covent Garden, -of which no record has been kept, and I should like to imagine that -the blue-eyed, bold young artist carried away the girl he loved to the -farmhouse on the breezy common to spend their honeymoon there, and that -he and she together planted the ring of fir-trees in the garden which -are still called "Hogarth's firs." The house ceased to be a farm, and -became a place of refreshment in later days, and W. H. Pyne (Ephraim -Hardcastle), in his collection of essays, "Wine and Walnuts," tells -of an imaginary excursion made to the Bull and Bush by a party which -included Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Sterne and Garrick, and -puts in Gainsborough's mouth praise of the creamy milk and the fine -Dutch damask to be found at the little inn. - -And the great Victorian painters and writers followed the example of -their predecessors in going on jaunts to the Bull and Bush, for when -Harry Humphries, a great favourite with all men of the pen and brush, -was the host of the house, Dickens used to frequent it, and George -Augustus Sala, Clement Scott and E. L. Blanchard, and those two great -_Punch_ artists, George du Maurier and Charles Keene, and many more of -a like kidney. - -There is no difficulty in finding the old inn to-day, for at the -flagstaff and the pond which mark the western end of the long, bare -backbone of the common (from which London can be seen below to the -south in its veil of smoke, and on clear days the Surrey hills beyond, -while to the north are the hills and fields of the great landscape that -stretches from Harrow round to Hainault) the North End road plunges -down, with common land, furze and undergrowth and big trees and grassy -knolls to one side, and on the other old oaken park palings and big -trees. - -Just where the road first dips a blind fiddler stands, and all day -long he plays one air, and that air is Kate Carney's song, "Down -by the old Bull and Bush." The inn itself is almost in the shadow -of a big mansion, Pitt House it is called, to which the great Lord -Chatham retired when he suffered from his nerve storms, refused to -see any of his fellow-ministers and could not even bear the presence -of a servant, his food being passed in to him through a panel in the -door. In the road to one side of the inn a peripatetic photographer -generally establishes his studio. The Bull and Bush is a white-faced -building with a slated roof, standing a little back from the highway, -and behind it and on both sides of it are many trees. It is an old -house with a big window to its large room on the first floor and nice -old-fashioned bow-windows with small panes to the two bar-rooms on -the ground floor. One of these bar-rooms is a real snuggery adorned -with sketches by some of the artists who have made themselves at home -in the inn. Various large boards set forth that lunches, dinners and -teas are obtainable; that the name of the host is Mr Fred Vinall; that -there are private dining-rooms, a coffee-room and billiards; and that a -two-shilling ordinary is ready every Sunday from two to three o'clock. -This "ordinary," which I believe is a very noble feast for the money -charged, is held in the big room upstairs. - -The gardens are at the back of the inn, and though summer is the real -time to enjoy the attractions of the arbours at the Bull and Bush, it -is quite pleasant when the new leaves are covering, in the spring, the -trees with the lightest green, or on a still, autumn day when the tints -around the lawn are all russet and copper, to drink tea on the little -terrace behind the house in the centre of which is a great stone vase -for flowers and at which little tables with red and white and yellow -and white covers are set for the tea-drinkers. The tea is excellent, -and though the slices of bread and butter are thick they are of fine -bread and the freshest of butter. When spring merges into summer the -green bowling lawn, with turf as thick and level as a carpet, also has -its quota of cane chairs and little tables, and the rustic arbours all -around it, on the roofs of which are boxes of flowers, are also all -occupied. The waiters are kept busy carrying cakes and bread and butter -and tea and stronger beverages all through a summer day to the little -family parties who take their ease in the garden of their inn. - -As a neighbour to the bowling-green is the platform which serves as -an out-of-door dancing floor when Cinderellas are held on summer -evenings, and as the flooring on which the chairs are put when a -concert is given on a little stage which is to one side of this planked -space. In the middle of this dancing and theatre floor is the circle -of firs which bears Hogarth's name. There are electric lights on the -terrace and amidst the trees and round the lawn and dancing floor. -Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays are the days on which the concerts -or the dances are generally held in summer. - -Mr Fred Vinall, short in stature, genial in manner, with close-clipped -grey beard and moustache, has just as distinguished friends amongst -players and artists and men of the pen as any of his predecessors. He -has revived the old pleasures of the tea-gardens of a hundred years -ago, and to see the gardens of the Bull and Bush on a warm summer -evening is to learn that Londoners can take their evening pleasures out -of doors with cheerful mirth and with sobriety as well. - -And now at last I come to the reason why the Bull and Bush should be -recommended to gourmets not only as a place where Londoners can be -seen amusing themselves sanely, but as a place of excellent eating. -Mrs Vinall, wife of the host of the old inn, Belgian by birth, has all -the talent of a Cordon Bleu, and if warning is telegraphed or written -to the inn of the coming of a party of gourmets, a lunch or a dinner, -admirably cooked under Mrs Vinall's supervision, will be ready for -the gastronomers, the table set in the open air, and they will, I am -sure, eating in the invigorating air of Hampstead Heath food admirably -cooked, thank me for having told them of a lunching and dining place -clear of the London smoke. - - - - -XXXII - -THE BERKELEY - - -The pleasant, white-faced hotel, with its restaurant on the ground -floor, which faces the Ritz across Piccadilly, stands on classic -ground, for it was at the corner of Piccadilly and Berkeley Street that -Francatelli, the great cook and _maître d'hôtel_, pupil of the even -greater Carême, was in command of the St James's Restaurant and the -hotel of that name which in the middle of the last century stood first, -with no _proxime accessit_, amongst the restaurants of the capital. - -Nowadays we take our great French cooks in London for granted; they -are part of the life of London. But in the fifties Clubland was still -a little astonished and flattered that the great chefs were willing to -desert their own country to dwell amidst the fogs and rain of England, -and restaurants were comparatively rare, and few of them were of a -very high class. Hayward, who first published his "Art of Dining" in -1852, gives in his book little biographies of Ude and Francatelli, -and alludes rather slightingly to Soyer, who was the third of the -trio of very great cooks. Disraeli, who had enough of the artistic -temperament in him to assign to gastronomy its proper place amongst -the pleasures of life, recorded the dismissal of Ude from Crockford's -in the following words:--"There has been a row at Crockford's, and Ude -dismissed. He told the committee he was worth £4000 a year. Their new -man is quite a failure, so I think the great artist may yet return -from Elba." The "new man" was Francatelli, and he was so far from -being a failure that when it was thought that Buckingham Palace should -possess the greatest cook in England the position of chief cook and -_maître d'hôtel_ to the Queen was offered to him. He did not find the -position a comfortable one, and resigned at the end of two years. For -a time he lived in retirement, but in the sixties he once more placed -himself on the active list, and took charge of the St James's. - -In doing so he was following the example of Soyer, who, in the fifties, -established a restaurant in Gore House, which had been the residence -of Lady Blessington. Soyer expected that the Great Exhibition would -send a crowd of rich people to his restaurant, and many great people -patronised it, but in the end he lost £7000 by his venture. Hayward -says concerning him that "he is more likely to earn immortality by his -soup kitchen than by his soup," alluding to the soup kitchens that -Soyer as a Government Commissioner established at the Royal Barracks in -Dublin during the great famine in Ireland. - -In 1868, when "The Epicure's Year Book," an attempt to copy Grimod de -la Reynière's "Almanach des Gourmands," was published by Bradbury and -Evans, Francatelli was at the zenith of his fame at the St James's, and -the anonymous author, in that book, who wrote the chapter on "London -Dinners," after paying a compliment to British fare, saying that Wilton -and Rule are not afraid of comparison with any oyster dealers in the -world, and extolling the flounders and steaks of the Blue Posts in Cork -Street, declares that cookery "such as Ude once served at Crockford's -and his successor Francatelli is now serving at the St James's Hotel, -Piccadilly, is not reached by any other hotel or tavern in London." As -it may interest my readers with a taste for antiquarian lore to know -which were the restaurants recommended in the sixties for good plain -food, I continue the quotation. "At the Ship and Turtle in Leadenhall -Street, or at Birch's (Ring and Brymer), on Cornhill, the turtle is -cooked with perfect art; and the punch would satisfy the author of -'Le veritable art de faire le Punch.' The fish, at the fish dinner at -Simpson's in Cheapside, is admirable. Nay, you may have a chop broiled -under your nose, at Joe's, behind the Royal Exchange, that shall defy -criticism. At Simpson's in the Strand; at the Albion, by Drury Lane -Theatre; at Blanchard's (ask for his Cotherstone cheese), in Beak -Street, Regent Street, the Earl Dudley's neck of venison, duckling with -green peas, or chicken with asparagus--the main elements of his dinner -'fit for an emperor,' are to be bought excellently well cooked. The -Rainbow, in Fleet Street, is a well-known, good, plain house; and a -grill well cooked and served, where Messrs Spiers and Pond have put up -their silver gridiron, at Ludgate Hill, is a new illustration of London -plain cookery. The London, in Fleet Street, is an admirable house; -cheap, and yet where there are--a rare thing in the City--well-kept -tables. This house publishes its menus in the evening papers. Our -oyster shops have no rivals in the boastful capital of gastronomy. -Take Pim's, for example, in the Poultry, where there are perfect -oysters, and the luncheon delicacies of our modern day. But when the -ambitious diner glances along the line of entrées, even in the best -of the houses I have cited, he is in danger. In the City, the Albion -is the best kitchen for elaborate dishes, and the dinners given here -are smaller than the crowds which meet over huddled, flat, and chilled -dishes at our great public dinners. Yet nobody would for one moment -think of comparing the most carefully prepared dinner for sixty with -such a menu as Francatelli prepares for half-a-dozen in Piccadilly." -From this general damnation, however, the author exempts Willis's, in -King Street, St James's, where, he says, the mutton pies of the Old -Thatched House Tavern may still be eaten; Epitaux', in Pall Mall; the -Burlington, in Regent Street; Verrey's and Kühn's, in which places -"very respectable French cookery is to be had." - -"The Epicure's Year Book" gives amongst its menus of remarkable dinners -of 1867 one of the "Epicure" dinner served at the St James's. The -_dîner à la Russe_ was in those days ousting the dinner in the French -style, in which the dishes were placed in three services or relays -upon the table and carved by host and guests, and such an epicure as -Captain Hans Busk, who was the gourmet _par excellence_ of the sixties, -gave his guests at the United University Club very much such a dinner -as men eat to-day, though his dinners were of too many courses. But at -the Mansion House the first and second and third services were still -adhered to. Francatelli, though conforming to the new style, made -concessions to the old school, as this menu shows. His French was a -little shaky, for he did not know when "_à la_" should be used and when -it should not be used: - - Les Huîtres. - - _Potages_.--La purée de gibier à la chasseur; à la Julienne. - - _Poisson_.--Les epigrammes de rougets à la Bordelaise; le saumon à la - Tartare. - - _Entrées_.--Les mauviettes à la Troienza; les côtelettes à la - Duchesse; les medaillons de perdreaux à la St James; le selle de - mouton rôtie. - - _Legumes ... Salade._ - - _Second Service_.--Le faisan truffé à la Périgueux; la mayonnaise de - crevettes; les chouxfleurs au parmesan; la charlotte de pommes; le - gâteau à la Cérito. - -The St James's was not by any means the first hostelry at the corner -of Berkeley Street, for in the stage-coach days a coffee-house--the -Gloucester, I think--occupied the site, and some of the coaches for the -west used to start from it; but I have already given you a fill of the -history of the forerunners of the Berkeley, and will come at once to -recent years and the modern building. - -M. Diette, who was one of the men who awakened London from its -mid-Victorian gluttony and taught Londoners to dine lightly and dine -well, was for a time at the Berkeley before he went to the Continent -to make the Hotel du Palais at Biarritz a very splendid place of -entertainment. He died recently at Le Touquet, where one of his many -sons-in-law, M. Recoussine, is in command of two of the big hotels. In -1897 there were many alterations and additions made to the Berkeley, -the restaurant was almost doubled in size, and when M. Jules was -manager of the hotel and Emile was in charge of the restaurant, and -M. Herpin was _chef de cuisine_, the Berkeley was, as it is now, one -of the "best places" at which to dine in London. The restaurant in -those days was panelled with light oak, and the ante-room, by the -entrance, was all old gold. Jules was translated to the Savoy and now, -as a proprietor, is comfortably settled at the Maison Jules in Jermyn -Street. M. Kroell was another manager who stepped from the Berkeley -to a larger hotel, having only to cross the road to reach the Ritz. -Mr Raymond Slanz, the manager who controls the Berkeley in this year -of grace, is as eminent as any of his predecessors. He is young, -energetic, and has brains, which he has used unsparingly in keeping -the Berkeley abreast of the times. He is the most cosmopolitan of -managers, for he has gained his experience all over the Continent, in -England, America and South Africa. He has been the architect of his -own fortunes, for when he first came to London he started his upward -career from the position of extra waiter at the Savoy. The restaurant -to-day is all white; its walls have a deep white frieze, with on it -in relief a wood through the trees of which a mediæval hunting party -thread their way, half the animals that came out of the Ark being afoot -in this wonderful preserve. There is some gold ornamentation just below -the frieze and on the casings of the windows, and gilt electroliers are -in the centre of the panels. Shields of semi-opaque glass and lamps -hidden by the cornice throw light up on to the ceiling and there are -gilt capitols to the fluted columns. The rose and grey of the carpet -and the rose of the chair cushions form a pleasant contrast to the -white. The ante-room in which a string band of musicians in gorgeous -uniforms play has the same decoration as the restaurant. The Berkeley -restaurant flourishes so satisfactorily that more tables are wanted, -though it is comparatively lately that a new room was added, and the -space occupied by the cashiers is to be thrown into the restaurant. -M. Arturo Giordano, who is generally known as "Arthur" and who used -to oscillate between the Palais at St Moritz and the Berkeley, is now -permanently in charge of the restaurant, and M. J. Granjon, who came to -London from the Grande Cercle Républicain, and who has been created a -Chevalier of the Order of Mérite Agricole, is the _chef de cuisine_. - -One warm July evening I found myself at eight o'clock dinnerless in -Mayfair. I was to have dined with friends at their house, but on -arriving there found that my hostess had been taken suddenly ill and -that dinner was the last thing concerning which the household was -troubling itself. My room under these circumstances was more welcome -than my company. My favourite table in my favourite club would, I -knew, be occupied by somebody else; the Berkeley was the nearest -restaurant, and I accordingly walked there and found one of the small -tables at the far end of the room unoccupied. At the Berkeley there -is always a _carte du jour_ with an abundant choice of dishes, those -ready being marked with a cross. It is the custom of the house, and -a very good one too, to allow the diners to choose their own dinner -from the _carte_ and to charge them half-a-guinea or twelve and six, -according to whether the dinner is a long one or a short one. I was in -the course of ordering a short dinner and had selected _rossolnik_, a -Russian soup, some turbot, a wing of a chicken _en cocotte_, and was -hesitating over the various _entremets_, when Arthur espied me, came to -my table and took matters into his own hands. He asked to be allowed to -alter my menu slightly in order that some of the specialities of the -house might play a part in it. I was nothing loth, for my dinner under -those circumstances became interesting, and I was prepared to consider -critically any of M. Granjon's creations that Arthur might put before -me. This was the menu: - - Melon Cantaloup. - Crème Raymonde. - Turbotin Beaumarchais. - Suprême de Volaille Bagatelle. - Velouté Châtelaine. - Pêches Glacés Hortense. - -The soup was a cream of chicken, delightfully soft, a very gentle -introduction to what was to follow. The _turbotin Beaumarchais_ is a -noble dish, a strong white wine sauce with the essence of the fish -in it, and sliced truffles, and mushrooms and carrots being served -therewith, parsley, and just a suspicion of onion. The _suprême de -volaille Bagatelle_ I recommend to anyone who, like myself, is -occasionally warned off red meats by sundry twinges, as being a dish -of fowl which is interesting and not in the least vapid. Asparagus and -mushrooms and truffles go with it, and the principal ingredients of the -sauce are port and cream reduced. The _entremet_ consisted of peaches -and grapes, raspberries, and a cream ice with, I fancy, more than one -liqueur added, the whole forming a noble _Coupe-Jacques_, served in a -silver bowl. My dinner being a short one, I had plenty of appetite left -for this admirable fruit dish. - -The Berkeley, both the hotel and the restaurant, always seem to be a -stronghold of the country gentleman. If I heard that an M.F.H. of my -acquaintance whom I wished to see was in town and I did not know his -address, the hotel to which I should telephone first to ask whether he -was staying there would be the Berkeley, and no doubt the wonderful -frieze of the restaurant is a compliment to the mighty hunters who -stay in the hotel. Many squarsons and the higher ranks of the clergy -are amongst the patrons of the Berkeley, and whenever I dine at the -restaurant it seems to me that it ought to be the week of the Oxford -and Cambridge or Eton and Harrow cricket matches, for I always see -amongst the guests at the dinner-parties pretty girls with complexions -of cream and rose, the sisters of Varsity lads and public schoolboys, -country maidens whom I always associate with "Lord's," light and dark -blue ribbons, and wild enthusiasm. - -I have never dined at the Berkeley without coming away a pleased man, -and the dinner that M. Granjon cooked for me when I was dinnerless -in the wilderness which borders the Green Park sent me away from the -Berkeley rejoicing. - - - - -XXXIII - -THE JOYS OF FOREIGN TRAVEL - -THE RESTAURANT GUSTAVE - - -There are one or two tales of wonderful discoveries of excellent little -restaurants in unexpected places abroad that, with variations, I hear -over and over again from travelled folk. - -One of these stories is a motoring one. The scene is usually the south -of France, and a long day's journey, an early _déjeuner_, a breakdown -in some desolate spot and a long delay before the damage could be -repaired are the preliminaries, all told at considerable length. Then -comes a harrowing description of the oncoming of darkness, of the -discovery that the town at which the travellers intend to spend the -night is still many, many kilometres away, of a shortage of petrol, of -the faint feeling that comes through lack of food. A shower of cold -rain, or mud up to the axles, a broken-down bridge or a swollen stream -generally come into the story at this period to lead up to the sense -of relief, described with rapture, which the travellers experience -when, at a turning of the road, a light is seen at a distance. This is -found to be the window of a little inn, quite unpretentious outside, -with a sanded floor inside, everything quite clean, the host a retired -_maître d'hôtel_ who had in his time been a waiter in Soho, and talks -a little English, the hostess an excellent cook. And then the story -ambles along to its happy ending with the description of the _soupe à -l'oignon_ which is put on table, over which a clean napkin is spread, -of the delicious savour it emits and how beautifully hot and strong it -is, of the grilled wings of a chicken which follow; of an _omelette au -confiture_, which the cook herself brings to table; of country wine -and country butter; a long stick of bread and some cheese made on a -neighbouring farm. And the "tag," in a dozen words, tells how the -chauffeur, who has also been well fed, finds a fresh supply of petrol, -and how the contented travellers reach at midnight the town where they -intend to sleep. - -The scene of another story is a minor cathedral town in Italy or Spain, -and the tale commences with a vigorous denunciation of the principal -hotel in the place: stuffy rooms, vile food cooked in rancid oil; an -impudent head waiter and an unhelpful hall-porter. The central division -of the story deals with a long day of sight-seeing; a midday meal of -sandwiches, "horrid things made of the ham of the country and coarse -bread"; and a terrifying adventure when, having lost their way in a -network of streets, the ladies of the party are stared at by some -horrible unshaven men who say un-understandable things in patois, and -then laugh. The tale concludes thus:--"Just as we thought that we -should have to pay one of the impudent little boys to show us the way -back to that disgusting hotel we turned a corner, and there we saw a -clean little restaurant with little trees in front of the window and a -bill of fare, with lots of nice things on it quite cheap, hanging on -the door-post." - -There are unlimited variations on the above, and the tale can take from -two minutes to three-quarters of an hour in the telling, according to -the volume of guide-book gush and the amount of lip-smacking over the -food that is introduced into it. - -But why go to France, Italy or Spain to obtain these materials for -a story? The circumstances can be exactly reproduced in London. The -preliminaries are to eat nothing between breakfast and dinner-time and -to tire yourself out with exercise. Then, if you wish to indulge in the -motoring adventure, engage the most rickety taxi-cab to be found on any -stand and drive round and round the inner circle of Regent's Park until -the inevitable breakdown occurs. When, after a quarter of an hour's -delay, the chauffeur says that he is ready to go on again, tell him to -drive to Soho Square, then to go down Greek Street, and to stop when he -comes to the Restaurant Gustave. - -Or if it is the cathedral city incidents you would like to live through -once more, start in a worn-out condition from Golden Square, and make -your way in a zigzag through the narrowest streets and alleys you can -find to St Anne's, Soho, which is big enough to be a second-class -cathedral, and go on, still zigzagging, till you reach Greek Street and -Gustave's. - -And this is what you will find when you get there. A little restaurant -with a chocolate face and with a plate-glass window, on which the fact -is announced that it is an _à la carte_ establishment. Two little trees -are in front of the window--little evergreen trees are fashionable just -now in Soho--and the name "Gustave" is well in evidence above, with an -electric lamp to throw light upon it. Inside the window a long lawn -curtain gives privacy to the restaurant. The card of the day, with -half-a-hundred names of dishes written in black ink, hangs in a brass -frame by the door. - -Go inside, and you find yourself in a little room--a French gentleman -who went on my recommendation to Gustave's described it to me -afterwards as a _boîte_--with cream-coloured walls and a chocolate -skirting. A counter, to which the waiters go to fetch the dishes, with -a girl behind it very busily engaged, is at one side of the room. -Oilcloth is on the floor, and a little staircase leads to the first -floor. Eleven tables are in this room, all of them generally occupied, -mostly by French people; but there is a second smaller room on beyond, -which holds four tables, and on the two occasions lately that I have -dined at Gustave's I have found one of these tables vacant. - -Everything is very clean at Gustave's, and if the napery is thin and -the glass is thick, that is quite in keeping with the travel story. -The people at the other tables are probably French. They belong to -the respectable classes, and they behave just as well as though they -carried innumerable quarterings on their escutcheons. A young waiter -puts the _carte du jour_, with an ornamental blue border, on the table -in front of you, and Monsieur Gustave, who, napkin on arm, bustles -about his little restaurant, comes to give advice, if needed, as to a -choice of dishes. - -Gustave--who must not, of course, be confused with that other Gustave -who was manager of the Savoy, and who is now at the Lotus Club--is a -little Frenchman, with a moustache, who is very wide awake. He has a -sense of humour, and he talks excellent English. He was for a time at -an hotel in Hatton Garden, and at the Restaurant des Gourmets before he -came to Greek Street. - -The first item on a bill of fare that I took away, with me reads: "½ -doz. Escargots, 8d.," but long ago, at Prunier's in Paris, I tried to -attune my palate to snails, and failed, so on this particular night I -did not even consider their inclusion in my dinner. Nor did I dally -with _hors d'Å“uvre_, though I might have had sardines, or _filets -de hareng_, or _anchois_, or _salmis_ for twopence. But I ordered -soup, and I think I went up in Gustave's opinion when I preferred -three-pennyworth of _soupe à l'oignon_ to _pot au feu_ at the same -price. There were three fish dishes on the card, _moules Marinières_, -6d.; _merlan frit_, 6d.; _sole frit_, 10d.; and Gustave recommended the -_moules_ as being a dish of the house, and having come in that morning. - -Looking down the list of entrées to find something sufficiently bizarre -in taste to match the commencement of my dinner, I hesitated over a -_pilaff_, which would have cost me 8d., almost plumped for a _râble de -lièvre_, which meant an outlay of 1s., and then, remembering that it -was Christmas-time, as near as possible ordered a _boudin_, which is -the sausage that all good Frenchmen eat once a year at the _réveillon_ -suppers on Christmas Eve. But I remembered the nightmare that followed -the last _réveillon_ supper to which I went in Paris, and, passing -over all the entrées, ordered nothing more exciting than a wing of -chicken, 1s., and a _salade chicorée_. A _crème chocolat_, 4d., was my -_entremet_. - -The onion soup proved to be excellent--quite strong and quite oniony, -which, as I was not going into polite society that evening, could -offend no one. The mussels quite justified M. Gustave's eulogium, -but as I did not eat the whole bowlful, and left some of the savoury -liquid, M. Gustave, with an expression of concern on his face, came -to my table to ask whether I had found any fault with the dish. I -assured him that my appetite, not the mussels or the cook, was alone -to blame. The wing of the chicken was plump and tender, and had I -paid half-a-crown it could not have been better. The _crème chocolat_ -certainly tasted of chocolate, if the cream was not a very pronounced -feature in it. - -It was a very excellent meal--at the price--and had I carried out the -starvation and strong exercise and vivid imagination preparation that -I have so strongly recommended to you, instead of lounging out to tea -in the afternoon with a pretty lady and eating tea cake and sugary -things at five o'clock, I should have recorded all the beautiful things -about the little restaurant that I hear in the travel stories. - - - - -XXXIV - -A SUPPER TRAIN - - -One day last year I ate two meals under roofs owned by the Great -Eastern Railway Company. - -I lunched in the dining-room of the Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool -Street, a splendid, airy room, light grey and gold, with brown -Scagliola marble columns. The tables in this dining-room are set a good -distance apart, rather a rare luxury in the City, where space is very -limited; one is not forced to overhear the conversation of the people -dining at other tables, and waiters do not kick one's chair every time -they pass. The people lunching seemed to be a happy blend of visitors -staying in the hotel and City men who had come in from their offices, -but there was none of that breathless hurry-scurry that I always -associate with a lunch in the City. - -A curious piece of furniture, glass above, wood below, caught my eye -as we went into the room. It looked at a distance like a jeweller's -showcase, and I asked my host if it was that. He laughed and told me to -inspect the jewels that it contained. It was a sideboard for the cold -meats, showing them, but at the same time keeping the dust from them. -It is cooled by ice. It is such a happy idea that the Carlton Club has -copied it. - -This is the menu of the lunch that I might have eaten in its entirety -had I chosen: - - Consommé Pluche. - Potage Solferino. - Boiled Salmon, Caper Sauce. - Fried Fresh Haddock. - Omelette Alsacienne. - Grilled Kidney, Vert Pré. - Roast Haunch of Mutton, Red Currant Jelly. - Roast Veal à l'Anglaise - (Or choice of cold meats). - Cabbage. Tomatoes. - Boiled and Lyonnaise Potatoes. - Roast Partridge and Chips. - Damson Pudding. Baked Custard. - Stewed Apricots. - Cheese. Radishes. Watercress. - -I know of old that the cookery at the hotel is excellent, for I have -often lunched both there and at the Abercorn Rooms, next door, so I did -not feel in honour bound to form myself into a tasting committee of -one, and to go through the menu. I ate salmon and partridge and damson -pudding, and found them excellent. On the menu I saw that the price of -the lunch was 3s. 6d. - -My host, being a Freemason of high degree, asked me if I had ever seen -the Masonic temple in the Abercorn Rooms, and as I said that I had not -we crossed on the first floor from the hotel to the rooms, and, meeting -Mr Amendt, the manager of all the Great Eastern catering enterprises, -on the way, he showed us the temple, splendid with panels of onyx and -columns of delicately tinted marble, the lamps of onyx, dish-shaped -and throwing their light up to the ceiling, seeming to me to be the -most beautiful things of their kind I have ever seen in a temple. Mr -Amendt, having his master key in his pocket, took us through many -ante-rooms and small banqueting-rooms, with pictures by Lely of some -of the beauties of Charles II.'s Court on the walls, and we looked in, -on my way to the street, at the great Hamilton Hall, a replica of the -banqueting-room of the Palais Soubise, where the waiters, lunch being -finished, were putting the chairs upside down on the tables, and at the -grill-room, named after the county of Norfolk, which, with its violet -marble pilasters and its paintings of City celebrities--Nell Gwynne -being cheek by jowl with such eminent respectabilities as Whittington -and Gresham--is at night one of the pleasantest little banqueting-rooms -in which I have ever feasted. - -As I said good-bye to my host and to Mr Amendt, I remarked that I -should be at Liverpool Street again early next morning, as I was going -down to Southend for the week-end, and that if I had not been due at a -London theatre that night I should have enjoyed sleeping in the fresh -sea air. Whereon Mr Amendt pointed out to me that I could perfectly -well go to the play and catch the supper train down to Southend at -midnight. If this suited me I had only to telegraph to the hotel at -which I was going to stay, and Mr Amendt said that he himself would -order my supper for me. It all seemed to fit in so admirably that I -said, "Thank you very much," and sent off my telegram at once. - -I had abundant time to change my clothes after the theatre, and taxied -down to Liverpool Street Station through the deserted City streets. -At the station, however, there were many people on the platforms, the -refreshment rooms blazed with light, and scores of little parties in -them seemed to be partaking of midnight tea. I found that a table had -been reserved for me in the restaurant car of the Southend train, -and a white-jacketed waiter told me that my supper would be served -immediately the train started, and that a compartment in the carriage -next to the restaurant car was at my disposal. Mr Amendt had been even -better than his word. - -Waiting on the platform, I watched another train, a suburban one, on -the next line of rails, fill up. Bare-headed ladies, clutching in -their hands the programmes of the theatres to which they had been, -came sailing along; little messenger boys, their evening's work -over, climbed into the carriages, and one gentleman, who evidently -thought his time for rest had arrived, took the whole of one side of a -third-class compartment to himself, lay down, and went at once to sleep. - -When the suburban train had left, a few minutes before midnight, the -stream of passengers set towards the Southend train, and I wondered -which of them were going to be my fellow-supperers in the restaurant -car. A party consisting of an elderly gentleman--I am sure he was an -uncle, for he had the good-natured look that all genuine Dickensy -uncles acquire--had evidently brought up two nieces and a little -schoolboy nephew to see some play. They were returning in the highest -of spirits, and got into the restaurant car at once, the uncle asking -whether his champagne had been properly iced. A clergyman with a paper -bag in his hand, which I think must have contained sponge cakes, looked -regretfully at the car, and told the guard that had he known that it -was running he would not have brought his supper with him. I saw nobody -else who was an obvious supperer, but when the whistle blew and the -flag was waved, and the train started, I found that in the section of -the restaurant car where my table was there were two elderly ladies at -one of the tables, a young man in spectacles at another, the good uncle -and his little party at the third and that the fourth was reserved for -me. There was on my table a little bunch of chrysanthemums in a glass -vase with a heavy foot to prevent it from overturning, and I noticed -with appreciation several devices for holding in their places cruets, -water bottles, salt cellars and glasses should the train at express -pace threaten to shake things off the table. This was the menu of the -supper that Mr Amendt had ordered for me: - - Lobster Mayonnaise. - Mutton Cutlets Reform. - Roast Grouse. Straw Potatoes. - Salad. - Omelette au Confiture. - Devilled Sardines. - Cheese. Biscuits. Butter. - Watercress. Lettuce. Celery. - Black Coffee. - -Like my lunch earlier in the day, the Great Eastern offered me more -than I had sufficient appetite to cope with. I found the _mayonnaise_ -excellent, and did full justice to the grouse, the _omelette_ and -the devilled sardines. The young man in spectacles, I could see, had -ordered for his supper fried cod and a glass of porter; the elderly -ladies were drinking tea and eating cake; and the uncle and his little -party were, like myself, eating a sumptuous meal.wAs I ate my supper the train rushed through the East of London, and -Bethnal Green and Stratford were patches of lighted windows in the -darkness, but when we were out of the zone of bricks and mortar and in -the country there was a full moon high above, and fields and trees all -grey and shadowy in the mist that was rising. - -The two elderly ladies had gone back to their compartment, the young -man in spectacles paid his bill, and I judged from this that we must -be nearing Southend, and asked for mine. The waiter bowed politely and -informed me that I was the guest of the Great Eastern Company. As I -could not argue with such an indefinite thing as a railway company, I -had to accept the situation, and therefore I cannot set down how much -the excellent meal I ate should have cost me. - -When the train ran in to the terminus at Southend it certainly did not -seem to me that I had been travelling for an hour. - - - - -XXXV - -THE ADELAIDE GALLERY - - -There is no story of the success of a London restaurant more -interesting than that of the Adelaide Gallery, which is more generally -known as Gatti's. - -The first Gatti to come to this country from the Val Blegno in the -Ticino Canton of Switzerland, on the Italian side of the Alps, was -the pioneer of penny ices in England, and his shop in Villiers Street -by the steps leading down to the steamboat pier below Hungerford -Market was for the sale of these ices and _gaufres_, the thin batter -cakes pressed in a mould and baked, a delicacy the small children of -Continental countries love, but which has never ousted the British -penny bun for its pre-eminence in these islands. When Hungerford Market -was swept away to give space for the building of Charing Cross Station, -its name, however, being perpetuated by the bridge, the first Gatti's -was re-established under the arches of the station and became in due -course the Charing Cross Music Hall. - -To the Gatti of Villiers Street and the Arches came from their native -village two of his young nephews, Agostino and Stefano--the wags of -the later Victorian days called them Angostura and Stephanotis. They -determined, as soon as they felt their feet, to launch out on their -own account. They leased the derelict Adelaide Gallery, which had its -entrance in Adelaide Street, converted it into a café restaurant after -the Continental pattern, and opened it on 21st May 1862. So juvenile -were these enterprising young Swiss that the younger brother could not -legally sign the lease, being under twenty-one. The Adelaide Gallery -was then right in the centre of the triangle of buildings bounded by -King William Street, Adelaide Street and the Strand: it was parallel -to the Lowther Arcade, and the entrance to it was by a narrow corridor -from Adelaide Street, a street named, of course, after King William the -Fourth's queen. - -The gallery had been built in 1832 as the Gallery of Practical Science, -at a time when object lessons in science were considered essential -for the improvement of youthful minds; and in the long gallery, which -is now a part of the restaurant, were working models of shaft wheels, -while down its centre ran, waist-high, a long tank with a suspension -bridge across it and a lighthouse in its midst. In this tank, working -models of steamboats with very long smoke stacks puffed up and down. -A gallery ran round this long hall and had pictures on its walls and -models on stands of the various forms of architectural pillars. The -Polytechnic, opened six years later, which this generation still -remembers in its Diving Bell and Pepper's Ghost days, was run on -similar lines. The gallery became subsequently a Marionette theatre, a -casino and the home of some negro minstrels, but it never settled down -successfully to any form of moneymaking until the young Gattis started -it on its career as a café restaurant. An habitué of the Gallery in -its scientific or in its casino days would only recognise the building -to-day by its arched ceiling and by the circular openings in the roof -for light and air. - -Agostino and Stefano Gatti put marble-topped tables in the Gallery, -couches against the walls and chairs on the other side of the tables, -and in the basement they made billiard-rooms. Chops and steaks and -chip potatoes, the last a novelty to London, were the trump cards of -their catering. At first the magistrates, possibly suspecting that the -casino might be revived under another name, refused the Gallery a music -licence, but that was granted later on in its existence. The Adelaide -Gallery as a restaurant was a direct challenge to the old chop-houses. -It gave very much the same fare under more airy and more cheerful -conditions, and the Londoners took a wonderful fancy to the "chips." - -My earliest memory of a visit to the Adelaide Gallery is a schoolboy -one, for I was taken there to sup after seeing Fechter play in _The -Duke's Motto_ at, I think, the Lyceum. I ate on that occasion chops and -tomato sauce, went on to pastry, and finished with a Welsh rarebit--a -schoolboy has no fear of indigestion. I came to know the restaurant -very well in the eighties, when I was quartered at Canterbury and at -Shorncliffe for a spell of home service. I got at that time as much fun -out of life in London as a Captain's pay and a small allowance would -permit. I had sufficient knowledge of matters gastronomic to know that -I received excellent value for my money at Gatti's, and the ladies to -whom I used to give dinners said that they liked Asti Spumante and -Sparkling Hock just as well as champagne--and perhaps they really did, -bless them. - -Early in the eighties most of the improvements made to the Gallery had -been completed, and the restaurant ran right up to Adelaide Street and -down to the Strand. Whether the entrance and new rooms on the King -William Street side had then been made I forget, but if they had not -been they soon after came into existence. One special friend of mine in -those days was the big man in uniform who stood at the Strand entrance, -and whose constant companion was a large St Bernard dog. The big man -always had a cheerful turn of conversation, and if by any chance I -grew impatient because a lady whom I expected to dine did not appear, -he would console me by saying that "probably nothing worse than a cab -accident has happened." The St Bernard in its old age grew snappy, and -eventually, when it had come back twice from new homes which had been -provided for it, had to be destroyed. Both Messrs Agostino and Stefano -Gatti were still alive in those days, grave-faced, pleasant gentlemen, -who lunched together and dined together at a table not far from the -entrance to the kitchen, and who when their meals were finished, sat at -a semicircular desk and took the counters from the waiters as they had -done ever since the first days of the restaurant. - -I was somewhat later to make their acquaintance, and this was how -it happened. Little "Willie" Goldberg, who was known to all the -English-speaking world as The Shifter, was a man of brilliant ideas, -which he rarely had the patience to carry into effect. I received -one morning from him a telegram asking me to meet him at ten minutes -past one at the Strand entrance of Gatti's, adding that it concerned -a matter of the highest importance, which would bring much profit to -both of us. I arrived at Gatti's in time, and was met at the door by -The Shifter, who told me that the Gattis wanted a military melodrama -for the Adelphi, that theatre being their property; that he had thought -of a splendid title for a soldier play; that he and I would write it -together; that the Gattis had asked him to lunch to talk the matter -over; and that he had suggested that I should come too. Then we hurried -into the restaurant. We lunched with Messrs Gatti, and when, after -lunch, they very gently said that they were ready to hear anything that -we might have to tell them, The Shifter disclosed the title, which -pleased them, and then sat back in his seat as though the matter was -settled. The Messrs Gatti asked for some slight outline of the play, -but The Shifter put it to them that an advance of authors' fees should -be the next step in the business. This, the Gattis said, was not the -way in which they transacted the business of their theatre, whereon The -Shifter closed the discussion by saying farewell. When we were outside -in the street again, I suggested that the next thing to do would be to -get out a scenario to submit to the Gattis; but The Shifter was in high -dudgeon; he wrinkled up his long nose in haughty scorn and then said: -"These Gattis don't understand our English ways of doing business"--and -that was the beginning and the end of our great military melodrama. But -I had made the acquaintance of the Gattis, and was always afterwards on -very pleasant terms with them. - -It is not within the scope of this article to deal with the Gattis' -enterprises in theatres, but the tale of their purchase of the -Vaudeville Theatre should be told as an instance of their kindness -of heart. Amongst the many Gatti enterprises was the establishment -of a great electric-light-distributing business. This began with a -very small installation in the cellars of the Adelaide Gallery, and -increased and increased until it is now one of the greatest electric -light companies in London. At one time the electric light plant was -established in a building just behind the Vaudeville Theatre, and Mr -Tom Thorne, the actor, whose management had not prospered greatly, -told the Messrs Gatti that his ill-success of late was owing to the -noise the engines made behind the stage. Messrs Gatti, to obviate this -grievance, bought the theatre, or at least as much of it as is freehold. - -There always has been a strong theatrical element amongst the clientele -of Gatti's, and the authors who wrote the Adelphi melodramas--Dion -Boucicault, Henry Pettitt, George R. Sims, Robert Buchanan and -others--used constantly to be amongst the people lunching and dining -in the Gallery. In their theatrical enterprises the Gattis never -forgot the Adelaide Gallery, and the one thing essential in an Adelphi -melodrama was that it should conclude in time to allow the audience -to sup at the restaurant. All the black-coated classes patronised the -Gallery, from the comfortable business man, who got as good a chop -there in the evening as he did in his City restaurant in the middle -of the day, to the little clerk who took the girl he was engaged to -there because she liked the music and the brightness of the place. The -country cousins all knew Gatti's, and knew that it was a place where -they would get a good meal at a reasonable price, and that no advantage -would be taken of their ignorance of London charges. Salvini, the great -actor, used to take his meals at Gatti's when he was in England, and -the great Lord Salisbury had a fondness for a chop and chips, and used -to gratify it by going to the Adelaide Gallery. An old Garibaldian, a -fine, white-haired old gentleman in a slouch hat and a long, threadbare -cloak, was the most remarkable of the clientele of Gatti's in the early -eighties; he was evidently very poor and one dish with him constituted -a meal, but because he had fought as a red-shirted hero, the waiters -at Gatti's treated him with more deference than they would show to any -prince, and took the copper he gave as a tip with as much gratitude as -they would have expressed for the gold of the millionaire. - -The Gatti's of to-day has adapted itself to modern requirements, -but it caters for much the same class as of yore, and its food is -still excellent material, well cooked, though there is a great deal -more variety now than there was in the old chops and chips days. It -retains, however, all its old democratic ways. Its clients choose -their own tables and their own seats, hang up their own coats and then -catch the attention of the waiter who has charge of the table. The -restaurant--cream and gold, with French grey panels in its roof--has -now four entrances: the Adelaide Street one, two in King William -Street and one in the Strand. While the main restaurant remains an _à -la carte_ establishment with a plentiful choice of dishes, including -a list of grills, there is a _table d'hôte_ room at the King William -Street side, a handsome hall with a gilded roof and pink-shaded -electroliers, which throw their light up on to the ceiling. The latest -addition to the dining-rooms is a banqueting hall, reached by marble -stairs from King William Street. It is a handsome and well-proportioned -room, with a musicians' gallery at one side, and an ante-room half-way -up its stairs, and it holds one hundred and fifty feasters quite -comfortably. - -At the same little table where their father and their uncle sat, -the two Messrs Gatti of to-day--John (ex-Mayor of Westminster) and -Rocco--sit, young copies of their predecessors, in that one of them -has kept a plentiful head of hair, whereas the other one has been less -conservative. They give the same attention to the business of the -restaurant that the original Gattis did, but the semicircular desk has -vanished and the work of taking the counters is now done by deputies on -either side of a great screen which stretches before the wide entrance -to the kitchen. Mr de Rossi, dapper and energetic, is the manager of -the restaurant, and it is always a comfort to me that when I lunch or -dine under the musicians' gallery the _maître d'hôtel_, whom I have -known for thirty years, comes and gives me fatherly advice as to the -choice of dishes for a meal. - -The kitchen of the Adelaide Gallery is one of the few in London that -possess a large open fire for roasting, and its Old English cookery -is, therefore, always good. It caters, however, for all nationalities, -and as an indication of what its prices are, and of the variety of its -fare, I cannot do better than give you the list of entrées I find on -the _carte du jour_, which I took away the last time I dined at Gatti's: - -_Carbonnade de bÅ“uf à la Berlinoise_, 1s. 2d.; _lapin sauté Chasseur_, -1s. 4d.; _vol-au-vent de ris d'agneau Financière_, 1s. 6d.; _pieds -de porc grillés Sainte Menehould_, 1s. 2d.; _fegatino di pollo alla -Forestiera_, 1s. 4d.; _terrine de lièvre St Hubert_ (cold), 1s. 9d.; -_côte de veau en casserole aux cèpes_, 1s. 9d.; _tournedos Rouennaise_, -2s.; _chump chop d'agneau, purée Bruxelloise_, 1s. 6d.; _tête de veau -en tortue_, 1s. 6d.; _salmis de perdreaux au Chambertin_, 2s.; _langue -de bÅ“uf braisée aux nouilles fraîches_, 1s. 6d.; _escalopes de veau -Viennoise_, 1s. 6d.; _mironton de bÅ“uf au gratin_, 1s. 4d.; _côtelettes -d'agneau Provençale_, 2s.; _pigeon St Charles_, 2s. 6d.; _noisettes -de pré-salé Maréchal_, 1s. 9d.; _entrecôte Marchand de Vin_, 2s. 6d.; -_demi faisan en casserole_, 4s. - -And here is the menu of the five-shilling dinner I ate one Friday in -October in the _table d'hôte_ room, in company with many people, who -were evidently going later to theatres:-- - - Hors d'Å“uvre à la Parisienne. - Consommé Julienne. - Crème d'Huîtres. - Turbotin d'Ostende Réjane. - Anguilles Frites. Sce. Tyrolienne. - Côtelettes de Volaille Pojarski. - Petit Pois au Sucre. Pommes Comtesse. - Faisan Ecossaise Rôti en Casserole. - Salade Sauté. - Glacé Mokatine. - Délicatesses. - -Gatti's, like every other restaurant of standing, has its own special -dishes, and some of these were included in a lunch which I ate with -Messrs John and Rocco Gatti when they were good enough in a chat we had -to refresh my memory in regard to the early days of the restaurant: - - Hors d'Å“uvre à la Parisienne. - Zéphire de Sole Adelaide. - Suprême de Volaille Royal. - Asperges vertes. Sce. Chantilly. - Perdreau Rôti à la Broche. - CÅ“ur-de-Laitue à la Française. - Cerises Montmorency Sarah-Bernhardt. - Corbeille de Délices. - Café. - -The _zéphire de sole Adelaide_ is an admirable _filet de sole_ -and oysters therewith; the breast of the chicken was served with -an excellent white sauce; and the _entremet_ was worthy of the -distinguished tragedienne after whom it is named. - -The wine list at Gatti's is a document to be carefully studied. The -Gattis of the previous generation laid down some very fine wines, -and clarets and Burgundies of the great years of the end of the last -century are to be found in the Adelaide cellars. The champagnes of -great years and of great houses are priced far lower than they are -to be found on the lists of fashionable restaurants, and there is -some old cognac in the cellars to which I take off my hat whenever I -am privileged to meet it. It was bought by the Gattis at the time of -the Franco-Prussian War, when stocks of old brandy were sold at low -prices. It is marked so as to show a profit on the purchase-money--not -at its worth--and I know of no better brandy at any London restaurant, -whatever price customers may choose to give. - - - - -XXXVI - -THE COMPLEAT ANGLER - - -I deserted, shamelessly and openly deserted, but I had an excuse. - -When we started, a boatload of men in a launch from above Boulter's -Lock on a still, hot summer Sunday afternoon, the sky was grey above -and the river and Cliveden Woods were all in pleasant shadow; but when -we were come to Odney Weir and Cookham Ferry the sun broke through the -clouds and sucked them up, and at Bourne End the river sparkled and the -sails of the sailing-boats tacking up the long stretch below Winter -Hill gleamed in the sunlight. It was as hot an afternoon as we ever get -in England, and as we steered into the eye of the sun the glare hurt my -eyes, and there was no dodging it. When we came to the Compleat Angler, -just below Marlow Bridge, and lay alongside its green lawn, with the -flower beds and rose-trees right at the garden edge, I looked at the -people sitting on the rustic chairs by the rustic tables in the shadow -of the line of trees that acts as a screen against the western sun, and -the villagers who loll the Sunday through on the railing of the bridge -and stare at the hotel, and I thought how pleasant it would be to sit -in the shade until dinner-time came, to eat that meal with the burble -of the water falling over the weir in my ears, and afterwards to go -back to town by a late train. So I deserted openly and shamelessly. - -The Compleat Angler is a very old inn, so old that no one knows when -it was built. But it was very probably in existence when the bodies -of Warwick, the King-maker, and his brother Montacute were carried to -Bisham Abbey to be buried. An engraving of a hundred years ago shows -the old inn with a rope walk by its side, where the gardens of the -hotel now stretch on the bank of the swift stream below the weir. The -old wooden bridge which the present suspension bridge has replaced -started at the angle of land by the weir, an angle now covered by the -dining-room of the hotel, and it was under this bridge--not the present -one--that a legendary hero of gastronomy, the Marlow bargee, ate the -Puppy Pie. - -In the pre-railway days the Compleat Angler looked for its patrons -amongst the fishermen and the simple folk who gained their living -on the river. The hotel to-day is one of the most comfortable -old-fashioned riverside inns between Oxford and London, an inn that -stoutly upholds its old English characteristics. The brown roofs of -the old building and its old brick walls are still there, and the -old fruit-trees of the orchard give shade on its lawn; but new wings -have been built on as the custom of the hotel has increased, and the -great stretch of delightful garden behind the hotel, from which there -is a glorious view of the Quarry Woods, must be a comparatively new -addition. Mr Kilby, the present landlord, his face tanned by the river -air and river sunshine, his hair and moustache almost white, has been -in possession of the house for twenty-two or twenty-three years; but -before this time it had been in the hands of one family from generation -to generation, right back into the misty past. Mr Kilby has kept the -hotel Old English in character in all essential particulars. There -is good black old oak panelling in the little hall, and Jacobean -furniture and an old grandfather clock, and on its walls, in glazed -cases, are monster perch and other giants of the Thames caught at -Marlow, and engravings of local celebrities and local magnates of past -days; while in the dining-room are caricatures by Gillray and other -wielders of the pencil in Georgian days. The gardens, kitchen garden -and flower garden and lawns, behind the house, are also delightfully -English, for the flowers that grow there are the Old English flowers, -roses and lilies, stocks and pinks, ladies'-slippers and cherry pie, -and a host of others, flowers that are old friends and which fill the -air with scent on a hot afternoon. There are roses everywhere around -the Compleat Angler. Those who land from their boats pass under a great -arch of roses, and in the garden the roses climb over many bowers--for -"pergola" is a word I hesitate to use in writing of this Old English -pleasance. Honeysuckles grow up the supports of the verandah that gives -shade to the windows of the dining-room, and there are bright flowers -in all the window-boxes. Above all, there is the charm of the river, -the indescribable freshness that always comes with tumbling water, the -delight of the long, trembling reflections thrown by the trees and the -spire of the church across the river, the grace of the white-clad girls -who punt upstream and of the swans that sail quite secure by the edge -of the weir, and the pleasant "lap, lap" of the water as the launches -cut through it. If I wished in one hour to give an American friend an -idea of the charm of the Thames I would take him to the chairs under -the great willow that stands by the weir in the grounds of the Compleat -Angler, and when he had sat in this shade for half-an-hour watching the -calmness of the river and the eddies of the weir stream, the rushes, -the reeds, the trees, the long line of wooded hills, the swans and the -boats, if he did not understand what the Thames is to an Englishman, -I should despair of him. If I was interested in a young couple who -were hesitating on the brink of matrimony, and I wished to push them -into it, I would invite them to take tea with me on the lawn of the -Compleat Angler, and when the sun dropped low and the shadows of the -trees lengthened and the air grew heavy with the scent of the roses, I -would leave them together for an hour, and if in that hour the man had -not proposed I would consider him a base deceiver, a heartless wretch -incapable of sentiment. - -In the late afternoon, when the bells of the church were ringing for -evening service, I walked up the High Street, in which the lads of the -village and the lasses all in white were abroad, and looked at Marlow's -sole antiquarian relic--the stocks, which stand in an enclosure of turf -and trees and flower-beds. I continued my pilgrimage to Shelley's house -in West Street, and then on over the wooden bridge of old grey wood to -the Lock. - -The sun had set and the west was all opal with the dying light when -I came back to the lawn of the Compleat Angler. The launch that had -lain the afternoon through by the steps was gone, with its load of -merry people, and the motor cars were all off on their return journey -to London. Only the people staying in the hotel remained. It was -dinner-time, but I was loth to leave the open air, for the hush of the -evening had fallen. I could hear faintly the sound of a hymn being sung -in the church, and that sentimentality, which is not religious feeling, -but which is akin to it, had fallen upon me. I was at peace with all -mankind. I forgave the architect who designed Marlow Church tower for -the triviality of his Gothic; I had no rancour against the tailor who -took three weeks to make me three white evening waistcoats; I could -think kindly of the people who send me insufficiently stamped letters -from abroad, and I could remember that even the income-tax collector is -a fellow-man. Had there been anyone by to whom I could recite poetry -I would have been prepared to quote Herbert to my purpose, but the -only companionable soul available at the moment was a friendly Irish -terrier, and terriers have no soul for verse. - -At last I went in to dinner. A corner table in the biggest of the three -dining-rooms, a real summer-house, its walls being all windows, had -been reserved for me, and from my seat I could look across the river to -one side and on to the weir stream on the other. The light of day was -not all gone, and I hardly needed the shaded lamp which kept company on -the table with a great bunch of sweet-smelling flowers from the garden. -I had not ordered any special dinner, but ate the _table d'hôte_ meal -of the house, the charge for which is six shillings. It was a good -English dinner, and my only complaint regarding it is that there were -some tags of unnecessary French upon the menu card. This, in plain -English, was the dinner I ate and enjoyed: - - Thick Mock Turtle. - Salmon. - Clear Butter Sauce. - Braised Ham. - Broad Beans. - Madeira Sauce. - Roast Chicken. - Chip Potatoes. - Green Peas. - Raspberries and Cream Ice. - -I might have added a savoury to this, but I like to end my dinner -with a sweet taste to linger on my palate. My bill altogether came to -seven-and-six. - -Feeling contented with myself, and life, the Compleat Angler, and my -fellow-men, I sauntered to the railway station in time to catch the -nine-forty train back to London. - - - - -XXXVII - -ARTISTS' ROOMS - -DIEUDONNÉ'S. PAGANI'S - - -There used to be two little rooms in London restaurants with walls -made interesting by the signatures of great artists of song and colour -and sculpture and music, who, some of them, had sketched little scenes -above their names, and others had dotted down a few notes of music. - -One of these little chambers was the sitting-room of Madame Dieudonné, -in Ryder Street. Madame Dieudonné was an old French lady who kept a -boarding-house much patronised by the great artists who came over to -London from France. In her kitchen was an admirable chef, and the fame -of the _table d'hôte_--a real _table d'hôte_ in its original sense, -for Madame always sat at the head of her own table--was so great that -people who loved good cooking used to ask permission to be allowed -to dine at it. But Madame Dieudonné did not give this permission -to all comers, and it was necessary that the would-be guest should -be presented to Madame and should obtain from her an invitation to -her circle before a place was laid for him. Any special favourites -amongst the guests were asked by Madame to come after dinner into her -sitting-room, there to drink coffee and to chat, and amongst these -favourites were the great musicians, and the great actors and great -painters of her own land, who stayed at the boarding-house. When -any man, or any lady, was asked for the first time into this holy of -holies, he or she placed a signature upon the wall and any further -embellishment that came to mind. Gradually the middle portion of the -walls became a perfect treasure-house of autographs. - -Madame Dieudonné died, and her circle was broken up, the old -lodging-house became a hotel, and when M. Guffanti, its present owner, -brought his great energy to bear upon it, it soon became prosperous. -Alterations were made, the white room on the first floor, with its -panel pictures of gallants and ladies in silks and brocades, which is -now used for banquets, was constructed, and when Madame Dieudonné's -little room was thrown into what is now the entrance hall, the workmen -destroyed the signatures on the walls, evidently regarding them as mere -dirt, in spite of all the precautions M. Guffanti had made to preserve -them, and the only remembrances left of the stately old lady who used -to sit at the head of her own table is in the name of the hotel and -restaurant. - -Dieudonné's has flourished exceedingly, and M. Guffanti, his hair -a little thinner on the top of his head than when first I made his -acquaintance, but with the same majestic curve to his moustache ends, -and possessing the same invincible energy, has increased the size of -his hotel by taking in several other houses. - -The Dieudonné's of the present day is a large building of white stone -and red brick, always very spick and span, and decked out with flower -boxes. The restaurant on the ground floor is a fine room in the Adams -style, a very light grey in colour, with some of the ornamentation just -touched with gold. At one end are three large bow-windows, and at the -other end there is a musicians' gallery for the orchestra. On the side -walls the ornamentation suggests doorways with mirrored panels, pink -shades on the electroliers have subdued the light, which, when the room -was first built, I found too white and too brilliant, and the lamps on -the tables are also pink-shaded. The carpet is of a deep rose, and the -white chairs are also upholstered in that colour. It is a very pleasant -dining-room, and the people who dine there are all pleasant to look at, -and do good food the compliment of going dressed in becoming garments. -I very rarely dine at Dieudonné's without seeing a ladies' dinner-party -in progress, for Dieudonné's has always been a favourite dining place -of the gentler sex since the early days when Giovanini, the old _maître -d'hôtel_, with bushy eyebrows and Piccadilly weepers, used to consider -any ladies without an escort as being put under his special and -fatherly protection. - -Dieudonné's chiefly relies on two _table d'hôte_ dinners, one the opera -dinner, at six-and-six, and the other the Dieudonné dinner, at eight -shillings. On the last occasion that I dined at Dieudonné's before -going on to the Russian Opera at Drury Lane I ate the opera dinner, -the menu of which I give below. It was the day of President Poincaré's -state entry into London, and that event is celebrated by two of the -dishes in the dinner: - - MENU. - Hors d'Å“uvre Variés. - Consommé à la Française. - Crème de Laitues aux Perles. - Saumon d'Ecosse Poché. - Sauce Mousseline. - Pommes Nature Concombres. - Côtes de Pré-Salé Poincaré. - Canetons d'Aylesbury à l'Anglaise. - Petits Pois Nouveaux. - Coupe Entente Cordiale. - Friandises. - -The Dieudonné dinner on this day only differed from the shorter one by -the inclusion in it of _escaloppes de ris de veau George V._ - -The other restaurant which created and retains an artists' room is -Pagani's, in Great Portland Street, in the immediate neighbourhood of -the Queen's Hall and St George's Hall. When, in 1871, Mario Pagani -opened a little shop, which became a restaurant, in a house in Great -Portland Street, the German Reeds were in possession of St George's -Hall, with, I think, Corney Grain, as a newly risen star, in their -company. The Queen's Hall had not been built and St James's Hall, -the site of which is now occupied by the Piccadilly Hotel, was the -musical centre of London. M. Pagani, being an Italian, gave his -customers Italian cookery, and very good Italian cookery too, and the -journalists and the painters and the singers soon heard of the new -little restaurant where there were always Italian dishes on the bill of -fare. Pellegrini, the _Vanity Fair_ cartoonist, and Signor Tosti were -two of the first patrons of the restaurant. Mr George R. Sims, doyen -to-day of literary gourmets, loved the restaurant as it was in its -early state, and wrote of the good Italian food to be obtained there, -and his portrait, on a china plaque, occupies, rightly enough, the -centre of one of the walls up in the artists' room. In 1887 M. Mario -Pagani retired, and for a time his brother and his cousin carried on -the restaurant; the latter, M. Giuseppe Pagani--left, in 1895, in sole -control--taking as partner M. Meschini, the latter of whom eventually -became the sole proprietor, bequeathing, when he died, the restaurant -to his widow and to his son. - -Pagani's in the forty odd years of its existence, has increased in size -to an extraordinary extent, and the building, with its elaborately -ornamented front of glazed tiles with complicated figures in the -pattern and ornaments of Della Robbia ware, its squat pillars of -blue and its arches, luminous at night with electric light, differs -immensely from the little, stuffy Italian restaurant that it originally -was. It has a second entrance now in a side street, and a Masonic -banqueting-room, and a lift, and its restaurant on the ground floor is -a very large one and always reminds me of those great establishments -that I see in the German cities. It is a very comfortable restaurant, -and its brown walls, its mirrors with trellis-work and creepers painted -on them set in brown wooden frames, and its ceiling painted in quiet -colours, all give a sense of cosiness. There is in this downstairs -restaurant a dispense bar, which looks very picturesque seen through a -glazed screen, and just by this screen is the entrance from which the -waiters stream out from the kitchen carrying the dishes ordered by the -patrons of the restaurant, which they show as they pass to a clerk. To -dine habitually at Pagani's at a table facing the kitchen entrance is -to obtain a complete knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of the Italian -waiter. He is not run into a mould as a French waiter is, but retains -many individualities. He always wears a moustache, and is pleasantly -conversational with his fellows and with the customers. - -In its early days, the cookery at Pagani's was Italian and nothing but -Italian, but with ever-increasing prosperity the scope of the kitchen -has broadened, and now most of the dishes on the _carte du jour_ have -French names. The head cook, however, is a good Italian, M. Faustin -Notari, who has climbed the ladder of promotion to the top during the -twenty years he has been in the kitchens of Pagani's, and there are -always some Italian dishes on the bill of fare. The following are the -dishes that I most frequently see on the card:--_Minestrone, minestrone -alla Genovese, zuppa alla Pavese, filetti di sole alla Livornesse, -spaghetti,_ and Macaroni done in every way possible, _ravioli al sugo_ -or _alla Bolognese, gnocchi alla Romana, fritto misto alla Tosti, -ossi buchi, arrostino annegato,_ and I generally finish my dinner at -Pagani's with a _zambaglione_. Pagani's has its specialities of the -house apart from Italian dishes, and when I have dined, as I often do, -as one of the committee of an amateur dramatic club, in the Artists' -Room, I generally find _poulet à la Pagani_--a very toothsome way of -cooking the domestic fowl--on the menu of our little feasts. _Filet -de sole Pagani_ is another excellent dish, an invention of the house. -_Poule au pot_ and _cassôlet à la Provençale_ and the _bisque_, and -the _bortsch_ at Pagani's are always excellent. The diners whom I see -at the other tables downstairs at Pagani's all seem to me to belong -to that very pleasant world, artistic Bohemia. The great singers of -the opera and the great musicians who play at the Queen's Hall go -there to lunch and dine and sup, and their artistic perception is not -confined entirely to music, for I notice that they generally bring -very pretty ladies with them to eat the good dishes of the restaurant. -A little touch of Bohemia that always pleases me at Pagani's is the -boy who comes round with a tray selling cigars and cigarettes. The -restaurant-rooms on the first floor used, in the early days when -Pagani's was quite a small place, to be the rooms to which the sterner -sex used to take ladies to dine, and there was a particular corner by a -window with a tiny conservatory in it which was the favourite spot in -the room. The gentler sex now dines everywhere in the restaurant, but -in the first-floor rooms, with pleasant red walls, glazed screens put -between the tables give a sense of privacy. - -The Artists' Room is on the second floor, just on the top of -the staircase. There is not room for many people in it, and the -dinner-parties held there must of necessity be small ones. But there is -no room in any restaurant in London which is in itself so interesting -as this one. The walls are almost entirely covered with signatures -and sketches and caricatures; there is a large photograph, framed and -autographed, of Sir Henry Irving as Becket; there are drawings by -Dudley Hardy and three or four caricatures, including one of himself, -drawn by Caruso. There is a photo of poor Phil May in riding kit on -a horse; there is the menu of the dinner given by the artists of the -Royal Opera at Covent Garden to Mr Thomas Beecham. On the mantelpiece -stand some good bronzes of English and French Volunteers, and the -menu of a banquet given by Pélissier, the head of the Follies, to his -friends, and his invitation to this feast, which commences in royal -style: "I, Gabriel," etc., and ends with the earnest request, "Please -_arrive_ sober," have been honoured with frames. Mademoiselle Felice -Lyne's autograph records one of the latest successes in opera. There -are two smoked plates with landscapes drawn on them with a needle, and -there is the medallion in red of Dagonet I have already mentioned. The -name of Julia Neilson, written in bold characters, catches the eye -as soon as any other inscription on one of the sections of the wall -covered with glass; but it is well worth while to take the panels one -by one, and to go over these sections of brown plaster inch by inch. -Mascagni has written the first bars of one of the airs from _Cavalleria -Rusticana_, Denza has scribbled the opening bars of "Funiculi, -Funicula," Lamoureux has written a tiny hymn of praise to the cook, -Ysaye has lamented that he is always tied to "notes," which, with a -waiter and a bill at his elbow, might have a double meaning. Phil May -has dashed some caricatures upon the wall, a well-meant attempt on the -part of a German waiter to wash one of these out having resulted in the -sacking of the said waiter and the glazing of the wall, Mario has drawn -a picture of a fashionable lady, and Val Prinsep and a dozen artists -of like calibre have, in pencil, or sepia or pastel noted brilliant -trifles on the wall. Paderewski, Puccini, Chaminade, Calvé, Piatti, -Plançon, De Lucia, Melba, Mempes, Tosti, Kubelik, Tschaikovsky, are -some of the signatures. - - - - -XXXVIII - -THE PICCADILLY RESTAURANT - - -It was a chance remark made by "The Princess," as three of us sat at -lunch one Saturday in the open air at the Ranelagh Club, that nowhere -in Central London was there an open-air dining place, that led me to -ask her and "Daddy," her husband, both of them my very great friends -(which is the reason that I permit myself to call them, as the Irish -would say, "out of their names"), to dine with me one night in July, -weather always permitting, in the open air within fifty yards of -Piccadilly Circus. - -Walking down Piccadilly, and looking up at the façade of the great -Piccadilly Hotel, a building which has something of the nobility of -a Grecian temple, and something of the heaviness of a county jail, I -had noticed that a grey tent had been put up on the terrace, half-way -up to the heavens, behind the great pillars and the gilded tripods, -and I knew that this meant that as soon as the evenings were warm the -restaurant would cater on the terrace for those who like to dine in the -freshest air obtainable in muggy London. - -Some form of covering is a necessity for any roof garden in Central -London, not as a protection from rain or cold, but to deliver diners -from the plague of smuts. Some day, when electricity and gas have -between them driven coal far outside the boundaries of the capital, -it will be possible for Londoners to breakfast under the plane-trees -planted on their roofs, and to look, while they eat, at the roses -climbing on the trellis-work which hides their little pleasance from -the neighbours on the next roof; but in this present year of grace an -open-air meal within the three-mile radius necessitates the blowing of -smuts off each plate as soon as it is put on the cloth, and a great -portion of the conversation of the table talk centres round the black -smudges to be wiped off the diners' noses. The Piccadilly, by pitching -its tent on its terrace, has gone as near to open-air dining as is -possible in our London atmosphere. - -It was well that I had added the provision "weather permitting" to -my invitation, for on the evening that my two guests motored up from -their old manor-house near Richmond the sky had clouded over, a misty -rain was falling, and the temperature had dropped to November level. -The dinner-table that would have been reserved for me on the terrace -was cancelled, and a table for three laid in the restaurant of the big -hotel--that very handsome saloon panelled with light wood, with gilded -carving in high relief on the panels, with a blue-and-gold frieze, and -elaborately decorated ceiling and casemented mirrors--a saloon which -is a noble example of Louis XIV. decoration. I had ordered my dinner -beforehand, taking care to include in it some of the specialities of -the kitchen of the Piccadilly, and had interested in the designing of -the little feast M. Berti, the restaurant manager, and the _chef de -cuisine_, M. Victor Schreyeck; while M. Pallanti, one of the _maîtres -d'hôtel_, who is an old acquaintance, had put me in that portion of -the room which is under his special charge. The dishes on which the -kitchen of the Piccadilly especially prides itself are its _délices de -sole_ and its _filets de sole_, both named after the establishment, -its _poularde à l'étuvée au Porto_, its _poularde Reine Mephisto_, its -_cailles Singapore_, and its _vasques_ of peaches, or of raspberries, -or of strawberries, all titled Louis XIV. in sympathy with the -decoration of the room. - -This was the dinner that I ordered, a summer dinner for a hot evening, -for I had hoped that the weather would be kind, and that we should be -able to eat on the terrace: - - Melon de Cantaloup Frappé. - Kroupnick. - Sole à la Piccadilly. - Suprême de Volaille Jeannette. - Caille Royale Singapore. - CÅ“ur de Romaine. - Asperges Vertes. Sauce Divine. - Vasque de Fraises Louis XIV. - Corbeille d'Excellences. - -I waited for my guests in the lounge where the orchestra plays, a -lounge panelled, as the restaurant is, and with paintings of fruit in -the circular wreaths above the doors, with cane easy-chairs and cane -tables with glass tops scattered about, with palms in great china -vases, with gilt Ionic capitals to the pilasters on either side of the -great supports to the roof, and with a great painted ceiling. A glazed -screen with windows and doors in it separates the lounge from the -restaurant. - -"The Princess," when my guests arrived, was wearing a most becoming -gown, and had brought her furs with her, in case I, as a mad -Englishman, might insist on dining on the terrace in spite of the -rain. "Daddy," who is, like myself, an old soldier _en retraite_, had -put on one of his Paris unstarched shirts with many pleats, and was -wearing his fusilier studs. M. Berti, his beard pointed like that of a -Spaniard, bowed to us at the entrance of the restaurant, and directed -us to our table, by which was a second little table with on it all the -apparatus for the elaborating of the fish dish before our eyes. Near -it stood the _maître d'hôtel_, pale and determined, feeling, I think, -that the reputation of the house was in his hands, and a waiter and a -_commis_ under his immediate orders. "The Princess," as I have written, -wore a most becoming gown, and it pleased me that she should have so -framed her native beauty, and I am sure it also pleased her, for at the -other tables all the other guests were exceedingly well groomed and -well frocked--a most good-looking company. - -The soup, a white Russian soup with barley as its dominating -ingredient, is one of those peasant soups the French have borrowed from -the Russians, and have refined in promoting it to the _haute cuisine_. -The _sole à la Piccadilly_ is a fish dish which grows to perfection -as it is manipulated before the eyes of the expectant diners. A wide -bath of mixed whisky and brandy boils up over the spirit lamp, and into -this the boiled soles make a plunge before they are carried away to be -filleted; then into the almost exhausted mixture of spirits is poured -the sauce, which is a "secret of the house," and as this boils up first -cream and then butter is added to it. The _filets de sole_ come hot to -table, and over each portion of the fish is poured the precious sauce, -sharp tasting, with a suggestion of anchovy amidst its many flavours. -While this sole was being prepared, "Daddy" at first talked on of polo -matches at Ranelagh and golf at Richmond, and did not notice that both -"The Princess" and myself had become silent, as gourmets should be when -watching a delicate culinary operation, but he, too, after a while felt -the solemnity of the moment, and became dumb until the fish was before -him, and he could pronounce it to be "very good indeed," an emphatic -expression of opinion on the part of all three of us which, I trust, -was conveyed to M. Schreyeck in his domains. The _suprême de volaille_ -was a noble _chaudfroid_ of chicken with a rich stuffing or farce, I am -not sure which is the correct description, in which _foie gras_ was the -dominating note. The quails were named after the island of Singapore, -because with them in the china dish came a most savoury accompaniment -of pine-apple pulp and juice--and there are thousands of acres of -pine-apples in Singapore--an admirable contrast to the flesh of the -plump birds. To this dish also our council of three gave high praise. -The bowl of strawberries and ice and fruit flavouring, another of the -dishes of the house, made an admirable ending to a very good dinner, -and with this dinner we drank a champagne strongly recommended by the -house, Irroy 1904. I paid my bill, the total of which came to £3, 13s. -6d., the charge being 12s. 6d. a head for the dinner, which was a small -sum for such delicate fare, and then we went into the lounge, where -the band was still playing, to drink coffee and liqueurs, and to allow -"Daddy" to smoke one of the very long cigars of which he always carries -a supply. - -It was still raining when my two guests started in their motor car -back to Richmond, but they declared that they were fortified for their -journey down into the country by a most satisfactory dinner. - -The Piccadilly Hotel of to-day stands partly on the site of the -agglomeration of halls and bar and restaurant which all came under -the name of St James's Hall, the bar and restaurant being, in the -mouths of the frequenters thereof, "Jemmy's." The great hall was in -its day the centre of the musical world, and its Monday Pops and its -classical concerts were celebrated. In a smaller hall the Moore and -Burgess Minstrels flourished for many years until fickle London for -a while grew tired of burnt-cork minstrelsy. The big bar of the St -James's declined, as did most other restaurant bars, when gentlemen -no longer cared to be seen taking their liquid refreshment standing, -and the clientele of the restaurant was decidedly Bohemian. When -"Jemmy's" was wiped off the map of London there were not many tears -shed at its disappearance. The Piccadilly Hotel and its restaurant, -when they were first opened, went through their teething troubles, -as do most new establishments. The restaurant opened with a great -flourish of trumpets, most of its personnel coming straight from -Monte Carlo to London, but though the _maîtres d'hôtel_ knew who was -who in the principality of Monaco they were not so well acquainted -with the personalities of London life. All these matters invariably -straighten themselves out. I read in the columns of City intelligence -that the hotel, under the management of Mr F. Heim, who is now managing -director, is a financial success, and is paying good dividends. The -restaurant has gathered to itself a clientele that is smart and -well-dressed, and it treats its guests excellently. - -To the great grill-room, which lies down in the basement below the -restaurant, and which is one of the largest and one of the busiest -places of good cheer in London, I allude in my chapter concerning some -of the grill-rooms. - - - - -XXXIX - -THE RENDEZVOUS - - -Behind every successful restaurant there is some personality--a -clever proprietor, a great cook, a managing director with a talent -for organisation, or a popular _maître d'hôtel_. The Rendezvous, in -Dean Street, has been brought to prosperity and popularity by the work -of one man, its proprietor, M. Peter Gallina. He is a dapper little -Italian, with a small moustache, a man of good family who ran away -from home as a boy and has made his way by his native cleverness and -perseverance, and by the possession of an exceptionally keen palate. -He grounded himself well in all that concerns a restaurant in a small -Parisian establishment not far from the Avenue d'Iéna. When he had -learned there enough of the trade to qualify him to be a manager of -any restaurant he came to England with his savings in his pocket and -took the position of manager in a small Strand restaurant, while he -looked about for an opportunity to become a proprietor and to possess -a restaurant of his own. He had the name of his restaurant ready -before he found a suitable house, for one day after a meal he sat -thinking of various matters and idly scribbled on the tablecloth a -series of capital "R's." Then, with no special intention, he fitted -on names to the "R's"--Rome, Renaissance, Renommé, Rendezvous, and -suddenly found that the title he wanted had come to him. And in the -same chance way he found the position he wanted for his restaurant. -During the period that he was at the restaurant in the Strand he used -to go to Dean Street to buy coffee for his little household, and he -noticed one day that a house there was to let. It had been used by one -of those mushroom clubs which spring up almost in a night in Soho, -and the police had terminated its short existence by making a raid on -the premises as a gaming-house. M. Gallina saw his opportunity, took -it, spent some money in brightening it up, and gave it an old-English -window on its ground floor, and that was the beginning of the -Rendezvous. - -The gastronomic scouts soon discovered that Peter Gallina in his -little restaurant was giving extraordinarily good value at very -moderate prices, and some of them sent me word concerning it. Mr -Ernest Oldmeadow, the distinguished novelist, was one of the first of -Gallina's customers, and brought many others to the newly established -restaurant. Mr G. R. Sims, the genial "Dagonet" of _The Referee_, -was one of the first among the scribes to tell the general public -of the existence of the Rendezvous, and he wrote a ballad in its -honour. I, in the early days of the existence of the restaurant, made -the acquaintance both of it and its proprietor, who then, as now, -affected clothes of an original cut. In his restaurant Peter Gallina -wears a small double-breasted white jacket, with skirts and a very -wide opening in front. This opening is filled by the most voluminous -black cravat that has been seen since the days of the Dandies. A small -white apron is another article of his costume. In those early days M. -Gallina oscillated rapidly and continuously between the kitchen and -the restaurant, first seeing that the dishes were properly prepared, -and then watching his customers appreciatively eat the food. He had -no licence then to sell wines, and a small boy was constantly sent -scurrying across the road to a wine-merchant's shop almost opposite, -a shop which should have interest for all readers of books, for its -proprietor is a well-known author. - -M. Gallina in a little book of "Eighteen Simple Menus," with the -recipes for all the dishes, a very useful little book which he used -to give away to his customers, but which he now sells to them for a -shilling, has in a preface set down some "Golden Rules for Cooks," and -the first of these is "Buy good materials only. The best cook in the -world cannot turn third-class materials into a first-class dish." This -rule M. Gallina has always observed himself. - -The Rendezvous has constantly been increased in size. A house next door -to it fell vacant, and M. Gallina at once took it and converted it into -part of his restaurant. Then with larger dining-room came the necessity -for a larger kitchen, and this matter was put in hand. A wine licence -granted to the restaurant brought with it all the responsibilities of -a cellar, and M. Gallina has now an admirable kitchen and offices, -with walls of shining white tiles, and a cellar big enough to hold -all the wine that his customers require. A tea and cake shop, with -tea-rooms on the first floor, the Maison Gallina, next door but one to -the restaurant, was the next achievement of the enterprising little -man, and, finally, he rounded off his restaurant by building at the -back a new room, all dark oak and mirrors and Oriental carpets, with a -handsome oak gallery running round it. - -The Rendezvous Restaurant is now one of the landmarks of Dean Street. -The wide windows of its ground floor are of little square panes, each -window set in a white wooden frame, above a facing of glazed red tiles, -and before them stands a line of Noah's Ark trees in green tubs. Over -these ground-floor windows the restaurant's name is written in Old -English characters on a white ground. A line of shrubs in winter and -flowers in summer is beneath the windows of the first floors of the two -old houses, and at night a row of globes blazes with electric light -above the name of the restaurant. - -The interiors of the two front rooms on the ground floor of the -restaurant have been decorated to represent the parlours of an Old -English farmhouse. There are heavy black beams supporting the ceiling, -the walls are panelled with green cloth in wooden frames, the electric -lamps give their light in old lanterns, and there are silver wine -coolers with ferns in them on the broad window-sill. Upstairs, and -there are three staircases in the restaurant, one of the rooms on the -first floor is kept in its original Georgian panelled simplicity, while -the other is a Dutch room with plaques of Delft ware on the walls. The -new room at the back I have already described. - -The clientele of the restaurant comprises every class of Londoner from -princes to art students. The late Prince Francis of Teck often dined -there. I have seen ladies in all their glory of tiaras of diamonds -and of pearl necklaces eating an early meal at the Rendezvous before -going to the opera; and the youngster who is one day going to obtain -Sargent's prices for his pictures, but is still in the chrysalis stage, -and the as yet undiscovered Melbas and Clara Butts receive just as -much attention when they eat the one dish which forms their lunch or -dinner as do the great people of the land who indulge in many courses. -The Royalty is but a score of steps away from the Rendezvous, and many -playgoers on their way to that theatre dine at the restaurant or sup -there after the performance. Messrs Vedrenne and Eadie quite appreciate -the advantage it is to have a flourishing restaurant just outside -their doors, and gave M. Gallina every encouragement when he first -established himself in Dean Street. - -The Rendezvous has a _carte du jour_ which gives a great choice of -dishes. The long card is covered with items printed in red or written -in blue ink, and special delicacies are set down in scarlet. There -are various sole dishes and a score of those of other kinds of fish. -The entrées take up half the card, and birds and salads, vegetables, -savouries and dessert each have a thick little column of written -items under their respective headings. The prices, as I have already -written, are quite moderate for good material. The fish dishes -average eighteenpence, the entrées a little less. I have eaten at a -dinner-party given in the new room a very noble feast, and I have dined -by myself on soup, sole, a _navarin_ of lamb and an _entremet_, my -dinner, without wine, costing me five-and-threepence. - -There are two specialities of the house--the _sole Rendezvous_ and the -_soufflé Gallina-_--which should be included in any typical dinner of -the establishment, and the last time that I dined at the restaurant and -entertained a lady I included both of these in the menu, which ran thus: - - Melon Cantaloup. - Crème Fermeuse. - Soles Rendezvous. - Aile de Poularde en Casserole. - Aubergine à l'Espagnole. - Soufflé Gallina. - Café. - -The _sole Rendezvous_ is an admirable method of cooking the fish with -a white wine sauce and most of the other good things that a cook can -use in a fish dish, all of which make it admirable to the taste but -exceedingly rich. The _soufflé Gallina_ is a _soufflé_ with brandied -cherries, and it is served in a little lagoon of fine champagne cognac -which is set alight. It is by no means a teetotal dish. This dinner for -two, with a pint of Vieux Pré, a champagne recommended by the house, -and a bottle of Mattoni, came very near a sovereign. - - - - -XL - -THE PALL MALL RESTAURANT - - -Every Londoner knows the Pall Mall by sight, the restaurant one door -above the Haymarket Theatre, and is familiar with the lace-curtained -window of its buffet, its entrance and the line of five French windows -with flowers before them on its first floor, and there are few -playgoers who have not, before spending an evening at the Haymarket or -His Majesty's over the way, dined at one time or another at the Pall -Mall Restaurant. It is a restaurant which has prospered exceedingly, -and has done so because its two proprietors, MM. Pietro Degiuli and -Arnolfo Boriani--both ex-head waiters at the Savoy and the Carlton--see -to every detail concerning their restaurant and their kitchen and their -cellar with untiring diligence and with a complete knowledge. They are -both--Degiuli, small and neat and dapper, M. Boriani, broad, wearing a -curled-up moustache and looking like a _tenore robusto_--always in the -restaurant at meal-times doing the work of _maîtres d'hôtel_ and giving -personal attention to every member of their clientele. - -In the ten years that have elapsed since they rechristened the -restaurant, which for a short period had been known as Epitaux's, they -have made many improvements. The restaurant itself, a high room with -a curved roof and two sliding skylights in the roof, which not only -let in the light but fresh air as well, is now a white restaurant, -with deep rose panels alternating with mirrors between the pilasters. -There is a little gilding in the decoration, but as carpet and chairs -and lamp-shades conform to the scheme of rose, the restaurant may be -described as all white and deep pink. There was originally a musicians' -gallery at one end of this dining-hall, a legacy from the Café de -l'Europe, as it was called in the fifties, and in the days of the café -the doorway was cased in to prevent draughts reaching the worthies who -used to sup there after the performance at the Haymarket Theatre. The -old wooden screen to the door has been swept away, and people lunch -and dine and sup in the gallery which has replaced the domain of the -musicians. A little lounge where hosts can wait for their guests, made -by absorbing part of the premises of the shop next door, is one of -the most recent additions to the Pall Mall, and the Fly-fishers' Club -having moved to larger premises, MM. Degiuli and Boriani have been able -to construct a banqueting-room on the first floor that, with a private -dining-room which can accommodate twenty diners, gives them now quite a -large establishment. - -As I have written, the two proprietors give personal attention to every -matter connected with the restaurant, and they have not forgotten that -they are Italians, for in their _table d'hôte_ lunch, the price of -which is half-a-crown, one of the dishes is usually an Italian one, -and all the coffee made in the establishment is made after the Italian -fashion, no metal being allowed to come in contact with the fluid. For -their supper menu they always choose simple dishes, which can be cooked -directly an order has been given by those who sup. There is a _carte du -jour_, but the dinners that nineteen out of twenty diners order are one -or other of the _table d'hôte_ dinners of the day, a four-shilling and -a five-and-six one. This was the menu of the more expensive of these -two dinners on the last occasion that I dined at the Pall Mall: - - Hors d'Å“uvre Variés. - Consommé Madrilène Froid and Chaud or Germiny. - Saumon Hollandaise. - Cailles Richelieu à la Gelée. - Selle d'Agneau Soubise. - Fonds d'Artichauts Barigoule. - Pommes Château. - Volaille en Cocotte. - Salade. - Fraises Melba. - -The soup was good, the quail especially attracted my notice, for its -jelly was flavoured with capsicum, giving it thus a special cachet. - -The service at the Pall Mall is quick and silent, and, though there is -no unseemly hurry, the dinner is quickly served, for most of the people -who dine at the Pall Mall are going on to a theatre. - -The Pall Mall has an exceedingly _comme il faut_ clientele, and any man -who did not wear evening clothes or a dinner jacket in the restaurant -would feel himself rather a fish out of water there at dinner-time, -and would probably take cover in the gallery. I see at the Pall Mall -very much the same people whom I see at the Savoy and the Carlton, and -the lady who dines at the smaller restaurant before going to a theatre -to-day, probably to-morrow, when a dinner constitutes the entertainment -for the evening, is taken to dine at one of the larger restaurants. -And perhaps because the Pall Mall stands where the stage of one of the -theatres in the Haymarket used to be, the restaurant numbers amongst -its clientele many of the great people of the opera and of the theatre, -as its book of autographs shows. This is a book full of scraps of -wisdom and wit, and the Stars of Song and Politics and the Stage have -not been afraid to cap each other's remarks. Thus when Madame Patti -leads off on the top of a page with a charming platitude, "A beautiful -voice is the gift of God," Madame Yvette Guilbert inscribes below a -reminder that "An ugly voice is also the gift of God"; Sir Herbert -Tree, taking a different view from that of either of the ladies, asks -whether a voice should not be considered "A visitation of Providence"; -Miss Mary Anderson sides with her sex, for she opines that "All things -are the gift of God"; and Sir Rider Haggard rounds off the discussion -with "But the greatest gift of God is Silence." Lord Gladstone, about -to depart for South Africa, writes, "Faith in the Old Country" as his -contribution, and Mr Lloyd George puts immediately below it a sentence -in Welsh, which being translated means "Liberty will conquer"; Mr -Ben Davies, also a man of gallant little Wales, writes in his native -tongue, below Mr Lloyd George's sentence, "You are quite right, Lloyd -George, but your liberality has taken most of my money." Mr John Burns, -dining at the restaurant on "Insurance Day, 1911," was not stirred up -to any poetic flights by the occasion, "Health the only wealth" being -his rhymed contribution. - -Amongst the signatures in the book is that of Signor Marconi, who -is not inclined to write his name more often than is necessary. His -contribution was coaxed from him by a flash of wit on the part of M. -Boriani. On the menu of the dinner eaten by the inventor of wireless -telegraphy appeared the item "_Haricots verts à la Marconi_." The great -electrician asked why they were so named. M. Boriani trusted that the -beans were not stringy, and the inventor having reassured him on this -point, he said that in this case they might rightly be described as -"_Sans fil_." - -MM. Degiuli and Boriani have chosen as the motto of their restaurant, -"_Venez et vous reviendrez_," and this confident prediction has been -justified. - -There is much history concerning the site on which the Pall Mall now -stands. In the latter years of the Stuart dynasty, when the lane which -led from Piccadilly down to the Mall gradually became a street of -houses, Charles II. gave permission to John Harvey and his partner to -sell cattle as well as fodder in the Haymarket. All along this market, -on both sides, inns sprang up, and one of them occupied the site where -the Pall Mall Restaurant now stands. The inn was pulled down early -in the eighteenth century, and on its site Mr Potter, a carpenter, -built a "summer" theatre; this theatre was converted by Samuel Foote -somewhere about 1760 into a winter theatre. Mr A. M. Broadley has -written for the proprietors of the Pall Mall an interesting booklet -which deals at length with this theatre and its managers, Foote and -the Colmans, and with the great actresses and actors and musicians -who appeared on its stage. Mozart played on the spinet there as an -infant prodigy; Margaret Woffington made her first bow to an English -audience in the part of Macheath in _The Beggars' Opera_, "after the -Irish manner"; and two actresses who married into the peerage--Lavinia -Fenton, who died Duchess of Bolton, and Elizabeth Farren, afterwards -Countess of Derby--played on its stage. But on 14th October 1820, the -Little Theatre, as it was called, closed its doors with the tragedy -of _King Lear_ and a farce. It was not at once pulled down, and was -still standing in a battered state when the present Haymarket Theatre, -built by John Nash, was opened in 1821, just a fortnight before the -coronation of George IV. When the Little Theatre was eventually pulled -down shops were erected on its site. Two of these were in the year of -the first Great Exhibition converted into the Café de l'Europe, the -great hall of which, somewhat altered, is the large room of the present -restaurant. Mr William John Wilde, who was Buckstone's treasurer at the -Haymarket Theatre, became the proprietor of the Café de l'Europe in the -late fifties, and as there was no early-closing law in those days the -café naturally enough became the favourite supping place for those who -had sat through a long evening at the theatre almost next door, and the -sturdy critics who congregated in the first row of the pit ate their -devilled bones and tripe and onions, Welsh rarebits, chops and potatoes -in their jackets, at the café after midnight and passed judgment on -the performances of Buckstone and Liston, Sothern and the other famous -comedians of the theatre as they supped. Mr D. Pentecost was the last -proprietor of the old café. He was, as "Dagonet" in _The Referee_ has -lately reminded us, a nephew of Pierce Egan, the author of "Tom and -Jerry," and he was, amongst other things, the refreshment contractor to -the Alhambra. He was also the proprietor of the Epitaux Restaurant in -the colonnade of the opera house in the Haymarket. When that building -was pulled down, in order that the Carlton and His Majesty's Theatre -should be built on its site, Mr Pentecost transferred the name of -Epitaux to the Café de l'Europe. The building was redecorated and MM. -Costa and Rizzi became the lessees. Ten years ago, as I have previously -written, MM. Degiuli and Boriani became the proprietors and gave the -restaurant its present name and its present appearance. - - - - -XLI - -IN JERMYN STREET - -MAISON JULES. BELLOMO'S. LES LAURIERS - - -Jermyn Street used to be sacred to small private hotels, shops and -bachelors' chambers, but the restaurants have now invaded it and there -are half-a-dozen places of good cheer which have their front doors -in the street, while some of the Piccadilly restaurants have a back -entrance there. - -M. Jules had the happy idea of taking two houses, one of them at one -time the home of Mrs Fitzherbert, as a medallion of the head of King -George IV., found under the drawing-room floor proves, and converting -them into a hotel and restaurant. It has proved so successful in Jules' -case that he is now adding on to his hotel and restaurant, building at -the same time a nice little suite of rooms with bow-windows for himself -and his wife. As you walk down Jermyn Street from St James's Street -towards Lower Regent Street, the Maison Jules is on the right-hand -side. You cannot miss it, for an illuminated terrestrial globe and the -name above the doorway catch your eye. A little ante-room is separated -from the restaurant by a glazed screen to keep off draughts. The -restaurant itself, a long room running the whole width of the house, -is all white, with a little raised ornamentation on its walls, with -gilt capitals to the white pillars, and on the marble mantelpiece a -clock and candelabra of deep blue china and ormolu. At the end of the -room a big window, which is almost a wall of glass, is cloaked by -lace curtains. There is a second room running at right angles at the -back, which either can be used as part of the restaurant or can be -partitioned off. - -Jules himself will welcome you as you come into the restaurant. I have -known him for many years, having first made his acquaintance when he -was manager at the Berkeley, when his hair was of lustrous brown, and I -have always been one of his supporters at the hotel in Piccadilly and -at the Savoy--when he became manager there, and now in Jermyn Street, -where, with his wife and his daughter, who has married the _chef de -cuisine_, and his son, who is following in his father's footsteps, he -controls the restaurant and the hotel. The girth of his waist may have -increased a little, possibly to match the bow-windows of those new -rooms, since I have known him, and his hair is now powdered with grey, -but his good-natured, round, rosy face, and his eyes, which almost -close when he smiles, remain the same. He is always so pleased to see -me that I find that a dinner at the Maison Jules does me more good than -most tonics do. - -The people who dine at the Maison Jules are all pleasant and -well-to-do, and all the men wear dress clothes. Some of the men are -grey-haired people like myself who have followed Jules in all his -migrations; but the restaurant is by no means a home of rest for -the elderly, for on the last occasion that I dined there one of the -prettiest of the younger generation of actresses was being entertained -at the next table to mine; and young as well as elderly diners -appreciate the bonhomie that seems to be in the atmosphere at the -Maison Jules. The dinner of the house is an eight-shilling one. The -dinner I ate when I last dined _chez_ Jules is quite a fair specimen of -the evening meal: - - Hors d'Å“uvre. - Consommé aux Quenelles. - Crème Américaine. - Suprême de Sole Volga. - Riz de Veau Souvaroff. - Médaillon de BÅ“uf Algérienne. - Poularde à la Broche. - Salade. - Haricots Verts au Beurre. - Mousse aux Violettes. - Friandises. - -The _crème Américaine_, a pink thick soup, was excellent, and so was -the cold dish of sole, with jelly and a little vegetable salad. The -_mousse aux violettes_ was an ice with crystallised violets on the top; -and the _riz de veau_ and the _poularde_--for which Jules wished to -substitute a partridge--were both excellent of their kind. When Jules, -before I left, came to me and told me that some gentlemen a little -farther down the room had told him that there was absolutely nothing to -criticise in the dinner, I was not hard-hearted enough to tell him that -the beans were stringy, which, to tell the truth, they were. Otherwise -I agreed with the gentlemen farther down the room. The wine list is a -well-chosen one, and there is in the cellar some 1820 Martell brandy, -landed in England in 1870, which used to be the pride of the old St -James's Restaurant, and the whole of which Jules bought at the sale. - - * * * * * - -A little farther down the street on the same side is a restaurant and -hotel controlled by another old acquaintance of mine in the restaurant -world. The restaurant is Bellomo's, and the hotel of which it forms a -part is Morle's Hotel. In the days when I thought it my duty to do my -share of drinking, at the Café Royal, a particularly excellent cuvée -of Cliquot Vin Rosé, the waiter who was in charge of the table at -which I usually sat, and who attended to all my wants with admirable -intuition, was not at all one of the lean kind, and to identify him -from his fellows I always called him, and wrote of him as, "the fat -waiter." He prospered and ran up the tree of promotion, as good waiters -do at the Café Royal, so that in his later development he became -_maître d'hôtel_ in charge of the grill-room, and wore a frock-coat and -a black tie. But the anxieties of his new position in no way caused -him to grow thin. A year or two ago a friend wrote to me saying that -he and some others had found the money to set up Bellomo, whom, of -course, I remembered at the Café Royal, in a restaurant of his own -in Jermyn Street, and hoped that I would go and see how he prospered -there. I went, not feeling quite sure who Bellomo was, and found my -fat waiter of old, now a plump proprietor. His restaurant, which -consists of two rooms thrown into one, has walls with a light shade of -pink on them, and at night is lit by electroliers with pink shades. A -few steps lead from the front to the back. The restaurant is a cosy -little establishment, and the two dinners which are served there--one -a three-and-six one and the other a five-shilling one--are invariably -well cooked, for M. Bellomo has brought the good Café Royal traditions -with him to his new home. This is a typical menu, a winter one, of -Bellomo's three-and-six dinner: - - Hors d'Å“uvre. - Consommé Rothschild or Thick Mock Turtle. - Filet de Sole Chauchat. - Carré de Mouton Niçoise. - Oie rôti. - Salade. - Glacé Mont Blanc. - Gaufrettes. - - * * * * * - -Farther along the street and on the opposite side is Les Lauriers, -which takes its name from the two little evergreen trees which stand -in tubs at its door, and which is higher and more airy than most of -the restaurants of its size, for at some time or another the entresol -has been thrown into the rooms on the ground floor. Les Lauriers -consists, like most of the Jermyn Street restaurants, of two rooms -joined together with a space screened off by the door to form a tiny -ante-room. Its walls are panelled and painted cream colour, and lamps -with pink shades hang from the ceiling. The green carpet and the dark -wooden chairs at the three rows of tables give a comfortable look -to the place. The proprietor is M. Giolitto, who was a head waiter -at the Savoy before he came to Jermyn Street to make his fortune. A -very comfortable clientele patronises Les Lauriers, and there are two -dinners provided for them, one a short dinner which is served until a -quarter to eight, and the other a more elaborate one, priced 3s. 9d. -and 5s. 6d. respectively. The last time I dined at Les Lauriers I, -feeling rich, indulged in the longer dinner. This was the menu: - - Melon Cantaloup or Driver's Royal Natives. - Consommé Viveur or Crème Doria. - Homard froid, Sce. Mayonnaise or Aiguillettes de Turbot en Goujons. - Tournedos à la Florentine. - Perdreau rôti sur Canapé. - Petits Pois à la Française. - Salade. - Ananas Master Joe. - Mignardises. - -It was a well-cooked dinner, and I do not wonder that M. Giolitto was -able to tell me that his restaurant flourishes exceedingly. - - - - -XLII - -THE MEN WHO MADE THE SAVOY - - -If I were to attempt to give you all the early history of the ground on -which the Savoy stands I should have to delve back to Tudor times, and -the Savoy Palace and the politics of that very turbulent period. For -me, however, the past history of the Savoy begins with the time when -the Savoy Theatre was built on reclaimed ground and opened in 1881. -The offices of the theatre were in Beaufort House, which stood on the -hill, and beside the theatre was a space of rough waste land, much like -the County Council's wilderness in Aldwych. On this unoccupied land -Mr D'Oyly Carte put up a shed to house the electric light plant for -the theatre, for the Savoy was the first theatre in London that used -electric light. The Savoy Hotel and Restaurant eventually rose where -the electric light shed first stood, and they were opened in 1889. -The hotel and restaurant then faced the Embankment, and had no Strand -frontage. To get to the restaurant one had either to do a glissade -in a hansom down the steep Savoy hill to the side entrance which led -into a courtyard, in the centre of which stood a majolica fountain, or -to go to the front entrance opposite to the Embankment Gardens. The -restaurant was smaller than it is now; it was panelled with mahogany; -it had a red and gold frieze and a ceiling of dead gold. It was a very -comfortable restaurant, and the mahogany walls gave it a homelike -feeling, though, of course, they absorbed a great deal of the light. -The private rooms, named after the various Gilbert and Sullivan operas, -were, as they are now, next to the restaurant. The grill-room was -tucked away in the middle of a block of buildings. There was below the -restaurant a _table d'hôte_ dining-room, and on the garden level was -a ballroom and its ante-rooms. The balcony was but half its present -width. No block of buildings has been more greatly improved from time -to time than the Savoy has been. There has hardly been a year without -some adornment being added, and in 1904 the largest additions during -the history of the hotel were completed, and the hotel and restaurant -gained their Strand outlet. - -It would be possible to write a history of the Savoy by taking note of -the successive improvements and additions made to it. It would also be -possible to tell the history of the great restaurant by an account of -some of the eras of great dinners, the period, for instance, when the -South African millionaires were spending money like water during the -great "boom," and the period of freak dinners, when Caruso sang from a -gondola to diners sitting by a canal in Venice, which was really the -flooded courtyard; and when, on another occasion, the same space was -turned into a Japanese garden for a Japanese dinner. I was a guest -at some of these great dinners, at the Rouge et Noire one which two -magnates of the financial world gave to celebrate a great _coup_ at -Monte Carlo, when all the decorations of the table, all the flowers, as -much of the napery as was possible, reproduced the two colours, when -the waiters wore red shirts and red gloves, and the number on which the -money was won was to be found everywhere in various forms on the table. -And I was bidden to the return banquet, a white and green one, which -strove to outdo the luxury of the former one, whereat fruit-trees -bearing fruit grew apparently through the table, and each chair was a -little bower of foliage. - -But I prefer to chat concerning the men who made the history of the -house. Not the men who pulled the strings behind the scenes, the Board -of Directors and their admirable managing director, Mr Reeves Smith, -but the men whom the public saw or heard of in the restaurant, the -general managers, the managers of the restaurant, and the chefs. The -managers whom I knew were Ritz, Mengay, Pruger, Gustave, and now Blond. -In the restaurant were Echenard, Joseph, Jules, Renault, and now Soi. -The chefs have been Escoffier, Thouraud, whom Joseph brought over with -him from Paris, Tripod, and now Rouget; and most of these I knew well. - -When Mr D'Oyly Carte was putting in order the organisation of the -newly opened Savoy Hotel, he, at Monte Carlo, asked M. Ritz, who was -then at the Grand Hotel there, to come to London and take charge of -the Savoy Restaurant. M. Ritz came and brought M. Escoffier with him -to make history in the kitchens. When M. Ritz permanently took over -the management of the hotel and the restaurant he asked M. Echenard, -the proprietor of the Hotel du Louvre at Marseilles, to come to London -and assist him in the restaurant. This triumvirate worked admirably -together. M. Ritz, thin, nervous, splendidly neat, knowing all his -patrons and their tastes, was a great _maître d'hôtel_ as well as a -great manager. The saying which he constantly quoted, "The customer -is always right," he acted up to. If some ignorant diner found fault -with one of M. Escoffier's most exquisite creations it would be swept -away without a word and something suited to a lower intelligence and an -uncultivated palate substituted for it. If an old and valued customer -had come into the restaurant and had ordered for dinner, tripe and -onions and sausages and mashed potatoes, M. Ritz would have greeted -such an order as though it were a flash of genius, and would probably -have sent out to the nearest cab shelter for the dishes. - -During the early days of the Savoy M. Ritz was quietly teaching the -English with money to spend that a good dinner is not of necessity a -long dinner, and that a few dishes exquisitely cooked are better than -a long catalogue of rich dishes. M. Echenard, looking like a Spanish -hidalgo, quite understood the ways of his two great colleagues--for -MM. Ritz and Escoffier are two of the greatest men in gastronomic -history--and backed them up nobly. The cholera year in Marseilles -took M. Echenard back to his hotel in the south, and he has prospered -exceedingly there, being now the proprietor of the Reserve and the -hotel just below it on the Corniche, as well as the Louvre. MM. Ritz -and Escoffier have since made the fortunes of other London restaurants. - -When the Ritz-Escoffier regime at the Savoy came to an end the -directors bought the Restaurant Marivaux in the street by the side of -the Opéra Comique in Paris, and brought over M. Joseph, the presiding -genius of that restaurant, to take charge of the Savoy Restaurant. -The Marivaux had a unique reputation in the Paris of that day for its -cookery. Joseph came, bringing with him his chef, M. Thouraud. Joseph -was, I think, the most inspired _maître d'hôtel_, with the exception, -perhaps, of Frederic of the Tour d'Argent, I have ever met. The Savoy -Restaurant was rather too large for his system of management, for he -liked to take a personal interest in each dinner that was progressing -in his restaurant and to give it his constant supervision. He was born -of French parents in Birmingham, and his one great amusement was that -northern sport, pigeon flying. He had pleasant brown eyes and bushy -eyebrows, he wore all that remained of his hair rather long, and had -a tiny moustache. He was quite wrapped up in his profession, and, as -he told me once, looked at his boots the whole time that he took his -afternoon constitutional walk, that he might think of new dishes. -Whenever any novel idea occurred to him he tried it at home in his -own little kitchen before asking M. Thouraud to make experiment on a -larger scale. To see Joseph carve a duck was to see a very splendid -exhibition of ornate swordsmanship, and his preparation of a _canard -à la presse_ was quite sacrificial in its solemnity. There was in his -day a dinner given at the Savoy at which Madame Sarah Bernhardt was the -chief guest, and most of the other people present were "stars" of our -British stage. Joseph cooked before them at a side table most of the -dishes of the dinner, and told me that he did so because he wished to -show actresses and actors, who constantly appeal to the imagination of -their audiences, that there was something also in his art to please the -eye and stimulate the imagination. When I asked why he never went to -the theatre, he told me that he would sooner see six gourmets eating -a well-cooked dinner than watch the finest performance that Madame -Bernhardt and Coquelin could give. Joseph had quite a pretty wit and -facile pen. This was the _jeu d'esprit_ that he once wrote in a young -lady's album:--"C'était la première côtelette qui coûta le plus cher à -l'homme--Dieu en ayant fait une femme." And he wrote for me a little -essay on the duties of a _maître d'hôtel_ that was very sprightly in -style. He was even a greater believer than M. Ritz in the short dinner, -and declared that we in England only tasted our dinners and did not eat -them. Three dishes he considered quite enough for a good dinner, and -this was a tiny feast which he ordered for me on one occasion when I -took a lady to dine at the Savoy: - - Petite marmite. - Sole Reichenberg. - Caneton à la presse. Salade de saison. - Fonds d'artichauts à la Reine. - Bombe pralinée. Petits fours. - Panier fleuri. - -The _panier fleuri_ he carved himself at table from an orange. - -Joseph became homesick, for he was a thorough Parisian, and went back -eventually to the Marivaux, but he soon after died. - -[Illustration: JOSEPH CARVING A DUCK _After a drawing by Paul Renouard_] - -The directors of the Savoy Company, which owns the Berkeley and -Claridge's as well as the Savoy Hotel, brought jolly, genial, -rosy-faced M. Jules, under whose rule the Berkeley had prospered -exceedingly, from that white-faced hotel to the Savoy, and his rule on -the Thames Embankment was as successful as it had been in Piccadilly. -It was during his managership that the additions that were to give the -entrance on to the Strand were planned, and, I fancy, were begun, and -when M. Jules left the Savoy to make for himself a restaurant and hotel -in Jermyn Street, M. Renault, from the Casino at Biarritz, came to the -Savoy Restaurant, and the quick-witted M. Pruger became general manager. - -This was a period of great activity and of many alterations in the -building. No Savoy manager has ever had more brilliant inspirations -for great feasts than M. Pruger had. The gondola dinner was one of his -ideas and he always thought of something novel and amusing for the -Christmas and New Year's Eve parties. M. Renault is now in Rome at the -hotel there owned by the Savoy Company; M. Pruger was tempted away -to America to manage a mammoth restaurant on modern lines, but came -back from New York to take over the management of the Royal Automobile -Club when its great club-house in Pall Mall was opened. M. Gustave, -of the russet beard, who had steered the newly built Café Parisien -of the Savoy to great success, next became manager of the hotel, and -that brings us down to the history of to-day, for when he resigned his -appointment M. Blond, the present manager, succeeded him. - - - - -XLIII - -THE DUTIES OF A _MAÃŽTRE D'HÔTEL_ - - -I have mentioned in the previous chapter that Joseph wrote me a -sprightly letter on the duties of a _maître d'hôtel_. This is it: - - MON CHER COLONEL,--Vous me demandez pour votre nouveau livre des - recettes. Méfiez-vous des recettes. Depuis la cuisinière bourgeoise et - le Baron Brisse on a chanté la chanson sur tous les airs et sur tous - les tons. Et qu'en reste-t-il; qui s'en souvient? Je veux dire dans - le public aristocratique pour qui vous écrivez, et que vous comptez - intéresser avec votre nouvelle publication, cherchez le nouveau dans - les à propos de table, donnez des conseils aux maîtresses de maison, - qui dépensent beaucoup d'argent pour donner des dîners fatiguants, - trop longs, trop compliqués; dîtes leur qu'un bon dîner doit être - court, que les convives doivent manger et non goûter, qu'elles exigent - de leur cuisinier ou cuisinière de n'être pas trop savants, qu'ils - respectent avant tout le goût que le bon Dieu a donné à toutes choses - de ne pas les dénaturer par des combinaisons, qui à force d'être - raffinées deviennent barbares. - - On a beaucoup parlé du cuisinier. Si nous exposions un peu ce que doit - être le Maître d'Hôtel. - - - LE MAÃŽTRE D'HÔTEL FRANÇAIS - - - La plus grande force du Maître d'hôtel Français, je dis Maître d'hôtel - Français à dessein, car si le cuisinier Français a su tirer parti des - produits de la nature avec un art infini, pour en faire des aliments - aimables, agréables, et bienfaisants, le Maître d'hôtel Français seul - est susceptible de les faire accepter et désirer. Or voilà pour le - Maître d'hôtel le champ qu'il a à explorer. Champ vaste s'il en fût, - car deviner avec tact ce qui peut plaire à celui-ci et ne pas plaire à - celui-là , est un problème à résoudre selon la nature, le tempérament - et la nationalité de celui qu'il doit faire manger. Il doit donc être - le conseil, le tentateur, et le metteur en scène. Il faut pour être un - maître d'hôtel accompli, mettre de côté, ou de moins ne pas laisser - percer le but commercial, tout en étant un commerçant hors ligne (je - parle ici du maître d'hôtel public de restaurant, attendu que dans la - maison particulière, le commerce n'a rien à voir, ce qui simplifie - énormement le rôle du maître d'hôtel. Pour cela il faut être un peu - diplomate, et un peu artiste dans l'art de dire, afin de colorer - le projet de repas que l'on doit soumettre à son dîneur). Il faut - donc agir sur l'imagination pour fair oublier la machine que l'on va - alimenter, en un mot masquer le côté matériel de manger. J'ai acquis - la certitude qu'un plat savamment préparé par un cuisinier hors ligne - peut passer inaperçu, ou inapprécié si le maître d'hôtel, qui devient - alors metteur en scène, ne sait pas présenter l'Å“uvre, de façon à le - faire désirer, de sorte que si ce mets est servi par un maître d'hôtel - qui n'en comprend pas le caractère, il lui sera impossible de lui - donner tout son relief, et alors l'Å“uvre de cuisinier sera anéanti et - passera inaperçu. - - Ce maître d'hôtel doit être aussi un observateur et un juge et doit - transmettre son appréciation au chef de cuisine, mais pour apprécier - il faut savoir, pour savoir il faut aimer son art, le maître d'hôtel - doit être un apôtre. - - Il doit transmettre les observations qu'il a pu entendre pendant le - cours d'un dîner de la part des convives, observations favorables ou - défavorables, il doit les transmettre au chef et aviser avec lui. Il - doit aussi être en observation, car il arrive le plus souvent que les - convives ne disent rien à cause de leur amphitryon mais ne mangent pas - avec plaisir et entrain le mets présenté: là encore le maître d'hôtel - doit chercher le pourquoi. Il y a aussi dans un déjeuner ou un dîner - un rôle très important réservé au maître d'hôtel. La variété agréable - des hors-d'Å“uvre, la salade qui accompagne le rôti, le façon de - découper ce rôti avec élégance, de bien disposer ce rôti sur son plat - une fois découpé, découper bien et vite, afin d'éviter le réchaud qui - sèche. Savoir mettre à point une selle de mouton, avec juste ce qu'il - faut de sel sur la partie grasse, qui lui donnera un goût agréable. - - Pour découper le maître d'hôtel doit se placer ni trop près ni trop - loin des convives, afin que ceux-ci soient intéressés, et voient - que tous les détails sont observés avec goût et élégance, de façon - à tenter encore les appétits qui n'en peuvent presque plus mais qui - renaissent encore un peu aiguillonnés par le désir qu'a su faire - naître l'artiste préposé au repas, et qui a su donner encore envie à - l'imagination, quand l'estomac commençait à capituler. - - Le maître d'hôtel a de plus cette partie de la fin du dîner, le choix - d'un bon fromage, les fruits, les soins de température à donner aux - vins, la façon de décanter ceux-ci pour leur donner le maximum de - bouquet; le maître d'hôtel ne peut-il encore être un tentateur avec - la fraise frappée à la Marivaux? ou avec la pêche à la cardinal, - qu'accompagne si bien le doux parfum de la framboise, légèrement - acidulé d'une cuillerée de jus de groseille. Notre grand Carême - qualifiait certains plats le "manger des Dieux." Combien l'expression - est heureuse! - - Depuis que je suis à Londres j'ai trouvé un nombre incalculable - d'inventeurs de ma "pêche à la Cardinal." Il me faudra leur donner la - recette un jour que j'en aurai l'occasion. - - N'est-ce pas de l'art chez le maître d'hôtel qui tente et charme - les convives par ces raffinements, et qui comme un cavalier sur une - moture essoufflée sait encore relever son courage et lui faire faire - la dernière foulée qui décide de la victoire? Après un bon repas - le maître d'hôtel a la grande satisfaction d'avoir donné un peu de - bonheur à de pauvres gens riches, qui ne sont pas toujours des heureux. - - Et comme l'a dit Brillat Savarin "Le plaisir de la table ne nuit pas - aux autres plaisirs." Au contraire, qui sait si _indirectement_ je ne - suis pas le papa de bien des Bébés rieurs, ou la cause au moins de - certaines aventures que mes jolies clientes n'évoquent qu'en souriant - derrière leur éventail? - - JOSEPH - - _Directeur du Savoy Restaurant, Londres, - et du Restaurant de Marivaux, Paris._ - - - - -XLIV - -THE SAVOY TO-DAY - - -After the Houses of Parliament, the Law Courts, the National Gallery, -St Paul's and Westminster Abbey, the Savoy Hotel is probably the -building that the well-to-do Londoner knows best. He cannot walk or -drive down the Strand without his eye being caught by its milk-white -frontage on that tumultuous street, and by the stern-faced gilded -warrior above the courtyard entrance who leans on a shield that bears -an heraldic bird, which I have no doubt is a very noble eagle, but -which looks as though it had been plucked. When he comes home from -abroad he, if he is looking to the right as he crosses the railway -bridge to Charing Cross, sees the garden front of the hotel, with its -balconies and many windows, and its flag aflutter, and recalling many -good dinners in the past, looks forward to many others in the immediate -future. - -All the preliminaries to a dinner at the Savoy are pleasantly -dignified. The drive into the courtyard, the cessation of noise as the -wheels of car or carriage come upon the india-rubber paving under the -glazed roof, the cream and dark green marbles of the entrance front, -the trellis and flowers outside the Café, all contribute to pleasant -anticipation; and once inside the doors, the hall panelled with -dark woods, the glimpse through a long window of the light-coloured -reading-room, and the progress down a flight of crimson-carpeted -stairs, with walls of buff and brown marble on either side, form the -first stage of the diner's progress to the restaurant. - -Servants in the handsome state livery they wear in the evening--French -grey and dark blue--take one's coat and hat, and it always gives me a -moment of gratification that I am such an old habitué that it is not -considered necessary to give me a ticket. Then if one is a host there -is nothing to do except to sit in one of the comfortable chairs in -this ante-chamber and to look alternately up the crimson stairs to see -whether one's guests are arriving and down another flight of stairs -across the great lounge to the crystal screen of great panes framed in -gilt metal which is the transparent barrier between the restaurant and -its approaches. - -The lounge--crimson under foot, with walls light cream in colour, good -copies of portraits by British old masters in panels alternating with -looking-glass doorways; with pillars of buff marble, veined with brown -and having gilt capitals, and bronze amorini and sculptured groups -of the Graces as supports for electroliers--is a delightful room, -as one realises after dinner when the hour of coffee has come. The -band, wearing in the evening their uniform of dark blue, the leader -distinguished by a silver sash--in the daytime they are in crimson--are -in a corner of the lounge close against the crystal screen that -their music may be heard in the restaurant. Arched entrances in the -eastern wall lead into the Winter Garden, another great hall with a -glazed ceiling, with roses climbing up trellis-work, and with a great -recess, up a broad flight of stairs, with pillars of green marble and -a gilded fountain against its wall. The _salon de verdure_, as it -is grandiloquently called, is above the new ballroom, the two great -apartments occupying the space where the courtyard used to be. - -My guests of the particular night I am describing were my friend and -old comrade, Pitcher, the editor of _Town Topics_, and his wife and his -pretty daughter. I had determined that they should eat a typical Savoy -dinner, and had been at some pains to obtain a really representative -feast. Before I went away on my travels in the summer I had interviewed -M. Blond, the general manager (who was brought back when he was -half-way to Rome two years ago to take up the management of the Savoy), -in his sanctum, telling him that when in the autumn I intended to -write a couple of chapters concerning the Savoy, I should like to give -a dinner including some of the specialities of the cuisine, and that -I should like to have something descriptive to say as to such of the -dishes of which the Savoy is proud that were not included in my little -feast. We took into our conference M. Rouget, the Maître-Chef of the -Savoy, who looks the genial, burly, contented person that the head of -a great kitchen should be, and we chatted over new dishes and dishes -with new names (which are not the same thing), and he gave me some -particulars of his kitchens and of the great army of cooks employed in -the Savoy, there being as many as two hundred and ten in the brigade. - -When, being back again in London, I carried out my intention of asking -my editor to dinner, M. Soi, the manager of the restaurant, came into -counsel. When I had made up my mind on the important matter whether -my dinner should cost twelve-and-six or fifteen-and-six a head, and -had stated that I should like the more expensive feast, I added that I -hoped that no beef would be included in the menu, for Pitcher had been -complaining of preliminary symptoms of gout. M. Soi on the day we were -to dine--a Sunday--submitted to me a menu which I duly initialled as -approved. - -My guest and his wife, looking as young as her pretty daughter, duly -arrived to the moment. M. Soi, young and good-looking, with a light -moustache--he was under Ritz in various restaurants, and has been at -the Grand Hotel in Rome as restaurant manager, going in the summer to -the Palace Hotel at St Moritz, before three years ago he came to the -Savoy--received us at the entrance, and we were piloted to a table a -comfortable distance away from the band, from which the ladies had a -full view of the room, full, as it always is, with good-looking people, -the softer sex all being in frocks that gave my lady guests plenty -to talk about. I gave my guests the menu, which, of course, I had -previously seen, to look at, as soon as they had settled down, and I -used my eyes to take in my surroundings. - -Though I regret the disappearance of the mahogany panelling, which is -stowed away somewhere in the hotel, as one regrets the loss of an old -friend, the pleasant buff colouring of the present restaurant, with its -frieze of raised decoration and the electric light thrown up on to the -ceiling and reflected down, which is most comfortable to the eye, make -for lightness; and light as distinguished from glare is an aid to good -spirits in a restaurant. The balcony of to-day, twice the width of the -old balcony, and fitted with a long awning for use on sunshiny days--an -awning which cost an almost incredible sum of money--is in request both -at lunch and dinner and supper-time; and at lunch it has the supreme -advantage of commanding the one great view in Central London, the river -and the gardens and the Houses of Parliament grouping into a splendid -picture, only spoiled by the blot of the unlovely railway bridge. - -This was the menu of the Savoy dinner that M. Soi considered typical: - - Délices de Sterlet. - Blinis de Sarrasin. - Consommé de Terrapine en Tasse. Kapusniack. - Suprême de Sole Divine. - Diablotin Cancalaise. - Filet de Perdreau Bonne Bouche. - Croquettes de Marrons. - Noisette d'Agneau de Galles Eldorado. - Fond d'Artichaut Clamart. - Poularde soufflée Savoy. - Salade Cornelia. - Poire de Paris Tosca. - Frivolités. - Canapé Esperanza. - ---and as the accompanying wine I had ordered some sherry with the -_caviar_, a magnum of Pommery and some Mattoni water. - -A most admirable dinner it was, rather long, perhaps, to my taste, but -it would have been difficult to get enough distinctive dishes into -a shorter menu. The _sterlet caviar_ on the little Russian pancakes -made an admirable _hors d'Å“uvre_; the _consommé_ was of turtle, but -much lighter than the usual turtle soup; the _kapusniack_ is a Russian -soup, in which leeks, celery, turnips, onions, mushrooms, pig's ear, -crushed tomatoes and cabbage seasoned with vinegar play a part, and it -is served with cream stirred into it, and with those little _pâtés_ of -which the Russians are so fond when broken into the soup. The sole was -garnished with fried oysters covered with bread-crumbs, and the _filet -de perdreau_, which was the supreme triumph of the dinner, consisted of -grilled _suprêmes_ of partridges and grilled rashers of bacon dipped -in _poivrade_ sauce. The _noisettes_ were the one plain dish of the -dinner, but the asparagus ends tucked away in the hearts of artichokes -gave it its cachet. The cold chicken filled with a _mousse_ of _foie -gras_ was a very noble dish, and tiny mushrooms, formed from some kind -of _mousse_, which apparently grew amidst the truffles, and slices of -chicken breast which surrounded the white bird adorned with Pompeiian -drawings, were a very happy idea. The nuts soaked in Kummel which -we found in the interior of the pears, which were served with a red -currant ice, was another happy idea much appreciated by the ladies, and -the _canapé esperanza_ proved to be soft roes on toast. - -This dinner takes a very high place amongst the many good dinners I -have eaten in my time in the Savoy Restaurant. My bill came to £5, 2s. - -Some of the Savoy specialities for which there were not room in one -dinner menu are _huîtres Baltimore_, which are oysters grilled with -bacon; _bortsch Polonaise, homard Miramar, sylphide Savoy,_ which is a -very attractive way of serving lamb sweetbreads; _mignonettes d'agneau -à la Delhi, soufflés belle de nuit,_ which is a variant of the _soufflé -surprise_, peaches and strawberry and vanilla ice being used in it; -and the noble _bécasse à la Soi_, an invention of M. Soi, which is -the breast of a woodcock served with a most delightful sauce on toast -covered with _foie gras_. - -I have mentioned the ballroom which has taken the place of the old -courtyard and its fountain, and in which many of the great banquets -given at the Savoy are held. It is a fine room, light grey in -colour, splendidly spacious, and when lighted up its colour shows -off the ladies' dresses to perfection. My only objection to it as a -banqueting-room was that the white light, which is admirable for a -ballroom, was rather too glary for a dining-room. This has now been -obviated by lessening the light when dinners are given in the room. -If the Savoy could find some means of shading the lamps with pink or -putting on pink glasses to the lamps on the occasion of banquets, it -would, I think, please those like myself who think that the best light -for a dining-room is a pink one. - -I asked M. Blond to give me the menu of any recent Savoy banquet -of which the management was especially proud, not that I have not -preserved many menus of many great dinners, but that I wished to shift -the responsibility of selection on to his shoulders. This is the menu -of the banquet and wines he has sent me as being typical of great Savoy -feasts: - - Caviar de Bélouga. - Blinis à la Gouriew. - Queue de BÅ“uf à la Française. - Crème Germiny. - Filets de Sole à l'Aiglon. - Suprême de Volaille à l'Aurore. - Côte d'Agneau de Lait au Beurre Noisette. - Pommes Lorette. - Velouté Forestière. - Délice de Strasbourg à la Gelée de Vin du Rhin. - Bécassine Double Flambée à l'Armagnac. - Perles du Perigord. - CÅ“urs de Laitues Suzette. - Asperges Vertes de Paris. - Comices Toscane. - Soufflé Pont l'Évêque. - Corbeilles de Fruits. - - WINES. - Schloss Johannisberg Cabinet, 1893. - Veuve Clicquot, 1904. - Magnums Pommery and Greno (Nature), 1904. - Chât. Haut Brion "Cachet du Château," 1888. - Cockburn's 1890 (Bottled 1893). - Croft's 1881 (Bottled 1884). - Hennessey's 70 year old Cognac. - -Many of the dishes included in this great dinner I hope I may meet at a -future time at Savoy banquets. - - - - -XLV - -THE RESTAURANT DES GOURMETS - - -Dining one wet night in September at the Restaurant des Gourmets in -Lisle Street I told the young manager, with whom I chatted, that it -must be ten years since I dined there, and that at that time M. Brice -was the proprietor. The manager's reply was that fourteen years ago -M. Brice sold the restaurant to its present proprietors. I looked up -the date of my last visit to the Gourmets when I got home, and found -that it was in 1898. It was a queer little place of very eatable food -at extraordinarily cheap prices when first I made its acquaintance. It -then occupied the ground floor of one of the little houses in Lisle -Street, the street in which is the stage door of the Empire Theatre, -and Mr George Edwardes' offices at the back of Daly's Theatre. The -outside of the restaurant in those days did not look inviting. The -woodwork was painted leaden grey, and a yellow curtain hung inside the -window to screen the interior from the view of the public. The glass of -the door was whitened and "Entrée" written across it in black paint. -There were as many little tables, to hold two or four, as could be -crammed into the little room; the benches by the wall were covered with -black leather, the walls were grey, with wooden pegs all round on which -to hang hats and coats, and, here and there, notices on boards "La -Pipe est interdite." By the window was a long counter, on which were -bowls of salad and stacks of French loaves, and a metal coffee-making -machine. By this counter stood a plump Frenchwoman in black with an -apron, who shouted orders down a lift, and up the lift came presently -in response the dish called for. M. Brice, a little Frenchman with a -slight beard and wearing a grey cap, came and sat on a chair by the -table and told me who the star guests were amongst the people of all -nationalities who filled all the space on the chairs and benches. The -_chef d'orchestre_ of the Moore and Burgess Minstrels at St James's -Hall was one of the celebrities; another, a gentleman wearing a red -tie, was a journalist who contributed articles on Anarchists to -the newspapers; there were some Frenchmen who were big men in the -greengrocery line, and came over occasionally to Covent Garden; and -the greatest celebrity of all was a clean-shaven, prosperous-looking -person, the coachman of the Baron Alfred de Rothschild. My bill that -evening totalled 2s. 7d., and for this I obtained _hors d'Å“uvre_, -2d.; _pain_, 1d.; _potage, pâté d'Italie_, 2d.; _poisson_, 8d. (the -expensive dish of my dinner, turbot and caper sauce); _gigot haricot_, -6d.; an _omelette_, 4d.; cheese, 2d.; and a pint of claret, of which M. -Brice had purchased a supply at the sale of the surplus wines of the -Café Royal, which cost me no more than 6d. - -The front of the Restaurant des Gourmets to-day stretches across three -of the houses in Lisle Street, and it has, besides the ground-floor -rooms, quite a spacious restaurant on the first floor, made by throwing -the three rooms of the houses into one. Its ground-floor front is -painted chocolate colour, and its principal entrance, between two -of the houses, is quite imposing, has little Noah's Ark trees and -a _chasseur_ in buttons, stationed there to direct visitors to the -different rooms and to call taxis. The staircase, with brass edges to -the steps and a brass rail, and with walls of white panelling, leads to -the restaurant upstairs, and a little pay-desk, with an opening like -those in a railway ticket office, faces one at the entrance, and it is -here that every visitor pays his bill as he goes out. I looked in at -all three downstairs rooms, which are bright with coloured papers on -their walls, and found all the tables occupied, before I went upstairs -into the larger restaurant. There I found a little table vacant, and -sat down at it with grim apprehension that I might have what scanty -hair I possess on the top of my head blown off, for just above it was -a large electric fan. It was, however, not necessary, the night being -cool, to set this going, and I ate my dinner in a calm atmosphere. - -The Gourmets has become quite smart since Madame H. Cosson and her son -succeeded M. Brice in the proprietorship. The upstairs restaurant is -panelled with white woodwork above a green skirting, there are mirrors -in the panelling, and the range of windows looking out on to Lisle -Street have white lace curtains. There is a table in the middle of -the room, and upon it fruits and big-leaved plants and a basket with -bunches of grapes hung invitingly along the handle. Two big stands of -Austrian bent-wood for hats and coats are placed as sentinels on either -side of this table. There is a round-faced clock on the wall to tell -the time, and at intervals notices to say that all drinks must be paid -for in advance, which means, I suppose, that the Gourmets has not yet -obtained a wine and spirit licence. No notice forbidding pipes is now -necessary. The waiters in dress clothes and black ties bustle about, -and when I had given my order for _crème de laitue, cabillaud frit, -poulet au riz, sauce suprême,_ and pudding Gourmets, I looked round at -my fellow-guests to see if I could pick out any celebrities. There was -no M. Brice this time to act as a "Who's Who in Lisle Street," and most -of the people who were dining seemed to me to be young couples. Indeed -from the tables in my vicinity a painter could have limned a series of -pictures of the various stages of matrimony. At the table next to mine -sat a young couple who were still in the holding hands state of love, -who were thinking a great deal about each other and very little about -their dinner, and who ordered anything that the waiter suggested to -them; further on was a couple, each of whom was reading a newspaper, -and next to them again a young husband and wife, who had brought out -to dinner a pig-tailed little girl of six or seven, whose manners were -most admirable, for she bade the waiter "Good-night" when she went away -with all the grace of a duchess. Beyond these again was an elderly -couple, who sat together at one side of a table, an affectionate Darby -and Joan. - -My soup when it came tasted rather too strongly of pepper, but the -fried cod was excellent. The _poulet au riz_ was all that it should be, -and the pudding Gourmets was a simple version of the well-known pudding -Diplomate. - -Prices have gone up a little at the Gourmets since my first visit -there, owing, of course, to the general rise in the price of material. -I was charged 3d. for the soup, 6d. for the cod; I had rushed into wild -extravagance in ordering chicken, for that cost me 1s. 3d., and the -price of the pudding Gourmets was 4d. - - - - -XLVI - -THE MAXIM RESTAURANT - - -There may not appear at first blush to be any close connection between -Wardour Street, that length of it which lies between Shaftesbury -Avenue and Coventry Street, and the pleasant Austrian watering-place -of Marienbad; but whenever I traverse the thoroughfare where the wax -figures simper in Clarkson's, the wig-maker's, windows, and where the -French library at one of the corners always keeps some passers-by in -front of it looking at the illustrated papers and post cards, the china -figures and the covers of the novels, there rises before me when I -come to the Maxim Restaurant a vision of hills covered with pine-woods -and of the Café Rubezahl, a castellated building of great red roofs -and turrets and spires, high up on the green hill-side, the café at -which the late King Edward often drank the good Austrian coffee of an -afternoon during his annual August trip to the town of healing waters. - -The Rubezahl was, in an indirect manner, the parent of the -Restaurant Maxim in Wardour Street, for when the organisers of the -Austro-Hungarian Exhibition at Earl's Court cast about for attractions -which would be in keeping with the spirit of the exhibition it occurred -very naturally to them that an Austrian restaurant where the admirable -plain Austrian dishes could be eaten and where the Hungarian wines and -the cool beer of Pilsen could be drunk would be a pleasant novelty; -and such a restaurant was established opposite to the Welcome Club, and -was eminently successful. And to manage this restaurant the son-in-law -of the proprietor of the Rubezahl came from the Austrian Highlands, -and when King Edward lunched at the restaurant and was given a typical -Austrian meal of "cure food" he recognised M. Maximilian Lurion, the -manager, and chatted with him concerning Marienbad and the Rubezahl. -When Earl's Court had closed its doors for the winter M. Maxim Lurion -was not unwilling to stay in London, and he, in conjunction with a -British syndicate, thought that a site at the corners of Wardour and -Gerrard Streets, which was then in the market, would be a suitable -position for a restaurant. A small public-house carrying a licence -was included in the purchase, and when everything else on the site -was pulled down the business part of the old house of refreshment -stood, looking like a saloon of the Wild West, amidst the ruins. When -a name had to be found for the new restaurant, the shortened form of -M. Lurion's Christian name was chosen, and the building became the -Restaurant Maxim. No doubt Maxim's, in Paris, came by its name in a -like manner, for Maximilian is a very usual name in central and eastern -Europe. - -Maxim's has always kept a clean face in a street not remarkable -for smartness, and its white exterior, the touches of gilding on -the wreaths that embellish its outer walls, its rows of mauresque -white-curtained narrow windows on the first floor, its turret domed -with silver, the flowers in its green and gold balconies, and the -commissionaire in a well-fitting coat who stands by the front door, -near the two large menus which set forth what is the dinner of the day, -make it a pleasant feature of the street. - -When the Maxim was first opened M. Lurion took me over the -establishment from garret to basement, and showed me how the coffee is -made in Austria, though Austrian coffee never tastes so well in London -surroundings as it does under the little trees of the hill-side cafés -in Carlsbad or Marienbad, or in one of the open-air restaurants in the -Prater of Vienna. The Maxim, however, did not at first fulfil the hopes -of its promoters. Whether its name frightened people or whether it was -too ambitious in its aims I do not know, but it soon changed hands. - -When one evening last summer I went to the Maxim to dine before going -to one of the theatres in Shaftesbury Avenue, I found M. Ducker, the -present manager, in the entrance hall near the cloak-room where hats -and coats are left, and he told me all about the varying fortunes of -the restaurant, who are its present proprietors, and of the struggle -that was necessary to bring it to its present state of prosperity, -for prosperous it now is, there being not a vacant table either on -the ground floor or the first floor when I came in. While I talked -to M. Ducker a couple, who had finished their dinner, rose from a -table by the brass ornamental rail surrounding the oval opening which -makes the restaurant on the first floor a balcony to the room below, -a waiter slipped a clean cloth on to the table, and in a few seconds -it was ready for my occupation. M. Ducker hoped I would have a good -dinner, and left me to the care of the _maître d'hôtel_, and as the -waiter covered the table with little dishes containing _hors d'Å“uvres_ -I looked at the menu, at my surroundings, and at the company. This -was the menu of the half-crown dinner of the house, the arms of the -establishment, three stags' heads on a shield, with a boar's head as a -crest, and two stags as supporters, being at the top of the menu card: - - Hors d'Å“uvre à la Russe. - Consommé Chiffonnette. - Crème Gentilhomme. - Suprême de Barbue Niçoise. - Carré de Pré-Salé Bourguignonne. - Pommes fondantes. - Poulet en Casserole. - Salade. - Glacé Chantilly. - Dessert. - -In the upper restaurant of the Maxim, where I sat, the walls are -papered deep red, with white woodwork and white classic ornamentation. -There are mirrors on the walls, and on a large panel the arms of -the house are displayed in proper heraldic colours. The cut glass -electroliers, some hanging, some fixed to the ceiling, give light both -to the upper and lower restaurants. The lower restaurant is panelled -and is all white, red-shaded lamps on the tables and some palms making -a contrast of colour. Down in the basement is a grill-room. The chairs -are of white wood upholstered in green leather, and the carpets are a -deep rose in colour. The little string band of the establishment plays -in the upper restaurant, its leader, who is a talented violinist, -standing close by the brazen railing so that his music shall be as well -heard below as it is above. - -Every table, as I have written, was occupied this evening in both the -stages of the restaurant. There are two circular lines of tables above, -one close to the railings, one against the walls, and the people who -sat at them belonged to all the various grades of respectable London. -At the table by the wall level with mine were a young man and a pretty -girl. He was smoking a cigarette, she was drinking a cup of coffee, -and they were evidently obtaining their evening's entertainment in -listening to the music. At the table beyond them were a little lady -whom I include amongst my pleasant acquaintances, her husband and a -friend. Four men, in dinner jackets and black ties, were at the table -beyond them, and then other couples, young and old, and other little -parties of three and four. Here and there were people, like myself, -dressed to go to a theatre; but the Maxim is in the land of Bohemia, -where there are no customs as to wearing clothes of ceremony. What -chiefly struck me as to the diners at the Maxim was that they were all -enjoying to the uttermost their half-crown's worth of dinner and music. -There were smiling faces at all the tables, and the applause at the -conclusion of each item of the band programme was very enthusiastic. -The eating of satisfactory food and the drinking of sound wine are -not the only dining pleasures that make glad the heart of an epicure, -and to be amongst people who are enjoying themselves thoroughly is a -delight that cannot be written down on a menu or contained between the -covers of a wine list. - -To come to the important matter of the dinner I ate at the Maxim, the -_crème gentilhomme_, a thick green soup, flavoured, I fancy, with -spinach, was excellent, and there was no fault to find with the fish -and its pink accompaniment of tomatoes and shrimps. When I came to the -next course a strange thing happened. I had noticed, and appreciated as -a special personal compliment, the presence of a jar of caviare amongst -the _hors d'Å“uvres_; but when, instead of _pré-salé_ mutton, a tender -_tournedos_ of beef was put before me, a great fear came upon me that -I was eating somebody else's specially ordered dinner, perhaps that -of the manager himself. On consideration, when a plump roast chicken -was brought me instead of a portion of the bird _en casserole_, I -came to the conclusion that the manager had conspired with the cook -to give me more than my half-crown's worth of food, and when a noble -bowl of _fraises Melba_ was placed before me instead of the small -_glacé Chantilly_ I felt sure that I had been put on the "most-favoured -nation" basis. But this overkindness was not needed, for, watching my -neighbours, I saw that the mutton they ate looked toothsome; I would -just as soon have been served my wing of a chicken from a white-metal -_casserole_ as from a plate, and I am quite sure that the temptation -to eat too many strawberries and ice brought me near the deadly sin of -greediness. - -To anyone making a dining tour of the restaurants of London, I commend -the Maxim Restaurant as a bright and cheerful place, in a neighbourhood -where brightness is not the rule, where good-tempered, pleasant diners -appreciate the food and the music they get for their half-crowns. - - - - -XLVII - -BIRCH'S - - -No. 15 Cornhill, which dates back to about 1700, is a little slip of -a building, old-fashioned in appearance and tall in comparison to its -breadth, its ground area being just fifteen feet by thirty. This is -Birch's, the famous little pastry-cook's shop, which for years almost -unnumbered has supplied the Lord Mayor's Mansion House banquets and the -great feasts at the Guildhall. - -Its ground floor has an old-fashioned carved front with three windows -with little panes, one of ground glass in the centre of each window -setting forth that soups, ices and wine are to be obtained within. -The woodwork of the front is curiously carved, the carving having -reappeared in recent years, when coat after coat of paint was taken -off, a section of the various layers being of as many colours as -a Neapolitan ice. The double door of the little shop, unusual in -shape, also has glass panels. There used to be on the woodwork of -the door an old brass plate on which, in letters almost worn out by -constant rubbing, the name of the proprietor was given as Birch, late -Hornton. But some young bloods one night screwed this off and it has -disappeared. Through the glass windows can be seen many wedding cakes, -biscuits in tall glass cylinders and a royal crown which was probably -part of the table decorations at some great feast. - -The little shop has an atmosphere of its own. Directly one goes into -it one smells the good scent of turtle soup and Old Madeira, with an -added aroma of puff pastry. The shop is divided into two parts by an -open screen, and a counter runs its full length. There are old black -bottles in glass cupboards, and decanters on shelves, and an old clock. -The floor is saw-dusted, and men in white aprons bustle about attending -to the wants of the customers. Tray after tray of pastry of all kinds -is put on the counter and cleared within a few minutes of their -appearance. Dignified City men, plate in hand, jostle each other to get -a first chance at the macaroons, to obtain a still smoking bun, or a -three-cornered puff fresh from the oven. Plates of sandwiches are put -before customers to disappear with great rapidity. Whiskies and sodas, -glasses of Old Madeira or Port or East Indian Sherry seem to be the -favourite drinks. When a customer has eaten all he wants and drunk all -he wants, he tells an amiable lady in black what he has taken, and she, -being a lightning calculator, tells him in reply what he has to pay. - -The soup-room on the first floor, to which a flight of narrow little -steps ascends, has a calmer atmosphere. Here, in a room with walls -the paper of which has been turned to a deep amber tint by the London -atmosphere, gentlemen sup, sitting down, their plates of turtle soup or -oxtail, and drink their wine with dignified composure. There are tall -white wedding cakes under glasses in this room also. The servitors in -white aprons are busy in the soup-room, though not quite as busy as -downstairs amongst the jam puffs. - -Up yet another Jacob's ladder of stairs is the ladies' room, which -I fancy is used as a chapel of ease for the soup-room, though it is -said that rich old widow ladies going quarterly to draw their income -from the Bank of England always go into Birch's for a plate of turtle -soup and a glass of sherry. Yet one flight of stairs higher is the -office of the firm of Messrs Ring and Brymer, who have owned Birch's -since 1836. In this room, in old leather-covered books, are wonderful -records of hecatombs of baked meats and roasted fowl served at City -banquets without end. The two oldest members of the firm have died of -late years. These two old gentlemen, Mr Ring and Mr Brymer, who looked -like archdeacons in mufti, and had exactly the right dignity for men -who provide and control the Lord Mayor's feasts, had both a wonderful -memory for banquets that the firm had provided. I happened to mention -one day in their presence that a forbear of mine, a banker and brewer, -Alderman Newnham, had been Lord Mayor of London, and at once they said -that in their books were the details of a feast given by the worthy -old gentleman when he was sheriff, and taking down an old volume they -showed me how many gallons of turtle soup, the number of sirloins of -beef, and the quantity of fair white chickens, orange jellies and plum -puddings that the old alderman paid for. It is a very cosy little room -in which to lunch, this office of the firm, and the turtle soup, with -its great squares of turtle flesh in it, a sole Colbert, a grouse pie, -angels on horseback, and a big helping of that wonderful orange jelly, -a clouded delicacy that has the flavour of the orange stronger than any -other jelly made by any other pastry-cook, and which is a speciality -of the house, taste all the better for being eaten in the little room -on the walls of which are old Guildhall menus and old pictures of City -feasts and portraits of city celebrities, and many letters from the -great panjandrums of City companies, giving praise to Messrs Ring and -Brymer for the excellence of the banquets supplied by them. - -All the preparations for a Guildhall or a Company banquet, except -the cooking that goes on in the kitchens of the halls, used to be -made in the kitchens below No. 15 Cornhill, and the houses on either -side of it, and it used to be one of the free afternoon sights of the -City to see the kitchen-men carrying out through the little entrance -door the soup and the pastry, the jellies and the cakes for a City -banquet. When two great insurance offices squeezed in on either side of -the pastry-cook's shop, Messrs Ring and Brymer had to look for other -kitchens, and they now have a house in Bunhill Row, where on the top -storey there is a great kitchen for the cooking of the soup and other -delicacies, and where in the basement the turtles spend their last sad -days before being butchered to make a Lord Mayor's holiday. At Bunhill -Row there is also a cosy little office with the arms of many of the -City companies as its wall ornaments. - -Old Tom Birch, who was the second of his line, the son of Lucas Birch -who succeeded the Hornton dynasty, was a man of many interests and a -great celebrity of the City. His Christian name was Samuel, but he was -"Tom" in the mouths of all City men. He was Lord Mayor of London in -1814, the only pastry-cook who has ever attained to that high dignity. -He was a great orator, and an enthusiastic supporter of Pitt; he was -Lieut.-Colonel of the first regiment of Loyal London Volunteers raised -at the time of the French Revolution, and he wrote several comedies -which were performed at Covent Garden and Drury Lane. There is still -extant a song of the day, which no doubt in its time had a great -success in City circles, in which a Frenchman coming to London, and -being taken round the sights, is surprised to learn that the colonel of -a regiment he sees on parade is old Tom Birch, the pastry-cook; that a -governor holding forth to the boys at St Paul's School; that an orator -in the Guildhall; and that the author of a comedy at Covent Garden, are -all one and the same estimable old Tom. - -A Lord Mayor's Guildhall banquet to-day has all the same outward -pomp and gorgeousness that it had eighty or a hundred years ago. -But a Lord Mayor's banquet, so far as good things to eat and to -drink are concerned, is absolutely different to-day from what it was -half-a-century ago. This is the menu of the feast that Messrs Ring and -Brymer provided on Lord Mayor's day 1913 for the Guildhall banquet. The -baron of beef is, of course, just as much a civic dish as is the turtle -soup, but the dinner is, on the whole, quite a light one: - - Turtle. Clear Turtle. - Fillets of Turbot Duglère. - Lobster Mousse. - Turban of Sweetbread and Truffles. - Baron of Beef. - Salad. - Casserole of Partridge. - Cutlets Royale. - Tongues. - Orange Jelly. - Italian Creams. Strawberry Creams. - Maids of Honour. - Princess Pastry. - Ices. Dessert. - -The wines for this occasion were: Punch. Sherry--Gonzalez. -Hock--Rüdesheim. Champagne--Clicquot, 1904; Bollinger, 1904. -Moselle--Scharzberger. Claret--La Rose, 1899. Port--Dow's, 1896. -Bénédictine. Grande Chartreuse. Perrier. The cost of the dinner, -including wine, came to about two guineas a head. - -And now as a contrast I give you the menu of the banquet given in the -Guildhall on Lord Mayor's Day, 1837. This was a Royal entertainment. -The menu is a yard in length, and it comprises the dishes at the Royal -table and the general bill of fare as well. I only give you the dishes -served at the Royal table, which form an extraordinary mass of flesh, -of fish, fruit, fowl, in season and out of season. The buffet, no -doubt, held the dishes for which there was not room on the table. The -wines served at this banquet are put down simply as Champagne, Hock, -Claret, Burgundy, Madeira, Port, Sherry: - - THREE POTAGES. - Potage de Tortue à l'Anglaise. - Consommé de Volaille. - Potage à la Brunoise. - - THREE PLATS DE POISSON. - Turbot bouilli garni aux Merlans frits. - Rougets farcis à la Villeroi. - Saumon bouilli garni aux Eperlans. - - THREE RELEVÉS. - Poulets bouillis, aux Langues de Veau Glacés, garnis de - Croustade à la Macédoine. - Noix de Veau en Daube décorée à la Bohémienne. - Filet de BÅ“uf à la Sanglier en Chasse. - - EIGHT ENTREMETS. - Ris d'Agneau piqués à la Turque aux petits Pois. - Sauté de filets de Faisans aux Truffes. - Pâté chaud aux Bécassines à l'Italienne. - Casserole de pieds d'Agneau aux Champignons. - Sultanne de filets de Soles à la Hollandaise, garnis aux Ecrevisses. - Timbale de Volaille à la Dauphine. - Filets de Lièvre confis aux Tomates. - Côtelettes de Perdreaux au Suprême. - - BUFFET. - Potage à la Turque. - Hochepot de Faisan. - Tranches de Cabillaud. - Eperlans frits. - Langue de BÅ“uf. - Jambon à la Jardinière. - BÅ“uf rôti. Mouton rôti. - Agneau rôti. Agneau bouilli. - Hanche de Venaison. - Pierre grillé au Vin de Champagne, - Petit Pâtés aux Huîtres. - Croquettes. - Côtelettes d'Agneau aux Concombres. - Dindon rôti aux Truffes à l'Espagnole. - - - SECOND SERVICE. - - THREE PLATS DE RÔTI. - Faisans. - Bécasses. - Cercelles. - - THREE RELEVÉS. - Souflet de Vanille. - Pommes à la Portugaise. - Gaufres à la Flamande. - - FOUR PÂTISSERIES MONTÉES. - Vase en Croquante garni de Pâtisserie aux Confitures. - Fontaine Grecque, garnie aux petit-choux. - Vase de Beurre frais aux Crevettes. - Fontaine Royale garnie de Pâtisserie à la Genévoise. - - TWELVE ENTREMETS. - Crème d'Ananas garnie. - Gelée au Vin de Champagne garnie aux fruits. - Homards à la Rémoulade. - Mayonnaise de Poulet à l'Aspic. - Fanchonettes d'Orange, garnies aux Pistaches. - Compôte des Pêches, en petits Panniers. - Tartelettes aux Cerises, en Nougat. - Petites Coupes d'Amarids à la Chantilly. - Culs d'Artichauts en Mayonnaise. - Anguille au Beurre de Montpellier. - Gelée au Marasquin, décorée. - Gâteaux de Pommes en Mosaïque, à la Crème d'Abricot. - - BUFFET. - Poulets rôtis. - Bécassines rôties. - Canards Sauvages rôtis. - Tourte aux Pommes. - Tourte aux Cerises. - Beignets de Pommes. - Fondu de Parmesan. - Trifle à la Crème. - Plum Pudding. - Mince Pies. - -No wonder our grandfathers mostly died of apoplexy! - - - - -XLVIII - -A CITY BANQUET - -THE MERCERS' HALL - - -I do not think that of all the dinners I have eaten with various -hospitable City Companies in their halls I could select a more -representative one than one I ate with the Mercers. That we drank 1884 -Pommery at the banquet shows that it did not take place yesterday. - - * * * * * - -If there was one City Company that I was anxious to dine with it -was the Mercers, for most of my forebears had been of the guild. My -great-great-uncle, who was Lord Mayor and an M.P., and who fell into -unpopularity because he advocated paying the debts of George IV., was -a Mercer; my great-uncle was in his turn Master of the Company, and my -grandfather, who was a very peppery and litigious old gentleman, has -left many pamphlets in which he tried to make it warm for everybody -all round because he was not raised to the Court of Assistants when -he thought he should have been. I had looked out Mercers' Hall in -the Directory, and found its position put down as 4 Ironmonger Lane, -Cheapside; so a few minutes before seven o'clock, the hour at which -we were bidden to the feast, I found my way from Moorgate Street -Station to Ironmonger Lane, and there asked a policeman which was the -Mercers' Company Hall. He looked at me a little curiously and pointed -to some great gates, with a lamp above them, enshrined in a rather -dingy portal. I passed a fountain, of which two cherubs held the jet -and three stone cranes contemplated the water in the basin, and found -myself in a great pillared space. A servant in a brown livery, of whom -I asked my way, pointed to some steps and said something about hurrying -up. At the top of the steps a door led me into a passage, on either -side of which were sitting gentlemen in dress clothes. I looked at them -and they looked at me, and I thought for a second that the Mercers' -guests were rather a queer lot; and then the true inwardness of the -situation burst on me. I had come in by the waiters' door. - -I was soon put right, my hat and coat taken from me, and my card of -invitation placed in the hands of a Master of the Ceremonies, who in -due time presented me to the Master, to the Senior Warden, and to the -House Warden, who stood in a line, arrayed in garments of purple velvet -and fur, and received their guests. - -The ceremony of introduction over, I was able to look around me and -found myself in a drawing-room that took one away from the roar of -Cheapside to some old Venetian Palace. The painted ceilings, the -many-coloured marbles, the carved wood, the gilding and inlaying make -the Mercers' drawing-room as princely a chamber as I have ever seen. - -While the guests assembled my host's sons took me away into another -room, which, with its long table, might have been a council chamber of -some Doge, and here were hung portraits of the most distinguished of -the Mercers. Dick Whittington looked down from a gilt frame, and so -did Sir Thomas Gresham, and there was Roundell Palmer in his judge's -robes. But, preceded by someone in robes carrying a staff of office, -the Master was going into the hall, and the guests streamed after him. -"It only dates from after the Fire," said my host, as I gazed in -admiration at the magnificent proportions of this banqueting-house, -the oak almost black with age, relieved by the colours of the banners -that hang from the walls, by the portraits of worthies, by some noble -painted windows, by the line of escutcheons which run round the room, -bearing the arms of the Past-Masters of the Company, and by the -carved panels, into all but two of which Grinling Gibbons threw his -genius, while the two new ones compare not unfavourably with the old. -At the far end of the hall is a musicians' gallery of carved oak. A -bronze Laocoon wrestles with his snakes at one side of the hall, and -on the other, on a mantel of red marble, a great clock is flanked by -two bronzes. Three long tables run up the room to the high table, at -the centre of which is the Master's chair, and behind this chair is -piled on the sideboard the Company's plate. And some of the plate is -magnificent. There are the old silver salt-cellars, there are great -silver tankards, gold salvers, and the gold cup given to the Mercers by -the Bank of England and the Lee cup and an ornamental tun and waggon, -the first of which is valued at £7000 and the second at £10,000. - -"Pray, silence for grace," came in the deep bass tones of the -toast-master from behind the Master's chair, and then all of us settled -down to a contemplation of the menu and to a view of our fellow-guests. - -This was the dinner that Messrs Ring and Brymer, who cater for the -Mercers, put upon the table: - - Tortue. Tortue claire. - Consommé printanière. - - Salade de filets de soles à la russe. - Saumon. Sauce homard. - Blanchaille. - - Ortolans en caisse. - Mousse de foie gras aux truffes. - - Ponche à la Romaine. - - Hanches de venaison. - Selles de mouton. - - Canetons. - Poulets de grain. - Langues de bÅ“uf. - Jambons de Cumberland. - Crevettes en serviette. - - Macédoines de fruits. - Gelées aux liqueurs. - Meringues à la crème. - - Bombe glacé. - - Quenelles au parmesan. - - WINES. - _Madeira. - Hock. Steinberg_, 1883. - _Sauterne. Château Yquem_, 1887. - _Champagne. Pommery_, 1884. - _Burgundy. Chambertin_, 1881. - _Claret. Château Latour_, 1875. - _Port_. 1863. - -I always rather dread the length of a City dinner, but in the case -of the Mercers a happy compromise seems to have been arrived at, -the dinner being important enough to be styled a banquet, and not -so long as to be wearying. Messrs Ring and Brymer's cook is to be -congratulated, too, for his _mousse de foie gras_ was admirable. - -There were some distinguished guests at the high table. At the far end, -where the Senior Warden sat, there were little splashes of colour from -the ribbons of orders worn round the neck, and the sparkle of stars -under the lapels of dress-coats. - -The Master had on his right a well-known baronet, and on his left a -special correspondent who had just returned from the Far East, where -for a time he was a prisoner of war. Next to him was an ex-M.P. and -next to him again one of the House of Commons--an Irish Q.C., with -clean-shaven, powerful face. - -At the long tables sat as proper a set of gentlemen as ever gathered to -a feast; but with no special characteristics to distinguish them from -any other great assemblage. The snow-white hair of a clergyman told out -vividly against the background of old oak, and a miniature volunteer -officer's decoration caught my eye as I looked down the table. - -The dinner ended, the toast-master's work began again, and first from -the gold loving-cup and from two copies of it, the stems of which are -said to have been candlesticks used when Queen Elizabeth visited the -Company, we drank to each other "across and across the table." The -taste of the liquor in the cup was not familiar to me, and when my host -told me how it was compounded I was not surprised. It is a mixture of -many wines, with a dash of strong beer. - -Grace was sung by a quartet in the musicians' gallery, and then the -company settled down to listen to speeches interspersed with song. By -each guest was placed a little cigar-case, within it two cigars; but -these were not to be smoked yet awhile. While we sipped the '63 Port, -we listened to an M.P. as he responded for "The Houses of Parliament." -Later the Irish Q.C., who spoke for "The Visitors," caught up the ball -of fun, and tossed it to and fro, and charming ladies and mere men -sang songs and quartets, and my host told me, in the intervals, of -the great store of the old Clarets and Ports that the Mercers had in -their cellars, which was enough to make a lover of good wine covet his -neighbour's goods. And still later, after the cigars had filled the -drawing-room with a light grey mist, I went forth, this time down the -grand oaken staircase, with its lions clasping escutcheons. I passed -into Cheapside with a very lively sense of gratitude to the Mercers in -general, and my hospitable host in particular. - - - - -XLIX - -THE CAVENDISH HOTEL - -A GREAT BRITISH WOMAN COOK - - -Often enough during the past quarter of a century I have heard -some hostess say reassuringly to someone whom she had asked to a -dinner-party to meet someone else of the first importance: "Mrs Lewis -is coming to cook the dinner." That short sentence has meant a great -deal, for Mrs Lewis is the most celebrated woman cook that this or -probably any other age has produced. I do not even except the great Mrs -Glasse. If in England there was a _cordon-bleu_ for women cooks Mrs -Lewis would be a Grand Officer of the Order. - -She is the proprietress of the Cavendish Hotel, which occupies three -houses, 81 to 83 Jermyn Street, and it was to Jermyn Street that I -went to make her acquaintance. I waited in the tea-room of the hotel, -a room, round the walls of which hangs a line of photographs of some -of the great ones of the world, and I wondered what kind of a lady it -might be that I was presently going to meet, for though I had tasted -Mrs Rosa Lewis's handiwork often enough I had never set eyes on her in -the flesh. - -Somehow my ideas of a successful petticoated ruler of the kitchen have -always been associated with portliness, majesty, black silk, a heavy -gold chain and cameo jewellery. I think that a boyish remembrance -of my mother's cook in her church-going attire must have left this -impression on my mind. But these vague ideas were shattered and sent -spinning into space when into the tea-room came a slim, graceful lady -with a pretty oval face and charming eyes, and hair just touched with -grey. She was wearing a knitted pink silk coat, and one of those long -light chains that mere men believe were intended to support muffs. -She was arm in arm with one of the prettiest of the young comediennes -of to-day, and when she told me that amongst the people she had asked -to lunch was an ex-Great Officer of the Household, a young officer of -cavalry, and an American editor, I began to feel that at last I was -moving in Court circles, and instead of formulating the questions that -I intended to ask about cookery began to babble of great houses and -coroneted personages just as though I was a newsman getting together my -column of society gossip. - -[Illustration: MRS. LEWIS] - -But Mrs Lewis brought me back to Jermyn Street and my object in going -there by telling me at the lunch-table in the grey dining-room that -all the members of her kitchen brigade are girls, that she was going -presently to take me down to show me them at work, and that Margaret, -who is twenty-six years old, was responsible for the lunch we were -going to eat, even to the _pommes soufflés_, and she further declared -her entire belief that it was more satisfactory to have an accomplished -woman cook than an accomplished chef in a kitchen; for the women are -more resourceful, are less apt to make difficulties, and grumble less -at their work, but that, on the other hand, they are as a rule more -extravagant than the men cooks, for they do not understand the economic -side of kitchen finance. - -And very excellent indeed Margaret's handiwork proved to be. Our first -dish was of grilled oysters and celery root on thin silver skewers, -and then came one of those delicious quail puddings which are one -of Mrs Lewis's inventions and for which King Edward had a special -liking. There was a whole quail under the paste cover for everyone at -table, with a wonderful gravy, to the making of which go all sorts -of good things and which when it has soaked into the bottom layer of -paste makes that not the least delicate part of the dish. Had not a -turn of the conversation taken Mrs Lewis off to a description of how -beautiful the twins just born to a member of the aristocracy are, I -should have liked to have heard more concerning King Edward's tastes -in cookery, for no one, except, perhaps, M. Ménager, who was his -Majesty's chef, knew them better than did Mrs Lewis, to whom many an -anxious hostess entertaining Royalty for the first time has looked as -her sheet-anchor. A turn of the conversation brought up the name of the -Duke of Connaught, who, I know, has the same admiration for Mrs Lewis's -handiwork that the late King so often expressed. Another appreciative -monarch for whose appetite Mrs Lewis has catered is the Kaiser, for she -ruled the kitchen at Highcliffe Castle during the Emperor's stay there -of three weeks. A personal gift of jewellery marked H.I.M.'s approval. - -Mrs Lewis lays it down that three dishes are the right number at any -lunch, for she, like all other really great authorities on gastronomy, -is opposed to a long menu; but she, as great authorities sometimes do, -broke her own rule in giving us, after the quail pie, a dish of chicken -wings in bread-crumbs and kidneys before the pears and pancakes, -an admirable combination, with which our lunch ended. After lunch -Mrs Lewis took the little gathering that had congregated about the -lunch-table for coffee down in the lift to her kitchen, a splendidly -airy and spacious one, running the full length of the three houses, -and with its windows opening out on a courtyard at the back. It is as -cheerful and light and as well ventilated a kitchen as I have seen -anywhere. The rooms which should be cold for the keeping of provisions -are just at the right temperature, the lines of pots and pans shine -brilliantly, and bustling about were half-a-dozen girls of all ages, -from the light-haired Margaret, head of the kitchen, to a little girl -of fourteen, the youngest recruit, all wearing the white caps that -men cooks wear, which form a very becoming head-dress. And Mrs Lewis, -talking of "my girls," as she calls them, told me that she was a year -younger than the youngest of them when she first, with a pig-tail of -hair down her back, began to learn the art of cookery in the kitchen -of the Comtesse de Paris, and she added that she could show me the -character she received from her first place when, as a beginner, she -was earning the large sum of a shilling a week. Her second place was -with the Duc d'Aumale at Chantilly, and the first kitchen over which -she had complete rule was that of the Duc d'Orléans, when he was at -Sandhurst. She at one time controlled the kitchen of White's Club, and -Mr Astor, both at Hever and in London, puts his kitchens in Mrs Lewis's -charge when he gives his great parties. - -No cook with her training completed leaves Mrs Lewis's kitchen for -another place at less than £100 a year, but her girls are never anxious -to go elsewhere, which I can quite understand, for they seemed a very -happy family down in that cheerful, airy kitchen. - -And presently in the tea-room I gained Mrs Lewis's undivided attention -for a minute or two and drew from her some opinions as to the changes -in dinners that she had noticed since she first began to rule the -roast. One difference is a matter of finance, that people in Victorian -days were quite content to pay three guineas a head for a dinner, but -that now hostesses bargain that their dinners shall not cost them more -than a guinea a head. Dinners have become much shorter, but people -in society have a greater knowledge of gastronomy than they used to -possess. In past days a small jar of compressed caviare was all that -was needed for a dinner-party; nowadays a large bowl or jar of the -fresh unpressed caviare is required. People were satisfied at one time -with half a stuffed quail, but now a whole roasted quail is the least -that can be set before any one person. Again, in times now past, a -sliced truffle went a long way, whereas now each individual guest likes -to have a whole truffle "as big as your fist" offered her or him. - -And, making the most of my opportunity, I asked Mrs Lewis what was -the time-table of her day when she went out to cook one of those -dinners that have made her so famous. It is a very long day's work. -She is at the market at five A.M. to buy her material; at seven her -staff is ready to help her in her own kitchen, and she begins with the -last dishes of the dinner, preparing the sweets and ices; next she -turns to the cleaning and preparation of the vegetables, and then to -the materials for the soup and the making of the cold dishes. By one -o'clock the meats and birds are all prepared for the cooking, and at -six all the things to be cooked at the house where the dinner is to be -given are put in hampers and taken over there. - -To step for an evening into command of a kitchen, very often over the -heads of one or two men cooks, is not always an unmixed pleasure, and -Mrs Lewis, who has a very keen sense of humour, told me some of her -experiences in some kitchens which will make very amusing reading if -ever she writes her reminiscences, as she should do. Sometimes she is -asked to build up a tent for some great dinner, which she is ready -to do, and she often furnishes it, and ornaments its walls with china -and pictures. Sometimes when a host or hostess wishes to entertain -many guests to dinner and a ball Mrs Lewis takes a big vacant house -and furnishes it for one night, in all the rooms that are seen, as -completely as though its owners were still occupying it. "I have made -almost as much in the past year out of my gold chairs and my china as -I have out of my pots and pans," she told me. She has a little army of -devoted waiters who have been at her call for twenty years and who are -always ready to serve under her banner. - -A menu of one of Mrs Lewis's ball suppers, at Surrey House, may well -find a place here. She, I believe, first made the great discovery that -young men who have danced an evening through prefer eggs and bacon and -Lager beer in the small hours of the morning to _pâté de foie gras_ and -champagne: - - _Chaud_. - Consommé de Volaille. - Cailles Schnitten. - Poussin à la Richelieu. - Poulet grillé, Pommes soufflées. - - _Froid._ - Petites Crabes. Homard. Truite au Bleu. - Poularde en Gelée. - Dindonneaux Hezedia. - Canard pressé en Parfait. - BÅ“uf et Agneau à la Mode. - Mousse de Jambon en Belle-Veu. - Asperges. - Fraises du Bois Monte Carlo. - Mélange de Fruits. - Pâtisserie. - Café Noir (à deux heures). - Grenouilles à la Lyonnaise. - Å’ufs pochés au Lard. - Rognons grillés. - Pilsener Lager Beer. - -She has cooked dinners for the regiments of the Household Cavalry -when they entertained a sovereign; when a good fellow, now dead, kept -open-house for all his friends in the club-room during Warwick Races, -Mrs Lewis undertook the difficult task of providing the best of lunches -for an unknown number, and she has contracted for many of the feasts of -the great Government Departments. - -Mrs Lewis has the artist's appreciation of a critical judgment of her -handiwork, but to cook a dinner for people who cannot understand its -excellences is, in her opinion, like "feeding pigs on mushrooms." There -is not one iota of jealousy in Mrs Lewis, for when I told her that -in my opinion she held, as a woman ruler of the kitchen, a parallel -position to that which M. Escoffier holds as a man, she told me how -much she admires the great French Maître-Chef, not only as a great -cook, but as a great gentleman. - -Before I left the Cavendish Hotel Mrs Lewis showed me some of the -rooms, and when I was loud in praise of the perfect taste and the happy -combination she has achieved of keeping all the charm of the fine -old chambers and yet adding to them all the modern conveniences, she -laughed, told me that she had been her own architect, added that it was -not an expensive education that had enabled her to do all this, and -likened herself in her apprentice years to the little girl of fourteen -whom we had seen down in the kitchen. - - - - -L - -THE RÉUNION DES GASTRONOMES - - -Of clubs formed for the noble purpose of eating good dinners--clubs -that have no club-houses--there are very many. Sometimes there is a -literary tinge as an excuse for the dinners, sometimes a Bohemian, -sometimes a Masonic. But there are two dining clubs that deserve -especial recognition in a Gourmet's Guide, for they are clubs of -professional gourmets whose business concerns the organisation of good -feeding. One of these clubs, which held its annual dinner this year -in the new banqueting-room of the Piccadilly Hotel, is the Réunion -des Gastronomes. This association consists of proprietors, managing -directors and managers of hotels, restaurants and clubs. It holds -meetings to discuss and take action in all matters which concern the -prosperity and welfare of the gastronomic art, and once a year its -members and their guests banquet at one of the hotels or restaurants -which are represented by members of the Réunion. I have been fortunate -enough to be a guest of late years at many of these banquets, and look -back with pleasure to the feasts held at the Hyde Park Hotel, at the -Café Royal, at Prince's Restaurant, and other temples of gastronomy. - -Two lifts take banqueters down from the entrance hall of the Piccadilly -Hotel to the ante-chamber of the new banqueting-room somewhere down -in the bowels of the earth. The new rooms are below the grill-room, -and the Piccadilly must have almost as much depth below the street -level as it has height above it. The ante-room is classic in its -ornamentation, is white, or a very light grey, in colour, and its -decoration is elaborate. Here, between eight o'clock and half-past -eight, some three hundred Gastronomes and their guests assembled, and I -received a warm welcome from Mr Louis Mantell, of the National Liberal -Club, the hon. secretary of the society, and from Mr J. L. Kerpen, of -the Hyde Park Hotel, the president of the society, who was wearing -his jewel of office, hung by a gold chain round his neck. Colonel Sir -William Carington, the hon. president of the society, was to have -taken the chair at the dinner, but a bereavement prevented him from -being present, and the president of the year presided in his place. I -found pleasant familiar faces all about me. There were, amongst many -others, Mr Judah of the Café Royal, M. Soi of the Savoy, M. Kramer of -the Carlton, M. Jules from Jermyn Street, M. Gustave from the Lotus -Club, Mr George Harvey from the Connaught Rooms, M. Luigi of Romano's, -Mr Edwardes, M. Pruger from the Automobile Club, M. Boriani from the -Pall Mall, Messrs Harry and Dick Preston up from Brighton, and scores -of other pleasant acquaintances. At the half-hour punctually, a young -toast-master with a most majestic voice announced that dinner was -served, and the three hundred of us made our way next door into the new -great banqueting-room that was receiving its gastronomic baptism. - -It is a fine spacious room, though its construction is rather curious, -for, no doubt owing to exigency of space, the roof of a portion of -it is comparatively low, though the major part is quite lofty. It -must, however, have admirable ventilation, for at no period during -the evening did the room become uncomfortably warm or the atmosphere -uncomfortably smoky. The colouring of the walls is of stone with a -slight tinge of chrome. Round a portion of the hall runs a gallery with -a handsome railing of black and gold, and a double staircase at the end -of the room leads up to this gallery. The ceiling is ornamented with -fine paintings of gods and goddesses in the clouds; there are large -mirrors on one side of the room and, in spite of the different heights -of portions of the ceiling, the acoustic properties of the great -hall are excellent. An admirable band, the leader of which I think I -remember as a solo violinist on the stage, played us in to dinner and -made music during dinner, there being loud calls for M. Boriani, the -Caruso of the gastronomic world, when a selection from _La Bohème_ was -played. - -A long table ran the whole length of the room, and smaller ones -branched off from it like the prongs of a rake. The tables were -decorated with flowers of all shades of crimson and flame colour, -and the effect was quite beautiful. This was the menu of the dinner, -and the manager of the Piccadilly and the chef were both warmly -congratulated on a most admirable feast. Following the menu are the -wines which accompanied it: - - Caviar Frais d'Astrakan. - Blinis. - Tortue Claire. - Délices de Sole au Coulis d'Ecrevisses. - Selle de Chevreuil Grand Veneur. - Purée de Marrons. - Suprême de Volaille Princesse. - Neige au Champagne. - Reine des Prés en Cocotte. - Salade Trianon. - Rocher de Foie Gras à la Gelée au Porto. - Vasque de Pêches aux Perles de Lorraine. - Corbeille d'Excellence. - Croûte Piccadilly. - Fruits. - Moka. - - * * * * * - - Zeltinger Auslese, 1906. - Niersteiner Rollaender, 1911. - Volnay, 1903. - Ernest Irroy and Co., 1906. - Giessler and Co., 1906. - Bouget Fils, 1906. - Château Pontet Clanet, 1895. - La Grande Marque - (60 years old) - Specially selected for the Gastronomes' Dinner. - Liqueurs. - -The crawfish sauce with the filleted sole was of a most delicate taste; -the venison admirable; the _volaille princesse_ a most dainty dish of -fowl, and the quail, the "Queen of the Fields," admirably plump little -fellows. The _foie gras_, served in the shape of a circular fort, I did -not taste, for I had already dined very well. The _vasque de pêches_ -was one of those combinations of fruit and _confitures_ and ice that -are now so popular. - -With the coffee came the Royal toasts, and then the cigars, and as -the smoke curled up and the liqueurs were brought round the musical -programme which had been arranged commenced. A gentleman in Highland -costume assured us that the joys of lying in bed were greater than the -joys of getting up in the morning, and a young lady with a fascinating -dimple sang "You Made Me Love You," to the three hundred of us. - -"The Guests" was the next toast, to which Dr O'Neill responded, -thanking the professors of gastronomy for the patients who so often -came by means of _gourmandise_ into the hands of his profession. Then -after "Snooky Ookums," by another fascinating lady, who wore a large -red feather in her hair, there was a little ceremony which delighted -the Gastronomes and their guests very much. It was a presentation of a -handsome silver-gilt cup on behalf of the Réunion des Gastronomes to -their hon. secretary, Mr Louis Mantell, to whose cheery management of -the feasts so much of their success is due. The whole company united in -singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," so as to give Mr Mantell time -to collect his thoughts before acknowledging his Christmas box in the -shape of a cup. - -Some good stories from Mr Cooper Mitchell, a little more oratory, -though speeches at the Gastronomes' banquet are always kept within the -shortest space, and with more songs, a very merry evening ended. If -future banquets in the Piccadilly banqueting-hall are all nearly as -successful as the first one held there it will become a hall of good -will and good fellowship as well as a hall of good cheer. - - - - -LI - -THE LIGUE DES GOURMANDS - - -Saint Fortunat has deposed Saint Laurent from his position as Patron -Saint of Cooks. Saint Laurent was an impostor in the matter of -_gourmandise_ for he owed the proud position he occupied for so many -centuries as the Patron of the Chefs to the exceedingly uncomfortable -position in which he met his martyrdom. He was broiled on a gridiron. -Saint Fortunat not only thoroughly enjoyed good things to eat and -drink, but wrote excellent Latin verses in praise of gastronomy, some -of which M. Th. Gringoire, the secretary of the Ligue des Gourmands and -the editor of the _Carnet d'Epicure_, a clever Parisian journalist who -has settled in London, has translated into flowing French verses. Saint -Fortunat was the father-confessor to the Queen-Saint Radegonde and to -Saint Agnes, and these two ladies, the first of the _cordons-bleus_, -prepared _ragoûts_ and _friandises_ for the holy man, who thanked them -in poetry. He died in the odour of sanctity as Bishop of Poitiers. - -The Ligue des Gourmands, which is the association of the great French -chefs in London, and whose president is Maître Escoffier, the eminent -chef of the Carlton, celebrates the feast day of the Saint, in -December, by a banquet in his honour. The dinner in 1913 was the second -of the St Fortunat banquets and the fourteenth feast held by the Ligue. - -The Ligue has branches pretty well all over the world wherever there -are French cooks. If London, under the presidency of M. Escoffier, -takes the lead with sixty members, Paris comes a good second with -forty-three members, and Marseilles, New York and Montreal tie for -third place, with twelve members each. Brussels has a group of six -members, and there is a forlorn hope of five devoted French chefs in -the heart of the enemy at Berlin. Delhi and Dakar, Constantinople and -Ajaccio, Bombay and Gumpoldskirschen, Lowestoft and Lahore, Shanghai -and Syracuse, Yokohama and Zurich, and a hundred other towns are -advance posts of the Ligue, and wherever there is a group of the -leaguers they and their guests eat the St Fortunat dinner, the menu of -which is composed by M. Escoffier, and the _recettes_ of the especial -dishes in which are sent in advance to the members before the Saint's -day. In 1913 the most important dinner of the Ligue next to that held -at Gatti's was the one at Paris, where the leaguers dined together at -Paillard's and sent congratulations to their brethren in London. - -M. Jean Richepin, the great French poet, is bracketed with M. Escoffier -in the presidency of the Ligue, and many of the dishes that M. -Escoffier has invented for the feasts of the Gourmands are named after -celebrities in art and letters. The _fraises Sarah Bernhardt_, which -was the surprise dish of the first dinner of the Ligue, has become a -household word in all the restaurants of all the nations. M. Escoffier -is no believer in keeping his inventions as _secrets de la maison_, -and his _recettes_ for the dinners of the Ligue are always published -both in French and English, in the _Carnet d'Epicure_, which is the -mouthpiece of the Ligue. - -In this open-handedness and open-mindedness, M. Escoffier is very -wise. I always assure ladies who ask me to obtain for them recipes of -various dishes, and remind great chefs when I beg _recettes_ from -them, that it is not so much the ingredients of a dish as the hand of -the cook that makes a masterpiece. No painstaking amateur, following -exactly the directions given by a master of the art, ever reproduces a -_chef-d'Å“uvre_, any more than an amateur painter, copying the work of -some great master of the brush is able to obtain that master's effects. - -The dish that M. Escoffier had invented for the Dîner St Fortunat in -1913 was the _cochon de lait St Fortunat_, with _pommes Aigrelettes_ -and _sauce groseille au Raifort_. - -We, the hosts and the guests, began to assemble at eight o'clock in the -ante-room half-way up the great staircase on the King William Street -side of the Adelaide Gallery. The great cooks are not so selfish as -many other banqueters are, for they welcome ladies to their feasts, -and very pretty indeed are most of the chefs' wives and daughters, -and cousins and aunts, who grace these feasts. No one, unless he knew -who the members of the Ligue are, would tell by seeing them as they -gathered for their banquet what their profession is. M. Escoffier, -the president, with thoughtful eyes and gentle expression, looks, as -I have, I know, before said, like an ambassador or some great painter -or sculptor. M. Cedard, the King's chef, who is usually at these -feasts, but who was absent from this one, looks like an attaché of an -embassy; M. Malley, of the Ritz, has the appearance and the aplomb of -an officer of Chasseurs à cheval, and so on through the whole list. -Some of them, of course, are the plump and rosy gentlemen that artists -love to draw presiding over pots and pans, but great cooks are not all -run into one mould, either in figure or in intellect. And the guests of -the Liguers vary in type, as the Liguers themselves do. I shook hands -on Saturday night with distinguished soldiers and their wives, with -_bon-vivants_, with proprietors of restaurants, with representatives of -the great champagne firms of Rheims, with journalists and authors who -are epicures, with doctors who do not practise themselves in the matter -of diet all that they preach to their patients. - -The banqueting-room at the Adelaide Gallery holds comfortably one -hundred and fifty diners, and we must have been quite that number, for -more gourmets wished to make trial of the sucking-pig of the Saint than -it was possible to find room for, and though as many tables as possible -had been put into the space M. Gringoire had to refuse tickets to -would-be diners who had postponed the request until the eleventh hour. - -Soon after half-past eight, which is the dinner-hour of the Ligue--for -the great chefs like to see the dinners from their kitchens well under -way before they change from their professional white clothing into -dress clothes--we streamed up the stairs from the ante-room into the -banqueting hall--a fine room, with a musicians' gallery occupied for -the occasion by an Hungarian orchestra in hussar uniform, and with, -for this especial occasion, the French and the English flags draped -together at each end of the room. A long table ran the full length of -the room, and from it jutted out smaller tables, each presided over by -an officer of the Ligue. - -When we were seated I could see some faces of well-known chefs whom I -had missed in the press downstairs. There were there, besides the names -I have already mentioned, M. Aubin, of the Russell Hotel; M. Espezel, -of the Union Club; M. Briais, of the Midland Hotel; M. Grunenfelder, -of the Grand Hotel; M. Vicario, of the Carlton; M. Müller, of the Hyde -Park Hotel; M. Görog, who was one of the four founders of the Ligue; M. -Génie, of Prince's Restaurant; M. Ferrario, of Romano's; M. Vinet, who -was for many years chef at "The Rag"; Mr Coumeig, chef to the Duchess -of Marlborough; and M. Saulnier, _sous-chef_ of the Piccadilly, a -rising star. If all these names are not French names, those amongst the -chefs of the Ligue who were not born in France have, by adopting the -cult of the Haute Cuisine Française, become naturalised Frenchmen in -gastronomy. - -There are various little ceremonies observed at the dinners of the -Gourmands, one of them being that at the commencement of dinner a -member of the Ligue rises and reminds his fellow-members that only -French wine should be drunk at these banquets. Another little ceremony -is that each dish in turn is announced by the toast-master--of course, -for this occasion a Frenchman--who rolls his "r's" with fine resonance -as in a thunderous voice he tells us what we are going to eat. - -This was the menu with Escoffier's signature appended to it: - - Crêpes au Caviar frais. - Huîtres pimentées. - Croûte au Pot à l'Ancienne. - Turban de Filets de Sole au gratin. - Chapon fin à la Toulousaine. - Cochon de Lait Saint-Fortunat. - Pommes Aigrelettes. - Sauce Groseille au Raifort. - Bécassines Rosées. - Salade Lorette. - Pâté de foie gras. - Biscuit glacé Caprice. - Mignardises. - -The caviar and the little pancakes are always delightful, and the -_croûte au pot à l'Ancienne_, in its delicate plainness, always makes -an excellent beginning to a dinner. The _gratin_ with the sole made -it a rather drier dish than fish dishes usually are, and I know that -this was the criticism passed on it by the president of the Ligue, but -it was very excellent to the taste. The _chapon_, with its rich sauce, -was admirably cooked, and served in dishes with at either end heads of -fowls admirably reproduced by the sculptors in the kitchen, and then -to a triumphal march from the band a little sucking-pig, its crackling -golden from the fire, was brought in processionally and shown to the -chairman of the feast and the guests in general before it was carried -out to be carved. And very admirable the flesh of this piglet and his -companions was when brought to table, with round each dish apples in -their skins, the top of each apple being cut off to serve as a little -lid. A sharp-tasting sauce, in which the flavours of red currant and -horse radish mingled, formed an agreeable bitter-sweet. What the -various ingredients were that formed the admirable stuffing of the -little pigs I do not exactly know, but there were barley and chestnuts -amongst them, but, like all good stuffing, one flavour after another -chased each other over the palate. M. Escoffier's own criticism on his -own creation was that a sucking-pig is more suited for a _petit comité_ -than for a large gathering; but, though I quite agreed with him that -the right party in numbers to eat a sucking-pig is just that number -that one sucking-pig will satisfy, I think it very hard luck if greater -numbers were to be prevented by this very fine distinction between a -dish for a dinner-table and a dish for a banqueting-table from eating -a very great delicacy. The snipe and salad, the _pâté de foie gras_, -served on a great bed of crust, and an admirable ice, finished the -banquet. Then came the after-dinner ceremonies and songs, which at -these feasts are varied and lively. The toast of "The King" and "The -President," with the two National Anthems, was followed by a little -discourse in honour of the Patron Saint by the chairman, who coupled -the name of the saintly patron of gastronomy with those of his two -_continuateurs_, the great poet and the great chef, and to this speech -M. Escoffier replied with great modesty. The toast of "The Ladies" next -brought all the male guests to their feet, and then followed the hymn -to St Fortunat, sung by a gentleman from the musicians' gallery, with -orchestral accompaniment, the guests taking up the refrain: - - "Saint Fortunat, honneur à toi, - O notre chef! O notre roi! - Saint Fortunat!" - -If the leaguers were a little slow in picking up the air and paid very -little attention to the time, the heartiness with which they chorused -the Saint's name made amends for any other shortcomings. "The Ligue," -"The Visitors," "The Press"--for whom Mr John Lane, of _The Standard_, -returned thanks--and "The Cuisine and Wines of France" were toasted -by various orators, some of whom spoke in English, some in French. -And then M. T. Fourie, the chef of the Adelaide Gallery, bearded, and -blushing in his white uniform of the kitchen, was called up to the high -table that the president of the Ligue and the chairman of the dinner -might shake him by the hand and congratulate him on the admirable feast -which he had prepared. This is a very pretty little ceremony always -observed at these feasts, and a very right one, for at most banquets -the chef who has been the cause of so much pleasure to the guests -is not asked to come in person to receive the thanks which are so -legitimately due to him. - -After this ceremony the concert, an Anglo-French one, commenced. -Mademoiselle Suzanne Ollier, Miss Marianne Green and Miss Winifred -Green, of the Gaiety, Mademoiselle Bianca Briana, and Miss Mabel -Martin all sang charmingly, and were presented with bouquets on behalf -of the Ligue, and M. Siffre, the president of the Club Gaulois, sang -"Margot" quite excellently, without an accompaniment. He was presented -with a cabbage stuck on a fork, for the leaguers dearly love their -little jokes at their banquets. At last the band played the _Père la -Victoire_ march and the National Anthem, and the dinner came to an end. - -In gratitude to M. Escoffier, the president, to M. Th. Gringoire, the -secretary, and to all the members of the Ligue for being permitted -in their company to taste for the first time the sucking-pig of St -Fortunat--a dish that will go the round of the globe--let me quote a -few words appropriate to the occasion from Charles Lamb's prose Hymn of -Praise in honour of roast pig: - -"Pig--let me speak his praise--is no less provocative of the appetite -than he is satisfactory to the criticalness of the censorious palate. -The strong man may batten on him, and the weakling refuseth not his -mild juices." - - - - -LII - -THE CAVOUR RESTAURANT - -FOR AULD LANG SYNE - - -I head this chapter "For Auld Lang Syne," for the future of the Cavour -Restaurant has been, since the death of Philippe, who brought the -restaurant into celebrity, uncertain. The Cavour has been put up of -late years once to public auction and bought in, and there have been -rumours without number that this, that and the other actor-manager was -going to purchase the building. - -In spite of all these rumours, the Cavour still continues in the hands -of Mrs Dale, who was manageress under Philippe in old days, and to whom -he left the property, just as it used to be in Philippe's time, which -is to say that it is one of the best bourgeois French restaurants to be -found in London. - -Every Londoner knows the white-faced restaurant almost next door to the -Alhambra in Leicester Square. It is one of the few restaurants that -still retains a bar, though it is nowadays called a buffet, and the -three-and-six dinner which is served in the restaurant is still as it -used to be, a most excellent meal, unstinted, well cooked, and all its -material of excellent quality. - -The bar of the buffet has always been a favourite resort of actors, and -it was there that I first heard Arthur Roberts tell the story of "The -Old Iron Pot," a tale the success of which led to the invention of the -game of "Spoof," that masterly feat of bamboozling the guileless which -gave amusement in the eighties to all Bohemia and added a new word to -the English language. The Old Iron Pot figured largely in a tale which -Arthur Roberts never wearied of telling to "Long Jack" Jarvis, another -actor. No one ever heard the beginning of the tale, for it was always -well in progress when the victim of the harmless pleasantry came on -the scene. Arthur was so intent on the story, the other conspirator -so immensely interested, that the new-comer was at once interested -also, dispensed with all greetings, and tried vainly to understand -all the ramifications of the story into which new characters seemed -constantly to come, and which all revolved round an old iron pot. -Jack Jarvis apparently thoroughly understood the story, occasionally -asked questions, and now and then corrected Arthur Roberts as to the -relationship of the various characters, and the other listener very -soon found himself pretending that he too comprehended all the twists -and turns. - -Somehow or another, in those days the spirit of harmless practical -joking seemed to be in the atmosphere of the Cavour bar. Perhaps it -was, because in the days when Leicester Square was a waste ground with -the damaged equestrian statue of George the Third in its midst some -practical jokers sallied out one night from the little restaurant which -occupied the site of the bar, to play the best practical joke of the -last century. They painted the statue's horse with red spots, put a -fool's cap on the statue's head, and a long birch broom in the hand -which should have held a field-marshal's baton. - -Philippe was the one and only waiter in those days at the little -restaurant which was kept by a Frenchman and his wife. Next door, and -extending behind the restaurant, was a tin shanty, where judge and -jury entertainment was held and _poses plastiques_ were exhibited. It -was a disreputable place, for Brookes, who was its proprietor, and who -had been associated with "Baron" Nicholson at the Coal Hole, had not -the Baron's wit, though he had the same flow of doubtful oratory. - -When the old couple died, and Philippe succeeded to the business, he -soon bought up the tin shanty and the ground belonging to it, built -the Cavour as it now is, the bar occupying the site of the original -restaurant, and made a little garden on the space now occupied by a -cinema show. - -Of this little garden Philippe was very proud. He liked to be able to -go out of his restaurant and pick a bunch of mignonette to give to any -lady, and he grew some vegetables and oranges there as well as flowers. -He had an eye also to the main chance, for when anyone pointed out to -him that he was wasting a valuable site by making a garden of it, he -nodded his head, and replied: "The earth he grow more valuable every -day." - -Philippe, short, grey-haired, with a little close-clipped moustache, -always wearing a turned-down collar and a black tie, had a very -distinct personality of his own. He was a first-class man of business, -was up every morning at five o'clock to go the rounds of the market, -riding in one four-wheeled cab, with another one following behind, into -which he put his purchases and brought them home with him. He had no -love for teetotalers, and he budgeted for the very liberal dinner of -the house on the understanding that his customers should drink wine -therewith. When he found that some of the guests were drinking only -water, he used at once to send a waiter to them or to talk to them -himself, and to tell them that he would charge them sixpence extra. -After a time he found it entailed less loss of temper to notify this on -the bill of fare, and the Cavour menu still bears the legend: "No beers -served with this dinner. Dinner without wine, sixpence extra." - -The restaurant of the Cavour is a large white room, with a smaller -room, also white, running back from it. Access to the big room is -obtained from Leicester Square by a narrow corridor decorated with -allegorical figures of the various months of the year--awful daubs, -whoever it was who painted them. The big room is lighted from above -by a sky-light, and there are large globes of electric light in the -ceiling. There are many large mirrors let into the walls, and down -each side of the room run brass rails for hats and coats. There is -oilcloth on the floor, with strips of carpet over it in the gangways. -The waiters go to a bar near the entrance door for the wine and other -drinkables, which are served out there by Mrs Dale, or by her deputy. -Some of the waiters, mostly French, were in the restaurant for many -years under Philippe, but there is a new manager now with a curled-up -black moustache. - -If any of the habitués wish to entertain guests to an elaborate -dinner at the Cavour, the custom is to pay five shillings instead of -three-and-six, and certain extra dishes are put into the dinner of the -day for this price. The ordinary dinner, however, is so good that these -additions are hardly needed. This is the menu of a three-and-six dinner -I ate at the Cavour this winter. It is served from five to nine, so as -to meet the convenience of all the patrons of the restaurant, from the -actor who makes a hurried meal before going to the theatre, to the City -man who comes in very late after a day of hard work and goes home after -his dinner: - - Hors d'Å“uvre variés. - - _Soup._ - Consommé de Volaille à la Royal. - Crème à l'Indienne. - - _Fish._ - Boiled Turbot au Sauterne. - Fried Fillet of Plaice. - Grilled Herring. - - _Entrée._ - Filet Mignon aux Haricots panachés. - Calf's Head à la Reine. - - _Roast._ - Chicken. - Quails on Toast - - Salad. Cheese. Dessert. - -There was a fine selection of _hors d'Å“uvre_ to choose from, and -plenty of each, not the one sardine looking lonely in a little dish, -the two radishes and the potato salad that so often are the sole -representatives of the first course at cheap dining-places. I was given -a big plateful of good thick mulligatawny soup, and when I had eaten -the very liberal helping of boiled turbot, excellently firm, I felt -that I had finished quite a good dinner. However, I summoned up enough -appetite to dispose of the little _vol au vent_ put before me, the -pastry of which was noticeably excellent, and then attacked a quail, -which was quite a good bird, even if it had not those layers of fat -which distinguish a "special" quail on a club dinner list from the -ordinary one. A scoop from an excellent Stilton cheese ended my repast. - -It may be selfish to hope that Mrs Dale may not sell her property to -be converted into a theatre, but the Cavour dinner is such a good meal -of its kind that I should be sorry if it disappeared from the map of -London That Dines. - - - - -LIII - -VERREY'S - - -If I compare Verrey's in Regent Street to Borchardt's in the -Französischerstrasse of Berlin, I am paying Verrey's a high compliment, -for Borchardt's is the classic restaurant of the German capital, run on -good French lines by a German proprietor. - -Mr George Krehl the First, founder of Verrey's as a restaurant, was -born near Stuttgart, and came over from Germany in 1850; and the recent -manager of the restaurant, Mr Stadelmaier, is also German born, for -he, like Mr Krehl, came from near Stuttgart, and he, before he went to -Egypt, to Paris, to Düsseldorf and elsewhere, to become a cosmopolitan, -served his apprenticeship in gastronomy under old Mr George Krehl at -Verrey's. - -But French--French of the second empire--Verrey's is, particularly -at dinner-time. At lunch-time the restaurant is always quite full of -ladies who shop in Regent Street, and of their escorts, and the rooms -on the first floor are also given over to lunchers--and even then, -sometimes, would-be customers have to wait a little while to obtain -tables. Therefore the luncheon menu is adapted to the wants of ladies -who are probably in a hurry, for though there is a very full list at -lunch-time of delicacies that can be ordered, there are also several -entrées and several joints always ready. - -It is, however, at dinner-time that Verrey's enjoys the peaceful, -unhurrying atmosphere that always should surround a classic restaurant, -and which is so thoroughly in keeping with the old bow-windows with -small panes of the café, which look out on to Regent Street. A little -corridor leads from the street to a tiny waiting-room--a comparatively -recent addition, for it used to be the old still-room, a room which -is so small that the round table of ormolu with a china plaque in its -centre, on which is a portrait of Louis XV., and smaller oval plaques -all about it, almost fills all the available space. - -The restaurant, lighted from above, used in old Mr Krehl's days -to be known as the Cameo Room, for on the centre of each of its -panels was a medallion in the style of Wedgwood. I rather wish that -this old decoration had been retained, but I remember the pride -with which Mr George Krehl the Second showed me the new Oriental -decorations--decorations which still remain--the silvered roof with -mirrors reflecting it, the electric lights on the cornice with great -shells to act as reflectors, an electric clock shaped like a star, -and the panels of old gold Oriental silk. Time has mellowed the -gorgeousness of this Eastern setting, which in its first bloom I -thought a little too _voyant_, and the dark carpet and the dark wood -and upholstery of the chairs, all keep the scheme of colouring a -restful one. The napery at Verrey's is the good thick napery of the -classic restaurant. Its glass is thin; its silver is heavy--all trifles -which are important as adding to the delight of a good dinner. The -lights at the tables are wax candles, with pink shades, in old silver -candlesticks, and there is a Japanese simplicity in the two great -bunches of flowers in glass vases, one of which is on a dark wooden -stand in the centre of the room, and the other on the sideboard. There -are flowers also, in glasses, on all the tables. - -It adds to the pleasure of dining at Verrey's to be known and to be -recognised by the old servants who have been in the restaurant as long -as I can remember it. There is an old head waiter, a fine specimen of -a Briton--portly, with little side whiskers, dignified and unhurrying, -who might have stood as a model for that Robert whose wit and wisdom -used to enliven the pages of _Punch_, who always remembers my name and -all my gastronomic history. And the head waiter in the café, who now -has a full head of grey hair, I remember when he first came to Verrey's -a youth with the blackest of black hair. Mr Stadelmaier, though he -looks on the right side of forty, remembers how young Mr George Krehl, -in the days of his father's rule, one day took me out into the yard -at the back of the house to show me his dogs and the kitchen which -looks out on to this open space, and the last time I dined at Verrey's -brought me in from the yard, to look at a delightful little Samoyede -puppy, looking like one of the woolly toy dogs in the shops, for he -too, like Mr George Krehl the younger, is a breeder of prize dogs, and -has established a club for the owners of sleigh dogs. - -Mr Stadelmaier has now left Verrey's and is manager of Kettner's. - -The patrons of Verrey's at dinner-time are some of them grey-headed, -for I am sure that all its old patrons always return to their first -love; but there are young couples as well, and the restaurant, though -it is quiet, is by no means dull. It has this distinction, rare amongst -modern restaurants, that it has never surrendered to the modern craze -for music during meals, and it is possible to talk to a neighbour at -the dinner-table without raising one's voice to a shout. I fancy that -Mr Albert Krehl, the survivor of the two sons of old Mr George Krehl, -would as soon think of introducing gipsy music into the restaurant as -they would of engaging Tango dancers to do "the Scissors" in and out of -the tables. - -Verrey's has so far acknowledged the tendencies of to-day towards a -_table d'hôte_ dinner that it offers its patrons, if they wish it, a -dinner at seven-and-six. But it is true to its old traditions in that -although it offers this dinner, no dish of the dinner is cooked until -the order has been given, and it is practically a dinner _à la carte_ -selected for the diner at a settled price. This is the menu of one of -these dinners: - - Hors d'Å“uvre Variés. - Consommé Duchesse. - Crème de Volaille. - Suprême de Sole Regina. - Filet de BÅ“uf Jussieuse. - Pommes Château. - Faisan rôti. - Salade d'Endive. - Celeri braisé au jus. - Parfait de Vanille. - Friandises. - Croûte Baron. - -But to eat a dinner ordered by somebody else, because I am too lazy to -order it myself, is to me just as unsporting as it is to land a fish -that somebody else has hooked, so that when I dine at Verrey's I pay M. -Schellenberg, the _chef de cuisine_, who is an Alsatian, the compliment -of giving careful consideration as to which of his _plats_ I shall -order, and I generally like to include in my dinner some of Verrey's -specialities, of which there are quite a number. The last time I dined -there I was given an excellent _bortsch_ soup, one-and-three--it is the -custom at Verrey's to charge for a half-portion, which is ample for one -person, a little more than half what is charged for a whole portion, -which suffices for two; _sole à la Verrey_, a filleted sole with an -admirable sauce, which is one of the secrets of the house, but in which -the taste of ketchup is discernible, two shillings; and a _soufflé -Palmyre_, two shillings. This with a pint of good claret was a dinner -not to be despised. - -I asked Mr Stadelmaier whether the Queen's Hall and the Palladium, -two neighbouring places of music and entertainment, had brought the -restaurant many customers. The concerts at the Queen's Hall, he told -me, had done so, and he said that people going to the Palladium, when -it gave a one-house variety entertainment, used often to dine at -Verrey's, but that its present "two houses a night" policy did not send -diners to the restaurant. - -There is an abundance of history behind Verrey's, and if a careful -record had been kept of the great dinners given in the rooms on the -first floor, such a record as the Café Anglais in Paris kept, it would -make very interesting reading. One of the merriest dinners probably -ever given in those upper rooms was the one at the time of the late -Victorian revival of road coaching, at which most of the guests were -well-known whips. Every man at this dinner was presented with a pink -waistcoat, and as after dinner most of the men went on either to -music halls or theatres, the appearance in the boxes of the young -bloods wearing pink waistcoats astonished the audiences, who thought -that a new fashion was being set. A quieter dinner, but an even more -distinguished one, was that at which King Edward, when he was Prince of -Wales, was present. This was its menu: - - Å’ufs à la Ravigote. - (Vodkhi.) - Bisque d'écrevisses. Consommé Okra. - Rougets à la Muscovite. - Selle de mouton de Galles. - Haricots panachés. Tomates au gratin. - Pommes soufflées. - Timbale Lucullus. - Fonds d'artichauts. Crème pistache. - Grouse. - Salad Rachel. - Biscuit glacé à la Verrey. - Soufflé de laitances. - Dessert. - -Many distinguished men have dined in the Cameo Room--Tennyson, the -Poet Laureate, was a great crony of Mr George Krehl the elder, and -he kept all kinds of mementoes of the poet. Mr Gladstone was another -frequenter of the Cameo Room, and he liked to talk to Mr Krehl of the -revolutionary days of '48 in Germany. - -The tragedy which is associated with the name of the house was the fate -of the beautiful Miss Fanny Verrey. Verrey, from whom the restaurant -takes its name, was a Swiss confectioner, who came over from Lausanne -in the second decade of the last century and established his shop -in Regent Street. To add to the attractions of his establishment he -brought over from Lausanne his pretty young daughter, who was engaged -to a Swiss pastor. She was young and lively and beautiful; she chatted -with her father's customers, and learnt English by talking with them; -the bucks of those days made her a toast; and Lord Petersham wrote some -verses in honour of "The Pretty Confectioner," in which he dubbed her -"Wild Switzerland's Queen," and ended one of the verses with these -lines: - - "Thy mind--brightest gem--is the Temple of Love; - But bright as thou'rt fair--thou'rt pure as a dove"; - -which shows that his lordship, though his sentiments were praiseworthy, -was not a great poet. The fame of Miss Verrey's beauty drew crowds -not only into the shop, but outside it, and spiteful and jealous -rivals spread rumours concerning Miss Verrey's lightness of behaviour, -which were entirely untrue. The crowds outside the shop became such -a nuisance that the authorities interfered in the matter. Mr Verrey -removed his daughter from the shop, and she kept to her room to avoid -public notice. The turmoil, the unmerited scandal, and the lampoons -in the papers so affected the girl's health that she pined away and -died. But even then her memory was not respected, and as a good example -of the want of taste of the time--the year was 1828--this riddle was -published in one of the papers: "Why was Miss Verrey's death like a -window front?" _Answer:_ "Because it is a paneful case." - -At one period Verrey's was known as the Café François; but I can find -no particulars concerning it under this title. I also think that Verrey -must at some time or another have occupied another shop in Regent -Street, for some of his advertisements, notably one of Howqua's teas, -"as patronised by their Majesties," were issued from 218 Regent Street, -whereas Verrey's to-day occupies 229 Regent Street. - - - - -LIV - -THE CATHAY RESTAURANT - -[Illustration] - - -In full view of all who pass to and fro through Piccadilly Circus, -there shines on one of the tall houses which encircle it the -announcement that the upper part of the building is occupied by the -Cathay Restaurant, which modestly on its menu describes itself as a -"pioneer, first-class, Chinese restaurant." - -As I take into my descriptive net every manner of eating-house, so -long as the food and drink to be obtained there is good of its kind, I -experimented in the first days of this year of grace, at lunch-time, -on the Cathay Restaurant, and found that it has selected in its very -long _carte du jour_ those Chinese dishes which are palatable to the -European, as well as to the Chinese taste. - -Chinese food is no novelty to me, for during the five years that I was -quartered in the Far East--at Penang, Singapore and Hong-Kong--I was -frequently one of the guests at feasts given by Chinese merchants, and -learned by experience which were the dishes that one could safely eat -and which were the Chinese delicacies that it was wise to drop under -the table. A Chinaman, when he wishes to be very polite at table, takes -up with his chop-sticks some especially dainty morsel from his own -plate and pops it into the mouth of his European neighbour at table. A -kindly young Chinaman once thus put into my mouth a slip of cold pig's -liver wrapped round a prune, and I do not think that I ever tasted any -nastier combination. - -Two Chinese banquets at which I was a guest remain very clearly marked -in my memory. One was given by a rich Chinaman at Penang, on the -occasion of the marriage of his son, to all the European officials and -the officers of the garrison and the leading British merchants. It -was a feast at which the dishes were alternately Chinese and European -ones, and by each man's and by each lady's dish, for the ladies were -also invited, were chop-sticks, and knives and forks and spoons. One -Chinese dish I remember at this feast as being quite excellent--a salad -of vegetables and of small fish of all kinds. All the guests ate quite -heartily both of the European dishes and the Chinese dishes, but that -night nearly all the Europeans who had been to the banquet believed -that they had suddenly been stricken with Asiatic cholera. I was one of -the happy exceptions, and I suppose that I must have skipped whatever -was the dish that worked such havoc amongst my fellow-guests. - -Messengers from half the bungalows in the leafy lanes of Penang were -sent off post-haste to the civil surgeon, begging him to come at once -to the bedside of unhappy sufferers, and each messenger as he arrived -at the civil surgeon's house received the news that the doctor believed -himself to be in the throes of the same dread Asiatic disease, and did -not think that he would survive the dawn. Nobody, however, did die, -and two or three days later all the aristocracy of Penang, looking -even paler than Europeans always are in that land of lily-white -complexions, and very shaky about the knees, gathered together at a -cricket match and discussed the matter. Somebody had already gone to -the Chinese merchant and had told him of the havoc that his banquet had -made. He was profoundly grieved, pointed out that none of his Chinese -guests had suffered the slightest inconvenience, and laid the blame -on the European dishes, which he had procured as a compliment to his -white guests, saying that he "always mistrusted the cookery of the -barbarians." - -The other unforgettable feast was given by the head Shroff, the native -cashier, of one of the banks in Hong-Kong. I had been talking at the -house of one of the bankers as to my experiences of Chinese dishes, -and had rather decried the cookery of the Flowery Land. I had (I -was afterwards told) been especially sarcastic as to the Chinaman's -partiality for puppy-dog, and more or less ranked all Chinese dishes -with the detestable rat soup which a Chinaman sold in the early -mornings just outside the barrack gates to the coolies on their way to -their work. The orderly officer going to inspect rations always had to -pass the unsavoury cauldron from which the soup was ladled out, and, -in the hot weather, the only thing to do was to put a handkerchief to -one's nose and run past it. - -Some little time after these conversational flourishes of mine the -banker asked me if I would like to eat a real, well-cooked Chinese -dinner, for the head Shroff of his bank had asked him to honour him -with his company at his villa in Kowlun--which is where the "Mr Wu's" -come from--and had told him that he would be delighted if he would -bring some of his European friends. The dinner, which consisted chiefly -of fish, was an excellent one, the all-pervading taste of soy not being -too persistent, and I was especially delighted with a white stew of -what my host said was Cantonese rabbit, which I thought quite the -most tender and the fattest rabbit I had ever tasted. When the dinner -was over, the banker told me that the "Cantonese rabbit" to which I -had given such unlimited praise was really a Cantonese edible puppy, -fattened on milk and rice. After that incident I found that whenever -I dined out in Hong-Kong, conversation always seemed to turn on to -Cantonese puppies, and I was gently chaffed for at least six months as -to my sudden conversion to the delights of baby chow as a _pièce de -résistance_. - -I found, however, neither puppy-dog nor rat on the _carte du jour_ of -the Cathay Restaurant. - -The restaurant is on the first floor above a bank. A commissionaire -stands at the outer portals, and there is a lift for the benefit of -anyone who is too lazy to walk up a single flight of stairs. The -restaurant itself is hardly sufficiently Oriental in appearance to -be a Cockney's beau ideal of a Chinese restaurant. It is just what a -progressive restaurant for Chinamen in Peking would be, for though -the food is Chinese food, cooked by a Chinese cook, the appearance of -the restaurant is almost European, an exaggerated copy of a French -restaurant, with here and there Chinese touches which redeem the place -from tawdriness. There is on the wall a paper with a pattern of gold -fleurs-de-lis, the carpet is crimson, the chairs and tables are of -European make, the waiters are of European nationalities and wear dress -clothes. But a strip of good Chinese embroidery is hung along that side -of the restaurant where the serving-room is behind a glassed screen; -there are porcelain vases on the two mantelshelves; a great Chinese -ornament of carved wood, gold and crimson and black, hangs by a ribbon -just inside one of the windows; the big curtains to the windows are -of old gold Chinese silk, and the little curtains, also of Oriental -silk, are lilac in tint. The manager of the restaurant is a Chinaman -with short-cut hair, and he wears the same neat, dark garments that all -European managers assume. I sat down at one of the tables, asked the -young Italian who came to wait on me to show me a _carte du jour_ and -the menu of the set lunch, if there was one, and then looked round at -the people who were taking their meal there. - -The Chinese in London certainly patronise their own restaurant, for -quite half the people who were eating luncheon were Celestials. There -were two young Chinese boys in the charge of a grey-haired English -lady. There were several young Chinamen whom I mentally put down as -students. An older Chinese gentleman had brought his wife out to lunch; -and before I left, a party of Chinese gentlemen came in, whom, from the -respect shown to them by the manager, I judged to be secretaries of the -Chinese Embassy--the Chinese Ambassador, whom I know by sight, was not -amongst them. - -Nowadays when Chinese gentlemen and ladies wear European clothes, and -the men have their hair short, one has to look at their faces to detect -the difference between them and Europeans. - -There were some Londoners lunching in the restaurant. A party of -ladies in furs were enjoying the novelty of the Chinese dishes; two -youngsters, whom I took to be medical students, were ordering various -dishes from the _carte du jour_, and were cross-examining the waiter -keenly as to the cooking arrangements and how the delicacies were -imported from China; and two schoolgirls, one of the flapper age and -one younger, came into the restaurant giggling and looking round as -though they expected a pantomime Chinaman to spring up before them or -to jump round a corner. - -The menu of the day at the Cathay is on a large folding mauve card, -and the dishes are both in Chinese characters and in English letters -with an explanation in English below each name. The first division is -for chop sueys and noodles. A chop suey is to the Chinese what Irish -stew is to the English and a _ragoût_ is to the French. Pork is its -foundation, and chicken livers and chicken gizzards, celery, mushrooms, -peas, onion, garlic, peppers, oil and salt all go into it. Noodle is -any paste dish, and macaroni or vermicelli would be described on a -Chinese menu as a noodle. - -Of the dishes on the card, Loo min is noodle in Pekinese style. Lat -chew chop suey is chop suey with green chutney. Chop suey min is chop -suey with noodle, and so on. There is a little list of dishes which -are ready, and a longer list of dishes which will take some minutes to -prepare, such as fried crab and Chinese omelet; fried rice, with meat, -mushroom, egg and vegetables; sliced jelly-fish with pickle; and soyed -pork. Some especial dishes are on the menu for which a day's notice -must be given, one of these being birds'-nests with minced chicken and -another shark's fin with sliced chicken, ham, bamboo shoots, etc. At -the end of the list comes the catalogue of teas, pastries and sweets, -pickled onions being included in this category. - -After looking down the _carte du jour_, I turned my attention to -the set luncheon, and first of all took up the card on which it was -written in Chinese. In case you may be able to read Chinese fluently I -reproduce this card on the next page. - -The first word on this only means menu. The first dish is a soup of -chicken, ham, bamboo shoots and mushrooms. The second dish is fried -chicken liver and vegetables, and the last dish is simply roast pork. - -I opted for this half-crown meal, and as a preliminary, the waiter -put a tiny cup of soy and a Chinese porcelain spoon by the side of the -European knives and forks and spoons which were already on the table. -A wine list was offered me, but I preferred, as I was going to eat -Chinese meats, to drink Chinese tea with them, and ordered a cup of -Loong Cheng. The plates used at the Chinese restaurant are, like the -cutlery, of European pattern, but the dishes in which the soups and the -meats are brought to table are Chinese ones of all kinds of shapes and -ornamented with Chinese paintings. My soup, with tiny strips of bamboo -in it and morsels of chicken flesh, tasted very much like the chicken -broth that one is given when one is ill and on a low diet. The fried -chicken and vegetables were quite good eating, and the taste of the -bamboo shoots in it was particularly pleasant to the palate. The roast -pork I shied at, and asked instead to be given a plate of chow chow, an -admirable sweet which I have known ever since boyhood, for one of my -uncles, who was Consul at Foo Chow, used to send home to all his small -nephews presents of this delicacy. The tea was excellent, and doing as -the Chinese do, I did not spoil its taste by adding either sugar or -milk to it. - -[Illustration] - -Altogether my luncheon at the Chinese Restaurant was quite a pleasant -experiment, and I can advise any gourmets who would like to test the -cookery of the Far East in comfortable surroundings to follow my lead. - - - - -LV - -THE WHITE HORSE CELLARS - - -A little glass canopy with a clock above it juts out into Piccadilly, -and a tall commissionaire stands at an entrance where some stairs -dive down, apparently into the bowels of the earth. Where the stairs -make their first plunge there is above them on the wall the device of -a white horse--a fine prancing animal, somewhat resembling the White -Horse of Kent. - -The stairs, with oak panelling on either side of them, give a twist -before they reach the bottom, where is the modern restaurant that -occupies the site of what were originally known as the New White Horse -Cellars, but which are now called the Old White Horse Cellars, probably -on the _lucus a non lucendo_ principle, for they have been modernised -out of all recognition since the days when Charles Dickens recorded the -departure of Mr Pickwick from these Cellars on his coach journey down -to Bath. - -The Old White Horse Cellars were originally on the Green Park side of -Piccadilly, and their number was 156, as some way-bills to be seen at -the present White Horse Cellars testify. This ground is now occupied -by the Ritz Hotel. Strype mentions the original cellar as being in -existence in 1720. - -On the staircase walls of the New White Horse Cellars is a little -collection of prints and way-bills, caricatures, etchings, old bills of -Hatchett's Hotel, posters and advertisements from _The Times_ and other -papers of the hours at which the coaches for the west started. In this -curious little gallery of odds and ends are some documents relating -to the old cellar on the other side of the road. But the White Horse -Cellars were under Hatchett's in the great coaching days, from the year -of the battle of Waterloo to 1840. It was from Hatchett's that Jerry, -in Pierce Egan's book, took his departure when going back to Hawthorn -Hall, and said farewell to Tom and Logic, and it was in the travellers' -room of the White Horse Cellars, a title that was used alternatively -with "Hatchett's," that Mr Pickwick and his friends sheltered from the -rain, waiting for the Bath coach. - -Hatchett's in Dickens's time was not the comfortable house that I -knew in the eighties, when the revival of stage-coaching was at its -height. Indeed, there could not be a picture of greater discomfort than -Dickens sketched in a few words when he wrote: "The travellers' room -at 'The White Horse Cellar' is, of course, uncomfortable; it would be -no travellers' room if it were not. It is the right-hand parlour, into -which an aspiring kitchen fireplace appears to have walked, accompanied -by a rebellious poker, tongs, and shovel. It is divided into boxes for -the solitary confinement of travellers, and is furnished with a clock, -a looking-glass, and a live waiter, which latter article is kept in -a small kennel for washing glasses, in a corner of the apartment." -Dickens's word picture of the scene at the start of the coach at -half-past seven on a damp, muggy and drizzly day is a fine pen-and-ink -sketch, and Cruikshank, in one of his caricatures, "The Piccadilly -Nuisance," shows very much the scene as Dickens described it, with the -orange-women and the sellers of all kinds of useless trifles on the -kerb; the coaches jostling each other, passengers falling off from -them, and the pavement an absolute hustle of humanity. - -Cruikshank's various drawings and caricatures preserve the appearance -of Hatchett's of the old days in the memory better than any word -pictures could do. The bow-windows of the old hotel with many panes -of glass in them; the stiff pillared portico, with on it the name -"Hatchett's," and a little lamp before it, and above it the board with -the inscription, "The New White Horse Cellar. Coaches and waggons to -all parts of the kingdom." Above this board again was a painting of an -old white horse. I fancy that the title of the Cellars, when they were -on the other side of the way, must have been taken from some celebrated -old horse--though Williams, who was the first landlord of the original -cellars, is said to have given them their name as a compliment to the -House of Hanover, and that it was the white horse, not the cellar, that -was old. - -There are various other legends with respect to the horse that gave -Hatchett's its title, one of them being that Abraham Hatchett, a -proprietor of the tavern, had an old white horse with a turn of speed -which had won him many a wager against more showy animals. - -The entrance to the Cellars below Hatchett's, in the old days, was down -some very steep stairs just in front of one of the bow-windows, and an -oval notice, hanging from a little arch of iron, directed people down -into the depths to the booking-office. - -My reminiscences of Hatchett's are of the later revivals of road -coaches; the days of old "Jim" Selby, the famous coachman who, though -everybody called him "old," died a comparatively young man. His grey -hair and his jolly, fat, rosy face gave him an appearance of being -older than he really was. Those were the days when the late Lord -Londesborough and Captain Hargreaves, Mr Walter Shoolbred, Captain -Beckett, Baron Oppenheim and Mr Edwin Fownes were well-known whips, -and when "Hughie" Drummond, and the host of other good fellows and -lively customers in whose veins the red blood flowed in a lively -current, who drank old port and despised early hours, were the men -about town. "Hughie" Drummond taking old "Jim" Selby out to dinner -after the arrival of the "Old Times" from Brighton and changing hats -with him, which generally took place early in the evening, is one of my -remembrances of Hatchett's. And many a time have I split a pint with -"Dickie-the-Driver," the oldest in standing amongst my friends, then -not the least lively of the young fellows, before climbing up on to the -coach at Hatchett's to go down to the Derby. For many years eight of -us, always the same men, went down by coach from Hatchett's on Derby -Day, always with "Dickie" driving out of London and the last stage on -to the downs, and our gallop down and up the hill on the course was a -really breakneck performance. - -It was from Hatchett's that "Jim" Selby started on his celebrated -drive with the Brighton coach, "Old Times," to Brighton and back, for -a wager of a thousand pounds to five hundred against his accomplishing -the journey in eight hours. On the coach were: Selby himself, driving; -Captain Beckett, whom we all called "Partner"; Mr Carleton Blyth, -who still sends yearly from Bude his greeting of "Cheero" to his old -friends; Mr "Swish" Broadwood, Mr "Bob" Cosier, Mr A. F. M'Adam, and -the guard. Harrington Bird's picture of the coach during the galloping -stage, with the horses going at racing pace, gives an idea of how Selby -drove on that day when he had a clear road. The coach reached the "Old -Sip" at Brighton, having done the first half of the journey in just -under four hours; stayed there only long enough to turn the coach -round and to read a telegram from the old Duke of Beaufort, who was -most keenly interested in the revival of coaching, and who was a very -good man himself on the box seat--and then started again for London, -reaching the White Horse Cellars ten minutes under the stipulated time -and forty minutes within the record. I was one of the men amongst the -crowd that gathered to see the return of the coach and to cheer old -"Jim" Selby, who brought his last team in no more distressed than they -would have been doing their journey under ordinary circumstances. How -highly respected Selby was by all coaching men was shown by the long -string of stage-coaches, every coach on the road having suspended its -usual journey, which followed his body to the grave. - -In those days the bill of fare at Hatchett's was roast beef or boiled -mutton and trimmings; duck and green peas, or fowl and bath-chap. There -was an inner sanctuary then called "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which was the -bar parlour, into which only the most favoured patrons of the house -were admitted, and Miss Wills, the manageress, used to keep any unruly -spirits very much in order. - -When Hatchett's was rebuilt and changed its name it changed hands -very frequently, though the White Horse Cellars always remained a -restaurant. The Cercle de Luxe, a dining club, at one time occupied the -upper floors of the building, and then it became the Avondale Hotel, -with M. Garin as manager and M. Dutruz as chef. Since then the rooms -have been put to many uses, and are now, I see, once again in the -market. - -It is the memory of what Hatchett's and the White Horse Cellars have -been in their old days--memories that haunt me like the sound of a horn -afar off on one of the great roads--that makes me disinclined nowadays -to eat a French dinner in what was a home of good English fare; and -whenever I lunch or dine in the White Horse Cellars to-day I always, -for the sake of old times, order a plate of soup, a mixed grill and a -scoop from the cheese. The three-and-sixpenny dinner of to-day is, I -have no doubt, a good one, and Mr Stump, the present manager, is most -courteous and anxious to oblige. I look at the menu when I am in the -restaurant, but for the old sake's sake I keep as close to the meals of -old days as the resources of the establishment allow me to do. - -The White Horse Cellars of to-day is a modern, up-to-date restaurant, -below the level of the ground, though the ventilation is so excellent -and the lighting arrangements so good that one never has the sensation -of being in a cellar. Half-way down the staircase, just where the -little picture gallery commences, a door leads into a buffet. One's -great-coat and hat are taken at the bottom of the stairs, and then one -enters quite a lofty room with a groined roof, and with cosy nooks and -various extensions of the bigger room, which, I fancy, have been thrown -out under the side-walk above. The walls of the restaurant are of cream -colour; the ornamentation is in the style of Adams, and there is deep -rose colour in the arches of the roof. Many mirrors reflect the vistas -and give the rooms the appearance of being more extensive than they -really are: a string band is perched up in a little gallery; there are -palms here and there, and a bronze galloping horse in a recess does -something to recall the old horsy days of Hatchett's. - -There are many little tables, each with its pink-shaded lamp, in -this restaurant, and it has a chic clientele, the "Nuts" of to-day -appearing to patronise it just as much as the bucks and the bloods, -the swells, and the "whips" of the last two generations used to. I -see pretty actresses sometimes dining at Hatchett's, and it is a very -cheerful restaurant in which to take a meal. It is, I believe, always -crowded at supper-time, and the Glorias, the two excellent dancers who -appear earlier in the evening on the Empire stage, dance the Tango, at -midnight, in and out of the little tables. - -But to me the charm of the White Horse Cellars is that I can live again -in memory, when lunching or dining there, those joyous days of youth -and fresh air, when a jolly coach-load used to start from before its -door for a day of delight in sitting behind good horses driven by a -good whip, listening to the music of the shod hooves and the guard's -horn, receiving a greeting from everyone along the road, and feeling -that no king on a throne is happier than a man riding behind a picked -team on a good coach. Motor cars have their uses and their pleasures, -but they seem to have killed the fuller-blooded joys that came with -coaching. - - - - -LVI - -THE MONICO - - -The Monico, in Piccadilly Circus, which is both café and restaurant, is -an establishment which has been brought to its present prosperity by -Swiss industry and Swiss thrift. The original M. Monico, the father of -the present proprietors of the restaurant, came from the same village -in the Val Blegno, in the Italian provinces of Switzerland, as did the -Gattis. M. Monico was with that Gatti, the great-uncle of the present -Messrs Gatti, who sold _gaufres_ and penny ices in Villiers Street, and -who when Hungerford Market was swept away and Charing Cross Station -built established the Gatti's restaurant under the arches. - -About fifty years ago, just at the time that MM. A. and S. Gatti were -establishing themselves in the Adelaide Gallery, young M. Monico, who -died only three years ago, was also making an independent start on the -road to fortune. Looking about for a site on which to build a café he -had found, off Tichborne Street, a large yard where coaches and waggons -stood, and round which was stabling for horses. This yard he leased, -and built on its site the Grand Café with the present International -Hall above it. M. Monico had intended to put up a tall building, but -the neighbours objected to this; he was obliged to alter his plans, and -in consequence, whereas the café is a very high room, the International -Hall above it is rather squat in its proportions. Those were the days -in which billiards was a game much in favour, and in the International -Hall above the café M. Monico established a number of billiard-tables. -When the craze for billiards died away the long upper room, with its -arched ceiling, became a banqueting hall. Fifty years ago the licensing -magistrates looked with just as much suspicion on any new enterprises -in restaurants as they do at the present day, and the Monico could not -at first obtain a licence to sell wines and spirits. This, however, was -later on granted to M. Monico. - -I fancy that there must have been a good deal of the Italian combative -spirit in old M. Monico, for he seems to have been at loggerheads with -more than one of his neighbours. To-day, when you have gone in under -the glass canopy with two gables which protects the Piccadilly Circus -entrance, when you have passed the little stall for the sale of foreign -newspapers and have come into the café which acts as an ante-room to -the great gilded saloon, you will notice that part of this café has a -solid ceiling and that the other half is glazed over. The glazed-over -portion was, in old M. Monico's time, an open space, and into this open -space a neighbour, a perfumer, had the right to bring carts and horses -in the course of his business. This right the perfumer exercised on -occasion, to the great annoyance of M. Monico, and the present Messrs -Monico recall with a smile how the perfumer would often bring in a -great van with two horses to deliver a couple of small packages that -any messenger boy could have carried. - -The clearing away of a block of houses when Piccadilly Circus was given -its present proportions gave the Monico its entrance on to that centre, -and when Shaftesbury Avenue was driven through the network of small -streets in Soho, M. Monico and his sons obtained a second frontage for -their restaurant and built the block which contains the grill-room, -the buffet and banqueting-rooms, now topped by the new masonic temple, -the latest addition to the Monico. - -The Monico of to-day is one of those great bee-hives of dining-rooms -that cater for every class of diner. It has its little café and its -big _à la carte_ dining-saloon, its grill-room, its banqueting-rooms -and its German beer cellar down in the basement. It has two marble -staircases, one leading down to Piccadilly Circus and one to -Shaftesbury Avenue, and its big saloon, the original café, is as -gorgeous a hall as gilding can make it. Its walls are of gold and -mirrors and raised ornamentation, with the windows high up, and with -a golden balcony for the musicians. It has a gilded ceiling and its -pilasters are also golden. An orchestra plays in this room, whereas -in the grill-room those who like their meals without orchestral -accompaniment can eat them in peace. Up and down the great gilded -room walk four _maîtres d'hôtel_ in frock-coats and black ties, and -a battalion of waiters are busy running from tables to kitchen. The -bill of fare in the gilded chamber is a most comprehensive one, and -any man of any nationality can find some of the dishes of his country -on it. It is a beer restaurant as well as a wine restaurant, and the -simplest possible meal, very well cooked, can be eaten there as well as -elaborate feasts. - -The grill-room is less gorgeous in its decorations, though its buff -marble pillars and walls are handsome enough. It is in this room -that the _table d'hôte_ dinners at half-a-crown and three-and-six -are served, and it is here that many men of business feed, and feed -excellently well. Not many days ago I lunched in the grill-room, my -host being a gourmet who knew all the resources of the establishment, -and I enjoyed the _sole Monico_, a sole with an excellent white sauce; -a woodcock _flambé_ and a salad of tender lettuce which, like the -beautiful peaches with which we finished our repast, must have been -grown in some Southern, sunshiny clime. I also enjoyed the cheese -_fondue_, made, I think, from the _recette_ that Brillat Savarin set -down in his "Physiologie du Goût." - -The Monico has gained special celebrity for its banquets, and the -requests for dates for such feasts made to the Messrs Monico have been -so overwhelming that they have turned the Renaissance Saloon, which -used to be devoted to a _table d'hôte_ dinner, into a banqueting-room, -and have redecorated it for its new uses. - -It remains in my memory that men who were present at the banquet -given to Lord Milner in the International Hall of the Monico before -he left England to take up his duties as Pro-Consul in South Africa, -and who talked to me afterwards of the feast, told me that it was -the best public dinner, best served and best cooked, that they had -ever eaten, and last year, when I dined at the Poincaré dinner of -the Ligue des Gourmands, which was held in the Renaissance Room (the -occasion on which M. Escoffier's "creation" of the _poulet Poincaré_ -was first disclosed to a discriminating gathering), I thought then -that M. Sieffert's (the _chef_) handiwork was worthy of all the praise -lavished on it, and that M. G. Ramoni, the manager, had arranged most -admirably all the details of the banquet. The Renaissance Room now -quite justifies its title, for its decoration of peacock blue panels -and frames of gilded briar, with strange birds perched on the sprays, -somewhat suggests Burne-Jones and the colouring of his school. - -As a specimen of a Monico banquet I cannot do better than give you one -eaten by that famous Kentish cricketing club, the Band of Brothers, the -menu of whose dinner bears their badge in dark and light blue, and has -also a bow of their ribbon: - - Huîtres de Whitstable - Fantaisie Epicurienne. - Tortue verte en Tasse. - Turbotin poché, Sauce Mousseline. - Julienne de Sole Parisienne. - Mousse de Volaille Régence. - Côtelettes d'Agneau Rothschild. - Pommes Anna. - Punch Romaine. - Bécassine sur Canapé. - Salade de Laitue. - Escalope de Homard Pompadour. - Pêche Flambé au Kirsch. - Paillettes au Parmesan. - Fruits. - Corbeille de Friandises - Café. - - VINS. - Amontillado. - Marcobrunner, 1904. - Bollinger and Co., 1904. - Lanson, 1906. - Martinez Port, 1896. - Grand Fine Champagne, 1875. - -Many of the banquets given at the Monico are masonic ones, and the new -temple at the top of the house on the Shaftesbury Avenue side is a very -splendid shrine, with walls of marble and a dome round which the signs -of the zodiac circle, and with doors and furniture of great beauty. - - - - -LVII - -THE ITALIAN INVASION - - -The plains of Lombardy, the pleasant mountain land of Emilia and the -champaign that surrounds Turin, are studded with comfortable villas, -the property of successful Italian restaurateurs who have made a -comfortable little fortune in London and who go to their own much-loved -country to spend the autumn of their days. Every young North Italian -waiter who comes to England believes that in the folds of his napkin -he holds one of these pleasant villas, just as every French conscript -in Napoleonic days thought that he, amongst all his fellows, alone -felt the extra weight of the field-marshal's baton in his knapsack. No -race in the world is more thrifty and more industrious than are these -North Italians, and they rival the Swiss in their aptitude for making -considerable sums of money by charging very small prices. - -Spain and Great Britain are usually classed together as the two -countries in which the natives know least of economy in housekeeping -and cookery, and the Italians, spying the wastefulness of the land, -have descended on England as a friendly invading force, whereas the -Swiss have taken Spain in hand. There is no Spanish town in which -there is not a café Suizio, and there are very few English towns in -which an Italian name is not found over a restaurant, which is often a -pastry-cook's shop as well. - -I have in preceding chapters written of some of the restaurants owned -by Italians in London, but were I to deal at length with all the -well-managed restaurants, large and small, controlled by Italians in -London, I should have to extend the size of my book to very swollen -proportions, so I propose to mention briefly those Italian restaurants -at which at one time or another I have lunched or dined with -satisfaction. - -One of the largest Italian restaurants is the Florence, in Rupert -Street, which the late M. Azario, a gentleman of much importance in the -London Italian colony, made one of the most successful moderate-priced -restaurants in London. He was decorated with an Italian order, and -when he died, not long ago, he was much mourned by his countrymen. -Madame Azario (who is now Madame Mainardi and who has appointed her -husband, whom I remember at the Savoy, to the supreme command of the -establishment), to whom he left the restaurant, has made some changes -in it, bringing it up to date. It now has a lounge where hosts can wait -for their guests, and it has fallen a victim to the prevailing craze -for Tango dancing at supper-time. Its three-shilling dinner is a most -satisfying one at the price. The Florence is not too whole-heartedly -Italian to please diners of other nationalities, but when an Italian -gives a lunch or a dinner to his fellow-countrymen or to those who love -the cookery of Italy, it can be as patriotic in the matter of dishes as -any restaurant in Italy. This is the menu of a lunch given to one of -the most Italian of Englishmen. It is a capital example of an Italian -meal, and there is a little joke tucked away in it, for the "Neapolitan -Vanilla" is another way of writing garlic: - - Antipasto Assortito. - Ravioli alla Fiorentina. - Trotta à l'Italiana. - Scalloppine di Vitello alla Milanese. - Asparagi alla Sant'Ambrogio. - Pollo alla Spiedo. - Insalata Rosa alla Vaniglia di Napoli. - Zabaglione al Marsala. - Formaggio. - Frutta. - - * * * * * - - Chianti. - Barolo vecchio. - Asti naturale. - Caffe. - Liquori. - -One of the first established and one of the best of the Italian -restaurants is Previtali's, in Arundel Street, that little thoroughfare -that runs up into a cul-de-sac square, off Coventry Street. It was said -a while ago that this little square and its approach were to be eaten -up by a new great variety theatre, but I see that the ground is now -advertised as being for sale. Below the great board which announces -this is a smaller one, which tells that Previtali's is to remain where -it is till September 1915, when it will find other quarters. Its _table -d'hôte_ luncheon costs half-a-crown, and its _table d'hôte_ dinners -are priced at three-and-six and five shillings, the latter giving such -a choice of food that not even a starving man would ask for more when -he had gone through the menu. Previtali's has an excellent cellar of -Italian wines. - -Many of the restaurants owned by Italians in London have a clientele -that suits the size of the house, and they do not cry aloud by bold -advertisements for fresh guests. Such a quiet, unassuming restaurant is -the Quadrant, in Regent Street, the windows of which keep their eyes -half closed by pink blinds which shut off the view of the interior -from passers-by. Messrs Formaggia and Galiardi cater there for very -faithful customers, and I always look with interest as I pass at the -menu of the half-crown dinner which is written in a bold hand and shown -in a small frame by the window. It is always a well-chosen meal, and -on the occasions that I have eaten at the Quadrant, I have been well -satisfied with its fare. It was at the Quadrant that a gourmet with a -taste for strange foods gave me a lunch of land-crabs which had been -imported with much difficulty from either Barbadoes or the West Indies, -and which Mr Formaggia's chef had cooked strictly in accordance with -the recipe that came with them. They had, I remember, rather a bitter -taste, but perhaps land-crabs, like snails, are not to everybody's -taste. - -In Soho, the Italian restaurants jostle the French restaurants in -every street. Perhaps the best known of the Soho restaurants owned by -Italians is the Ristorante d'Italia, whereof Signor Baglioni is the -proprietor, which thrusts out an illuminated arum amidst the electric -globes and glittering signs of Old Compton Street. My memories of the -half-crown _table d'hôte_ dinner there is of food excellently cooked -under the superintendence of an erstwhile _chef de cuisine_ of the -Prince of Monaco, of the noise of much talking in vehement Italian, of -rather close quarters at little tables laid for four, and of a menu of -rather portentous provender. - -The most Italian of any restaurant that I have discovered in my -explorations in Soho is the Treviglio in Church Street, a little -restaurant that might have been lifted bodily from a canal-side in -Venice or a small street in Florence. It is whole-heartedly Italian, -and puts to the forefront of its window a list of the specialities of -Italian cookery on which it prides itself. It is a favoured haunt of -the Italian journalists in London, and that, I think, can be taken as a -certificate that its cookery is not only thoroughly Italian but is also -good Italian. Signori Pozzi and Valdoni are its proprietors. - -Pinoli's is a restaurant in Lower Wardour Street that offers almost -as much at its two-shilling _table d'hôte_ dinner as some other -restaurants do at twice or more that price. - -A quiet, flourishing restaurant owned by an Italian, Signor Antonio -Audagna, who began life as a waiter at Romano's, is the Comedy -Restaurant, in Panton Street, Haymarket. It is a comfortable -restaurant, with cream walls and oval mirrors and pink-shaded lamps, -and its back rooms are on a higher level than those of its Panton -Street front. Its customers are very faithful to it, and, as its -proprietor once told me, "when the fathers die the sons take their -places as customers." There was some time ago a proposal to extend -it so as to give it a front to the Haymarket, but that plan came to -naught, and the Comedy goes on just as before in its old premises. -This is a menu of the Comedy _table d'hôte_ dinner, and its proprietor -apparently took a hint from Philippe of the Cavour for the menu bears -the legend, "No beer served with this dinner": - - Hors d'Å“uvre Variés. - Queue de BÅ“uf Printanière - Crème Chasseur. - Sole à la Bourguignonne. - Noisette de Pré-Salé Volnay. - Spaghetti al Sugo. - Poulet en Casserole. - Salade. - Glacé Comedy. - Dessert. - -Another quiet restaurant with a faithful clientele is Signor Pratti's, -the Ship, in Whitehall. His _table d'hôte_ dinners are half-a-crown -and three-and-six, and his eighteenpenny lunch, I fancy, brings to the -restaurant many of the hard-worked gentlemen from Cox's Bank, just -across the way, and from the Admiralty, which is suitably just behind -the Ship. Signor Pratti, if I remember rightly, fines teetotalers by -charging them sixpence extra. - -From Hampstead to Surbiton, from Richmond to Epping, the little Italian -restaurants flourish. One gourmet whom I know, with a delicate taste -in Italian wines, makes pilgrimages regularly to Reggiori's, opposite -King's Cross Station, because he gets there a particular wine which -this restaurateur imports; while I take an almost paternal interest in -Canuto's Restaurant in Baker Street. The rise of that restaurant from a -very humble place, that put out two boards with great sheets of paper -on them, giving the dishes ready and the dinner of the day, to a rather -haughty little restaurant with a very beautiful window and the _carte -du jour_ and the menus of _table d'hôte_ dinners behind the glass in -frames of restrained gorgeousness, typifies the gradual advance in -social splendour of the long street that leads to Regent's Park. - - - - -LVIII - -THE HYDE PARK HOTEL - - -Newly engaged couples are rather kittle cattle to entertain at any -meal. There was once a pretty young widow who was about to marry a -charming young man, and I asked the pair to lunch with me one day at -the Savoy and was very particular to secure a table in the balcony, for -I thought that the view over the Gardens and up the Thames to the House -of Lords and Westminster Abbey would harmonise very well with love's -young dream. And it did harmonise only too well with it, for the pretty -widow sat with her face in her two hands gazing up the river with -far-away eyes while the grilled lamb cutlets grew cold and the _bomb -praliné_ grew warm, and the charming young man, sat opposite to her -with hands tightly clasped, gazing into her face and thinking poetry -hard the while. Conversation there was none on that occasion. I do not -believe that the couple knew in the least whether they were eating sole -or cream cheese, and I still have such remnants of good manners that -were instilled into me in the days of the nursery that I felt that -I was doing an impolite thing to eat heartily while my guests were -neglecting their food. I often subsequently wondered whether in the -days when I fell desperately in love at least once in every six months, -I behaved in public as much like a patient suffering from softening of -the brain as did that nice young man on the day he lunched with me at -the Savoy. - -One of my nephews, a young soldier doctor, is going to do a very -sensible thing in marrying an exceedingly nice girl early in his -career, and as he is on leave in London it seemed to me that it would -be a pleasant thing to ask him and the young lady to lunch or dine with -me. Though I did not for a moment believe that the presence of his -intended would cause him to neglect his food, I was not prepared, after -my previous experience, to put the young lady to the tremendous trial -of the view of the Thames from the Savoy balcony, and I decided that -dinner, not lunch, should be the meal. - -As I was curious to see whether a little dinner at the Hyde Park Hotel -was as well cooked as the great banquets are in that flourishing -establishment, I asked them to dine there with me one Sunday evening, -and gave Mr Kerpen, the manager of the hotel, warning of our coming, -asking him to suggest to M. Müller, the _chef de cuisine_, that I -should like one or two specialities of his kitchen included in a very -short menu. - -If lunch had been the meal to which I invited the young couple the Hyde -Park Hotel dining-room would have been a spot as inducive to day dreams -as are the balconies at the Savoy and the Cecil, for the view the Hyde -Park Hotel commands over the Park is one of the most beautiful and most -varied in London. A strip of garden lies between the Hotel and the -Ladies' Mile, and beyond that is the branch of Rotten Row that runs up -past the Knightsbridge Barracks. Beyond that again are green lawns and -clumps of rhododendrons and other flowering shrubs, and the grassy rise -up to the banks of the Serpentine, the glitter of the water of which -and the big trees about it closing in the landscape. The carriages go -rumbling past; there are generally some riders in the Row and there is -always movement on the footpath, and it seems to be one of the duties -of the regiment of Household Cavalry at Knightsbridge to supply as a -figure in the immediate foreground either a young orderly officer in -his blue frock-coat setting out or returning from his rounds on a big -black charger, or a rough-riding corporal in scarlet jacket teaching -a young horse manners. The view up the river to Westminster may have -a dreamy beauty on a sunshiny day, the vista of the long walk in the -Green Park, down which the windows of the Ritz dining-room look, may -have more sylvan beauty, but the outlook of the Hyde Park Hotel has -more colour and more variety than those of the other big hotels I have -mentioned. - -The Hyde Park Hotel was one of Jabez Balfour's speculations, and for -a time it was a great pile of flats before it became technically an -hotel. It had a fire, and I fancy that it was after the fire that M. -Ritz was consulted as to its redecoration--for he had a great talent -and indisputable taste in suggesting the ornamentation of large -rooms--and that the Hyde Park Hotel became the exceedingly comfortable, -quiet, luxurious house it is to-day. - -In the big hall, with its dark-coloured marbles and handsome fireplace, -I found the young couple waiting for me. They were before their time -and were in holiday spirits, which reassured me, for no laughing girl -is likely to slip suddenly into day dreams. After I had given my hat -and coat to the dark-complexioned servitor in blue and gold Oriental -dress, who looks like a very good-natured Othello, we waited for a -while in the big cream and green drawing-room--a room so fresh in -colour that it does not suggest an environment of London atmosphere, -though it looks out on to Knightsbridge. At the quarter past eight we -went into the big dining-room, and M. Binder, the _maître d'hôtel_, -showed us to the table in a corner by a window which had been set for -us. - -The Hyde Park Hotel dining-room is an exceedingly handsome hall of -mahogany, with panels of gold and deep crimson brocade; its pillars -are of deep red wood with gilt Corinthian capitals; a band plays in a -gallery above the crystal service doors and the colours of the panels -are echoed in carpet and curtains and upholstery. In its comfortable -colouring the Hyde Park Hotel dining-room reminds me very much of -what the Savoy dining-room used to be before its beautiful mahogany -panelling was taken down and the colour of the walls and ceiling -changed to cream. - -I soon found that I was not either to be silent or to have the -conversation all to myself, for the young people laughed and chatted -away, and I found myself comparing descriptions of the Curragh as it -was in the seventies, when we used to lie in bed in the huts and watch -the marking at the butts through the cracks in the walls, with the -Curragh of to-day when the last of the Crimean wooden huts are about to -disappear. The reading of the menu, however, was gone through with due -solemnity, and the young lady knew that an important moment in her life -was about to approach, for she was going to taste caviare for the first -time. This was the menu of our dinner: - - Caviar Blinis. - Crème d'Asperges. - Sole à la H.P.H. - Selle d'Agneau de lait poëlée. - Haricots verts aux fines herbes. - Bécassines Chasseur. - Salade. - Pêches Petit Duc. - Comtesse Marie. - Friandises. - Dessert. - -The young soldier doctor watched his bride-that-is-to-be eat her first -mouthful of caviare and little angle of the Russian pancake with -interest and some curiosity. If she did not like the delicacy there -would be no caviare for him in the days of their honeymoon, while if -she took a violent fancy to them it might strain the resources of a -very young establishment to provide caviare at two meals a day. She -took her first mouthful, considered, and said that she liked it; but -did not express any overwhelming attachment to it, so I think that so -far as caviare is concerned it will be eaten with appreciation in the -household-that-is-to-be but will not appear every day at table. The -soup was an excellent thick cream; the sole was one of the specialities -of the kitchen put by the _chef de cuisine_ into the menu, and a most -admirable sole it is. It is a _mousse_ of chicken sandwiched between -fillets of sole, and lobster and oysters and, I fancy, mushrooms also, -have their part in this very noble dish. The tiny saddle of lamb was -the plain dish of the dinner; the snipe were given a baptism of fire -before they were brought to table. The peaches were another dish that -is a speciality of the house. With the _Bar-le-Duc_ currant jelly about -the peaches there was mingled some old Fine Champagne, while the ice -and the vanilla cream that went with it were served separately, as is -the modern fashion, which is a great improvement on sending up the ice -in a messy state with the fruit. The wine we drank was Clicquot 1904. -I was charged half-a-guinea a head for our dinner, which was excellent -value for the money: altogether an admirable dinner, admirably cooked, -and I sent my compliments to the chef. - -The other people who had dined had gradually melted away; the band -had left its gallery and we could hear its strains coming from some -distant room. The young people chattered away about theatres and -dances and we might have sat at table until midnight had not the -_maître d'hôtel_ suggested that we might like to look at the other -rooms on the ground floor before going into the smoking lounge, where -the band was playing and where a lady was presently to sing. We walked -through a charming little ante-room with golden furniture, into the -great pink banqueting-room which is used for dances and balls as well -as for great feasts. It is the part of the Hyde Park Hotel with which -I am most familiar, and I told the young people, who were more anxious -to know which way the boards ran and whether it was a good floor for -dancing than they were for descriptions of banquets, how at one of the -dinners of the Gastronomes in this fine room the table decorations were -so arranged as to be high above the diners' heads and that the air -seemed full of flowers and how M. Müller had invented for that feast -the beau-ideal of a vegetable _sorbet--tomates givrées_. I had thoughts -of giving them details of a wonderful banquet given at the hotel by the -Society of Merchants, but I am sure they would not have had patience -to listen, so what I abstained from telling them then, lest they might -think me a gluttonous old bore, I here set down for your consideration, -for you can skip it if you will, whereas the two young people would, I -am sure, have been kind enough to listen and to pretend to appreciate -its beauties: - - Cantaloup Grande Fine Champagne. - Caviar. - Consommé Florentine. - Crème de Pois frais. - Filets de Truite Saumonée au Coulis d'Ecrevisses. - Volaille de la Bresse Châtelaine. - Selle de Béhague à la Provençale. - Aubergines au Beurre Noisette. - Cailles Royales à l'Ananas. - Pommes Colerette. - Dodines de Canard à la Gelée. - CÅ“urs de Laitues aux Å“ufs. - - Pêches Framboisées. - Friandises. - Dessert. - - VINS. - Sandringham Sherry. - Schloss Volkrads, 1904. - Pommery and Greno, 1900. - Château Brane Cantenac, 1899. - Sandeman's, 1884. - Marett Gautier, 1830. - Liqueurs. - -Then we went into the big room, a room of mahogany, and views of lake -and river and sea painted on the panels, which is the room most used by -the people who live in the hotel, where the papers and great arm-chairs -are and where a man can smoke comfortably, and we listened to the -little orchestra and to a young lady who sang us songs sentimental and -songs cheerful until it was time for my nephew to do escort duty in -taking the young lady back to the northern heights where she lives. - - - - -LIX - -YE OLDE GAMBRINUS - - -The one thing in the world that the friends of Germany do not tell us -poor Englishmen is to be obtained better in the Fatherland than on this -side of the Channel is things to eat, though of course Munich beer has -been held up to our brewers for generations as an example of what they -should brew. Perhaps it is for this reason that there are fewer German -restaurants in London in comparison with the size of the German colony -than there are French and Italian restaurants in comparison with the -colonies of those countries. - -Yet good, simple German cookery is quite excellent of its kind. A -German housewife knows how to make a goose into many delectable dishes -which an English housewife knows nothing of, and the German tarts are -excellent things amongst dishes of pastry. - -There are one or two German restaurants in Soho, and Mr Appenrodt in -his restaurants considers the tastes of his fellow-countrymen, but the -best known London restaurant devoted entirely to German and Austrian -cookery is the Olde Gambrinus, in Regent Street, and it was an Italian, -little Oddenino, who appreciated the long-felt want of the Germans in -London and who gave them a restaurant in which they can imagine that -they are once again back in their own country, eating German foods and -drinking German drinks. - -The Gambrinus has entrances both in Glasshouse Street and in Regent -Street. The Regent Street entrance echoes the decoration of that of -its big brother, the Imperial Restaurant, a few paces farther along the -street, and its marble pillars and revolving door do not suggest the -entirely German surroundings we are in as soon as we have crossed the -threshold. A comparatively narrow room, panelled half-way up its height -with dark wood and with two rows of tables, is the first portion of the -restaurant we see on entering from Regent Street, and it is here that -those good Germans sit who do not want to eat a meal but wish to drink -their "steins" of beer. Above the panelling on the walls are the heads -of many deer and wild beasts from all parts of the world, and the first -impression that this gives to anyone who does not know the Gambrinus -is that it is a Valhalla for the denizens of some Wonder Zoo. In the -midst of these heads of the wild things of the woods and the plains is -that of a fine dog. No doubt he was the chosen companion of some mighty -hunter, and one hopes that he was not like the rest, a spoil of the -chase. - -After this first narrow room there comes a wider one with an arched -roof, glazed with bottle-glass, and then the main restaurant itself, -which has the appearance of a baronial hall. Its floor is of wooden -blocks; there are many little tables in it, and chairs with backs of -dark leather, and it is panelled like the entrance, with dark wood. Any -chair not occupied is at our disposal, and we have found seats, and a -waiter has put in front of us the big sheet with the menu of the day on -it and a picture in blue of a crowned gentleman with a long white beard -astride on a beer cask and drinking from a foaming tankard. We will -order our dinner first and then look at our surroundings. - -For every day in the week there are special dishes: four soups, one -of which is generally _bouillon mit ei_; three meat dishes and a -fruit dish. There is a list of _hors d'Å“uvre_, amongst them _Berliner -rollmops_ and _Brabant sardellen, Nürnberger ochsenmaul salat_ and -Bismarck herring. There is a column in print of cold dishes in which -various German sausages are given the place of honour, and then, -written in violet ink, many ready dishes beyond those sacred to the -day, and another list of dishes which can be had to order. - -As the most typical German dishes amongst those of the day let us -order goose soup with dumplings, roast veal and peas, and pear tart, -and we cannot do better than wash this down with two large glasses of -light-coloured Munich beer. - -The waiter takes our orders, and from a pile of rounds of wadding put -down by us two with some blue printing on them, which shows that we -are going to drink Munich beer, whereas had we elected for the beer of -Pilsen we should have been given rounds of wadding with red on them. - -On all the seats at all the tables are Germans of all types. -Dark-haired Germans from the south, looking almost like Italians, and -the typical fair-haired Teutons of the north with fat necks and hair -cropped to a stubble. Anyone who thinks that the German fraus and -frauleins resemble at all the unkind caricatures the French make of -them should see the pretty ladies who accompany the worthy Germans who -eat their dinners at the Gambrinus. They are as fresh and charming, -as well dressed and as daintily mannered as the ladies who go to any -restaurant of any other nationality. - -The windows that give on to Glasshouse Street are of the glass that -looks as though the bottoms of wine bottles had been used, and in the -centre of each window is an escutcheon with armorial bearings. At -one side of the room is a gallery of dark wood, and on the front of -this is also a wealth of heraldry. The heads of animals of all kinds, -which seemed a little strange in the _brasserie_ by the entrance, seem -quite in place in the big hall which has all the appearance of the -dining-room of some old baronial castle converted into a German inn. On -the side opposite to the gallery is a long counter under two arches of -dark wood. On this counter are many beer mugs, and fruit in baskets, -and on a series of shelves all the _delicatessen_ which are recorded on -the _spiese karte_. On the wall at the back of the two arches hang the -beer mugs which belong to the customers, rows upon rows of them forming -a background of coloured earthenware and glass. By the side of this -long counter is another, where a pretty girl sits and hands out to the -waiters the liqueur bottles and keeps the necessary accounts. - -If the trophies of the chase in the _brasserie_ are various they are -infinitely more various in the big hall, for the Herr Baron must have -hunted on all the continents and did not disdain to add monsters of the -deep to his trophies, for a spiky fish, looking like a marine hedgehog, -dangles from the ceiling, and below it is one of those curious things -which sailors call mermaids and the right name of which is, I believe, -manati. He was a collector of curios also, this imaginary baron, for -a curious lamp in the shape of an eight-pointed star hangs above the -gallery, there is a carved owl immediately below it and various other -wood carvings in different parts of the restaurant, and on the broad -shelf above the panelling are a wonderful variety of earthenware -and china and pewter mugs and dishes and jugs and candlesticks in -quantities that would set up half-a-dozen antique shops. - -The heads of animals on the wall would supply material for an -exhaustive lesson in zoology. There is the skull of an elephant, the -head of a rhino, a bear grins sardonically on one side, and opposite -to him a zebra appears to have thrust his head and neck through the -wall. There are several boars' heads, an eagle with his wings spread -dangles from the balcony, and a black cock appears to be rising from a -forest of liqueur bottles. There are horns or heads of half-a-hundred -varieties of deer, from the wapiti and elk to those tiny little fellows -with horns a couple of inches long who run about like rabbits in the -German forests. There are antlers of red deer and fallow deer, and -heads of wildebesste and hartebesste, and black buck and buffalo, and -of many more that are beyond my knowledge of horned beasts. - -There are in the room glass screens to keep off all draughts; there -are bent-wood stands on which to hang coats and hats, and a staircase -with a luxurious carpet on it and a brass rail leads down into the -grill-room of the Imperial Restaurant next door. - -But the waiter, who had already put down by our places two long sloping -glasses of the clear cold beer, now brings us the plates of smoking -goose soup, and excellent soup it is, with the suet dumplings, as -light as possible, in it, and pieces of the breast of the goose. Why -we English neglect the goose as a soup-maker I do not know, as indeed -I do not know why we neglect the goose at all and consign him to the -kitchen as a meal for the servants while the turkey is being eaten -upstairs. The veal, which, I should imagine, is imported from Germany, -is excellent, and the huge chop of it that is given to each of us must, -I think, be an extra attention on the part of the management, for M. -Oddenino has just come in and has taken a seat at a table in a recess, -where he dines frugally every night so as to be within call of his -restaurant next door, and he has called the attention of the little -manager to our presence. So perhaps we are being given what in Club -life is known as the "Committee-man's chop." - -Our third venture is just as satisfactory as the two previous ones, -for the great angle of open pear tart is in every way excellent. The -bill presented at the close of our meal is as moderate as the food was -good. We have each in our meal consumed three shillings and three pence -worth of well-cooked food and cold beer. - -So again I ask, Why should the German _cuisine_ in London be the -Cinderella of the daughters of Gastronomy? - - - - -LX - -MY SINS OF OMISSION - - -No one can be more aware than I am of the things I have left undone -in writing of the restaurants of London, of the many interesting -dining-places of which I have made no mention, of the eating-houses -with historical associations that I have overlooked. - -I have done no more than touch the hem of the garment of the City. As -I write I recall that the Ship and Turtle, the Palmerston and other -notable restaurants I have passed by without even a word, and that -I have given only a line to Pim's and Simpson's, and the George and -Vulture, each of which is worthy of a chapter. - -The Liverpool Street Hotel, which I have singled out, is not by any -means the only great railway hotel in London where the catering is -excellent. I used at one time to dine every Derby night with the late -Mr George Dobell at the St Pancras Hotel, and a better cooked dinner no -one could have given me. The Euston Hotel had, and I have no doubt has, -an admirable cellar of wines. - -There is a chapter waiting to be written concerning the changes that -have taken place in railway refreshment-room catering, with, as -examples, the dining-rooms at the two Victoria stations and the _table -d'hôte_ dinner that is provided for playgoers at Waterloo. - -The luncheons provided for golfers in the club-houses of the golf -courses near London was another subject to which I intended to devote -a chapter, and yet another to the excellent luncheons that the racing -clubs, following Sandown's example, provide for their members. - -There are roadside and riverside inns that deserve mention besides -those of which I have written. - -Many of the large hotels that I have not mentioned deserve attention, -but there is a certain similarity in the _table d'hôte_ meals at all -big hotels nowadays and the difference between the rank and file -of them lies more in their situation and decoration than in their -_cuisine_. - -My excuse for paying a vague compliment to the big hotels in bulk will -not hold good with respect to the many small hotels that I have not -mentioned where the cookery is excellent. They at least have, each -one, its distinct individuality. I can only plead that I have been -frightened by their number. Almond's in Clifford Street, Brown's in -Albemarle Street, where M. Peròs is the chef, are two which occur to me -as I write in which I have dined admirably, and I have no doubt that -"Sunny Jim" will make the restaurant of the St James's Palace Hotel a -favourite dining-place. - -I feel that I have slighted Oxford Street and Holborn in having merely -nodded as I passed by to some of the many restaurants, some of them -important ones, that are to be found on the road from Prince Albert's -Statue to the Marble Arch. My hope of making amends to them for this -neglect lies in a hope that my book may run into more than one edition. - -In the streets that branch off from Shaftesbury Avenue there are -several restaurants for which I should have found room in this -book. The Coventry is one, and the by-ways of Soho teem with little -eating-houses waiting to be discovered and to become prosperous and -to possess globes of electric light and rows of Noah's ark trees in -green tubs. I am not such a hardy explorer as I used to be, but I have -gone through some terrible times in experimenting on some of the little -restaurants in Soho--the ones that had better remain undiscovered. - -Some of my correspondents have asked me why I only write of places that -I can conscientiously praise, and why I do not describe my failures. -My answer to this is that it is not fair to condemn any restaurant, -however humble it may be, on one trial, and that, when I have been -given an indifferent meal anywhere, I never go back again to see -whether I shall be as badly treated on a second occasion. I prefer -to consign to oblivion the stories I could tell of bad eggs and rank -butter and cold potatoes, stringy meat and skeleton fowls. - -It is so much better for one's digestion to think of pleasant things -than to brood over horrors. - -Adieu, or rather, I trust, au revoir. - - * * * * * - -_P. S._--That changes have taken place in the personnel of the -restaurants even in the space of time that it takes to pass the proofs -of this book shows how difficult it is to keep such a publication -right up to date. Most of the changes I have been able to note in -their proper position, but the sale of Rule's by Mr and Mrs O'Brien to -one of their old servants and the appointment of M. Mambrino to the -managership of the Berkeley Hotel I must record here. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gourmet's Guide to London, by -Nathaniel Newnham-Davis - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO LONDON *** - -***** This file should be named 53304-0.txt or 53304-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/3/0/53304/ - -Produced by Clare Graham and Marc D'Hooghe at Free -Literature (online soon in an extended version, also linking -to free sources for education worldwide ... MOOC's, -educational materials,...) 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[Nathaniel] Newnham-Davis. - </title> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} -.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} -.p6 {margin-top: 6em;} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - clear: both; -} - -hr.tb {width: 45%;} -hr.chap {width: 65%} -hr.full {width: 95%;} - -hr.r5 {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} -hr.r65 {width: 65%; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em;} - -ul.index { list-style-type: none; } -li.ifrst { margin-top: 1em; } -li.indx { margin-top: .5em; } -li.isub1 {text-indent: 1em;} -li.isub2 {text-indent: 2em;} -li.isub3 {text-indent: 3em;} - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; -} - - .tdl {text-align: left;} - .tdr {text-align: right;} - .tdc {text-align: center;} - -.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - color: #A9A9A9; -} /* page numbers */ - -.linenum { - position: absolute; - top: auto; - left: 4%; -} /* poetry number */ - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} - -.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} - -.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} - -.br {border-right: solid 2px;} - -.bbox {border: solid 2px;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.u {text-decoration: underline;} - - - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - - </style> - </head> - -<body> - - -<pre> - -Project Gutenberg's The Gourmet's Guide to London, by Nathaniel Newnham-Davis - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Gourmet's Guide to London - -Author: Nathaniel Newnham-Davis - -Release Date: October 17, 2016 [EBook #53304] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO LONDON *** - - - - -Produced by Clare Graham and Marc D'Hooghe at Free -Literature (online soon in an extended version, also linking -to free sources for education worldwide ... MOOC's, -educational materials,...) Images generously made available -by the Internet Archive. - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="500" alt="cover" /> -</div> - -<h1>THE<br /> -GOURMET'S GUIDE<br /> -TO<br /> -LONDON</h1> - - -<h4>BY</h4> -<h3>LIEUT.-COL.<br /> -NEWNHAM-DAVIS</h3> - -<h4><i>Author of<br /> -"The Gourmet's Guide to Europe"</i></h4> - - -<h4>NEW YORK<br /> -BRENTANO'S<br /> -1914</h4> - - -<h4>PRINTED BY THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED<br /> -EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND</h4> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 392px;"> -<a id="frontispiece"></a> -<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="392" height="519" alt="frontispiece" /> -<div class="caption">THE CHESHIRE CHEESE<br /> -<i>From a drawing by Harry Morley</i></div> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - - - -<p style="margin-left: 25%;"><i>The pleasures of the table<br /> -are common to all ages and<br /> -ranks, to all countries and<br /> -times; they not only harmonise<br /> -with all the other<br /> -pleasures, but remain to<br /> -console us for their loss.—</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Brillat Savarin.</span></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h4>TO -ALL GOOD GOURMETS</h4> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</a></h3> - - -<p>In describing in this book some of the restaurants and -taverns in and near London, I have selected those that -seem to me to be typical of the various classes, giving -preference to those of each kind which have some -picturesque incident in their history, or are situated -amidst beautiful surroundings, or possess amongst -their personnel a celebrated chef or <i>maître d'hôtel</i>.</p> - -<p>The English language has not enough nicely graduated -terms of praise to enable me to give to a fraction -its value to each restaurant, from the unpretentious -little establishments in Soho to such palaces as the -Ritz and Savoy, but I have included no dining-place -in this volume that does not give good value for the -money it charges.</p> - -<p>Twelve years ago I wrote a somewhat similar book, -"Dinners and Diners," which ran through two editions, -but when I looked it through last year I found -that there had been so many changes in the world of -restaurants, so many old houses had vanished and so -many new ones had arisen, that it was easier to write a -new book than to bring the old one up to date. Mr -Astor very kindly gave me permission to use in this -volume any of the series of "Dinners and Diners" -articles that appeared in <i>The Pall Mall Gazette</i>, but it -will be found that I have availed myself very sparingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> -of his kind permission. The chapters of this book -appeared, with very few exceptions, in <i>Town Topics</i>, -and I am indebted to the editor of that paper for his -leave to gather them into book form.</p> - -<p>Mr Grant Richards, the publisher of this book, -quite agrees with me that no advertisements of -restaurants shall find a place within its covers.</p> - -<p>Should "The Gourmet's Guide to London" find a -welcome from an appreciative public, and should, in -due time, other editions of it be called for, I shall -hope to broaden its scope to include in it some of the -hostelries of Brighton and other seaside towns, also -those of the great cities and great ports, and to -describe some of those fine old country inns scattered -about the kingdom where good old English cookery -is still to be found in good old English surroundings.</p> - -<p>For the French of the menus I do not hold myself -responsible. The kitchen writes the French that it -talks and who am I, a mere Briton, that I should -attempt to alter it?</p> - -<p> -<span style="margin-left: 6em;">N. NEWNHAM-DAVIS.</span><br /> -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</a></h3> - - -<div class="center"> -<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#I">I</a></td><td align="left">OLD ENGLISH FARE</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#II">II</a></td><td align="left">SIMPSON'S IN THE STRAND</td><td align="right">6</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#III">III</a></td><td align="left">A WALK DOWN FLEET STREET</td><td align="right">12</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IV">IV</a></td><td align="left">THE CARLTON</td><td align="right">19</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#V">V</a></td><td align="left">TWO LITTLE SOHO RESTAURANTS</td><td align="right">26</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VI">VI</a></td><td align="left">A RAG-TIME DINNER</td><td align="right">32</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VII">VII</a></td><td align="left">THE CAFÉ ROYAL</td><td align="right">38</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></td><td align="left">OYSTER-HOUSES</td><td align="right">46</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IX">IX</a></td><td align="left">WHITEBAIT AT GREENWICH</td><td align="right">53</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#X">X</a></td><td align="left">THE CECIL</td><td align="right">59</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XI">XI</a></td><td align="left">CLARIDGE'S</td><td align="right">67</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XII">XII</a></td><td align="left">THE EUSTACE MILES RESTAURANT</td><td align="right">73</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIII">XIII</a></td><td align="left">THE PRINCES' RESTAURANT</td><td align="right">81</td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIV">XIV</a></td><td align="left">THE CRITERION</td><td align="right">86</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XV">XV</a></td><td align="left">SOME CHOP-HOUSES</td><td align="right">92</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XVI">XVI</a></td><td align="left">SOME GRILL-ROOMS</td><td align="right">99</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XVIII">XVIII</a></td><td align="left">IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS</td><td align="right">115</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIX">XIX</a></td><td align="left">A REGIMENTAL DINNER</td><td align="right">122</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XX">XX</a></td><td align="left">"JOLLY GOOD"</td><td align="right">128</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXI">XXI</a></td><td align="left">IN THE SHADOW OF THE PALACE THEATRE</td><td align="right">134</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXII">XXII</a></td><td align="left">THE WELCOME CLUB</td><td align="right">141</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXIII">XXIII</a></td><td align="left">GOLDSTEIN'S</td><td align="right">147</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXIV">XXIV</a></td><td align="left">THE MITRE</td><td align="right">152</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXV">XXV</a></td><td align="left">IN THE HANDS OF PI(E)RATES</td><td align="right">158</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXVI">XXVI</a></td><td align="left">APPENRODT'S</td><td align="right">166</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXVII">XXVII</a></td><td align="left">THE BURFORD BRIDGE HOTEL</td><td align="right">174</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXVIII">XXVIII</a></td><td align="left">THE RITZ</td><td align="right">180</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXIX">XXIX</a></td><td align="left">SOME OUTLYING RESTAURANTS</td><td align="right">190</td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXX">XXX</a></td><td align="left">THE KING'S GUARD</td><td align="right">195</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXI">XXXI</a></td><td align="left">THE OLD BULL AND BUSH</td><td align="right">201</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXII">XXXII</a></td><td align="left">THE BERKELEY</td><td align="right">206</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXIII">XXXIII</a></td><td align="left">THE JOYS OF FOREIGN TRAVEL</td><td align="right">214</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXIV">XXXIV</a></td><td align="left">A SUPPER TRAIN</td><td align="right">220</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXV">XXXV</a></td><td align="left">THE ADELAIDE GALLERY</td><td align="right">226</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXVI">XXXVI</a></td><td align="left">THE COMPLEAT ANGLER</td><td align="right">235</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXVII">XXXVII</a></td><td align="left">ARTISTS' ROOMS</td><td align="right">241</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXVIII">XXXVIII</a></td><td align="left">THE PICCADILLY RESTAURANT</td><td align="right">249</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXIX">XXXIX</a></td><td align="left">THE RENDEZVOUS</td><td align="right">255</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XL">XL</a></td><td align="left">THE PALL MALL RESTAURANT</td><td align="right">261</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLI">XLI</a></td><td align="left">IN JERMYN STREET</td><td align="right">267</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLII">XLII</a></td><td align="left">THE MEN WHO MADE THE SAVOY</td><td align="right">272</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLIII">XLIII</a></td><td align="left">THE DUTIES OF A <i>MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL</i></td><td align="right">279</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLIV">XLIV</a></td><td align="left">THE SAVOY TO-DAY</td><td align="right">283</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLV">XLV</a></td><td align="left">THE RESTAURANT DES GOURMETS</td><td align="right">290</td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLVI">XLVI</a></td><td align="left">THE MAXIM RESTAURANT</td><td align="left">294</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLVII">XLVII</a></td><td align="left">BIRCH'S</td><td align="right">300</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLVIII">XLVIII</a></td><td align="left">A CITY BANQUET</td><td align="right">308</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XLIX">XLIX</a></td><td align="left">THE CAVENDISH HOTEL</td><td align="right">313</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#L">L</a></td><td align="left">THE RÉUNION DES GASTRONOMES</td><td align="right">320</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LI">LI</a></td><td align="left">THE LIGUE DES GOURMANDS</td><td align="right">325</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LII">LII</a></td><td align="left">THE CAVOUR RESTAURANT</td><td align="right">333</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LIII">LIII</a></td><td align="left">VERREY'S</td><td align="right">338</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LIV">LIV</a></td><td align="left">THE CATHAY RESTAURANT</td><td align="right">345</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LV">LV</a></td><td align="left">THE WHITE HORSE CELLARS</td><td align="right">353</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LVI">LVI</a></td><td align="left">THE MONICO</td><td align="right">360</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LVII">LVII</a></td><td align="left">THE ITALIAN INVASION</td><td align="right">365</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LVIII">LVIII</a></td><td align="left">THE HYDE PARK HOTEL</td><td align="right">371</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LIX">LIX</a></td><td align="left">YE OLDE GAMBRINUS</td><td align="right">378</td></tr> -<tr><td align="right"><a href="#LX">LX</a></td><td align="left">MY SINS OF OMISSION</td><td align="right">384</td></tr> -</table></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS">ILLUSTRATIONS</a></h3> - - -<div class="center"> -<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="left">THE CHESHIRE CHEESE</td><td align="left"><i><a href="#frontispiece">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">to face page</span></td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">M. ESCOFFIER</td><td align="left"><a href="#escoffierp24">24</a></td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">M. RITZ</td><td align="left"><a href="#ritzp184">184</a></td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">JOSEPH CARVING A DUCK </td><td align="left"><a href="#josephp276">276</a></td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">MRS LEWIS</td><td align="left"><a href="#mrslewisp314">314</a></td></tr> -</table></div> - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="I" id="I">I</a></h3> - -<h3>OLD ENGLISH FARE</h3> - - -<p>When a foreigner or one of our American cousins, -or a man from one of the Colonies, comes to England, -the first question he generally asks is: "Where can -I get a typical good old English dinner?" Good old -English fare is by no means too abundant in London—and -old English fare I would define as being -the very best native material, cooked in the plainest -possible manner. We talk of English cookery, -though it should really be termed British cookery, -for Irish stew and Welsh lamb, Scotch beef and -cock-a-leekie soup, and even a haggis, can fairly be -included in the comprehensive term.</p> - -<p>When men on short commons on an exploring -expedition, or on a sporting trip, or on active service, -talk of the good things they will eat when they get -home to England, the first idea that occurs to most -of them is how delightful it will be to eat a good fried -sole once again; and with fried sole may be coupled -English bacon, for no bacon anywhere else in the -world is as good as that which the kitchenmaids -fry in thousands of British kitchens. Perhaps the -Channel sole and the bacon of the Southern Counties, -Oxford marmalade and Cambridge sausages belong -to the home breakfast-table more than to meals in -the haunts of the gourmet, though the sole plays -a most important part in many dinners, and the -Christmas dinner turkey would be unhappy without -its accompanying sausages. It is, however, at lunch-time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> -the time of pasties, puddings and pies, that -old English cookery is seen at its best.</p> - -<p>I do not know of any eating-house that makes a -speciality of the mutton-chop pudding with oysters, -that Abraham Hayward praises so unrestrictedly, but -now and again I meet in restaurants such good -English dishes as Lancashire hot-pot and gipsy pie, -which is an admirable stew of chicken and cabbage; -shepherd's pie, in which the minced meat is covered -with a well-browned layer of mashed potato, I am -given sometimes at shooting luncheons. Toad-in-the-hole -and bubble-and-squeak are pleasant memories -of my schoolboy days, but if some Frenchman, who -has studied Dickens, asked me where he could eat -the stew described in "The Old Curiosity Shop," -which consisted of tripe, and cow-heel, and bacon, -and steak, and peas and cauliflower, new potatoes -and asparagus "all worked up together in one -delicious gravy," I should have to admit my inability -to direct him. A fish pie is excellent at any meal, -but a woodcock pie or a snipe pudding, I think, -should be reserved for the dinner-table. The pork-pie -now seems sacred to railway refreshment-rooms, -picnics and race-courses. Oysters are real British -fare, though other countries have learned from us -to appreciate them; but I fancy that the old Romans -first taught the gentlemen who clothed themselves in -woad tattooings what delicacies they had waiting for -them in their shallow waters. Oysters are admirable -creatures when eaten out of their deep shell, and -they play their part well in oyster soup and scalloped -oysters and oyster fries. And there are many -puddings and "made dishes" that would be incomplete -without the presence of oysters in them. -Jugged duck and oysters is a good old British dish, -and there are oysters in the majestic pudding of the -Cheshire Cheese. I may perhaps be allowed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> -suggest to some cooks who put the oysters into -puddings and pies with the other raw materials that -a better way is to cook the dish, then remove the -crust or paste, slip in the oysters, fix the crust again -and cook till the oysters are warmed through.</p> - -<p>The typical British dinner most often quoted is -that which the Lord Dudley of the thirties, a noted -epicure, declared was a dinner "fit for an emperor," -and it runs thus: "A good soup, a small turbot, -a neck of venison, duckling with green peas, or -chicken with asparagus, and an apricot tart." Of -British soups turtle always takes precedence in the -list of honour, but as the turtle comes from Ascension -or the West Indies, it can hardly claim to be a -denizen of these islands. Hare soup and mock -turtle, mulligatawny, mutton broth and pea soup -are distinctively British, though the curry powder -in the mulligatawny—a soup which takes its name -from two Tamil words: Mŭllĭgă = pepper, and Tunni = water—comes, -of course, from India. Oxtail soup -has a good British sound, but I fancy that French -housewives first discovered the virtue that there is -in the tail of an ox.</p> - -<p>Lord Dudley loved a turbot, but other judges of -good British dinners sometimes give the preference -to cod. Walker, of "Original" fame, gave a -Christmas Day dinner to two friends, and the fare -he provided for them was: crimped cod, a woodcock -a man, and plum pudding. One of the most typical -British dinners I have eaten was that which a gallant -colonel, who very worthily filled the mayoral chair -at Westminster, used to give annually at the Cavour -Restaurant. It consisted of a large turbot, a sucking-pig -nicely roasted, and apple pudding. Roast -sucking-pig is a dinner dish better understood in -England than anywhere else in the world, except, -perhaps, in China. When the Duke of Cambridge,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> -brother of George the Fourth, was entertained in -princely fashion at Belvoir, and was shown the menu -of a dinner on which a great French chef had exhausted -all his inventiveness, and was asked if there -were any dishes not included in the feast for which -he had a fancy, answered that he would like some -roast pig and an apple dumpling, both good British -dishes. His son, the Commander-in-Chief of our -days, also had a liking for pork, and, at one time, -word went round the British army that at inspection -lunches it was wise to give his Royal Highness pork -chops. Of course, the British army overdid it, and -the old Duke had so many pork chops put before him -in the course of a year that at last their presence on -the menu was far more likely to assist in the securing -of an unfavourable report on a regiment than was -their absence. Gravy soup, a grilled sole, a boiled -hen pheasant stuffed with oysters, and an open tart -formed the favourite dinner of a renowned gourmet of -my acquaintance.</p> - -<p>Of the made dishes that belong to British cookery, -jugged hare, I think, has the leading place. Yorkshire -pudding is as British as Stonehenge is, and -mince pies can claim to be to-day exactly what they -were when the Puritans used to preach against them. -Marrow bones and Welsh rarebits, buck rarebits, -and stewed tripe and onions are old British supper -dishes, but the early closing laws have killed the -old-fashioned British supper in eating-houses.</p> - -<p>Good British cookery in London has not fared well -in its battle against the invasion of good French -cookery, and the number of houses which made a -speciality of British fare has decreased woefully in the -last twenty years. The old Blanchard's and its half-a-crown -British dinner is a memory of the past (for -the new Blanchard's turned towards the goddess -A la), and the "Blue Posts" in Cork Street has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> -converted into a club. It was curious that the prosperity -of this typical old English house depended to a -great extent on a German head waiter; for Frank, -who had all the best traditions of British cookery at -heart, had served under the old Emperor Wilhelm in -the great war, and had been wounded by a French -bayonet thrust. There were certain rules of the -house that were excellent. One was that, no matter -what orders you might give beforehand, no fish was -ever put near the fire until the man who had ordered -it was inside the building, which ensured it going to -table cooked to the second; and another was that the -steaks, which were a great stand-by of the house, -were cut from the mass of beef just in time to be -transferred at once to the grill, thus making sure that -none of the juices should drain away.</p> - -<p>But there are still some temples of British cookery -left in Cockaigne, and to some of them presently I -will direct your steps.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="II" id="II">II</a></h3> - -<h3>SIMPSON'S IN THE STRAND</h3> - - -<p>A wide entrance glowing with light, with -Simpson's plain to see, on a wrought-iron sign above -it, is in the great block of the Savoy Hotel building -in the Strand, for the new Simpson's, though it -retains all its old associations and its old manager and -its old head cook—Mr Davey, the polite, white-haired -little ruler of the roast, who wears a velvet -cap, and who for forty-six years has seen the joints -turn before the vast open fire in the kitchen—is now -under the rule of the great organisation that controls -the Savoy.</p> - -<p>Come into the entrance hall, where you can give -up your hat and coat to an attendant; though if you -have been accustomed all your life to take them into -Simpson's you will still find in the dining-room stands -on which to hang them. The hall, with its marble -pillars, white panels and groined roof, is light and -airy; a staircase runs down from it to the smoking-room, -and another one runs up to the dining-rooms upon -the first floor. There is a tobacconist's stall in it, -and if the door of the expense bar to one side be open -you see through it shelves of bottles and flasks. -Through the wide door leading into the big dining-room -you see white-jacketed waiters moving hither -and thither, and white-coated and white-capped -carvers pushing the dinner waggons, crowned with -big plated covers, before them, and as a background -the fine fireplace, with its carved wooden overmantel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> -and its little marble pilasters, and a picture of a knight -and lady of Plantagenet days feasting let into the -central space.</p> - -<p>Mr N. Wheeler, the rosy-faced manager, white-haired, -and wearing the frock-coat of ceremony, will -probably greet you as you go into the dining-room. -He has seen all the various transformations of -Simpson's Chess Divan, which was originally Ries's -Divan, and he probably knows more about good old -English fare than any man living. When we have -eaten our turbot and saddle of mutton we will ask -him how it is that these two best of British dishes are -sent to table at Simpson's in such absolutely perfect -condition. But before we choose our seats at one of -the tables let us look round the room. The old -Simpson's is still fresh in my memory. The painted -garlands of flowers and studies of fish, flesh and -fowl on the walls, glazed to a deep rich colour by -the London atmosphere, the ground-glass windows, -the big bar opening into the room, with Rembrandtesque -shadows in its depths; the great dumb-waiter, -which looked like a catafalque, in the centre of the -room; the folded napkins in the glasses on the mantelpiece; -the horsehair-stuffed, black-cushioned chairs -and benches; the divisions with brass rails and dingy -little curtains on the rails.</p> - -<p>The pens with their brass rails are still in the old -place, but they are modernised pens; the wood is -oak, and there is a comfortable padded back of brown -leather to lean against. The eating-room has been -transformed into a banqueting hall. The walls are -panelled with light oak, with pilasters to give variety, -and an inlay of lighter wood at the corners of the -panels. There is a white frieze with good modelling -on it, and round the white-clothed tables which fill -but do not crowd the floor space are chairs copied from -a fine Chippendale example. A good old English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> -clock is on a bracket, and fine cut-glass lustre -chandeliers hang from the ceiling. In old days the -waiters at Simpson's were mostly British veterans, -and in the upstairs room Charles Flowerdew, the head -waiter, a genial old soul who always offered his -favourites amongst the customers a pinch from his -snuff-box, had a wealth of anecdotes about the great -men of the Victorian era who were habitués of -Simpson's. The waiters of to-day are Britons, but -they are young men, and if anyone has doubts -whether Englishmen properly trained can be as quick -and silent in the service of a dining house as foreigners -are, I would advise the doubter to eat a meal at -Simpson's and to watch how the waiters do their -work. The boys who take round the vegetables -become in time full-blown serving-men. The waiters -no longer wear the dress-coats, heroes of many -clashes with sauce-boats and plates of soup, which -used to be the official garb of the British waiter. -They wear white washing jackets, with at the breast -a little black shield, and on it the crest of the house—the -knight of a set of chessmen. All the tips are -pooled, with the result that all the serving-men work -for the general good.</p> - -<p>And now to look at the bill of fare. There are -no such foreign innovations as <i>hors d'œuvre</i> allowed -at Simpson's, where the only concessions to France -are in the wine cellar and that little French rolls -as well as household bread are in the bread baskets. -You can obtain a fish dinner of three kinds of fish -for three and ninepence; but we will order just -what we feel our appetite demands, and take no -account of set dinners. If your taste is for turtle -soup, a plate of that luxury will cost you three -shillings, but, if one of the simpler British soups will -content you, hare, pea, mock turtle, Scotch hotch-potch, -oxtail, giblet or mulligatawny are priced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> -at one shilling or one and sixpence. Then comes -the important question of fish, and the choice really -lies between a <i>Sole Souchet</i>, which Simpson's ought -to write <i>Zouchet</i>, boiled codfish and oyster sauce, -and boiled turbot and lobster sauce—the last one -of the dishes on which Simpson's prides itself. Until -I chatted with Mr Wheeler on the subject I always -understood that a turbot to come to table in perfection -should be hung for several days, but Mr Wheeler -denounces this as rank heresy. A turbot should -be nicked to draw off the blood of the fish, it should -be soaked for twenty-four hours, and then it is ready -to be boiled. It is instructive to watch a real -habitué of Simpson's who prefers cod to turbot when -a portly white-clad carver wheels his waggon up to the -table. There must be the right proportion of liver -with the fish and the due quantity of oyster in the -sauce, or there will be dire threats of report to -higher quarters. A boiled potato to anyone who -knows what is good English fare is not to be accepted -without criticism, and he would be a bold carver -who dared to give the knowledgeable man a helping -of saddle of mutton without a slice of the brown. -But before we go on to the supreme matter of the -saddle let me point out to you that whether you eat -sole, or cod, or turbot, it means an item of two -shillings on your bill.</p> - -<p>The joints ring the changes on roast sirloin, -boiled beef, boiled leg of mutton, roast loin of -veal and bath chap, and saddle of mutton, and it -is the saddle that is the favourite dish. Forty saddles -a day is the quantity consumed at Simpson's, and -now that the new room is opened sixty are required. -Simpson's employs a buyer whose duty in life is to -travel about England buying saddles wherever the -finest mutton is to be procured. For fourteen days -the saddles hang in the stock-room at Simpson's in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> -a temperature of 38°, then they are moved for two -or three days to another store, through which there -is a current of air, and then they are ready for -the fire. And whether you eat of the mutton, the -beef, or the veal, your portion and the accompanying -vegetables will cost you half-a-crown.</p> - -<p>We will not trifle with such kickshaws as <i>salmi</i> -of game, or Irish stew, or jugged hare, and to -finish our dinner we will take a helping of one of -the pies or puddings on the bill of fare, or, better -still, a good scoop of Stilton cheese or a wedge of -Cheshire.</p> - -<p>If you wish to be as British in your drinking as -in your eating, there is cool British ale from the cask, -which comes to table in a tankard, and cider, and -the whisky of Scotland and that of Ireland. -The house is also celebrated for its moderate-priced -Bordeaux and Burgundy wines, bottled in the cellars.</p> - -<p>If we go upstairs before leaving we can see the -dining-room to which ladies are admitted—a handsome -room of white with marble pillars—and you -will notice the great bunches of wild flowers which -adorn all the tables. On this floor there is a -smaller private banqueting-room, and the new white -Adams' Room, the double windows of which look -into the Strand on one side and the entrance courtyard -on the other. It is a handsome room, with -settees by the window tables, and at night hanging -baskets and lamps on the cornice throw light up to -the ceiling to be reflected down into the room.</p> - -<p>Down in the smoking-room on the basement level -you will find a little band of chess-players, faithful -to the old Divan, hard at the game, using the old -chess-boards and the huge pieces of the Divan days, -and it may further gratify your love for antiquarian -lore to know that Simpson's stands on the site -occupied by the old Fountain tavern, of which Strype<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> -wrote: "A very fine tavern, with excellent vaults, -good rooms for entertainments, and a curious kitchen -for the dressing of meat." It was at the Fountain -that the opponents of Walpole held their meetings -and that the Earl of Derwentwater and the other -Jacobite lords on trial for rebellion, being taken daily -backwards and forwards between the Tower and -Westminster, made favour with their jailer to let -them halt for an hour to eat what they expected to be -their last good dinner on earth.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="III" id="III">III</a></h3> - -<h3>A WALK DOWN FLEET STREET</h3> - -<h4>THE CHESHIRE CHEESE</h4> - - -<p>Doctor Samuel Johnson stands in bronze before St -Clement Danes and faces his beloved Fleet Street. If -the great dictionary maker took his eyes off the book -he holds in his hands, got down from his pedestal -without knocking over the inkpot which is perilously -near his clumsy old feet, and started for a walk down -the street he loved so well, his remarks on the -changes that have been made by time and the architects -would be instructive. What would he say to -Street's Law Courts? And with what sesquipedalian -words would he lament the disappearance of Temple -Bar and the appearance in its stead of the pantomime -Griffin? And how the old man would snort and fume -to find the taverns he was used to frequent altered -out of recognition, or moved from their old places. -The Rainbow's lamp would bring him to a halt, for -the Rainbow stands to-day where Farr the barber set -up his coffee-house, "by inner Temple Gate." Farr -was "presented," in 1657, as an abuse by his neighbours, -who protested against the smell of the coffee, -but were in reality afraid that the new drink was -going to oust canary and other wines. Johnson knew -the old tavern in the brave days when Alexander -Moncrieff was the host, when it still, though its -"stewed cheeses" and its stout were celebrated, -called itself a coffee-house, and the largest room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> -was the coffee-room, with a lofty bay-window at the -south end looking into the Temple. In this bay -the table was set for the worthies who frequented -the house, and they could, through a glazed screen, -see all that went on in the kitchen. The old Doctor, -reading on the door-jamb that the Rainbow is -occupied by the Bodega Company, would discourse -learnedly on the meaning and uses of a Bodega. He -would note with approval Groom's little coffee-house, -a few steps farther on, which, though it did not exist -in his days, for it dates back only to 1818, is one of -the few establishments still existing which lives by -the sale of coffee as a beverage, and prospers on its -best Mocha at threepence a cup.</p> - -<p>The Cock in its present condition would puzzle the -old man most consumedly, and he would look across -the street to see what has become of that tavern's old -site; but if he went inside the house he would find -that Grinling Gibbons' wood-carving of the cock had -flown across the street, and that in the upper room is -the panelling from the old alehouse in which the -festive Pepys drank and sang and ate a lobster and -afterwards "mightily merry" took Knip for a moonlight -row on the Thames. It would be useless to -talk to the Doctor of Tennyson and the plump head-waiter -of the Cock, but pilgrims following the footsteps -of those poets who have lunched in Fleet Street -will find that the Cock is still a house where the -"perfect pint of stout" and the "proper chop" are -reached out with deft hands to customers, and that no -head waiter unless he be plump is ever engaged for -the upper room.</p> - -<p>The Devil Tavern, which Ben Jonson made so -famous by his Apollo Club, and which stood between -Temple Bar and the Middle Temple Gate, was -bought by Messrs Child, the bankers, in 1787, some -years after the death of Samuel Johnson, when it had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> -fallen into disuse, and was pulled down and dwelling-houses -erected on its site. Ben's "Welcome" and -the Apollo bust were transferred to the bank. The -most famous of all the Johnsonian taverns, the Mitre, -was another of the old houses to fall a victim to -bankers, for four years after the Doctor's death it -ceased to be a tavern, became in turn Macklin's Poets' -Gallery and Saunders's auction-rooms, and was finally -pulled down that on its site "Hoare's New Banking-house" -should be erected. Joe's Coffee-house in -Mitre Court borrowed the derelict name when the -Mitre closed its shutters, and set up a copy of -Nollekins' bust of the Doctor as homage to his -memory.</p> - -<p>Opposite to Wine Office Court, the Sage of Fleet -Street would stop in his shamble and would wait -for an opportunity to cross the road. If Doctor -Johnson hated the transit of the roadway when the -traffic was but of hackney carriages and the coaches -of aldermen and stage coaches and horsemen, how -would he face the hurtling streams of taxi-cabs and -motor omnibuses which nowadays jostle in the road? -And what, when he had crossed the road, would he -think of Fuller's little sweet-stuff shop which, gay -with colour, has fastened itself, where there used to -be a dingy wine merchant's office with cobwebbed -bottles of old port in its dim, solemn windows, on -the Fleet Street front of the Old Cheshire Cheese? -The new-comer looks like a bright stamp stuck on -some musty old parchment deed. Doctor Johnson -would, I am sure, growl as he rolled through the -narrow entrance into the court and on to the door -of the old tavern.</p> - -<p>And as he and you and I stand in the narrow -doorway and look to the right at the little bar, a -harmony in dark colours with the old china punch-bowls -in their accustomed corner, and glass and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> -pewter and silver catching reflections of light amidst -the black of old oak; and to the left at the old -dining-room kept exactly as it was in Doctor Johnson's -time; and to the front at the old oak staircase leading -to the rooms above, let me explain to you that each -white-haired generation of frequenters of the Cheshire -Cheese finds fault with the arrangements made for -the newer generation. When Johnson and Goldsmith -ceased to use the house I am sure that the -comfortable gentlemen who had sat at the long table -and had listened to their conversation found that of -an evening the talk had grown dull; and when -Colonel Lawrence, who had carried one of the colours -of the 20th Regiment at the battle of Minden, had -been a crony of Goldsmith, and had hobnobbed with -him and with Johnson over the port at the -Cheese, died, the company at the long table must -have lamented that all the "good old sort" and the -good old customs were passing away. A sturdy -supporter of the Cheese, who is some fifteen years -older than I am, sighs for the days when he was first -allowed to sit at the table where the Deputy-Governor -of Newgate and a head clerk of Somerset House led -the conversation. And when I go into the Cheese -nowadays and find that two score belles from -Baltimore, or half-a-hundred pretty Puritans from -Philadelphia, have taken possession of the lower -room, are drinking tea with their lunches, are talking -like an aviary in commotion, and are more intent on -buying souvenirs of Johnson than on appreciating the -delights of the pudding, I sigh for the days thirty -years ago when the Cheese was a grumpy man's -paradise. I am quite sure that when Mr Dollamore, -a host of the Cheese who has grown to heroic size -as seen through the mists of time, died, people of -that day thought that the great pudding would never -again be mixed and carved by a master hand. I look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> -back now to the serious expression, the sort of -expression we all assume as we enter a church door, -that used to come upon the face of smiling Mr Moore -as the vast pudding was carried in and he prepared -to pierce its snowy covering. When Henry Todd, -a waiter who entered Mr Dollamore's service two -years before the battle of Waterloo, left the house -and his portrait was painted by subscription and -given as an heirloom to be hung in the dining-room, -no one believed that young William Simpson, then -just entering the service of the Cheese, would live -to be even a more famous head waiter, to have <i>his</i> -portrait painted to be hung in honour in the coffee-room, -and to give his name to one of the rooms -upstairs.</p> - -<p>And now, having explained that if an old frequenter -of the Cheshire Cheese sometimes grumbles at -changes it is only through affection for the old house, -let us go into the dining-room and sit down and look -around us. We will leave Doctor Johnson's seat at -the long table, with its brass tablet and his portrait -above it, for the Shade of the great man. You shall -sit in Oliver Goldsmith's seat with your back to the -windows looking out into Cheshire Cheese Court, -roofed in now to make a second dining-room; I will -sit opposite to you, and we will take note of our surroundings. -The approval of the old Doctor can be -safely guaranteed. The sawdust on the floor; the -wide grate with a shining copper kettle on the hob; -the old mirror; the churchwarden pipes on the -window-sill; the green-curtained cosy corner by the -door, just like the squire's pew in many old churches; -the black-handled knives and forks arranged in a row -of black oak hutches; the willow-patterned plates -and dishes; the queer old receptacle for umbrellas -in the middle of the floor; the wire blinds, and the -old tables and oak high-backed settles are to-day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> -exactly as they were when Johnson in the flesh -frequented the tavern. The "greybeard" and the -leathern jack, gifts from Mr Seymour Lucas, R.A., -are quite in keeping with the room, and such of the -pictures as are not old deal with incidents in Johnson's -life or are sketches of the room and of the worthies -who have frequented it. The manager of to-day -keeps the house just as it used to be a century and a -half ago, and being so, it is one of the most interesting -old buildings in London.</p> - -<p>Upstairs are the kitchen, where the woman cook -responds to the verbal shorthand shouts of the waiters -by putting chops and steaks on to the grill and -clanging the oven door as good things to bake go -into its recesses, and other old rooms, in which are -some interesting relics of the old lexicographer, the -chair in which he always sat at the Mitre, and other -things curious and quaint, but they must await inspection -till after lunch, for to-day is a pudding day, -and the fat waiter with a moustache is waiting for our -orders.</p> - -<p>The pudding in its great earthenware bowl stands -on a little table in the middle of the room. It is a -triumph of old British cookery. In it are larks, -kidneys, oysters, mushrooms, steak, and there are -ingredients in the gravy which are a secret of the -house. There are many imitations of the Cheshire -Cheese pudding, but no such pudding unless it comes -from the Cheshire Cheese kitchen has quite the right -taste and quite the right richness of gravy. There is -no stint in the helpings at the Cheshire Cheese. Any -man with an appetite has only to ask for a "follow" -to obtain it, and there are traditions that some men -of mighty capacity have even had three helpings. -Monday, Wednesday and Friday are pudding days. -There is generally Irish stew on non-pudding days, -and the Cheese Irish stew is admirable. Marrow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> -bones are another speciality of the house, and a -Cheshire Cheese bone holds much marrow. The -typical Cheshire Cheese meal, however—and I am -sure Doctor Johnson would agree with me—is The -Pudding, and the strong Scotch ale of the house -therewith; stewed cheese, which comes to table in -a shallow little pan accompanied by hot toast, and to -finish up a bowl of the Cheshire Cheese punch -served from an old china bowl with a good old-fashioned -silver ladle. But beware of drinking too -much of this punch, being deceived by its apparent -innocence. I know one man who, saying it was as -mild as mother's milk, drank the greater portion of a -bowl of punch, remarked that he was a boy again, -and behaved as a boy, and not until noon next day -came to the conclusion that he was a very elderly -man with a headache.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="IV" id="IV">IV</a></h3> - -<h3>THE CARLTON</h3> - - -<p>If all the great French chefs all the world over were -canvassed for an opinion as to which amongst them -is the greatest cook of the day, I am sure that -the majority of votes would be in favour of -M. Auguste Escoffier, the Maître-Chef of the Carlton -Restaurant in London. When any restaurant is -exceeding successful, whether it appeals to popular -taste, or to the taste of the most cultured classes, -there is sure to be amongst those men who have -brought it fame or brought it popularity, some -strongly marked personality, a great organiser, a -great cook, or, perhaps, a great <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, such -as poor dead Joseph was. And the commanding -personality at the Carlton is M. Escoffier, who, -had he been a man of the pen and not a man of the -spoon, would have been a poet, and who, wearing -the white cap and the white jacket, makes the sense -of taste respond to the beautiful things he invents, -just as the sense of hearing thrills to the cadence of -a poet's words, or the melody of a great composer's -music. And M. Escoffier holds that things which -are beautiful to the taste should be fair to the eye, -and should have pleasant-sounding titles. He, for -instance, rechristened frogs, making them "nymphes," -and <i>nymphes à l'Aurore</i> has a place in his great book -on modern cookery.</p> - -<p>The following is a typical Escoffier menu. It is -for a little supper after the Opera, and was published<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> -in <i>Le Carnet d'Epicure</i>, a magazine, to the pages -of which M. Escoffier is a prolific contributor.</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Gelée de Poulet aux Nids d'Hirondelles.<br /> -Soufflé d'Ecrevisses Florentine.<br /> -Côtelettes d'Agneau de Lait Favorite.<br /> -Petits Pois Frais.<br /> -Ortolans au Champagne.<br /> -Salade d'Oranges.<br /> -Asperges de Serre.<br /> -Pêches à la Fraisette des Bois.<br /> -Baisers de Vierge.<br /> -Mignardises.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The menu reads as delicately as the dishes would -taste. The <i>baisers de Vierge</i> are twin meringues, -the cream perfumed with vanilla and holding -crystallised white rose leaves and white violets. -Over each pair of meringues is a veil of spun sugar. -This is worthy of the man who conceived the <i>bombe -Nero</i>, a flaming ice, who gave all London a new -<i>entremet</i> in <i>fraises à la Sarah Bernhardt</i>, and who -added a new glory to a great singer by creating -the <i>pêche Melba</i>.</p> - -<p>M. Escoffier is a little below the middle height, -grey haired, and grey of moustache. His face is the -face of an artist, or a statesman, and the quick eyes -tell of his capacity for command. The quiet little -man who, amidst all the clangour of the great white-tiled -kitchen below the restaurant of the Carlton, -seems to have nothing to do except to occasionally -glance at the dishes before they leave his realm or to -give a word of counsel when some very delicate -<i>entremet</i> is in the making, to taste a sauce or give -a final touch to the arrangement of some elaborate -cold entrée, has organised his brigade of vociferous -cooks of all nations as thoroughly as Crawford -organised the Light Division of Peninsular fame. -There is never any difficulty, for every difficulty has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> -been foreseen. Only a man who has climbed the -ladder from its lowest rung possesses such knowledge -and such authority. M. Escoffier began his career -as a boy in the kitchen of his uncle's restaurant in -Nice. He went to Russia to the kitchen of one -of the Grand Dukes, he served in the Franco-Prussian -War as the Chef de Cuisine to the General -Staff of the Army of the Rhine, and he knows -the bitterness of captivity in the hands of an enemy. -He was with Maréchal MacMahon at the Elysée and -left the Grand Hotel at Rome when Ritz and he -and Echenard came to London to make history at -the Savoy. He writes with a very pretty wit on -subjects connected with his profession, and he is -married to a lady who, under her maiden name of -Delphine Daffis, is well known in France as a poetess, -and who has recently been decorated with the violet -ribbon as Officier d'Académie.</p> - -<p>If I have given so much space to a sketch of the -great Maître-Chef, it is not that he is the only man -of talent amongst the personnel of the Carlton. -M. Kreamer, the manager, is eminent amongst -his fellows. In the restaurant M. Besserer, light -of hair, and with a light curling moustache, is an -admirable Maître d'Hôtel, and the Carlton grill-room -(to which I shall give attention when I write of the -grill-rooms of London) owes much of its popularity -to its manager, Signor Ventura.</p> - -<p>And now for a little ancient history. Her Majesty's -Opera House, with a colonnade surrounding it in -which were shops and a little restaurant, Epitaux's, -where the Iron Duke and other famous men gave -dinner-parties in the early Victorian days, stood at -the corner of the Haymarket and Pall Mall. If I -wrote of the glories and the disasters of the big house -of song I should have to write a book. When a -company bought the site, and the Carlton and His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> -Majesty's Theatre rose on it, the colonnade disappeared -from three sides, and all the shops on those -sides also vanished except the offices of Justerini and -Brooks. These wine merchants held to their old -position, and their window front was encased in the -building of the new hotel without the business of the -firm suffering a day's interruption. A cigar store -has since then found an abiding place on the Pall Mall -frontage. The name of Epitaux's was taken by -the restaurant next door to the Haymarket Theatre, -but was eventually dropped in favour of a more -attractive title, the Pall Mall.</p> - -<p>The tall porter outside the entrance of the Carlton -in Pall Mall sets the swing door in motion to let us -through; coats and hats, cloaks and furs are garnered -from us as we pass through the ante-room, and then -we are in the palm lounge, that happy inspiration of -the architect which has been copied in other hotels -through the length and breadth of the habitable -world. The double glass roof, letting in light but -keeping out draughts, was a novelty when the hotel -was built. But, though this palm court has been -copied far and wide, it has never been bettered. The -terrace breaks up pleasantly the great width of floor -space. The tall palms, and the flowers and smaller -palms before the terrace, and the green cane easy-chairs -give a sylvan touch to this great hall in the heart of -London; and, as an instance of perfect taste, notice the -little medallions of Wedgwood ware dependent from -the capitals of the creamy marble pilasters.</p> - -<p>Up the broad flight of steps we go into the -restaurant, a restaurant the colouring in which is such -that it never clashes with the hues of any lady's dress. -The garlands of golden leaves on the ceiling, the -artful use of mirrors and evergreens to give the -illusion that outside the windows north and west there -are gardens, the cut-glass chandeliers converted into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> -electroliers, and giving a soft rosy light, the brown -and deep rose of the carpet, the lighter rose of the -chairs, the gilt cornice, the <i>œil de bœuf</i> windows -towards the palm lounge, all form a perfect setting for -charming people eating delicate foods. The keynote -of the restaurant in decoration, as in the dinners which -come from Escoffier's kitchen, is refinement. It is a -pity, perhaps, that there is not daylight to brighten -the restaurant from end to end, and that the electric -lamps are always alight; but at dinner-time this is -no drawback. An excellent string band plays on the -terrace, but it is as well at dinner-time to choose a -table far enough away from the musicians to ensure -comfortable converse.</p> - -<p>And now to describe to you a typical Carlton -dinner. It is not easy, for I have so many memories -of so many typical dinners there. Once the annual -banquet of my old regiment was held at the Carlton -in a great space of the restaurant screened off from -the other diners. That was a noble feast! Again -a memory comes to me of a silver wedding dinner, -for which the table was decorated with creamy white -and light pink roses, with silvered leaves. Escoffier -composed for the occasion a dinner all white and -pink, in which the Bortch was the deepest note of -colour, the <i>filets de poulets à la Paprika</i> halved the -two hues, and the flesh of an <i>agneau de lait</i> formed the -highest light in the picture. That was the second -occasion on which M. Escoffier sent to a dining-table -the <i>pêches Aiglon</i>, the first occasion being -a supper which Madame Sarah Bernhardt gave to -Sir Henry Irving and other stars of our stage.</p> - -<p>But most distinctive of all the dinners of ceremony -at which I have been a guest at the Carlton was the -dinner which Mr William Heinemann, the well-known -publisher, gave to celebrate the publication -by his firm of Escoffier's great work, "A Guide<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> -to Modern Cookery." The dinner was the idea of -the Maître-Chef, who suggested that the best way -to criticise the book would be to invite some of the -men in whose judgment the publisher had faith to -eat a dinner cooked by the man who had written the -book. We were fourteen in all, mostly "ink-stained -wretches," and amongst the signatures on the menu, -which I religiously pasted opposite the title-page -of my autographed copy of the work, are those of -Sir Douglas Straight and of T. P. O'Connor, of a -member of the great house of Harmsworth, and -of other men whose palates are as keen as their -pens.</p> - -<p>This was the menu of the dinner and the list of -the wines we drank that 30th May 1907:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon Cantaloup.<br /> -Caviar de Sterlet.<br /> -Tortue Claire.<br /> -Velouté Froid de Volaille.<br /> -Mousseline d'Ecrevisses Orientale.<br /> -Jeune Agneau Piqué de Sauge.<br /> -Morilles à la Crème.<br /> -Petits Pois à l'Anglaise.<br /> -Poularde Ena.<br /> -Trou Normand.<br /> -Cailles aux Raisins.<br /> -Asperges d'Argenteuil.<br /> -Pêches Sainte Alliance.<br /> -Mignardises.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Vins.</span><br /> -Vodka.<br /> -Amontillado, Dry.<br /> -Berncastler Doctor, 1893.<br /> -Heidsieck and Co., Dry, 1892.<br /> -Pommery and Greno, Nature, 1900.<br /> -Château Lafitte, 1878.<br /> -Dow's Port, 1887.<br /> -Café Double—Grandes Liqueurs.<br /> -</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;"> -<a id="escoffierp24"></a> -<img src="images/escoffierp24.jpg" width="404" height="587" alt="Escoffier photo" /> -<div class="caption">M. ESCOFFIER</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> -<p>The <i>velouté froid</i> is a test dish, for only a master -hand can give it the right consistency without allowing -it to become pasty. The <i>mousselines</i> were -beautifully light, each in the form of a cygnet, -surrounding a central figure of a swan. The -<i>poularde Ena</i> was the one dish in the banquet to -which, because of its richness, I kissed my hand and -passed it by. The combination of quails and grapes -is one of M. Escoffier's happiest inspirations, and -the <i>pêches Ste Alliance</i> is one of those delicate -<i>entremets</i> in which Escoffier excels any other great -chef of to-day, or of the past. The <i>trou Normand</i> -is rather a violent stimulus to appetite, and consists -of a liqueur-glass of old brandy. When M. -Escoffier came with the coffee, to ask us what our -verdict was on his dinner, our only difficulty was -to find a sufficiency of complimentary adjectives.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="V" id="V">V</a></h3> - -<h3>TWO LITTLE SOHO RESTAURANTS</h3> - -<h4>AU PETIT RICHE. MOULIN D'OR</h4> - - -<p>There is a little restaurant in Old Compton Street, -the Au Petit Riche, with the outside of which I was -acquainted for some years before I put foot inside it. -It so evidently kept itself to itself that I felt that my -presence might be resented. It has little casemented -windows in white frames, and inside the windows are -muslin curtains, on a rail, hung sufficiently high to -prevent anyone from looking over them. Below the -windows are green tiles, and above it a stretch of -little panes of bottle-glass in white frames to give -additional light to the rooms inside. A little ground-glass -lantern hung outside the door, and the name -of the restaurant was painted over the window, but -there was no bill of fare put up outside, no attempt -to draw in a diner unless he had made up his mind -to dine at the Au Petit Riche and nowhere else. I -had been told all about the restaurant by those gallant -souls who experiment at every new eating-place that -springs up between Shaftesbury Avenue and Oxford -Street, and though all I heard about the little place -was pleasant and interested me, I felt that the Petit -Riche was not anxious to make my acquaintance. -But when the Petit Riche put up outside its windows -an illuminated sign and its number, 44, in big figures, -I felt that it had abandoned its haughty reserve and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> -was beckoning to me, and the rest of London, to -come in. And in I went, and have been going in at -intervals ever since, for the little restaurant is artistic -and French and amusing.</p> - -<p>When you open the glazed door and go in you are -faced by the question: "On the level or down below?" -A door to the right leads into the little series of -rooms on the ground floor, and a flight of stairs -plunges down into the basement. Come, first of all, -through the door to the right. We are in the first -of three little rooms, with light-coloured walls. A -row of small tables is on either side of each room, -and in the first room a white desk, with palms on it, -faces towards the door. A score of pretty little -French waitresses, Bretonnes all, in white and black, -are bustling about, and Mademoiselle, if she is not -sitting at the white desk, will probably receive you -at the door and smile and pilot you to a table. And -I should, before going any further, explain to you -who Mademoiselle is, and tell you the story of the -Au Petit Riche. A good Breton and his wife came -to London and established a little restaurant in Old -Compton Street, and with them came their two very -pretty daughters. And they made the Au Petit -Riche a corner of Brittany in London. The chef, -who had graduated at the Escargot d'Or, a big -bourgeois house near the Halles in Paris, is a Breton -by birth, and all the merry little waitresses are from -Brittany. The elder of the two daughters married a -young journalist and for a while left the restaurant, but -when her father and mother thought that the time had -come for them to retire, she and her husband took up -the management of the restaurant, with her sister to -help them. And Mademoiselle, fresh and smiling, with -a bunch of roses pinned to her blouse, is in command -in the upper rooms, while Madame, as gracious as she -is handsome, sits at her desk in one of the lower<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> -rooms with a great bowl of flowers before her, and -laughs with the young artists, who form a large -portion of the clientele of the Au Petit Riche, and -controls the waitresses, and sends the waiters, of -whom there are two, out to fetch the wine, which -comes from a wineshop a few paces away.</p> - -<p>Established at a table in the first of the upstairs -rooms, a glance at the walls will tell anyone that the -place is a haunt of artists, for the pictures are just the -omnium gatherum of artistic trifles that an artist -generally puts on the walls of his den. Pencil -drawings, rough things in charcoal, etchings, mezzotints, -caricatures, sketches in colour, Japanese coloured -prints—a gallery of scraps at which a Philistine -would turn up his nose, but which look comfortable -and homelike to the eye artistic. And at the head -of the <i>carte du jour</i>, which a little waitress holds -out to you, there is a good black and white of the -exterior of the little restaurant—there is the atmosphere -of art about the place.</p> - -<p>Let us look down the list of dishes and order our -dinner. The little waitress, on chance, has addressed -us in French, but if she is answered in English can -carry on a conversation in that language. There are -two soups on the list, <i>consommé Colbert</i>, which costs -sixpence, no doubt because of the egg, and <i>crème -Cressonière</i>, which costs only threepence, and we will -choose the cheaper of the two. Amongst the fish -dishes, the salmon and the sole cost a shilling, but -we will choose the <i>vol au vent de Turbot Joinville</i>, -which costs ninepence. Amongst the entrées is an -item, two <i>quails en Cocotte</i>, for a shilling. Curiosity -prompts me to suggest that we should order this, -having in mind what the price of a single quail is on -a club bill of fare, but we shall be on safer ground -in ordering one of the dishes of the house, the <i>filet -mignon Petit Riche</i>, which costs a shilling, and with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> -it some peas, fourpence, and some new potatoes, also -fourpence. Amongst the <i>entremets</i> is a <i>Pêche Petit -Riche</i>, which the little waitress strongly recommends, -but <i>beignets de pommes</i> at threepence seems to me -a more fitting ending for our repast.</p> - -<p>There is no long waiting for one's food at the -Au Petit Riche; the soup arrives almost immediately -and is wonderful value for threepence. The <i>vol au -vent</i> is an admirable little fish pie, and the <i>filet -mignon</i> a most toothsome morsel of meat, while the -<i>beignets</i> are all that they should be. The little -waitress, when we have arrived at the <i>filet mignon</i> -stage of the dinner, asks with the utmost solicitude: -"Do you like eet?" and I have replied for both of -us "Very much indeed." At the table to one side -of us are a young couple whose dinner has consisted -of curried chicken and plum pudding au Rhum, and -at the table to our other side, two ladies are eating -a typical woman's dinner of <i>hors d'œuvre</i>, poached -eggs and spinach, and a vanilla ice. The Au Petit -Riche finds room on its small <i>carte du jour</i> for dishes -to suit all tastes.</p> - -<p>The little waitress brings the total of the bill on -a bit of green paper; and having finished our dinner, -and having paid for it, we will go down into the lower -rooms before leaving the restaurant. In the lower -rooms every table is always occupied, and I fancy that -the habitués of the restaurant prefer them to the upper -ones. One of them is decorated with golden fleurs-de-lis -on a blue ground, and another is an admirable -representation of the kitchen of a Breton farmhouse, -crockery and all complete. There is a great -buzz of talk in these lower rooms, and Madame la -Patronne, sitting at her desk amidst the tables, -takes her share in the conversation and attends -to the making out of the bills at one and the same -time.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> - -<p>If you go to the Au Petit Riche in the right frame -mind you will be abundantly amused and interested, -and you will get wonderful value for the very small -sum your dinner will cost you.</p> - -<p>And now for my other little restaurant in Soho. It -is the Moulin d'Or at 27 Church Street. When -Karl Thiele, who was in the employ of Peter Gallina -at the Rendez-Vous Restaurant, married the pretty -book-keeper at the Richelieu Restaurant, they determined -to set up in business on their own account, -and took a ground-floor room in Church Street, gave -it a good-looking window, put a row of little trees -outside, hung baskets of ferns within, and christened -it Le Moulin d'Or, hoping that their mill would grind -golden grist. It was a doll's house restaurant when I -first discovered it two years ago, and the great ambition -then of its proprietor and proprietress was that -they might in time become sufficiently prosperous to -add the first-floor room to their establishment. They -have prospered, and when I lately went to dine -there I found that the lower room with a restful green -paper had been increased in size by taking in the -passage, and that upstairs is a new restaurant room -also with green walls and a large window, the dream -realised of the young couple. And not only have -these improvements and additions been made, but -quite close to the Moulin d'Or there has been put up -a wonderful windmill with electrically lighted sails -which revolve, and below it a hand pointing in the -direction of the restaurant and a transparency whereon -see inscribed the prices of the <i>table d'hôte</i> meals, -luncheon, and dinner, and supper, for the Moulin -d'Or has both its <i>carte du jour</i> and its <i>table d'hôte</i> meals. -For half-a-crown, on the occasion of my last visit, -I could have eaten <i>hors d'œuvre</i>, made my choice -between a <i>consommé</i> and a <i>crème soup</i> and partaken of -salmon, <i>filet de bœuf</i>, roast chicken and caramel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -cream, but I preferred to turn my attention to the <i>carte -du jour</i>, and ordered <i>crème Suzette</i>, 6d.; <i>truite au bleu</i>, -1s. 3d.; <i>escalope de veau Viennoise</i>, 10d.; <i>haricots verts</i>, 6d.; -and an <i>omelette au Rhum</i>, 10d., all very well cooked and -served piping hot. The restaurant has not yet a wine -licence, but for all that a special wine is reserved -for it at a neighbouring wineshop, an excellent light -burgundy, <i>Château Villy</i>, at 4s. 6d. a quart, and 2s. 6d. -a pint, and, besides, there is a quite comprehensive -wine list. Karl Thiele and his wife, looking for -new kingdoms to conquer, have moved to Brighton, -where they are established in St James's Street, and -the new host at the Moulin d'Or is M. Combes, a very -young man, assisted by a very young wife. They are, -in spite of their youth, maintaining the reputation of -the house for good cookery.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="VI" id="VI">VI</a></h3> - -<h3>A RAG-TIME DINNER</h3> - -<h4>AT THE IMPERIAL RESTAURANT</h4> - - -<p>My little French cousin who has married the Comte -de St Solidor (if that is not his exact title it is, literally, -next door to it) has brought her Breton husband -across the Channel to make the acquaintance of his -English relatives, and is desperately anxious that he -shall not be depressed by London. He is a jolly, -round-faced Frenchman, with a rather straggly light -beard and a great head of intractable light hair, and, -were it not that he cannot speak a word of our -language, might pass for a young Yorkshire squire. -My little French cousin was particularly afraid that -Robert, that is his first name, would suffer all the -tortures of ennui on Sunday, for her mother, who -was English-born, had told her that the English in -England spend their Sunday afternoons, when they -are grown-up, in singing hymns, and when they are -children in repeating aloud the catechism. I told my -little cousin to have no fear, that London Sundays are -no longer what they were when her mother was a -child, and I offered to take charge of Robert and herself -on their first Sunday in London, from after lunch-time -till bed-time, and to try and keep them amused.</p> - -<p>I asked my little French cousin whether rag-time -had penetrated to Brittany, and she, pitying my ignorance, -told me that at Dinard, last summer, they had -talked to rag-time music, and bathed to it, and had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> -even played syncopated <i>chemin de fer</i> to it, as well as -danced to it. But, when I asked her if at Dinard she -had ever eaten to it, she said, "But no," and gave a -mimetic sketch of eating food to the air of "Everybody's -doing it now," which was very funny. That -settled where we should dine on Sunday, and I wrote -off at once to the Imperial Restaurant to secure a -dinner-table for four, and asked another cousin, a -British one, to complete the <i>partie carrée</i>.</p> - -<p>The afternoon of Sunday caused me no anxiety. -Robert is devoted to music, so I took him and the -Comtesse to the Queen's Hall to one of Sir Henry -Wood's concerts, and on to the Royal Automobile -Club to tea, and neither of them showed any sign of -being oppressed by Sabbath gloom.</p> - -<p>At ten minutes past eight I was waiting in the -vestibule between the street entrance and the -restaurant, where a marble bust of the late King -Edward smiles at each customer who enters. I had -ordered my dinner, a very simple one—<i>potage Germiny, -truites au bleu, noisettes de mouton,</i> new peas -and potatoes, ham and spinach, asparagus, and a -<i>bombe</i>, and a magnum of Goulet, 1900, to drink -therewith. For ten minutes I sat in the window-seat -watching pretty ladies and men of all ages and types -pass through the vestibule, give up their coats and -cloaks, shake hands, and go in little coveys into the -restaurant. The orchestra in the distance was sawing -away at an operatic overture, the ante-room was comfortably -warmed, and as dinner was the only event of -the evening I did not fidget because my little cousin -delayed in her coming. I was not the only solitary -man waiting. In front of the fireplace stood a beautiful -young man, with sleeve-links and studs and -buttons to his white waistcoat that must have cost a -fortune. Now and again he glanced at the clock, -a work of art, in which a gilded cupid points with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> -finger to the revolving girdle of hours on a vase, and -when he had ascertained how late <i>she</i> was already he -surveyed the other human creatures about him with -tolerant pride and slight hauteur. I have no gift of -telepathy, but I was quite sure that he was waiting -for some very beautiful lady of the stage, and pitied -those of us who had no such divinity to be our guest.</p> - -<p>The British cousin arrived to time, and not very -long afterwards my French cousins appeared. She -looked at the clock and declared that they were late -because Robert could not find his evening studs, and -Robert laughed, as men do when called upon to substantiate -a white fib told by their wives. She had -asked me whether she ought to dine in her hair, or in -a hat, and I had answered that either way would be -quite correct. She had decided not to wear a hat in -order to be quite English, and she looked entirely -charming. I could not help glancing at the beautiful -young man who monopolised the fire to see what he -thought of my star guest. He was slightly interested, -but he answered my glance by one which meant -"Wait and see."</p> - -<p>I had secured a corner table at a reasonable distance -from the band, which occupies a platform about half-way -down the room, and we enthroned the little -cousin on the chair in the angle, so that she could see -everybody and everything in the room. Every table -but one was occupied, and that I knew was reserved -for the beautiful young man whom we had left looking -with a frown at cupid's finger. My little French -cousin was in high spirits, and Robert acted as an -amiable chorus. She recognised that the room was -French—it is a copy of one of the salons at Fontainebleau, -and perceived that the pictures of cupids, -which are between the round windows and the tall -casemented glasses, were inspired by Boucher. She -liked the carved marble mantelpiece and the crystal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> -and gold electroliers. I was called upon to tell her -who everybody was at the other tables, and I launched -out recklessly into fiction. I knew by sight a dozen -of our fellow-diners, and the rest I described as -M.P.'s and ladies of title, officers of the Household -Brigade, and divettes of the Gaiety, Daly's, the Lyric, -and the Shaftesbury, which they probably are, celebrated -painters and prima donnas, according to their -appearance. My British cousin choked over a bone -of the trout, so he said, but my little French cousin -and her spouse were much impressed by my exhaustive -acquaintance with all the celebrities of my native -city, which was just the effect I wished to produce.</p> - -<p>Little Oddenino, going the round of the tables, -saying a word or two to all his clientele, came to our -corner, asked if all was as it should be, took up -the menu, and lifted his eyebrows. Of course -I know that to follow the <i>noisettes</i> by ham was -inartistic, but being in the vein of romance I said that -my little French cousin was passionately fond of ham, -and demanded it at all her meals, and not that I prefer -ham to mutton, which would have been the truth. -The little man bowed and smiled and passed on; My -cousin asked who he was, and when I replied, "Oddy," -she inquired if it was he who would presently make -the rag-time. Pleased to be on bed-rock truth at last -I gave her a shorthand sketch of Oddenino's career; -how Turin is his native town; how he opened one of -the great hotels at Cimiez, and earned the thanks of -the late Queen Victoria and a fine tie-pin when she -stayed there; how he was manager of the East -Room at the Criterion, and of the Café Royal, and -from the latter restaurant stepped two doors farther -down Regent Street and built the Imperial Restaurant. -I described story upon story of banqueting-rooms -that are to be found on the Glasshouse Street side, and -how Freemasons—good, charitable British Freemasons,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> -not troublesome political French Freemasons—feast -in them in great numbers every night in the -year. I sketched out the little man's other ventures, -and I ended by telling her that Oddenino is a -man of much consideration in the Italian colony in -London, and has been decorated by his king. Surely -she did not expect a Cavaliere to make rag-time music? -And my little French cousin said "assuredly not."</p> - -<p>When we had come to the <i>noisettes'</i> stage of our -dinner the beautiful young man whom we had left -waiting in the vestibule came in—alone. He looked -as gloomy as Hamlet, and held in his hand a letter, -which he tore into small pieces and thrust into the ice -pail beside his table. "The poor animal!" said my -little cousin pityingly. "He is dining with an excuse." -He drank two glasses of champagne in quick succession, -and then felt strong enough to sup his soup.</p> - -<p>About this period a change came over the music -of the band, which had conscientiously worked off -the barcarole from "Hoffman," a Viennese waltz -and a minuet. A clean-shaven young man, Mr -Gideon, the clever composer of the rag-time successes -who had been eating his dinner like the rest of us, -took his place at the piano, and the orchestra -subordinated itself to his leadership. Mr Gideon -can make the piano speak as few men can, and my -little French cousin and Robert both pricked up -their ears and even let the asparagus get cold -in their new-found interest. When Mr Gideon, -dispensing with orchestral aid, sang "Honolulu," -and here and there a girl's voice joined in the -refrain, my little cousin turned sharply to me. -"Ought one to sing?" she asked, and I told her -that it was as she pleased. She listened with all her -ears to catch the words, and at last trilled out with -the rest: "Ma onaleuleu oné leu," and then laughed -at her own boldness.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> - -<p>A quarter of an hour later my little French cousin, -with both elbows on the table, a cigarette between her -fingers, and sipping at intervals some <i>crème de menthe</i>, -was singing "Hitchy Koo" with the best of them, -and Robert was booming away harmonising a bass -<i>bouche-fermeé</i> accompaniment. It was curious how -this general singing brought together those who dined. -We had been separate little parties before, but the -humanity of song made us into one big friendly -audience. Even the beautiful young man recovered -his spirits sufficiently to try to start an eye flirtation -with my little cousin.</p> - -<p>The heat in the room grew and the atmosphere -thickened with tobacco smoke, but we all sat on till -close on eleven o'clock, when the vestibule doors were -opened to let out the smoke and let in the cold air, -and the ladies put their stoles round their necks, and -the men called for their bills. Mine, including cigars -and liqueurs, came to exactly a guinea a head.</p> - -<p>Before bidding me good-night my little cousin, -speaking for herself and Robert, said that they had -well dined and had amused themselves, and that the -Britannic Sunday was not frightening. But I told her -that all our Sunday entertainment was not yet at end, -that Robert, when he had taken her home to their -hotel, was going to drink a whisky-and-soda with me -at the club, and that then I would take him on to an -hospitable house, where <i>chemin de fer</i> is played, and -that if there was no police raid she would see him -back about five <span class="smcap">a.m.</span></p> - -<p>My little French cousin looked at me to see -whether I was serious, laughed in my face, and taking -Robert by the arm led him to the taxi that was -waiting for them.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="VII" id="VII">VII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE CAFÉ ROYAL</h3> - - -<p>One of the questions people are fond of asking and, -like "jesting Pilate," do not stay to have answered, -is, "Which is the best place in London at which to -dine?" This is generally only a prologue to their -opinion on the subject, but when it is an inquiry, and -not an overture, I always reply by another question, -"Whom are you going to take out to dine?" for -there are so many "best places" that the selection of -the right one depends entirely on what are the tastes -of the person, or persons, you wish to please.—If -a man were to answer <i>my</i> question by saying that he -wished to entertain some bachelors of his own ripe -age and ripe tastes, and that he would like to go -somewhere where the food is very good, the rooms -comfortable, and where there is no band to interfere -with conversation, I should diagnose his case at once -as a Café Royal one.</p> - -<p>The Café Royal is pleasantly conservative, and it -is more like a good French restaurant of the Second -Empire than is any other dining-place I know in -London. Its fame has reached to all other countries -in the world, and a French waiter who hopes to -become in due time a manager looks on an engagement -at "The Café" as a step in his career. Therefore, -if ever you feel inclined to be tight-fisted in the -matter of tips to the waiters at the Café Royal, reflect -that you may meet them again where their good -word can help to make a meal comfortable for you. -Once in Paris, when I went to dine at Maire's, far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> -up the boulevards, a restaurant into which I had not -been for years, I was surprised to be received as -though I was the prodigal son of the establishment, -a <i>maître d'hôtel</i> taking especial care to find a pleasant -table for me, and suggesting various dishes from the -<i>carte du jour</i>, which shaped into a dinner after my -own heart. I asked him if I had ever seen him -before, and he replied: "I waited on monsieur at -the Café Royal in the days when he used to drink -the <i>Cliquot vin rosée</i>." I pause here to sigh regretfully -over the memory of that <i>cuvée</i> of Cliquot, at -which many men shied because of its colour, but -which was the most delightful wine that ever came -from the great house of the widow of Rheims. On -the first occasion that I entered the restaurant of -the Esplanade Hotel in Berlin, feeling rather like a -boy going to a new school, I was received by a -<i>maître d'hôtel</i> who knew that I liked a table at the -side of the room, suggested to me three of the -lightest dishes on the <i>carte</i> as my dinner, and told me -that he remembered that at the Café Royal I always -asked for the table in the far corner of the first room -and that I liked short and light dinners.</p> - -<p>It may be that in a few years, when the Quadrant -of Regent Street must be rebuilt, and all the other -houses in it will be obliged to conform in some -respects to the Piccadilly Hotel, the sample building -of the new style, the Café Royal as we know it -to-day may be altered in appearance and in the -arrangement of its rooms, but I hope that this will -not happen in my time. It was the first restaurant -at which I learned the joys of dining out in -pleasant company—a <i>sole Colbert</i>, a <i>Chateaubriand</i> -and <i>pommes sautés</i>, an <i>omelette au rhum</i> and a -bottle of good Burgundy was my idea of a suitable -dinner in those my strenuous days, and I have for -the house all the affection I have for old friends.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> -The influence of Madame Nicols is against any -unnecessary change. An old lady with white hair -and dressed in black walks every day through the -rooms of the Café Royal, and the habitués know that -this is Madame Nicols on her tour of inspection. She -still gives personal supervision to the work in the -linen-room, as she did in the early days of the café, -and her wish is that everything should remain as much -as is possible as it was when M. Nicols was alive.</p> - -<p>There is a romance in the history of most -restaurants that have existed for any length of time, -and the rise of the Café Royal from small beginnings -is interwoven with the Franco-Prussian War and with -the rise and destruction of the Commune. On -11th February 1865 M. Daniel Nicols, who had -been in the wine trade at Bercy, that part of Paris -where the great wine depots are, opened a modest -little café-restaurant in the lower part of Regent -Street. It occupied the space where the entrance -and hall now are. A photograph of the front of the -house at that time is extant, showing the plate-glass -window with a broad brass band below it, and on -the glass in white letters announcements of the good -things to be found within. In front of the modest -doorway stands M. Nicols, looking very proud of -his establishment, while two of his friends lean -gracefully against the pilasters of the entrance, and -the head waiter stands respectfully a step or two -farther back. On the little balcony before the -windows of the entresol stand the ladies of M. -Nicols' family. The interior of the window was in -those days decked with salads and with any foods -that looked tempting, to catch the attention of the -passer-by. In fact, it was just such an unpretentious -little restaurant as any young foreigner coming to -London and determined to make a competence might -start nowadays hoping that Fortune would turn her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> -wheel in his direction. But most young foreigners -do not have the chance, or the judgment, to establish -themselves in Regent Street. I have a dim memory -when I was a schoolboy of being impressed by some -stuffed pheasants in the Café Royal window, and at -the time of the great war I was first taken inside -it to meet there a distant connection of my family, -a Buonapartist, who had been one of the Empress's -ministers during the short period when the Government -of France fell into her hands and had gone into -exile when the Republic was proclaimed. Those are -my first two recollections of the Café Royal.</p> - -<p>It was the flood of non-combatants and political -exiles, business men, authors and actors; Red Republicans, -Monarchists, and Buonapartists, whom the -war and the political upheavals in France sent over -to this country, that made the fortune of the little -restaurant. However they might differ as to the -colour of their politics, they were all Frenchmen, -they all sighed for the blue skies of France; they found -in the Café Royal a little corner of their beloved -native land, and they naturally all gravitated to it. -The house was much too small for the number of its -frequenters, when, fortunately, the old Union Tavern -in Glasshouse Street came into the market, was -bought, and converted into the café as we know it, -with its painted ceiling and its wealth of gilding, and -the restaurant and the private dining-rooms were -established on the other floors. This was the first -of many extensions and alterations. A building on -the Air Street side was absorbed, and a billiard-room -established on the ground floor, but very soon the -billiard-tables were given marching orders, and the -space they occupied was turned into a grill-room. -An enlargement of the kitchen, the installation of a -lift on the Air Street side, the making of a little -ante-room and cloakrooms outside the restaurant—before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> -this improvement any man waiting for a lady -who was going to dine with him did so in the passage -leading to the café or on the stairs—and the construction -somewhere very near the roof of a masonic temple -and a ballroom were all additions.</p> - -<p>M. Nicols and Madame Nicols gave personal -attention to all details, and the experience M. Nicols -had gained at Bercy was of great use to him in laying -down the fine cellar of wines, particularly of red -wines, which is the great pride of the house. To -draw a very fine distinction, I would say of the Café -Royal that it is a restaurant to which gourmets go to -drink fine wines and to eat good food therewith, -while at other first-class restaurants gourmets go to -eat good food and to drink fine wines therewith. The -only cellar of red wines that I know which can compare -with that of the Café Royal is the cellar of Voisin's -in Paris. The wine-list of the Café Royal is splendidly -comprehensive, and in its pages are to be found all the -fine wines grown in Europe, even Switzerland being -recognised, and the wines of the Rhone Valley above -the Lake of Geneva being given a place in the book. -M. Delacoste, the first manager I remember at the -Café Royal, under M. Nicols, was a great authority -on wines, and he bought so largely that there came a -time when M. Nicols recognised that his clients with -the utmost good will could never drink all the wine -laid down for them, and sold a portion of it by -auction. Other managers of the Café Royal have been -Wolschleger; Oddenino, who was appointed when -M. Nicols died in 1897, and during whose tenancy -of the post many of the improvements in the house -were made; Gerard, mighty of girth, who had been -in the kitchen of the Café Anglais under Dugleré, and -who moved on to the Ocean Hotel, Sandown; and -now Judah, who had been manager of the Cecil, and -who keeps a very steady hand on the tiller. M. Judah,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> -on the occasion of the visit of the President of the -French Republic to London in 1913, was created an -officer of the Order of Mérite Agricole.</p> - -<p>Sportsmen have always had a special affection for -the Café Royal. The men who were prominent in -the revival of road-coaching were all patrons of the -restaurant, and any night you may see half-a-dozen -well-known owners of race-horses dining there. The -Stage, the Stock Exchange, and Literature also have -a liking for the old house, and hunting men love it.</p> - -<p>When I mentioned it as the ideal place for a dinner -of bachelor gourmets, I did not mean that men do -not bring their wives and sisters and sweethearts -there. They do. But the Café Royal does not -lay itself out to capture the ladies. I never heard -of anyone having afternoon tea there, and when a -lady tells me that she likes dining at the Café Royal -I always mentally give her a good mark, for it shows -that she places in her affections good things to drink and -good things to eat before those "springes to catch woodcock," -gipsy bands in crimson coats, and palm lounges.</p> - -<p>In the great gilded cage of the restaurant and the -big room the windows of which open on to Glasshouse -Street, the custom is to eat the lunch of the -day, or to select dishes from it, while dinner is an <i>à -la carte</i> meal. If one entertains a lady at dinner -one probably orders a dinner which canters through -the accepted courses, and I have by me the menu of -such a one:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre Russe.<br /> -Pot-au-feu.<br /> -Sole Waleska.<br /> -Noisette d'agneau Lavallière.<br /> -Haricots verts à l'Anglaise.<br /> -Parfait de foie gras.<br /> -Caille en cocotte.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Pôle Nord.<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> - -<p>And with this dinner we drank a good bottle of -St Marceaux.</p> - -<p>But men when they dine together think little of the -rightful sequence of courses, and order what their -taste prompts them to eat. I have dined at the Café -Royal, and dined well on <i>moules Marinières</i>—and one -can eat <i>moules</i> at the Café without fear, half a cold -grouse, a salad and a <i>petit Suisse</i> cheese. When the -ham is a dish of the day it always tempts me, for -the Café Royal hams are princes of their kind, and -the cold <i>mousses</i> that the <i>chef de cuisine</i>, M. François -Maître, makes are beautifully light. The specialities -of the cuisine of the Café Royal are <i>œufs Magenta, -œufs Wallace, homard Thérmidor, sole Beaumanoir, filet -de sole Simone, darne de saumon à l'Ecossaise, truite -Dartois, turbotin Paysanne, poularde bisque, faisan -Carême, perdreau à la Royal, caille Châtelaine, poulet -sauté Sigurd, suprême de volaille à la Patti, tournedos -Figaro, noisette de pré salé moderne, côte d'agneau Sultane, -filet de bœuf Cambacères, selle d'agneau favorite.</i></p> - -<p>Down in the café a <i>table d'hôte</i> meal is served, wonderful -value for very few shillings, but I am not smoke-proof, -and I like eating my meals without the taste and -smell of tobacco added to them. The grill-room is -always full, and perhaps more solid eating, of juicy -fillets and grilled chops and cutlets, is done there than -anywhere else in the house, except in the banqueting-rooms. -I have banqueted with the Bons Frères, a -club of cheery connoisseurs who like their dinner to -be light and the songs that follow it also to be airy, -in the great gilded banqueting-room with, as part of -its decoration, many crowned N's, which might stand -for Napoleon, but really indicate Nicols; I have dined -in smaller rooms with the Foxhunters' Lodge, and -with many other groups of good Freemasons and good -diners; I have assisted at "Au Revoir" banquets -without number, and I know when I am bidden to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> -feast in a private room at the Café Royal that I shall -be given a good dinner on sound if perhaps conservative -lines. This menu of a banquet given not -long since, which is typical, will convey more what I -mean than many words of description:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Natives.<br /> -Petite Marmite.<br /> -Saumon Sauce Genévoise.<br /> -Blanchailles.<br /> -Caille à la Cavour.<br /> -Jambon d'York aux Petits Pois.<br /> -Caneton de Rouen à la Presse.<br /> -Salade d'Orange.<br /> -Asperges Sauce Divine.<br /> -Bombe Alexandra.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Os à la Moëlle.<br /> -Café.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Vins.</span><br /> -Graves Monopole, Dry.<br /> -Heidsieck and Co., 1898.<br /> -Louis Roederer, 1899.<br /> -Ch. Le Tertre, 1888.<br /> -Martinez Port, 1884.<br /> -Denis Mouniés, 1860.<br /> -Liqueurs.<br /> -</p> - -<p>As a final word of praise for the Café Royal, let -me record that just as many of its waiters grow grey-headed -in its service, so the steps of any man who is a -lover of good cheer and who has been an habitué of the -restaurant seem unconsciously to lead him to its doors. -It was my first love amongst the restaurants, and—well, -you know how the proverb runs.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="VIII" id="VIII">VIII</a></h3> - -<h3>OYSTER-HOUSES</h3> - - -<p>The great catastrophe of my life, I think, was that -the first oyster I ate was a bad one. I was at school -for a year or two at Dedham, as a preparation for -Harrow, and Dedham is in Essex, and not far from -Colchester. An old man used to wheel a barrow of -oysters to the playing field, and dispensed his shell-fish -at a penny an oyster. One day when I was in -funds I thought that I would begin to enjoy the -luxuries of life, and bought an oyster. That oyster -was a bad one. Not just an ordinary bad oyster, but -of a superlative badness, the most horrible oyster that -any small boy ever tried to swallow—and failed. The -memory of that oyster kept me for many years from -making a second attempt. When I was first bidden -to a Colchester oyster feast and sat amidst Cabinet -Ministers and mayors and aldermen in their robes of -office, and generals and admirals all pitching into the -bivalves like winking, I, to the great surprise of the -waiters, ate twice as many oysters as any alderman -present. Had I been given an opportunity of making -a speech after lunch I should have told the assembled -company that my unparalleled feat in the absorption -of Colchester natives that day was my revenge for the -horrors of the first Colchester oyster I tried to eat -one sunlit spring afternoon on the Dedham playing -field. I have not yet been invited by a Mayor of -Whitstable to accompany him to sea to eat oysters -afloat on the first day of the dredging season, but I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> -have eaten many oysters plain and oysters scalloped at -the "Bear and Key," and I never have had a grudge -against any individual Whitstable oyster, so there is -no injury to redress.</p> - -<p>All this, I know, should be reserved for my autobiography; -but as I am never likely to autobiograph -myself it has to be set down here.</p> - -<p>And now to talk of some of the oyster-houses -of London. If on the "Roof of the World," the -great tableland of Thibet, one British explorer met -another British explorer, and the first man suddenly -said "Scott's!" the second man inevitably would -answer "Oysters," for Scott's window at the top of -the Haymarket, with its little barrels of oysters and -its crimson lobsters reposing on beds of salad stuff, -and its big crabs lying on their backs and folding -their vandyke-brown claws, as if in pious meditation, -over their buff stomachs, is one of the landmarks of -London. The old Scott's, before the fire that gutted -it, has faded from the memory of most Londoners, -and the new building, with its pillars, which are apparently -of mother-o'-pearl pressed into black marble, -with bands of ornamental brass about them, and its -red blinds and red-shaded lamps in the upper storeys, -is accepted as being the hub of the West End of -London, just as the old one was. Inside the doors -are the two marble-topped counters with piles of -plates upon them, and on their fronts long napkins -hanging from rails. Behind the counters men in -white jackets are busy opening oysters and pouring -out tumblers of stout and glasses of Chablis all day -long. There are on the counters stacks of thin slices -of brown bread and butter and other stacks of sandwiches -of various kinds of fish and plates of prawns -of coral-pink. I know of no better place than this -wide oyster hall of Scott's for a theatre-goer to eat a -very light meal before going early to a theatre when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -he intends to sup luxuriously after the show. Scott's, -though its shell-fish are its trump cards, desires to be -all things to all men, and to all women. It possesses -a "dive" in its basement with tiled walls, on which -Japanese fish swim in and out through Japanesy -weeds, and behind the oyster hall is the grill-room, -shut off from draughts by a great glass screen, in -which a white-clothed cook stands with a table of -viands at his elbow, turning the chops and steaks, -sausages and rashers on the big grill. Upstairs -there is an <i>à la carte</i> restaurant, where all kinds of -luxuries are obtainable, and Scott's is a very popular -place at which to sup after the theatre.</p> - -<p>If you would like to see how popular oysters are -with Londoners at lunch-time, come with me to the -Macclesfield in the street of that name leading out -of Shaftesbury Avenue. When "Papa" De Hem -first took over the Macclesfield it was just a public-house -in the Soho district, but "Papa," who is a -veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, and who was -through the Siege of Paris, brought the thorough -methods of an old soldier to bear upon the house. -He turned all the old clientele out of its doors, -and, though he kept a bar in the premises, it was by -selling very large quantities of Whitstable oysters -at a price that left him a very small profit that he saw -his way to a fortune. Journalists and actors and -artists and other dwellers in the realms of artistic -Bohemia soon learnt of the new resort. Dagonet -chatted of it in <i>Mustard and Cress</i>, Pitcher told -tales concerning it in <i>Gals' Gossip</i>, and took the chair -at the smoking concerts for charities held in the -grotto upstairs, and as the prices have been kept -rigorously low, and as the oysters have always been -excellent, the Macclesfield is now one of the most -popular oyster-houses in London. Come in through -the glass door, and you find on one side the long bar,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> -and on the other side little tables, at which every -seat is occupied by lunchers who are eating Whitstables -on the deep shell, or oyster stew, or oysters fried, -or oysters grilled, or broiled lobsters, or the -mayonnaise of lobster which is one of the specialities -of the house. There are luncheon dishes of meat -and fowl also obtainable, but when I go to the -Macclesfield I go there to eat shell-fish, and am not -to be turned from my purpose by any roast chicken -or grilled chop. We are not in the least likely to -find a vacant seat at any of these first tables, so we -will move on into the wider space where is the -oyster bar, with men in white behind it, busy with -their oyster knives, and behind them a background -of barrels of Meux's stout. Here is the entrance -to the grotto—an entrance beautified by trellis-work -and Japanese lanterns. The walls of the grotto are -of oyster-shells, with here and there an irregular -piece of mirror showing through, and all Papa De -Hem's best customers have written their names on the -oyster-shells. The tables in the grotto are set close -together, and there are two of them in a snug corner, -towards which every customer first makes his way, -only to find nine times out of ten that there is no -place for him. The waitresses bustle about, and the -proprietor has a word to say to all old friends. -Upstairs on the first floor is another grotto, larger -than the downstairs one, and quieter, and here ladies -are often brought to lunch.</p> - -<p>Stout is the classic accompaniment to oysters, and -it is possible to eat the bivalves actually in the -shadow of Meux's great Horseshoe Brewery, for -the Horseshoe Tavern next door has an oyster dive -down in the basement, just below its grill-room. -On the way down to the dive you pass the great -spirit casks of the Horseshoe safely placed behind -a grille, the biggest cask of all being that of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> -ten-year-old "Annie Laurie" whisky, which holds -1000 gallons. The oyster bar resembles a horseshoe -in shape, and behind it is a wall of small kegs -of Meux's stout. The Horseshoe is a good old-fashioned -British house, with one of the largest open -fires in London, and I remember that once when -there was an especially splendid haunch of venison -to be cooked for a party of gourmets Mr Baker was -approached, and the venison feast was held at the -Horseshoe.</p> - -<p>Rule's Oyster-house, in Maiden Lane, in the -window of which are two huge shells from Singapore -and many big champagne bottles, is a house of many -associations with the men of the pen of Victorian -days. Albert Smith was the demigod of the -establishment. Mark Lemon, Douglas Jerrold, Henry -Irving, Besant and Rice, Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, -Yates and Sala were some of the men who used to -eat oysters in Maiden Lane and who have accorded -appreciation of them. There are busts and portraits -on the walls of the rooms of many theatrical -celebrities, and in one room is a fine collection of -Dighton caricatures.</p> - -<p>White's and Gow's, in the Strand, both old-established -fish and oyster houses, each deserve -a word, and the Chandos, over against the National -Portrait Gallery, gives its oyster-eating patrons six -oysters, a glass of stout, and bread and butter for -a shilling.</p> - -<p>Sweeting's, in Fleet Street, is especially dear to me, -because of its sawdusted floor. The front of the -house has been set back in the widening of the -street, but the house remains very much as it was. -By the marble-topped counters are wooden stools, -on which the lunchers perch like sparrows, and -besides the oysters there are fish snacks and big -lobsters, and on one of the counters is a selection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> -of sandwiches of all kinds. Upstairs there are two -floors of dining-rooms for people who want something -more solid than oysters or sandwiches.</p> - -<p>No chapter on oyster-houses would be complete -without reference to Driver's in Glasshouse Street, -and Wilton's in King Street, both houses which -supply the clubs and great restaurants with oysters, -and which, as well, open oysters for hungry customers -at their counters. At Driver's a little screen of -stained glass only partially conceals the oysters which -are spread out on the broad space behind the glass. -On the door is the simple legend, "Driver, -Oysterman," and inside are three black-coated men -opening oysters behind the counter. In a little glass -box sits a lady cashier. This in old days used to be -where Mrs Driver sat, and could always spare time -for a smile and a word to an old customer. On the -wall behind the counter is a board with the orders -for oysters contained by clips, and two shelves, on -which are rows of big shells, showing wide surfaces -of mother-o'-pearl. A little staircase leads to an -upper room, where sybarites can sit and eat oysters -and caviare and bread and cheese, and there is a little -table downstairs tucked away behind the staircase; -but I am one of the stalwarts who have always stood -at the counter at Driver's to eat my oysters and to -wipe my fingers afterwards on the pendant napkins.</p> - -<p>Behind Wilton's plate-glass windows there are -warrants suitably framed, and the proprietor is -generally to be seen either behind his counting-desk -or the little oyster bar in the spacious shop. Wilton's -at one time used to purvey Irish oysters, as well as -other British varieties, but the supply was so uncertain -that they have been taken off the list.</p> - -<p>If I have omitted to give the prices of the oysters -at the various oyster-houses, it is because they vary -so much. One can buy native oysters in the shops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> -at Whitstable for 1s. a dozen, or 1s. 9d. for -twenty-five. By the time they arrive in London their -cheapest price is 1s. 6d. a dozen, and the specially -selected ones, which are sometimes called "Royal -Natives," cost as much at some oyster-houses as -3s. 6d. a dozen. Seconds, Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-Portuguese -are each a step lower down in price. -American oysters are to be obtained in Paris at -Prunier's, but I know of no house in London at the -present time which imports them. Ten years ago -they were obtainable at two of the houses.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="IX" id="IX">IX</a></h3> - -<h3>WHITEBAIT AT GREENWICH</h3> - - -<p>Gone are the great days of the whitebait dinners at -Blackwall and Greenwich. No longer does <i>The -Morning Post</i> ever publish such a paragraph as this, -"Yesterday the Cabinet Ministers went down the -river in the ordnance barges to Lovegrove's West -India Dock Tavern, Blackwall, to partake of their -annual fish dinner. Covers were laid for thirty-five -gentlemen," which appeared on 10th September 1835. -No longer is there a great rivalry between the two -Greenwich taverns, the Trafalgar and the Ship. The -Ship still remains and the whitebait have not deserted -the Thames, but though at intervals I read paragraphs -that fish dinners are still to be obtained at the -Ship, I never meet anyone who has journeyed to -Greenwich to see whether this is so, and the last time -that I went there to dine my reception was so chilly -that I have not experimented again. But the account -of that dinner may interest as showing what a Greenwich -fish dinner was in the days of good King -Edward.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was pleasant to see Miss Dainty's (of all the -principal London theatres) handwriting again. She -had been very ill—at the point of death, indeed—owing -to a sprained ankle, which prevented her going -to Ascot, for which race meeting she had ordered -three dresses, each of which was a dream. When -was I going to take her out to dinner? The parrot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> -was very well, but was pecking the feathers out of -his tail. She had some new pets—two goldfish, -whose glass bowl had been broken and who now -lived in a big yellow vase. The cat had eaten one of -the lovebirds, and was ill for two days afterwards. -The pug had been exchanged for a fox-terrier—Jack, -the dearest dog in the world. Jack had gone up the -river on the electric launch and had fought two dogs, -and had been bitten over the eye, and had covered all -his mistress's white piqué skirt with blood; but for -all that he was a duck and his mother's own darling.</p> - -<p>This, much summarised, was the pretty little lady's -letter, and I wrote back at once to say that the -pleasure of entertaining a princess of the blood-royal -was as nothing to the honour of her company, and if -the foot was well enough, would she honour me with -her presence at dinner anywhere she liked? And, as -the weather had turned tropical, I suggested either -Greenwich or the restaurant at Earl's Court.</p> - -<p>For Greenwich the fair lady gave her decision, and -then I made a further suggestion: that, if she did not -mind unaristocratic company, the pleasantest way was -to go by boat.</p> - -<p>This suggestion was accepted, and Miss Dainty in -the late afternoon called for me at a dingy Fleet -Street office. I was delighted to see the little lady, -looking very fresh and nice as she sat back in her cab, -and I trust that my face showed nothing except -pleasure when I perceived a small fox-terrier with a -large muzzle and a long leash sitting by her side. -Miss Dainty explained that as she had allowed her -maid to go out for the afternoon she had to bring -Jack, and of course I said that I was delighted.</p> - -<p>We embarked at the Temple pier on a boat, which -was as most river boats are. There were gentlemen -who had neglected to shave, smoking strong pipes; -there were affable ladies of a conversational tendency<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> -and there were a violin and harp; but there were as a -compensation all the beautiful sights of the river to be -seen, the cathedral-like Tower Bridge, the forest of -shipping, the red-sailed boats fighting their way up -against the tide, the line of barges in picturesque zigzag -following the puffing tugs; and all these things -Miss Dainty saw and appreciated. There was much -to tell, too, that Miss Dainty had not written in her -letter, and Jack was a never-failing source of interest. -Jack wound his leash round the legs of the pipe-smoking -gentlemen, was not quite sure that the babies -of the conversational ladies were not things that he -ought to eat, and at intervals wanted to go overboard -and fight imaginary dogs in the Thames.</p> - -<p>Arrived at Greenwich, at the Ship (the tavern -with a rather dingy front, with two tiers of bow -windows, with its little garden gay with white and -green lamps, and with its fountain and rockery which -had bits of paper and straws floating in the basin), -I asked for the proprietor. Mr Bale, thick-set, and -with a little moustache, came out of his room, and -whether it was that Fleet Street and the Thames had -given me a tramplike appearance, or whether it was -that he did not at once take a fancy to Jack, I could -not say, but he did not seem overjoyed to see us. -Yet presently he thawed, told me that he had kept -a table by the window for us, and that our dinner -would be ready at six-thirty as I had telegraphed.</p> - -<p>In the meantime I suggested that we should see -the rest of the house. "Would it not be better to -leave the dog downstairs?" suggested Mr Bale, and -Jack was tied up somewhere below, while we went -round the upper two storeys of dining-rooms—for the -Ship is a house of nothing but dining-rooms. It is -a tavern, not a hotel, and there are no bedrooms for -guests. We went into the pleasant bow-windowed -rooms on the first floor, in one of which a table was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> -laid ready, with a very beautiful decoration of pink -and white flowers, and in the other of which stand -the busts of Fox and Pitt. We looked at the two -curious wooden images in the passage, at the chairs -with the picture of a ship let into their backs, and at -the flags of all nations which hang in the long -banqueting-room; and all the time Jack, tied up -below, lifted up his voice and wept.</p> - -<p>I asked if Jack might be allowed to come into the -dining-room and sit beside his mistress while we had -dinner, giving the dog a character for peacefulness -and quiet for which I might have been prosecuted for -perjury; but it was against the rules of the house, -and Mr Bale suggested that if Jack was tied up to a -pole of the awning just outside the window he would -be able to gaze through the glass at his mistress and -be happy.</p> - -<p>A fine old Britannic waiter, who looked like a very -much reduced copy of Sir William Vernon-Harcourt, -put down two round silver dishes, lifted up the -covers, and there were two <i>souchés</i>, one of salmon -and one of flounder. I helped Miss Dainty to some -of the salmon and filled her glass with the Pommery, -which, after much thought, I had selected from the -wine list. But she touched neither; her eyes were -on Jack outside, for that accomplished dog, after -doing a maypole dance round the pole, had now -arrived at the end of his leash—and incipient strangulation. -Miss Dainty went outside to rescue her pet -from instant death, and I, having eaten my <i>souché</i>, -followed. Jack wanted water, and a sympathetic -hall porter who appeared on the scene volunteered to -get him a soup-plateful, and tie him somewhere -where he could not strangle himself.</p> - -<p>The <i>souchés</i> had been removed, and some lobster -rissoles and fried slips had taken their place. Miss -Dainty took a rissole and ate it while she watched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> -the hall porter put Jack's plate of water down, and I -made short work of a slip and was going to try the -rissoles when Jack, in a plaintive tone of voice, informed -the world that something was the matter. -His mistress understood him at once. The poor dear -would not drink his water unless she stood by; and -this having been proved by actual fact, Miss Dainty, -with myself in attendance, came back to find that -whiting puddings and stewed eels had taken the -place of former dishes.</p> - -<p>Miss Dainty took a small helping of the eels, -looked at it, and then turned her eyes again to Jack, -who was going through a series of gymnastics. I -ate my whiting pudding, which I love, in fevered -haste, and had got half-way through my helping of -eels when Miss Dainty discovered what was the -matter with Jack. The boys on the steps below -were annoying him, and the only way to keep him -quiet would be to give him some bones. The -sympathetic hall porter again came to the rescue, and -Jack, under his mistress's eye, made fine trencher -play with two bones.</p> - -<p>There was a look of reproach in the veteran -waiter's eye when we came back and found that the -crab omelette and salmon cutlets <i>à l'indienne</i> were -cooling. I tried to draw Miss Dainty's attention away -from Jack. I told her how Mr Punch had called her -Faustine, and had written a page about her; but -when she found there was nothing to quote in her -book of press notices she lost all interest in the hump-backed -gentleman.</p> - -<p>With the advent of the plain whitebait a new -danger to Jack arose. A turtle was brought by -three men on to the lawn and turned loose, and -Miss Dainty had to go out and assure herself that -Jack was not frightened, and that the turtle was not -meditating an attack upon him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> - -<p>The turtle was found to be a harmless and interesting -insect, and having been shown, with practical -illustrations, how the beast was captured by savages, -Miss Dainty took great pity on it, collected water in -the soup-plate from the fountain, poured it over its -head, and tried to induce it to drink, which the turtle -steadfastly refused to do.</p> - -<p>The veteran waiter was stern when we returned -and found the devilled whitebait on the table. I told -him to bring the coffee and liqueurs and bill out into -the garden, because Miss Dainty, having been -separated from her dog so long, wanted to nurse and -pet him.</p> - -<p>This was the bill: Two dinners, 14s.; one -Pommery, 18s.; two liqueurs, 1s. 6d.; coffee, 1s.; -attendance, 1s.; total, £1, 15s. 6d.</p> - -<p>We sat and watched St Paul's stand clear against -the sunset, and Miss Dainty, her dog happy in her -lap, suddenly said: "If you give this place a good -notice, I'll never speak to you again."</p> - -<p>"Why?" I replied. "The whitebait was delicious, -the whiting pudding capital, the omelette -good. I liked the fried slips and the rissoles."</p> - -<p>"Yes, perhaps," said Miss Dainty, with a pout. -"But they wouldn't let me have my dog in the -dining-room!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="X" id="X">X</a></h3> - -<h3>THE CECIL</h3> - - -<p>I wonder whether Jabez Balfour, the genius who -jumped at Park Lane and landed on Broadmoor, ever -comes to London from his country retreat, where, -under another name, he earns his daily bread, and -looks at the great palaces which were one of his -money-spinning schemes and notes the changes that -are made in them. He certainly would scarcely recognise -to-day in the modern Hotel Cecil the great -red-brick and stone block of chambers and flats which -first grew up, some seventeen or eighteen years -ago, next to the Adelphi Terrace overlooking the -Embankment Gardens. A company with some very -distinguished gentlemen on the list of the directors -was formed to buy the great building, and they have -worked with indomitable perseverance to make a -house that was not intended to be an hotel into -one of the most comfortable hotels in London, and -to popularise a restaurant which at first refused to -respond to their efforts.</p> - -<p>The Cecil Restaurant opened with a great flourish -of trumpets, with M. Bertini, a clever, quick-eyed, -bearded Italian as manager, and M. Coste, who was -one of the greatest of the great chefs of the close of -the Victorian era, in command of the kitchens. But -the company had been in too great a hurry to begin -to earn money, and the arrangements were not yet -working quite smoothly when London that dines -and thinks about its dinners was first asked to sit in -judgment on the new dining-place.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> - -<p>The first roughnesses soon wore off; M. Bertini was -an admirable <i>maître d'hôtel</i>—I have lost sight of him of -late years, but I think he went for a time to South Africa, -and he made a short appearance as proprietor of a small -restaurant in the Haymarket—and M. Coste, "the old -man," as the rest of the staff affectionately called him -behind his back, sent out through the doors that -separate the kitchen from the restaurant little dinners -that delighted the palates of connoisseurs. This -propinquity of kitchen to restaurant is a great advantage. -As you sit at your table in the Cecil Restaurant -you can, if you listen for it, hear the voices of the men -who call out the orders to the cooks—an unceasing -chant, a hymn to Gastronomy, and as a result no -dish ever comes cold to table at the Cecil Restaurant.</p> - -<p>What, however, was radically wrong at first with -the Cecil Restaurant was its decoration. It is a very -large, very high pillared hall, with a glazed balcony -overlooking the Victoria Gardens, and big windows -on the west giving a glorious view of Westminster; -but its decorations were at first too sombre in -colour. The panelling was of walnut wood, a large -square of deep crimson velvet was embroidered with -the Cecil arms, the great mantelpieces of purple-grey -Sicilian marble conformed to the quiet scheme of -colour, and the pillars and great window casings all -harmonised in the minor key. The mantelpieces are -all that remain to-day of the original scheme of -colouring, and they are scarcely noticeable amidst the -shimmer of pink and white and gold. A minor drawback -was that the restaurant had no ante-room, and -that a dinner-giver had to await his guests in the -bustling hall of the hotel. People who dined at the -Cecil Restaurant in those days praised the cooking, -and had nothing except good words for the attendance -and wine, but they said it was not "cheery." Nine -out of ten ladies or men did not trouble to analyse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> -their feelings, but it was the coldness of their -surroundings that affected them.</p> - -<p>To tear down all the decorations of a newly built -hall is an heroic remedy which no board of directors -would willingly face, and before this was done other -less expensive remedies were tried. A separate entrance -for the restaurant was made in the courtyard, -and a lounge built and quite charmingly decorated. -M. Paillard, the great Parisian restaurateur, crossed -the Channel and became for a time manager of the -restaurant, making with M. Coste in the kitchen a -remarkable combination of talent. A Roumanian band, -fierce-looking gentlemen in embroidered garments, -who had been sensationally successful at one of the -great exhibitions in Paris, were imported, were -perched up on a rostrum and made the roof reverberate -with their czardas. The services of "Smiler," -a curry-cook of great renown, were exclusively -retained for the Cecil. (Sherry's in New York -offered "Smiler" large sums of money to transfer -his services, and he crossed the Atlantic with a little -band of underlings of his own nationality. "Smiler" -travelled first class, and the reporters on the other -side not unnaturally took him to be an Indian Prince -on his travels. "Smiler" did not undeceive them, -and enjoyed for some days all the privileges -given to royalty in a republic. Then he reported -at Sherry's.) Mr Hector Tenant, the managing -director of the Empire, joined the Cecil board, and a -series of variety performances after dinner on Sundays -filled the big restaurant to its holding capacity on -those evenings. Harry Lauder, concerning whose -talent and fine voice everybody was talking at that -time, sang, I remember, on one of those occasions. -But there must have been some excellent reasons for -not continuing these variety performances, for after -a time they ceased.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> - -<p>At last the board took its courage in both hands -and redecorated the restaurant from floor to ceiling. -It is now a hall of white and gold and pink. The -panels are of Rose du Barri silk, the pillars are -gleaming white, while the frieze is of the lightest -blue. A dark rose carpet gives relief to this shimmering, -shining restaurant, and in its centre is a -handsome table of many tiers for fruit and sweet -things, a table of gilt sphinx heads and many electric -lamps. The waiters wear knee-breeches; the band -plays in an ante-room. The redecorated restaurant -at once jumped into the affections of the world -that dines, and further to add to the good temper -of this place of butterfly colouring, the directors -engaged as the <i>maître d'hôtel</i> in charge of the -restaurant, M. Califano, who is known to the -patrons of the Cecil as "Sunny Jim." One of -the advantages with which M. Califano has been -endowed by Nature is a smiling face, and some -wit at the time that "Sunny Jim" was a favourite -figure on all the hoardings, gave M. Califano his -nickname.</p> - -<p>To complete their work of betterment, the board -added to the restaurant and hotel the new palm -court, a sumptuous lounge, upholstered in powdered -blue and gold, which has eaten up more than a half -of the great forecourt of the Cecil. This forecourt, -which was almost of the size and shape of a Roman -hippodrome, was a great comfort in past days to the -cabdrivers of London, for there was unlimited room -in it for them to wait to take up guests at the hotel; -but it was a great waste of space. The new palm -court is a very splendid place, and besides giving -the restaurant a noble reception-room, it has shut -away from the hotel all the noise of the street and -all the bustle of the reception hall. It has, however, -done away with the most American spot in London,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> -the space of paving outside the front entrance of the -Cecil which used to be known as "The Beach." -Here used to be cane chairs and rocking-chairs and -piles of luggage, and a newspaper stall, and in the -summer-time pretty girls sunning themselves, and -waiters hurrying to and fro with cold drinks and -long straws in them; and the American guests of the -hotel who loved the brightness and the bustle of -the spot christened it "The Beach," and preferred -it to any of the gilded parlours inside the hotel. -The new palm court, however, in a stately manner, -has taken the place of "The Beach" as a meeting-ground -for the hotel guests. Mr Kaiser, the general -manager of the Hotel Cecil, tells me that the building -of this fine lounge has been of benefit to the restaurant -as giving a finishing touch to its comforts, and I have -no doubt that this is so, for dining in the restaurant, -I found it comfortably filled by people staying in the -hotel, and guests from outside, and "Sunny Jim" -told me of the vast numbers whom on such special -occasions as Christmas and New Year's Eve he manages -to accommodate in the restaurant and balcony.</p> - -<p>I ate the Cecilian dinner, a seven-and-sixpenny -<i>table d'hôte</i> meal, which I found quite excellent. -This is the menu:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Huîtres Natives on Hors d'Œuvre.<br /> -Consommé Princesse.<br /> -Crème Parisienne.<br /> -Filets de Sole Carême.<br /> -Quartier d'Agneau Arléquine.<br /> -Pommes Macaire.<br /> -Caille en Cocotte au Jus d'Ananas.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Asperges, Sauce Hollandaise.<br /> -Glacé à l'Andalouse.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The delicate sauce with the sole, the neatness of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> -the garnish of the vegetables with the quarter of -lamb, the plumpness of the quail and their contrast -of taste with the pine-apple, would have assured me -that the kitchen is in first-class hands, even had I -not known that M. Jean Alletru, a chef who stands -very high in the estimation of his brother chefs, -had succeeded M. Coste, when that great man -retired.</p> - -<p>I might have spent a shilling less and have eaten -an alternative dinner without the oysters in it, or I -might have taken advantage of an arrangement by -which anyone dining at the Cecil can pay a fixed -price for his or her dinner, and choose practically -anything they like from the <i>carte du jour</i>, which -is a very ample one, and which generally contains -some of the <i>spécialités</i> created by M. Alletru. This -is the list of these <i>spécialités</i> and a couple of very -pretty little dinners can be arranged from amongst -them, the only thing needed in addition being a soup. -<i>Tomate en surprise au caviar, turbotin Prince de Galles, -filet de sole Clarence, timbale de truite froide Norvégienne, -ris de veau St Cloud, caille à la Salvini, poitrine de volaille -Providence, selle d'agneau Cecil, poularde à la Jacques, -fraises Tetrazzini, bouteille de champagne en surprise.</i></p> - -<p>I have given high praise to M. Alletru, but the -highest praise that a <i>maître-chef</i> can receive is that -which comes from his brothers in art, and no higher -compliment could be paid to the management of -the Hotel Cecil and their <i>chef de cuisine</i> than that the -Ligue des Gourmands, the association of all the -principal French chefs in England, when they held -their first Dîner d'Epicure under the presidency of -M. Escoffier, placed themselves in the hands of the -Cecil and of M. Alletru, who, with his brigade of -cooks, sent to table the dinner that M. Escoffier had -designed. If I print the menu of this banquet, a -banquet at which there were three hundred guests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> -present, in preference to that of any of the many -banquets at which I have been a guest in the great -banqueting halls of the Cecil, it is because in my -opinion it is the perfection of a dinner of ceremony. -The <i>Dodine</i> and the <i>Fraises Sarah-Bernhardt</i> were -the two sensational dishes of the feast, but it is -not a dinner of many courses of rich food, and -is interesting without being heavy:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre.<br /> -Petite Marmite Béarnaise.<br /> -Truite Saumonée aux Crevettes Roses.<br /> -Dodine de Canard au Chambertin.<br /> -Nouilles au Beurre Noisette.<br /> -Agneau de Pauillac à la Bordelaise.<br /> -Petits pois frais de Clamart.<br /> -Poularde de France.<br /> -Cœur de Romaine aux Pommes d'Amour.<br /> -Asperges d'Argenteuil Crème Mousseline.<br /> -Fraises Sarah-Bernhardt.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -Café—Liqueurs.<br /> -Bénédictine.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Whether the Cecil was the first of the great -banqueting houses to effect a reform in the service -of public banquets I am not sure, but it was at the -Cecil that I first found that such a reform had taken -place. In old days it was the custom for the waiters -to trail a dish along the whole length of a banqueting-table, -and the salmon, which went up the room -a noble-looking fish, came down five minutes later -to starvation corner, a head, a tail and a skeleton. -It was at the Cecil that I first noticed the breaking -up of the tables into manageable sections of guests, -with a waiter and his aids to each section, and -the dinner served straight from the kitchen to that -section. The restaurant and the banqueting halls -and the private dining-rooms by no means exhaust -the list of the accommodations of those who dine that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> -the Cecil affords. There is below the Rose du Barri -room another one, the Indian room, decorated in -Oriental fashion with blue and yellow tiles, and in -this a grill dinner and a <i>table d'hôte</i> dinner are both -served, and when this room overflows another equally -spacious room is opened and becomes the grill-room.</p> - -<p>(As I correct the proofs of this chapter news comes -to me that "Sunny Jim" will in 1914 become a joint -partner in the management of the St James's Palace -Hotel in Bury Street and will give special attention -to its restaurant.)</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XI" id="XI">XI</a></h3> - -<h3>CLARIDGE'S</h3> - - -<p>I reach back in memory farther in touch with -Claridge's than with any other hostelry in London, -One of the stories of her early life that my mother -often told me when I was a small boy was how my -grandfather, as crotchety an elderly widower as ever -ruled an Indian district, when he finally retired from -the service of John Company, arrived in London with -his bullock trunks and sandalwood boxes lined with -tin, his bedding rolled up in bundles, his guns, his -fly-whisks, and palm-fans, and all the strange paraphernalia -that an Anglo-Indian official gathered about -him in those days. With him came his faithful bearer, -and an ayah, and his little pale daughter, and they all -descended at Claridge's Hotel—though perhaps in -those days it might have been Mivart's. The first great -grief of the little girl's life was that the "Nabob," as -my grandfather was called in the family, delivered a -"hookum" to the manager of the hotel that an -English nurse must be provided directly for his small -daughter, as the ayah ought to return at once to her -own country, and my mother was obliged to say -good-bye to her devoted Indian attendant. My first -personal introduction to Claridge's was when, as a -schoolboy, I was invited by another schoolboy, who -wished to show off, to go with him to visit a German -<i>Graf</i>, a nobleman with a very long string of minor -titles, whose greatest glory was that he owned a -castle on the Rhine. The <i>Graf</i> was very polite to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> -the two little English boys, and talked to us in very -bad English; and when we took our departure he saw -us to the door as though we had been persons of the -greatest importance. Mr Claridge, wearing a skull-cap -of velvet, happened to be in the hall as we passed -through, and I remember well the beautiful bow that -he gave to the Count. Mr Claridge's bows were -celebrated; they were of a different depth, according -to the rank of the person to whom he bowed, and -there was even a delicate difference in the salute that -he gave to a Serene Highness to that with which he -welcomed a Royal Highness. Claridge's in those days -consisted of half-a-dozen houses connected with each -other, and the best rooms in these houses formed the -suites where the various royalties who patronised the -hotel lodged, Mr Claridge and his staff of servants -being always on the watch that the privacy of his -guests should not be invaded. On one occasion, -when a famous caricaturist took a room at the hotel, -Mr Claridge waited on him and informed him that he -must transfer his custom elsewhere, for, though he, -Mr Claridge, was a great admirer of the artist's talent, -and decorated the walls of some of the rooms with -his work, he could never allow a royal personage to -be caricatured within the walls of his hotel. Not -that Mr Claridge himself always spoke too respectfully -of the great ones of the earth. Archbishop -Temple used to tell a story that when in 1846 the -Pope seriously thought of taking refuge in England, -Mr Claridge remarked that he was so full up with -kings and royal dukes that he could only offer his -Holiness a small back room, but that, being a bachelor, -he, the Pope, would probably not mind.</p> - -<p>The old Claridge's was pulled down and the new -Claridge's built in the nineties, and I remember the -opening day, when a great crowd of fashionable -people came to look at its <i>salons</i> and ballroom and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> -restaurant, and the royal suite. The india-rubber -roadway in the entrance, then a novelty, was much -admired, and the six footmen in the hall, in their -state livery, looked mighty splendid. Mr D'Oyly -Carte, who more than anyone else had been the -moving spirit in the creation of the new hotel, was -wheeled about in a chair through the crush of pretty -ladies and distinguished gentlemen, for he was then -very ill.</p> - -<p>The new Claridge's soon found its own particular -atmosphere, an atmosphere of perfect serenity. The -little army of footmen, who were too gorgeous for -ordinary occasions, were reduced in numbers, and -now only one superb being in plush and silken calves -moves about the hall and arranges the papers in the -reading-room. The inner hall, with its pillars and -walls of white, and its reflected light, is a most -comfortable lounge in which to sit after dinner and -listen to the orchestra, and out of this open two -rooms, one of Wedgwood blue with Wedgwood -designs on it, and the other of old gold. The -restaurant has been considerably altered since its first -opening, for it has been divided into two rooms, the -colouring of it has been brightened, and at night an -abundance of light is now thrown on to the painted -ceilings from cunningly concealed lamps. The bases -of the great arches which support the roof are -cased in dark oak, with an inset of olive wood; the -carpet is of rose and grey and the chairs are of -green leather with the arms of the hotel stamped -upon it.</p> - -<p>It is a restaurant in which dinner takes its right -place as one of the tranquil pleasures of life. The -music of the band is never too loud, the fine napery -and the admirable glass are pleasant to the touch, the -flowers in the silvered stands of the table lamps give -an agreeable touch of colour, the cut glass of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> -pendent electroliers sparkles, and the first and -the second <i>maîtres d'hôtel</i>, M. Invernizzi, who -comes from the Palace Hotel, at St Moritz, to -London for the season, and M. Castelani, who is -a permanency at Claridge's, are tactfully attentive, -while M. Gehlardi, the manager of the hotel, walks -through the rooms during the course of dinner to -bow here and there at a table, and to assure himself -that all is well. It is the clientele of Claridge's that -has made its atmosphere, for the well-dressed, good-looking, -quiet people who dine at the tables, put -a comfortable distance apart, are folk whose names -bulk largely in the Society columns of the newspapers, -and the list of the diners on any given night -in Claridge's Restaurant would be for the most part -a string of titles. Good manners are in the air, and -I do not think that even the rawest plutocrat could -be unmannerly amidst such surroundings.</p> - -<p>On the night that I last dined at Claridge's, I -had written beforehand asking that a table for three -should be reserved for me, and I had intended to -give my guests the larger of the two dinners of the -restaurant, the twelve-and-six one, which runs through -the usual courses, and which is by no means a set -dinner, for any dish which does not exactly match the -fancy of a dinner-giver is changed for another to suit -his whim or his palate. But I found that a special little -feast had been ordered for me by M. Gehlardi, and -the menu of it was as follows:—</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon Cantaloup.<br /> -Bortch à la Russe.<br /> -Filets de Sole Newnham-Davis.<br /> -Noisette d'Agneau aux Fines Herbes.<br /> -Petits pois frais. Pommes Noisettes.<br /> -Coq en Pâte.<br /> -Salade de Romaine à l'Estragon.<br /> -Fraises Parisienne.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> - -<p>The <i>chef de cuisine</i> at Claridge's is M. Maurice -Bonhomme, who had passed through the kitchens -of two great Parisian restaurants, the Café de Paris, -and Ledoyen's, in the Champs Elysées, before he -came to London. He is a chef of high repute, and -these are the specialities of his kitchen:—<i>filet de -sole Tosca, suprême de sole Pré Catalan, Coulibiac de -saumon, suprême de volaille d'Orléans, cailles Hacchi -Pacha, Coq en Pâte Claridge's, pêches Caprice, fraises -Delphine</i>.</p> - -<p>Of the dishes of my dinner, the excellent <i>Bortch -à la Russe</i> was served as it is in Russia, with little -<i>pâtés</i> to break into it. The list of these <i>pâtés</i> in the -menu of a Russian dinner is often a long one. The -<i>filet de sole</i>, which M. Bonhomme paid me the compliment -of christening to my name, is a quite admirable -<i>sole poché au Madère</i>, with all the fumet of the fish -retained and served with sliced <i>champignons</i> and <i>pointes -d'asperges</i>. I sent my very best compliments to -M. Bonhomme on his masterpiece. The <i>coq en pâte</i> -is an ornamental dish, for the fowl stuffed with all -manner of rich things is encased in a paste shaped -like a cock, crest and all. The outer covering is -broken before the bird is carved. It is a dish of -almost terrifying richness.</p> - -<p>Quite a number of the great people of the land -give their banquets at Claridge's, and out of the -sheaf of the menus of these feasts I select one of -the Surrey Magistrates' Club Dinner, which shows -that our Solons across the Thames dine and wine -with much discretion and taste:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Royal Natives.<br /> -Hors d'œuvre.<br /> -Consommé Monte-Carlo.<br /> -Bisque de Crabes.<br /> -Turbotin braisé au Champagne.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>Whitebait diable noir.<br /> -Selle de Béhague à l'Estragon.<br /> -Haricots verts de Nice.<br /> -Pommes nouvelles au Beurre.<br /> -Timbale à la Galoise.<br /> -Caneton d'Aylesbury à l'Anglaise.<br /> -Salades d'Oranges.<br /> -Asperges vertes Sauce Hollandaise.<br /> -Pêches Melba.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Bonne Bouche.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Vins.</span><br /> -Oloroso Fine Old.<br /> -Piesporter, 1904.<br /> -George Goulet (mag.), 1900.<br /> -Moët et Chandon.<br /> -Dry Imper., 1904.<br /> -Dow's 1896.<br /> -Courvoisier Brandy.<br /> -Fine Champagne, 1865.<br /> -</p> - -<p>I wonder how a club dinner of magistrates of fifty -years ago would contrast with such a dinner as the -above.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XII" id="XII">XII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE EUSTACE MILES RESTAURANT</h3> - - -<p>Old "Rats," which is the disrespectful title by -which most of his friends call Major-General Sir -Ulysses Ratbourne, late of the Bundlekund Fusiliers, -was holding forth to his crony, Colonel Bunthunder, -late of the same distinguished regiment, in the hall of -the Cutlass and Cross-bow Club as I passed through -it, and the General paused for a second in his denunciation -of Radicals and Socialists to say that he -wanted to have a word with me, and then finished his -peroration. Colonel Bunthunder muttered: "Very -true, very true," and went on into the smoking-room -shaking his head sorrowfully, and the General turned -to me.</p> - -<p>"Look here, my lad"—anyone under seventy is -"my lad" to the General—said he, "I want you to -give me a bit of advice."</p> - -<p>I said the correct platitude, and awaited developments.</p> - -<p>"My nephew Bill, the one in the Hussars, has -just married, and he and his wife are coming up to -town, and I want to know where to take 'em to -dine."</p> - -<p>I reeled off the list of the half-dozen most fashionable -restaurants; but the General cut me short. -"Ay, my lad, that's all very well; but the girl that -poor old Bill's been and married is a vegetarian. -What d'ye say to that, now?"</p> - -<p>The General had put into the word "vegetarian"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> -just the tone of astonished disgust he would have -employed had he told me that the young lady was -a militant suffragette; but I did not echo that at all. -"Take them to the Eustace Miles Restaurant in -Chandos Street," I advised; "and whatever your -niece's fads may be, you can give her what she wants -there."</p> - -<p>Old "Rats" thanked me with the chastened -thankfulness that men show when given the address -of a specialist for some obscure disease of which they -think they are a victim, wrote the address down on -a card, and went after Colonel Bunthunder into the -smoking-room to tell him all about it.</p> - -<p>It occurred to me, however, directly the old General -had left me, that I was sending him to a restaurant -into which I had never myself been, and concerning -which I knew nothing, except that I always look -into its windows and at its bill of fare whenever I -pass down Chandos Street; and, therefore, in order -that I might be able to give the old man some detailed -information from my own experience, I went next -day to Chandos Street to lunch.</p> - -<p>Before I set down what my experiences were, I -wish to express my personal admiration for the single-mindedness -of Mr Miles and his wife in doing the -work they have set themselves to do. That Eustace -Miles, half trained, went into a tennis court to defend -his title of amateur world champion against a young -American gentleman trained to the second, and that -he made a fine fight for the championship with the -odds desperately against him, shows that a diet of -non-flesh food doesn't kill pluck or stamina. And -before the authorities asked Mrs Miles not to send -the E.M. soup barrow down to the Embankment on -winter nights, as they wished to clear that thoroughfare -of derelicts, she and her helpers had done much -to feed the hungry and to reclaim some of those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> -were not irreclaimable, which shows that a kind -heart thrives on Emprote and Protonnic and Compacto, -and the other meatless foods with strange names. -Lastly, that the Eustace Miles Restaurant celebrated -last year the seventh anniversary of its opening, shows -that London wanted such a restaurant, and that it has -kept its clientele.</p> - -<p>The big windows of the Eustace Miles Restaurant -are "dressed" as if they were shop-windows. Sometimes -they are full of tins and packets of the non-flesh -foods arranged in piles and pyramids; sometimes -they look like the windows of a book shop, piles of -literature and charts of the human frame being in -evidence; and sometimes boxing-gloves and foils and -pictures of young men holding themselves upright -and sticking out chests as full as those of pouter-pigeons -draw attention to the fact that a physical -school high up in the building is one of the Eustace -Miles activities. Sometimes the windows look like -those of a pastry-cook's shop, and sometimes they -bristle with copies of <i>Healthward Ho!</i> the monthly -magazine which Mr Miles edits. Always outside the -door in a glazed case is the bill of fare for the day -printed in red and green type, and I have often -wondered what "Egg and Mushroom Fillets and -Duxelles Sauce with Asparagus and New Potatoes -(N.)," or "Pinekernel Quenelles and Onion Sauce with -Spring Cabbage and Potatoes (N., F.U.)," or "Hazel-nut -Sausages and Gravy with Cauliflower and Roast -Potatoes (N., F.U.)," taste like, and what the capital -letters after each dish mean. Now, however, there -was no reason to linger and look at the card. I was -about to plunge into the great unknown, to sample -the dishes with strange names, and to learn the secret -of N.N. and F.U.</p> - -<p>A commissionaire, looking just like other commissionaires, -though he, like all the other employees<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> -of the restaurant, eats the food of the restaurant, -opened the door to me and gave me a card for my -bill, and my first impression was that I was in a Food -and Cookery Exhibition, for in front of me was a stall -piled high with tins of Emprote and a cash desk with a -little model of the E.M. barrow by it, a stall for -pastry and biscuits, and a book-stall; but beyond -this first line of defence I saw little tables with white -cloths on them, and many people sitting at them, and -I walked on looking for a vacant seat. I came to a -table with only one occupant, and sat down; a little -waitress in a neat brown dress put the red and green -printed bill of fare into my hand, and I found -myself suddenly faced by a puzzle to which the -purple ink <i>carte du jour</i> of a small provincial French -restaurant is as ABC is to a jig-saw puzzle. -However, in larger print than anything else on the -card was the announcement that a half-crown <i>table -d'hôte</i> luncheon and dinner was served, so I said -to the waitress in an offhand manner, as though I -were an habitué: "I'll take the half-crown lunch, -please." She never budged. "Compacta <i>croûtes</i> or -roasted cashews?" she asked me, and I gasped out, -"Compacta," and wondered what on earth I was going -to eat.</p> - -<p>Then, while the little waitress had gone to get me -the first instalment of the unknown, I looked down -the menu and made up my mind which of the two -soups, the two entrées, the two sweets and two -savouries I would order when the waitress came back -again, and then turned my attention to the room and -the people at the tables. There is a suggestion of a -gymnasium about the restaurant, for it is a high room -with a broad gallery running round it about half-way -up its height, and it is lighted by a great space of -skylight. All the boarding, and there is a good -deal of it, is painted dark green, and on the walls is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> -dark green and white paper. A tea-stall, green and -white, and a long buffet of green wood, with pots of -flowers on it, are at one end of the restaurant; the -floor is covered with oilcloth, with strips of crimson -cocoa-nut matting laid over it, and there are flowers in -vases on the little white-clothed tables which occupy -all the floor space below and in the gallery. There -is a sense of airiness and spotless cleanliness about the -place. Big notices draw attention to the Normal -Physical School and other of the Eustace Miles -activities, and a request to gentlemen not to smoke -till after six <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> was just above my head.</p> - -<p>The people at the tables were just like the people -one sees at any other restaurant where the prices are -not high—ladies who might be stenographers, or -country cousins up for a day's shopping, young men -who, I daresay, are bank clerks—a good, level, healthy-looking -gathering. A man with clear blue eyes and -a close-clipped white beard sat down in the seat opposite -to mine, and ordered something without looking -at the menu; a youngster in golfing kit took the -other unoccupied place at the table, and a wrinkle -came across his forehead as he plunged mentally -into the intricacies of the <i>à la carte</i> sheet, until the -waitress helped him by pointing with her pencil to -some dish printed in red ink, and he joyfully assented -to her suggestion. A young man brought in a bull-dog -on a leash, and the dog was petted on his progress -up the floor by all the little waitresses.</p> - -<p>The waitress who had me in her charge returned -with the Compacto <i>croûtes</i>, two little angles of hot toast -with something spread on them, and she took my -order for the next course, of lettuce and sorrel <i>potage</i>, -and for some ginger ale, which I ordered as having a -vague feeling that it would be in keeping with the -meal. The Compacto had a far-off taste of potted meat, -and I had noticed that it was labelled N., F.U., which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> -a note at the top of the menu told me meant nourishing -and free from uric acid. The dishes marked N.N. -are "Very Nourishing." The lettuce and sorrel soup, -when it came, was distinctly to be commended, a -trifle thin, perhaps, but having the taste of the -vegetables in it, and being excellently hot. This -also, I was pleased to see, was noted as N. and F.U.; -and had I been subject to gout, which—"touch -wood," I am not, I should have been eating an admirable -non-gouty meal. Then came what on the menu -was described as a main dish. It was asparagus and -lentil timbale, cucumber sauce, stuffed vegetable -marrow and new potatoes <i>sautés</i>. I rather hope that -this will not be the main dish that old "Rats" will -stumble up against when he takes his niece to dine at -the Eustace Miles Restaurant, for the timbale did not -seem to me to have any strong taste of asparagus in -it—perhaps the lentils had killed it. The stuffed -vegetable marrow was rather a watery delicacy, but I -ate up the <i>sautés</i> potatoes, feeling quite glad that I -knew what their taste was going to be. The next -dish, however—honey shortbread and stewed apricots—I -can unreservedly praise; the shortbread was excellently -light and the stewed apricots were good -things of their kind. I had told the waitress that as a -savoury I would have <i>matelote</i> eggs on toast, but I -cancelled that order, for I look on savouries as superfluities, -and ate some cheese as a finish to my repast.</p> - -<p>The little waitress totalled up my bill on the card -that the commissionaire at the door had given me, -and I was making my way to the pay-desk when -I saw in a corner by the book-stall a lady engaged -in opening letters; and, thinking that this must be -Mrs Eustace Miles, I asked her if such was the case, -and when she said "Yes," introduced myself. She -welcomed me to the restaurant, explained that her -husband was away playing a championship game at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> -tennis, and said how sorry she was that she had not -met me before I lunched, as she would have liked -to suggest to me the dishes that best suit anyone -making their first essay on non-flesh foods. I told -her, however, that I had wished to make my first -attack just as any other meat-eating member of the -public would do, and I was very glad to be able -to compliment her on the cook's soup and the shortbread. -I had bought at the book-stall the May -number of <i>Healthward Ho!</i> and had carried off -from the dinner-table a sheaf of leaflets giving -information concerning the restaurant and the <i>salons</i>, -and in addition to these Mrs Miles gave me a leaflet -describing the exhibit that the then chef of the -restaurant, Mr Blatch, N.C.A., sent to the Food and -Cookery Exhibition in 1910, and which won a gold -medal there, and an account of the <i>déjeuner</i> at which -M. Escoffier and the editor of <i>Food and Cookery</i> -and <i>The Catering World</i> were present, and which -was described by the latter in glowing terms, -"excellent," "delightful" and "delicious" being -adjectives used for every course. This was the -menu of the feast:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Milk Cheese and Celery Mayonnaise.<br /> -Salsify and Barley Cream Soup.<br /> -Cashew Nut Timbale and Cranberry Sauce.<br /> -Nut and Vegetable en Casserole.<br /> -Vegetables (Conservatively Cooked).<br /> -Jamaican Fruit Salad.<br /> -Devilled Compacto.<br /> -</p> - -<p>It was recorded that M. Escoffier very much -enjoyed the devilled Compacto, and praised the work -of the chef who had prepared the <i>hors d'œuvre</i> and -the entrées. As, however, since the date of this -<i>déjeuner</i>, which was in March 1910, M. Escoffier has -given the world his famous <i>Dodine</i>, and his not less -famous <i>Poularde Poincaré</i>, he was evidently not weaned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> -from the errors of flesh-eating by his visit to the -Eustace Miles Restaurant, nor shall I be lured away -by any stuffed vegetable marrow from creamy -salmon and plump quails.</p> - -<p>But I shall say no word to dissuade old "Rats" -from going to dine at the Eustace Miles Restaurant, -for I am quite sure that what he will eat there will -certainly do him no harm, and if he chooses F.U. -dishes may probably do him a lot of good, but I -should like to be present when the old man first -looks down the green and red bill of fare of the day -and finds himself faced by all the strange new dishes, -for his remarks will be worthy of the occasion.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XIII" id="XIII">XIII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE PRINCES' RESTAURANT</h3> - - -<p>When the house for the Royal Institute of Painters -in Water Colours—that classic stone building with -busts of great painters in the ovals that ornament its -façade, busts on which the sparrows perch and watch -the traffic in Piccadilly—was put up in the early -eighties, there was space below the galleries for -some shops and for a large hall. It occurred to -somebody, probably M. Benoist, whose great charcutier's -shop was just over the way, that Princes' -Hall was eminently suitable to be a dining-room, and -Princes' Restaurant came into existence, M. Benoist -being the moving spirit, his brother-in-law, -M. Fourault, being the manager, and M. Azema, -a chef of much fame, being at the head of the -kitchen.</p> - -<p>Princes' Restaurant, as I first remember it, was -not the beautiful room it is now. The painted -ceiling with its concealed lights, as fine an example -of this kind of art as we have in London, was a later -addition; the garden outside the windows of the -restaurant had still to be made, and I think that the -windows which look towards St James's Church -were not in the great room when it was first built. -The hotel, which has an entrance in Jermyn Street, -and in which there are some noble rooms for -banquets and balls, was another afterthought. The -lessees of some of the shops on the Piccadilly front -were bought out before the palm garden, in which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> -impatient gentlemen wait for ladies who are late, -and where satisfied diners smoke their after-dinner -cigars and drink their coffee, could be made, -and comparatively lately communication has been -established between the restaurant and the galleries -above, in order that when there is a ball in the -picture-hung halls the dancers can troop down to -sup below.</p> - -<p>If Princes' Restaurant and Princes' grill-room and -Princes' Hotel are like Rome in that they were not -built in a day, they are very good to look upon in -their finished state. The restaurant has a great -height, and the early diners can smoke there without -the least taint of tobacco greeting the later comers. -Its ceiling is, as I have already written, a beautiful -example of decorative art, and a bill of exceeding -length, the sum total of which astonished me when -I was told how many figures it comprised, was paid -for this embellishment. Its walls are creamy in -colour, the curtains are of soft pink, and the tall -windows south and east are reflected in mirrors, -looking like other windows on the northern side, -where the space is not occupied by the Palm Lounge. -A musicians' gallery runs along the western side, and -the doors into the kitchen are below this, but the -red-coated musicians have forsaken their aerie, which -now forms a way to ballrooms and galleries, and have -found a snug corner on the floor of the restaurant. -There are some fine marble statues of nymphs on -pedestals and palms and banked-up plants and flowers -in the restaurant, and the general effect suggests that -one has stepped out of London greyness into some -Southern clime where all is light and bright and -spacious. At night the electroliers are shaded so as -to give a mixed golden and pink light, which is most -comfortable to the eyes, and is, I am sure, very becoming -to the complexions of the ladies, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> -carpets and the upholstering of the chairs carry on -the harmony of deep rose and pink.</p> - -<p>The history of the present success of the Princes' -Restaurant is the story of the triumph of the short -dinner over the long one. As a lunching place -Princes' was a great success from the day its doors -first opened. The ladies of Mayfair and Belgravia -and Tyburnia found that it was comfortably near -their shopping centres, and the little ladies of the -stage also liked to lunch there. The musical -comedy ladies monopolised the first half-dozen tables -to the right as one entered, leaving the rest of the -tables to the other ladies, and Stage looked at Society's -hats, and Society looked at Stage's furs, and no doubt -each envied what the other wore. But for quite a -while—it seemed a long while to the shareholders—Princes' -did not find its destiny as a dining place. -M. Benoist wished it to be a great <i>à la carte</i> restaurant -such as he has made the restaurant of the Hermitage -at Monte Carlo, but for some unexplainable reason -diners did not flock to Princes' to eat expensive -dinners, nor did a long <i>table d'hôte</i> dinner tempt them. -At last it was determined that new methods should -be tried and new men came on to the Board of -Directors to try them, that very energetic and very -successful organiser, Mr Harry Preston, of Brighton, -being one of them. A short theatre dinner became -the trump card of the restaurant in the evening, the -Princes' ballrooms became the scene of most of the -dances organised in theatreland, and when the -company began to earn an annual dividend for its -shareholders the advantages of brief dinners became -very apparent to them.</p> - -<p>This was the dinner of the day that I took a lady -to eat at seven o'clock on an evening on which Sir -George Alexander produced a new play at the -St James's:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre à la Russe.<br /> -Petite Marmite Henri IV.<br /> -Crème Lamballe.<br /> -Suprême de Saumon Doria.<br /> -Agneau de Pauillac à la Grecque.<br /> -Boutons de Crucifères aux Fines Herbes.<br /> -Chapons à la Broche.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Biscuit Glacé au Chocolat Praliné.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -</p> - -<p>This was the six-and-six theatre dinner of the day, -not too long to be eaten during the hour that theatre-goers -allow themselves for a meal, and quite long -enough for those for whom dinner is the one event of an -evening. M. Roux, the <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, who has been -at the Princes' for eighteen years, also showed me -the menu of a half-guinea dinner which the Princes' -holds in reserve should the little dinner not be -impressive enough for some of its clients. The -dinner was excellently cooked, and the tiny <i>pilau</i> -which came to the table with the lamb would have -caught the appreciative attention of any gourmet, and -assured me that M. Génie, the present head of the -kitchen, who had previously won his spurs at the -Carlton and the Brighton Metropole, and had at one -period learned all there is to learn in Egypt, the land -of <i>pilau</i>, is a worthy successor to M. Azema and -M. Granvilliers. The lady who dined with me was -much impressed by the two Pierrots sitting on the -moon, a work of art which came to table with the -<i>biscuit</i>, and was enthusiastic as to the playing of the -orchestra. I thought myself that the musicians -insisted a little too much that their music and not my -conversation was what the pretty lady had come to -Princes' to hear, but the question of music in a -restaurant is a matter on which the gentler sex and -the denser one are never in accord and the managers -of most establishments find it a thorny question. If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> -an orchestra of distinction is engaged nothing in the -world will persuade its head that his music should be -merely an accompaniment to conversation, and the -opinion concerning music of a young man who has so -much to say to a pretty girl that a dinner never lasts -long enough to allow him to say it all, is very -different to that of a bored husband, who has nothing -in particular to remark to his wife after they have -reached the soup course.</p> - -<p>At seven, when we commenced our dinner, two other -tables were already occupied. By half-past seven the -room was comfortably full, and at a quarter to eight, -when we left to go to the St James's, diners were -still coming in to their tables. Most certainly what -the dwellers in the leafy lanes of Mayfair and by -the snipe-ground of Belgrave Square required was a -restaurant in Piccadilly, where they can dine well and -at not too great a length, nor at too great a price, on -their way to the theatre, and Princes' has at last given -them what they wanted.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XIV" id="XIV">XIV</a></h3> - -<h3>THE CRITERION</h3> - - -<p>The East Room at the Criterion is a trophy of one -of woman's victories over man, for it was one of the -first, if not the very first, restaurant-rooms designed -and decorated to harmonise with feminine frocks and -frills, and made beautiful that mankind should bring -beautiful womankind there to eat things delicate. -In the sixties, restaurants were few and far between, -and were mostly places where men dined without -their feminine belongings. But all this was changed -in the seventies, and the East Room did its full share -in persuading man that it added pleasure to a good -dinner in a restaurant to be faced by a pretty woman. -The East Room of to-day is twice the size of the one -that Messrs Spiers and Pond first built, and its -decoration of white and gold, and panels painted -with Watteau subjects, its harmony of greys and pink -in carpets and furniture and curtains, its ante-room -with old French furniture, and the satisfactory -arrangement by which the music of the orchestra, -perched in a gilded cage above the big entrance hall, -comes softened by distance to the diners in the East -Room, are all happy second thoughts. But the East -Room was, in 1873, when it was first opened, the -dining place to which every lady asked her husband -to take her, and it has held its own against ever-increasing -competition through the years. Its windows -look down on the rush and swirl of Piccadilly Circus, -a wonderful scene either by day or night, and it adds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> -to the pleasure of an unhurried meal to watch the -hurry of thousands of one's fellow-creatures.</p> - -<p>At one period, after the extension of the building, -there were two East Rooms, a dividing wall being -where the arches and curtains now are. The one -of these nearest the grand staircase was a strictly -<i>à la carte</i> restaurant, while in the other, approached -through a corridor, a <i>table d'hôte</i> meal was served. -The East Room of to-day smiles on both classes of -diners. When a man sits down at his table there at -dinner-time, M. Kugi, the <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, puts before -him the <i>carte du jour</i>, an ample one, with any special -delicacies in larger print than the others, and also -lays on the table the menus of the half-sovereign -and seven-and-six <i>table d'hôte</i> dinners, and it is -his experience that the greater number of diners -look at the <i>carte du jour</i> and then, mistrusting their -own judgment, order one or the other of the <i>table -d'hôte</i> meals.</p> - -<p>This was the menu of the seven-and-six dinner -one night when I dined at the East Room at a tiny -dinner-party, before going to the theatre down -in the cellars of the big building to see the play -running there:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre.<br /> -Consommé Rossolnick.<br /> -Crème aux huîtres.<br /> -Truite de rivière Dona Louise.<br /> -Selle d'Agneau Mascotte.<br /> -Pommes nouvelles.<br /> -Poularde du Surrey à la broche.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Parfait au moka.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>It was a very well-selected, well-served dinner. -Had we chosen the half-guinea dinner we should -have had an addition to this menu of <i>cailles à la<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> -Grecque</i> and <i>chou de mer, sauce vierge</i>. The <i>Rossolnick</i>, -with its flavour of cucumber, was excellent, the -trout were fresh and firm, and the Surrey fowl as -plump as any foreigner from Mans. M. Auguste -Pannier, the chef of to-day, is worthy of the great -men who have preceded him in the kitchen of the -East Room. And not only have there been great -cooks, but great managers as well at the Criterion, -with the East Room as the particular object of their -care. Oddenino, Mantell, Gerard, who all moved -on to other posts, were predecessors of M. Emile -Campenhaut, the manager of to-day, as was also M. -Lefèvre, whose health broke down, but whom I -remember as being an enthusiast on the subject of -the art of cookery, a man who brought plenty of -brain power to bear on the subject of delicate food. -I think that the best of the many dinners I have eaten -<i>à deux</i> in the East Room was one ordered in consultation -with him, and I subjoin it as a good specimen of -an East Room <i>à la carte</i> feast:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Caviar.<br /> -Consommé à la Diane.<br /> -Filets de sole aux délices.<br /> -Suprêmes de volaille grillés.<br /> -Carottes nouvelles à la crème.<br /> -Laitues braisées en cocotte.<br /> -Cailles à la Sainte-Alliance.<br /> -Salade de chicorée frisée.<br /> -Croûtes à la Caume.<br /> -Soufflé glacé à la mandarine.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The <i>caille à la Sainte-Alliance</i>, in imitation of Brillat -Savarin's <i>faisan à la Sainte-Alliance</i>, consisted of a -truffle in an ortolan, the ortolan being in the quail. -The <i>Croûte Caume</i> is an admirable banana dish in -which the tastes of the banana and pine-apple and -apricot and kirsch all mingle.</p> - -<p>The East Room is, of course, only one of the many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> -restaurant-rooms in the great stone building. Immediately -under the East Room are the Marble -Restaurant and the grill-room. The Marble Restaurant, -in old days, when men of position did not -think it undignified to stand at a bar and drink -brandy and soda, was the Long Bar, and a wonderful -sight this bar, running the whole length of the -building, used to be at midnight, crowded with -Londoners of all the leisured classes and with a score -or more of good-looking barmaids in black behind the -bar. When the habits of the men of London began -to change, and the Long Bar did not draw so many -devotees, the firm of Spiers and Pond was not quite -convinced for some time that the "palmy" days of -the bars were gone, and they made the Long Bar one -of the most beautiful saloons in London, decorating -it with marbles and inlay of Venetian glass. That -beautiful saloon is now the Marble Restaurant, in -which a five-shilling <i>table d'hôte</i> meal is served, and -where singers on Sundays discourse music to the -diners.</p> - -<p>The American Bar had its period of great success, -and in the grill-room, which formed part of the bar's -surroundings, chops and steaks, unsurpassed anywhere -in London, used to be grilled. But the -character of some of the habitués of the American -Bar was too pronouncedly sporting to be altogether -satisfactory, and the American Bar passed away from -the front part of the building as the Long Bar did. -There is a buffet now at the Jermyn Street side, but -it is no longer the haunt of the gentlemen who were -so overwhelmingly devoted to sport. The grill-room, -without the American Bar, is a very flourishing -section of the Criterion. It differs from most other -grill-rooms in having plenty of sunlight and fresh -air, and has this distinctive feature, that there is an -American cook in its kitchen and that American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> -dishes can always be obtained there even when they -are not on the bill of fare. I have eaten clam broth, -terrapin, dry hash, scalloped sweet potatoes, and -Graham pudding, when dining there with Americans.</p> - -<p>The Criterion contains a score of banqueting-rooms, -including a huge one at the top of the house, -where a statue of Shakespeare looks down upon the -diners. The West Room, which is now one of the -banqueting-rooms, has been used by the management -for many experiments. For a long time a <i>Dîner -Parisien</i> was served there, and as its cost was only -five shillings, and as one got a great deal of very -good food to eat for that sum, I used to patronise it -very regularly in my subaltern days, when a dinner -in the East Room could not be budgeted for. At -one time it was given over to the vegetarians, and -good-looking damsels in art clothing brought the -diners dishes of nut cutlets and vegetable steaks; -but the nut-eaters did not hold possession of the -room for long.</p> - -<p>It is not easy to-day to associate the great stone -building in Piccadilly Circus with the revels of miners -in an Australian township. But it was in Melbourne, -during the gold fever, that the seed was sown which -blossomed into the big stone house in the centre of -London. Felix Spiers and Christopher Pond were -both young Englishmen. Felix was born in one of -the old houses on Tower Hill, which was then the -office of the General Steam Navigation Company, -whose agent his father then was. The family of the -Spiers moved to Paris, and young Felix was put into -a banking house, where he remained until he was -eighteen. Then he went to Melbourne, with the gold -fever upon him, to make his fortune. In Melbourne, -he met young Christopher Pond, also an Englishman, -and also determined to make his pile. Spiers had -become, for the time being, a wine merchant, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> -experience which later was to serve him to excellent -purpose at the Criterion, for he laid down some -admirable wine there, amongst it some hock which as -long as it lasted I used to drink in preference to any -other wine on the Criterion list. The miners were -spending money in Melbourne as though it were -water, and the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, received -much of the golden shower. It occurred to young -Spiers and young Pond that it would be a profitable -undertaking to start a restaurant next door to a theatre, -and they established, in Collins Street, the Café de -Paris. Their next enterprise was to become caterers -for the Melbourne and Ballarat Railway. They were -full of ideas in those days, and one of these was to -bring out to Australia a team of English cricketers -and to tour them as a speculation. This was the -thought of which the test matches were born. Spiers -and Pond came to England intending to persuade -Charles Dickens to make a great reading tour in -Australia, and then it was that they espied the nakedness -of the land in regard to railway catering. -Dickens came to their aid with his attack on Mugby -Junction, and he wrote an article in <i>All the World</i> -entitled "The Genii of the Cave," in which he -described the then novelty of the "Silver Grill" -under the arch at Ludgate Circus, which Spiers and -Pond established. The Criterion was the pet child of -the two great caterers. It rose on historic ground, -for it occupied the site of the old "White Bear," -which had been a celebrated coaching-house, one of -those fine old inns of many galleries. The theatre -was opened four months later than the restaurant; -but it was not until 1879 that Sir Charles Wyndham, -with whom so many of its successes are associated, -took over sole management, though he had been -a partner for the previous three years with Mr -Alexander Henderson in its control.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XV" id="XV">XV</a></h3> - -<h3>SOME CHOP-HOUSES</h3> - - -<p>Many of the City chop-houses nestle together in the -alleys and courts between Cornhill and Lombard -Street. There, on either side of one of the narrow -little passages, you will find Simpson's Chop-houses, -with pleasant grey-green walls to their rooms and a -window in which simple food, cooked and uncooked, -is shown as bait to draw in the hungry passer-by; -and there in Castle Court is the George and Vulture, -which is also Thomas' Chop-rooms, which dates back -to 1660, is proud of its Dickens' traditions, and is -more ambitious in its bill of fare than most of the -chop-houses.</p> - -<p>There also, in Chance Alley, is Baker's Chop-house, -which, that there may be no mistake as to its pretensions, -describes itself on a board at the Lombard -Street entrance to the alley as a tavern, and a chop-house, -a coffee-house, and soup-rooms. It is a -dignified little house, which bears its years well—it -was founded in the seventeenth century—and which, -with its two bow-windows with small panes of glass -and its glass door in between, commands confidence -even before one has crossed the threshold. Inside one -of the windows are wire screens to give privacy -to the company in the house, but the other window -begs all men to look in and see the fish and the joints, -the vegetables, the salad stuff, and, perhaps, a loin -of cold beef, samples of what the larder contains. -Beyond this rampart of good things edible you may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> -see dames and damsels attired in black, busy in a -glassed-in little room drawing beer, taking payment -from satisfied customers for what they have eaten, and -a grave gentleman, with white hair and beard, making -entries in a large ledger; for the little portioned-off -space you are looking into serves as bar and counting-house, -some old punch-bowls on a shelf giving it its -right old-world note.</p> - -<p>Once inside the door you find yourself in as snug -and cosy an eating-house as you can find in London. -The ground floor is partitioned off into many boxes. -There is one to your left as you come in, the -counting-house being on your right, and two, one of -them with a curtain to give it privacy, facing you, -and another just beyond the grill, and yet another -one below the round clock in a black frame which -is on the back wall. The partitions and the walls are -of wood panelling painted and grained to resemble -light oak, but whoever the craftsman was who -worked at it with feather and comb, he must have -passed away long ago, for the painting, like everything -else in the house, has been mellowed by time. -The partitions are carried up high wherever there -is any possibility of a draught reaching anyone sitting -in one of the boxes, and in the high partitions the top -panels are of glass. There are pegs for hats and coats -on the wall and a stand for umbrellas near the fireplace. -The fireplace, a big grill in a stone frame, is -in one of the side walls, and close in front of it, his -body partially sheltered by a wooden screen, stands -the cook, white-bearded and in white cap, white -jacket and apron. At his elbow is a compartment, a -big box without a lid, in which are chops, steaks, -and all other things grillable, and any man who thinks -he is a judge of a raw chop or steak, looks over -into this box before he finds a seat for himself, and -indicates to the cook which particular fragment of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> -red meat he wishes to have prepared according to his -liking. Above the fireplace is a framed water-colour -picture of the outside of the house, and on either -side of this work of art are pewter plates in a splendid -state of polish. The other interesting work of art on -the walls is a portrait of "James," who was a waiter -at Baker's for thirty-five years. James was, I -imagine, early Victorian. He has a benign appearance, -and his watch-chain is almost as large as a cable. -The waiters of to-day are as British as James was, -and they go about their business with much quickness -and dexterity. To complete my description of the -lower room at Baker's, I should add that there is -sawdust on the floor, and that a narrow staircase, the -steps of which are covered with lead, leads up to the -rooms on the other floors.</p> - -<p>You will have seen written in little frames on one -side of the counting-house window looking into the -chop-room some of the dishes of the day that are -ready—curried chicken, Irish stew (one-chop and -two-chop portions), stewed steak, and the like, and -your waiter will tell you of other good things—pies -and puddings, each a portion for one—that are -ready. If you are for something from the grill, you -make your selection from the cook's stores. If a cut -from the joint is to your taste, you go upstairs to the -big room on the first floor, where there are red walls -and no partitions.</p> - -<p>A basket of great chunks of household bread is -on the white-clothed table at which you find a place; -your chop, if you have selected a chop, will come to -you on a willow-patterned dish, and you will transfer -it to a willow-patterned plate. In old days all meat -at Baker's used to be served on pewter. But if the -four plates over the fireplace are the only survivors -of the pewter set, your beer will be brought you in -a pewter tankard, and most of the glass is of old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> -pattern. When you come to the cheese stage your -slice of Cheddar and pat of butter are both excellent. -Indeed all the food at Baker's is good. No eating -place which does not give good food at reasonable -prices ever survives in the City, and Baker's has seen -nearly three hundred years pass away. Who the -original Baker was who gave his name to the chop-house -no one knows, but a guess is made that he was -a relation of that Mr Baker who was Master of Lloyd's -Coffee-House in Lombard Street in 1740, and who -carried to Sir Robert Walpole the news of Admiral -Vernon's taking of Portobello, being suitably rewarded -as a bringer of good tidings.</p> - -<p>The customers of Baker's Chop-house are excellent -walking advertisements of the house. They all seem -to be prosperous City men, young and old; they are -well groomed and they look well-fed and contented.</p> - -<p>When you have finished your meal at Baker's you -leave twopence by your plate as the waiter's tip, you -give the grill-cook another penny, if you have eaten -grilled fare, as you pass him on your way out, and -then, pausing at the wicket of the counting-room, you -recite to the lady who faces you the things you have -eaten and what you have imbibed, and she, doing a -sum of mental arithmetic, tells you instantly what -you have to pay. As a souvenir of the house she -will give you a post card, if you ask for it, carrying -a miniature copy of the work of art over the fireplace.</p> - -<p>But there are chop-houses in London outside the -City limits, and I know of three of them within -arrow-flight of Piccadilly Circus. There is Snow's, -for instance, in Sherwood Street, almost in the Circus. -Snow's has a reputation for its steaks, and I know -men who declare that the best bacon and eggs in the -world are those brought in between two plates -from the kitchen and placed on the tables at -Snow's. It has lately been rebuilt, and is a modern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> -reproduction of a Tudor house, its three little gables -and the green gallery before its upper windows being -very picturesque. The old tables and the old -partitions are in their old places in the lower rooms, -but the walls of glazed tiles and the curved brass -hangings for coats and hats are scarcely Tudor. -The company at Snow's at its busy times of the day -is a curious mixture. Your neighbour at table may -be a clergyman up from the country, or the man who -shaves you at Shipwright's round the corner, or a -young artist, or a taxi chauffeur.</p> - -<p>Stone's in Panton Street, which dates back to 1770, -is another chop-house, though it is better known as -a wine-house. It has its coffee-room, where good, -plain grilled food is obtainable, though it rather -sinks the title "chop-house" in the more aristocratic -"<i>à la carte</i> restaurant." Stone's has always been a -favourite resort of men of the theatre.</p> - -<p>Not very many Londoners know of the Sceptre -Chop-house, Number 5 Warwick Street, a little -street which runs parallel, on the east, to part of -Regent Street, for it is not in a main thoroughfare. -It is a typical early Victorian chop-house, and it used -to be a haunt of Charles Dickens when he was -making his first successes as an author. The front -of the house has been newly painted, but the interior -remains as it was in 1830, when it first opened its -door. Its window is frosted half-way up to obviate -the necessity for blinds, with a pattern and announcements -that the house supplies chops and coffee left -in plain glass amidst the frosting. I warrant that -window created considerable enthusiasm in Warwick -Street in 1830. At least three of the proprietors, -past and present, of the Sceptre have their names -recorded on the front of the building. Sanders' -name is almost obliterated on the length of brass that -forms the window-sill, and shows faintly on the glass<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> -of the door. Gosling is preserved to memory by his -name in gold letters over the door, while Purcell's -is very large above the window. Inside, the long -room is a harmony of quiet colours. There is brown -boarding half-way up the walls, and above that green -that rests the eye. By the door is an enclosed cosy -corner, with a mirror in an old black frame over the -fireplace. All down the room are low mahogany -partitions with seats cushioned in black. The -tables are of mahogany, polished by constant rubbing -of the waitresses' napkins, and no tablecloths ever -hide the deep colour of the old wood. At the end -of the room is a screen of three arches of dark wood. -The two side arches are filled with panelling and -mirrors; but through the centre arch can be seen -the kitchen with its sawdusted floor, its ranges of -plates and dishes, and the cook and the cookmaids -in print dresses going about their work. The -waitresses in black dresses and white aprons and caps -bustle up and down the room and in and out of the -kitchen. A stove heats the long room, and glazing -in the roof gives it light. A staircase of black wood -leads to the upper rooms, and by the doorway into -the street is a little compartment, no larger than a -sentry-box, which is the pay-desk.</p> - -<p>The food at The Sceptre is of the simplest kind, -and a haricot chop or roast chicken are about its -highest flights. Your soup, mutton broth, or mock -turtle or kidney costs you 4d. or 6d., according to -the size of the soup plate. You can pay 9d. or 10d. -for your chop and 10d. for your steak. A cut from -the joint, for The Sceptre gives you a choice of -three joints, is a 9d. matter; but you can get a very -ample helping of apple tart for 3d. It is under the -heading of entrées that The Sceptre puts such high -flights of cookery as curried mutton and rice, boiled -tripe and onions, Irish pie and mixed grill.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> - -<p>Many men distinguished in art and music and -literature have felt, and still feel, the fascination of -The Sceptre Chop-house. You may, very likely, -amongst the company at the old mahogany tables, see -one of the brightest writers on <i>Punch</i>, or our greatest -living painter of battle pictures, or the man who -composed "In the Shadows."</p> - -<p>Upstairs are two delightful old rooms, browned -by time and the London climate, with old wooden -shelves, old clocks, old brass candlesticks, old chairs -and tables. In one corner of the front room, by a -window, stands Dickens' chair, for it is here, so the -tradition of the house has it, that Dickens used to -come in his early days to write, and it was in this -corner that many of his "Sketches by Boz" were -jotted down on paper. The Sceptre was a spruce, -new little house at this period of Dickens' life, and -probability as well as tradition is on the side of its -having been one of his early haunts.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XVI" id="XVI">XVI</a></h3> - -<h3>SOME GRILL-ROOMS</h3> - - -<p>The modern grill-room we owe, I think, to the -Americans, for the travelling American, who has his -own very sensible ideas as to what comfort is, does -not wish every night of his life to attire himself in a -"claw-hammer" evening coat, but he feels that -without that garment he would be out of place in -the restaurant of any of the fashionable hotels. The -grill-room gives him an excellent dinner, just as long -or just as short as he likes, served quickly, in luxurious -surroundings, and he can dress as he likes, to eat -it. An American always knows what he wants, asks -for it, and keeps on asking until he gets it. Quite -a number of Britons of both sexes wanted all the -conveniences of the grill-rooms long before the -modern grill-room came into existence. (Hard-working -men of business who had not time to go -home to the suburbs to change their clothes, men of -the theatre, authors and managers who work late -in the evening, actors and actresses who like a very -light meal before going to the theatre, and to sup -after their work without wearing gorgeous raiment, -and a host of other people who get their living by -their brains.) But they had not the pertinacity of -the American in demanding what they wanted.</p> - -<p>Quite the beginning of the modern grill-room was -that silver grill which Messrs Spiers and Pond established -some time in the sixties under the arch at -Ludgate Hill; but I look to the little grill-room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> -in the old Savoy Hotel in the days before the new -building had pushed through to the Strand as being -the ideal of a modern grill-room, and I always measure -any grill-room of to-day by the standard of that little -place of good eating. It was small, and its windows -looked up an unlovely cul-de-sac of which it formed -the end. The people who controlled the Savoy -Hotel and the Savoy Theatre all used it as their own -dining-room; the general public scarcely knew of its -existence; the food there was excellent. Besides the -chops and steaks and other real grill-room fare, there -were always one or two savoury entrées kept hot -in metal pots and pans on a miniature hot plate in the -middle of the room, and when the <i>maître d'hôtel</i> -brought over one of these and took off the cover -under one's nose, the savour of its contents alone gave -one an appetite.</p> - -<p>The present Café Parisien at the Savoy, which the -russet-bearded Gustave steered to a great success, -is the legitimate successor to that other grill-room -which was hidden away in the midst of the building, -but it has not the charm of discovery felt by those -who used the old grill-room. The Café Parisien, -which has its entrance in the Savoy forecourt, where -gorgeous servitors in French-grey uniforms of State -take one's coat and hat just as they do if one is going -to spend one's money in the restaurant, is a great -Adams room painted a very light grey, with <i>portières</i> -of light pink, and with chairs and carpets of a deeper -rose. It has a little space outside, a <i>terrasse</i>, as the -French would call it, which is railed off from the -courtyard by a white trellis, over which roses are -trained. This is a very pleasant spot in hot weather, -if so be that no motor sighing out deep breaths of -petrol is standing in the vicinity. This Café Parisien -is a place of pleasant, clean-shirted Bohemianism, much -patronised by the aristocracy of the theatre. There is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> -an elaborate <i>à la carte</i> menu with stars against those -dishes which are ready. A man in a hurry can eat a -four-course dinner here in half-an-hour without -risking indigestion, but a couple who wish to talk -over their meal can make a cutlet and an ice an excuse -for sitting out an hour.</p> - -<p>The grill-room of the Princes' Restaurant, to which -one descends from an entrance in Piccadilly, is a -comfortable white room, with white pillars and -mirrors in the panelled walls, where quite good food -is served, and where there are always the dishes of -the day ready as well as the chops and steaks, kidneys -and sausages, and other legitimate grill fare. The -Brussels carpets and the dark leather of the chairs are -restful to the eye, and the lights in the crystal -bouquets which hang from the ceiling are not too -glaring.</p> - -<p>Almost across the way, in the great building of the -Piccadilly Hotel, quite an unpretentious entrance and -a small staircase with marble walls lead down to the -grill-room. There is a lift by the stairs which is much -used by the people coming up from the grill-room, -though only lazy folk use it to go down there. This -unpretentious entrance and staircase are the portals to -a suite of very high, very spacious rooms, running the -full length of the building. There are pilasters with -gilt capitols; and casemented mirrors in the walls. -The electroliers holding imitation candles give -abundant light. The grill is behind a great glass -screen; carvers in white wheel about big joint -waggons and a Turk in gorgeous raiment is ready to -make Oriental coffee. The deep rose of the carpet -contrasts with the white of the walls. At a multitude -of tables are hundreds of people of every comfortable -class in life, from the bank clerk to the field-marshal, -and from the typist to the duchess, eating meals simple -or elaborate, just as they will. This grill-room, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> -most of the others, caters for every taste; for there is -an elaborate <i>carte du jour</i>, two <i>table d'hôte</i> luncheons at -half-a-crown and three-and-six, and a <i>table d'hôte</i> -dinner at five-and-six. Electric fans keep the -atmosphere pure. This grill-room is all day long -a very busy place, and as many as five hundred -dinners are served nightly.</p> - -<p>Of the Criterion grill-room, the great airy hall -on the ground floor of the building, I have already -written in another article.</p> - -<p>On the other side of Piccadilly Circus the Monaco has -a grill-room with light buff walls and light buff marble -pilasters. Its entrance gives on to Shaftesbury Avenue. -Near by is the Trocadero grill-room, down to which a -staircase of green and grey marble descends, and which, -with its walls of grey marble and gold and buff, its -mirrors, its hammered copper-work, its great grill and -its orchestra, is handsome almost to the point of -gorgeousness. A <i>table d'hôte</i> dinner is served here, -as it is now in most modern grill-rooms.</p> - -<p>In Regent Street the Café Royal possesses a heavily -gilded grill-room, with entrances through the café and -from Air Street, a grill-room in which the best -<i>entrecôte</i> and the best pint of Burgundy in London are -obtainable; and on the other side of Regent Street, -its entrance hidden away in that dead little road, -Haddon Street, is the grill-room restaurant of the -New Gallery Cinema Theatre, in the basement of that -establishment. It consists of two rooms, panelled -with oak and hung with copies of old tapestries. From -these it takes its name Les Gobelins. Mr Goetz, of -the Vienna Café, opened this little place of refreshment, -and there were always Austrian and German dishes -on its bill of fare, but it has now changed hands, and -M. Victor, late of the Imperial and Les Lauriers, is in -command. Its cookery remains very good.</p> - -<p>The Carlton grill, which has its own entrance in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> -the Haymarket, is as good a specimen of the grill-room -of to-day as one could select to show to anyone -who wished to understand the differences between -the chop-houses of yesterday and the grill-rooms of -to-day. The staircase which leads down to it is -oak-panelled. In the little ante-chamber where hats -and coats are given up there is a newspaper stall, and -in another ante-room are easy-chairs, dark green in -colour, and small tables with tops of burnished -copper. The grill-room itself is all white, little -pilasters breaking the smooth sides of the walls. -Blue china stands on the shelves, a Cromwell clock -ticks on a bracket, and at one side of the room are -arched recesses with stained glass windows at the -back of them. The lights in the electroliers burn -here day and night, but the atmosphere is never -stuffy. A glass screen keeps the heat of the grill -from the room, and in front of this screen are piles -of crimson tomatoes, and chops and steaks of deeper -red, and mushrooms yellow, grey and warm brown, -a harmony in reds and greys. Its <i>carte du jour</i> is -all-embracing, and some of the dishes are always -ready. M. Ventura is the presiding spirit in this -grill-room. He knows the tastes of his clientele and -which tables they prefer, and when there are no -unoccupied tables and people have to be turned away, -as sometimes happens, or asked to wait in the ante-room -until tables are free, his grief is really heartfelt.</p> - -<p>At the very gateway of the Strand the Grand -Hotel has a popular grill-room, walled with shining -tiles of white and buff; the Cecil has a great Indian -room of blue and yellow tiles; and, indeed, every -big hotel from the great pile of the Kensington -Palace, in the west, to the hotel of the Great Eastern -Railway in Liverpool Street in the east, has its grill-room, -the simplicity of the fare and the fact that the -raw material is always on view to the diner before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> -it is placed on the grill being a guarantee of the -quality of the meat.</p> - -<p>Most of the restaurants also have their grills.</p> - -<p>Romano's turned its old kitchen into a reproduction -of a room in a Russian farmhouse with horns on the -walls and an icon up in a corner, and even at one time -carried realism to the point of putting the waiters -in this part of the establishment into white blouses -with red sashes at the waist, the dress the Tartar -waiters in Moscow wear. You get the restaurant -food in this grill-room at about half the restaurant -prices. A new electric grill has been installed in -this Russian room which grills just as well and far -more quickly than a charcoal or a coal grill.</p> - -<p>The Frascati, in Oxford Street, has a grill-room -on the ground floor with walls of white marble veined -with grey, and with mirrors in Oriental frames; and -at the entrance to Tottenham Court Road the Horseshoe -has an excellent grill above its oyster saloon.</p> - -<p>The Holborn shows originality in devoting a grill-room -to ladies, and in the old Freemasons' Tavern -in Great Queen Street, which now calls itself the -Connaught Rooms, there is in the basement a large -grill-room, with a choice of three joints at luncheon -time as well as an extensive <i>carte du jour</i>, a grill -which is much patronised by the lawyers from -Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the evening a dinner is -served in a smaller room, and I have dined there -before going across the way to the Kingsway Theatre. -Those who dine are, I think, mostly connected in -some way or another with Freemasonry, and the talk -that goes on at the tables has reference to high offices -in the Craft and Mark, to "raising" and "passing," -and to that ancient and sacred ritual which ladies still -believe to be in some way connected with a red-hot -poker.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XVII" id="XVII">XVII</a></h3> - -<h3>ROMANO'S</h3> - - -<p>Alfonso Nicolino Romano, a head waiter at the -Café Royal, in 1874 bought with his savings a small -fried fish shop in the Strand, converted it into a -bar and restaurant, and in addition to his own -name on its front added Café Vaudeville, for it -was, and is, almost next door to the Vaudeville -Theatre. Romano's in those days possessed a central -window flanked by two doors, one leading into the -bar and the other to the rooms above. In the window -as an ornament was a small aquarium which contained -goldfish, and those fish must have lived exciting, -if short, lives, for the patrons of the bar tried to feed -them with cigar ash, lemon rind, burnt almonds, and -torn-up notepaper, and it is even said that "Hughie" -Drummond, one of the most amusing and most -reckless of the clean-shirted Bohemians who made -"the Roman's" known all the world over, tried to -take a swim with them.</p> - -<p>Romano was a curly-haired, humorous, quick-witted -little Italian who talked a strange Anglo-Italian -jargon—"Pore ole Romano e got badda -addick this morning" his usual morning greeting, -was an example of it—and who was on the easiest -terms of familiarity with most of his clients without -ever overstepping the line. He had not very many -rules as to the conduct of his business, but one from -which he never departed was that he would under no -circumstances make a reduction in the total of a bill.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> -He would give an aggrieved customer some of the -very best "cognac" of the house or split a bottle of -the most expensive champagne with him or ask him -to dinner next day, but what he would not do was to -reduce any item in the account. One of the most -frequent forms of verbal invitation given by "The -Roman" was to a Sunday midday inspection of his -cellars in the Adelphi arches. "You coma see my -cellars, Mister So-and-So Eskwire, best in London" -was the actual wording. Romano had come from a -good school, and he laid down an excellent cellar. -The food in the restaurant was also beyond reproach.</p> - -<p>Behind the bar, a bar which was always full of -racing men, journalists, coaching men, men from the -Stock Exchange, men about town—for those were the -days when no man in the movement thought it -undignified to be seen standing up in a place of -refreshment—was the restaurant. It was little more -than a corridor, a long, narrow room with space for -one line of tables only; but at those tables used -habitually to sit the merriest gathering of good -fellows, and I include the ladies in that term, that -ever came together in a London restaurant. There -were witty journalists such as Shirley Brooks, -"Pot" Stephens, "Jimmy" Davis, and "Shifter," -and there were men of the theatre—Cecil Raleigh, -for instance, and "Charlie" Harris, who when the -waiter called the order for his dinner down the -speaking-tube always added himself "pour le patron," -for Romano, who lunched and dined at the table -nearest the bar door, was not likely to get a tough -steak or a thin quail. There were Guardsmen, such -at "The Windsor Warrior," "Billie FitzDitto," -"Haddocks," and "The Bonetwister," and men about -town, of whom Hughie Drummond and Fred Russell -were perhaps the best known, and coaching men, -"Dickie the Driver" and "Swish" and "Partner,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> -who used to delight in bringing jolly old Jim Selby -to dine; and Arthur Roberts, then at the very top -of his form, and "Mons" Marius, as representatives -of the actor fraternity. And around this kernel of -good-fellowship formed a fringe of other good fellows -who came and went, men from the country, men -from the far parts of the world, soldiers, sailors, -planters, explorers, country squires. It was rather -a clannish gathering, for everybody seemed to know -everybody else at the line of tables, and people who -were not taken into companionship, no difficult -matter if they were kindred souls, felt "out of it," -and went elsewhere.</p> - -<p>Between the Gaiety Theatre and Romano's there -grew up an indefinite alliance, and golden-hearted -Nellie Farren would lunch there when a new burlesque -was in rehearsal, and "the Child" and dear "Jack" -St John and others of the principals looked with -favour on the restaurant, and on Lord Mayors' days -made a brave show of beauty at the windows of the -first floor. The Gaiety Girls of those days, splendid -women and jolly good fellows, who enjoyed life, -and by their beauty and sociability helped other people -to enjoy life, lunched and supped at the Roman's. I -have a dozen names at the tip of my pen, but if I -wrote them down I should stray into a gossip over the -ladies of the burlesque and light opera stages in the -seventies and eighties, and should require columns and -columns of space to deal adequately with such a -subject. Most of them married, and, as the fairy tales -have it, "lived happy ever after." And the "halls," -we didn't call them variety theatres then, were also -represented at the Roman's. Jolly, humorous Bessie -Bellwood lunched there five days out of six, though -she kept the Roman humble by asserting that she -preferred the tripe and onions at Chick's to anything -his kitchen could produce, and when she was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> -good anecdotal form kept everybody near her -tremulous with laughter. And the sisters Leamar, -who used to sing a duet as to Romano's being "a -paradise, sure, in the Strand" and added the information -that "the wines and the women are grand," -naturally paid frequent visits to the restaurant to assure -themselves that the description was a correct one.</p> - -<p>The Roman gathered about him a staff which -exactly suited the tone of the restaurant, proof thereof -being that so many of them remain in its service to -this day. M. Luigi Naintre, the manager of Romano's, -has climbed the ladder of promotion steadily through -all the grades at the restaurant, and though for a -while after Romano's death he wandered into other -folds, one of the first acts of the company which now -controls the restaurant was to ask him to come -back to it. Long experience has taught him the art -of making each frequenter of the restaurant believe that -the establishment is maintained entirely to meet his or -her taste and whims, and he is essentially the right -man in the right place. M. Minola, his second in command, -also graduated in the "Roman" school. The -cellarman, L. Bendi, and the wine-butler, L. Villa, have -been in the restaurant as far back as I can remember.</p> - -<p>I must pass quickly over the fire which burned -down the old Romano's and its rebuilding on the -site of the old restaurant and on that of another house -next door. The panelled hall and, in the restaurant, -the Moorish arches with the pictures of the Bosphorus -seen through them were features of the new building, -and remain to-day as they then were. In the nineties -Romano died of pneumonia, contracted by standing -one cold winter day outside the restaurant door with -no great-coat on, and the restaurant came under the -Court of Chancery.</p> - -<p>The Court of Chancery was not at all sorry to -hand over its duties to a company, with Mr Walter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> -Pallant, the then chairman of the Gaiety Company, -as its chairman, which was formed to purchase the -restaurant. Mr "Teddy" Bayly, who as a patron -of the restaurant had helped materially in making the -fortune of the Roman, became manager, and Luigi -was appointed as second in command. When Mr -Bayly left Romano's for a restaurant of his very own -M. Luigi mounted one rung more of the ladder of -promotion and was appointed manager.</p> - -<p>The first business of the company, after giving -the building "a wash and brush up," was to find -a chef of celebrity and experience to take charge -of the kitchens. They found in M. Ferrario exactly -the man for whom they were looking. M. Ferrario -had learned his art under M. Coste in the kitchens -of the Cecil, and when he himself became the -commander of the kitchens of a restaurant of the first -class he showed that he had used his powers of -observation, that not only did he know all that there -was to be learned concerning the <i>haute cuisine -française</i>, but that he had an open mind with regard -to the cookery of all other nations. The <i>mouzakkas</i> -that M. Ferrario sends from his kitchen are the best -I have eaten outside Bucharest. He makes a ground-nut -soup, the one delicacy that Nigeria has added to -the cookery book, quite admirably, and Romano's -is the only restaurant that I know of in Europe where -one can eat a Malay curry cooked as it is cooked in -Malaya and served in the Malay fashion, with sambals -and with shining Malayan shell spoons for the rice. -What substitute M. Ferrario has found for the fresh -cocoa-nut pulp which is the foundation of all Malay -curries I do not know, but he has found something -which replaces it admirably. In the winter at lunch-time -north countrymen say that Romano's Lancashire -hot-pot is the real thing, and there is another British -luncheon dish, gipsy-pot, which I eat at Romano's,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> -a savoury stew of chicken and cabbage and other -vegetables and other meats, which I find exceptionally -good.</p> - -<p>But perhaps I had better give you in detail what -are the specialities of Romano's kitchen. They are, -for lunch: Malay curry of chicken, Lancashire hot-pot -and gipsy-pot. For dinner: <i>poule au pot, bortch à -la Russe, potage Normande, potage Nigérienne, filets de sole -Romano, filets de sole Sportive, sole au plat aux courgettes, -sole à la crème, truite George V., poulet nouveau Valencienne, -perdreau Romano, mousse de volaille au curry,</i> the last -being an admirable <i>mousse</i> with just a far-away -reminiscence of India, a sort of dream of all the good -curries of the East, in it.</p> - -<p>If I gave you the menus of all the nice little dinners -for two of which I have been one of the participators -at Romano's I should fill a fat volume. But here -is a little spring dinner which will serve my purpose -very well:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Crevettes Roses.<br /> -Fumet de Volaille aux œufs Filés.<br /> -Filets de Sole Sportive.<br /> -Epaule de Pauillac Bergère.<br /> -Petits Pois Nouveaux à la Crème.<br /> -Asperges d'Argenteuil.<br /> -Sauce Divine.<br /> -Fraises Diva.<br /> -</p> - -<p>And the wine I drank with this was a bottle of 1900 -St Marceaux, which was the choice of the lady who -honoured me with her company. The <i>filets de sole -Sportive</i> are soles which bring to table with them just -a dream of Chablis, and which are nobly backed up -by crayfish.</p> - -<p>The old Romano's in its first period was very -clannish. The new Romano's, though it is a comparatively -small restaurant, finds room for all men -and all ladies who love good food and who like the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> -slightly Bohemian, pleasantly Parisian, atmosphere -of the "Paradise in the Strand." I have seen a -duchess dining at one of the corner tables, and I do -not suppose that there is a man about town, from -dukes to the latest emancipated Oxonian, who does -not know Romano's and its ways. The clientele -varies with the different meals. At lunch-time, -particularly, if there are rehearsals in progress at the -Adelphi or the Gaiety or any of the other light opera -or revue theatres, a host of pretty little ladies go to -Romano's and very probably the "Governor" and -the librettists and composers, and a stage director or -two, will be lunching at a corner table. Half-a-dozen -other managers are sure to be somewhere in the -restaurant, and there will be ladies not of the stage, -and solicitors, and barristers from the Law Courts -and a plaintiff or two, and a journalist or two, a very -interesting <i>salmis</i> of the stage world and the business -world and the world of Law, with a good seasoning -of men from the far parts of the world, and men -about town and soldiers and sailors. At dinner little -parties going on to the theatre finish their feasts -about the time that the habitués of the restaurant, -who are going on nowhere or to a variety theatre, -make their appearance. At supper-time the stage -is once again the most strongly represented element, -and there is no restaurant in Paris which can show -at this hour prettier faces or more unforced gaiety. -The bright young spirits from the 'varsities all love -Romano's, but Luigi has a wholesome fear of the -"Twenty-firsters," as the boys call their coming-of-age -feasts, and the numbers at these gatherings at -Romano's are kept within very strict limits.</p> - -<p>There is one happy young Oxonian who absolutely -defeated Luigi at a birthday feast. He had been -solemnly warned that the spirits of his party must -not rise too high, and he and they had all behaved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> -with quite suspicious decorum during supper. The -band had finished playing, and the bandmaster, on -departing, had locked the door of the pulpit-like -Moorish bandstand that projects high up into the -room. When closing hour came and all the guests -were moving out except the party of young Oxonians -Luigi told them that they also must take their -departure. But their leader begged to be allowed -to sit on for a few seconds longer, even though the -lights were turned out. Out went the lights, and -then here and there a single light was put up again -that the waiters might see to pile the chairs on the -tables and put the restaurant into its night attire. -Luigi, looking at the supper-party, thought that their -numbers had diminished, and from the bandstand -came the sound of someone playing the piano. In -the two seconds of darkness the giver of the feast -had performed a really wonderful gymnastic feat. -Jumping off from the back of one of his guests, he -had climbed up into the bandstand and had taken -his seat at the piano. The door was locked and the -key gone home with the bandmaster; his fortress -was unstormable, and he was in complete possession. -For a quarter of an hour or so he played little -selections at the piano, inquiring of Luigi, who stood -below, what were his favourite airs, and it was only -when his musical repertoire ran out that he climbed -out of his aerie and dropped to the floor.</p> - -<p>On occasions, generally on the evening of first -nights at the theatres, when an extension has been -obtained, suppers at Romano's sometimes end in little -dances. But the great dance of the year at Romano's -is the "Twelfth Night," one which is not so much -a party given by the restaurant as a party given to -themselves by the habitués of the restaurant. All -the tables for this night are secured weeks in advance, -each host pays for his own party, but Romano's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> -supplies all the toys and the presents, the masks and -tambourines, and anything new in trifles that is to be -bought in any city of the world. The shops of -Paris and Vienna are ransacked to provide novelties -for this evening. The spirit of Paris always hovers -above Romano's, but this particular night in its fun -without rowdiness is the most Parisian night of the -year.</p> - -<p>Romano's as it now is is very different in its -arrangements from the restaurant that the company -took over from the Court of Chancery. What was -the linen room is now a gallery, which is nicknamed -the "Bird Cage," looking down on to the restaurant. -The kitchen has been taken away from below the -restaurant and put behind it, and where the kitchen -was is now a grill-room with lattice-work arbours -decked with vines and a vista leading up to a little -fountain. The whole scheme of decoration of the -restaurant is now of the lightest of light Moorish -design, the details being copied from the Alhambra -at Granada. The most important change of all is -the disappearance of the old bar, a bar which in its -day made history, its place being taken by a little -waiting-room, which is a reproduction in most of its -details of the Henri IV. room in the Victoria and -Albert Museum. A good deal of loving care has -been bestowed on all the details of the decoration and -equipment of the restaurant. Look at the brass -handles on the doors leading into the hall, and you -will see that they are admirable works of art. In the -same way the napery put on the table at dinner-time -before coffee is served is well worth a glance. Some -of the china is quite beautiful in pattern, and the gilt -finger-bowl brought you at dessert is very probably -a copy of some of the loot taken by Attila and now -preserved in the Budapest museum.</p> - -<p>Banquets are sometimes given at Romano's in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> -private room looking down on the Strand, which has -been shut off from the balcony, and no better indication -of the type of these could be given than by -setting down the menu of the latest dinner of the -Wine Connoisseurs' Club, at which there were forty -guests:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Cantaloup Glacé.<br /> -Tortue Claire.<br /> -Velouté de Volaille Duchesse.<br /> -Truite George V.<br /> -Ris de Veau aux Perles Noires.<br /> -Selle de Béhague aux Primeurs.<br /> -Pommes Ideal.<br /> -Granite au Clicquot.<br /> -Poularde Flanquée D'Ortolans.<br /> -Salade Romaine.<br /> -Asperges Vertes, Sauce Divine.<br /> -Pêches Orientales.<br /> -Mignardises.<br /> -Paillettes au Parmesan.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The <i>Truite George V.</i> which has a place in this -menu is one of the specialities of the house. It is a -salmon trout, braized in port, served cold on ice with -sliced oranges and a luscious jelly.</p> - -<p>Little Romano used to allude to his cellars, as I -have written, as "best in London," and the restaurant -has always had a celebrity for the great choice of -champagnes of the great brands and great years it -offers its patrons. Most of the profits made during -the last few years have been expended on champagnes, -and no restaurant in London is better prepared to -face that champagne famine which will so soon be -upon us.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII">XVIII</a></h3> - -<h3>IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS</h3> - - -<p>One of our legislators had very kindly asked me to -dine with him at the House of Commons, at eight-fifteen -<span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and had told me that he would meet me -at the public entrance. When I mentioned his name -to the civil young policeman at the outer door he -touched his helmet and said that my host had just -gone through, so I followed on his tracks. I went -past Westminster Hall, which was in splints, for -the ceiling was under repair, and along that other -great hall where statesmen of the past stand looking -their very best in marble. There were two lines of -the public sitting on the benches in between the -marble statues, no doubt hoping eventually to obtain -admission to the Strangers' Gallery, for it was the -winding-up night of the Marconi debate. I mentioned -my host's name to every policeman I came across, -because I found that when I did so they touched their -helmets and looked pleased, and I am always delighted -to give inexpensive pleasure to any policeman.</p> - -<p>In the public lobby the legislator, who, incidentally -I may mention, is Chairman of the Kitchen Committee, -found me and took me in the direction of the dining-rooms. -We passed the new fireplace that the House -of Commons has presented to itself, quite the most -tasty thing in fireplaces I have ever seen, with a sort -of glorified ingle-nook seat on either side of it. -I peeped through the glass door into the members' -dining-room with its handsome panelling, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> -Ministerial Room, where some fine portraits hang on -the walls, and eventually we went down the staircase -with the good napkin panelling on either side, looked -at that other staircase which was in course of construction -for the convenience of lady guests, came to the -long corridor where the photographs taken by Sir -Benjamin Stone hang, and going down it had glimpses -through open doors of dinner-parties in which ladies -predominated, all mighty merry, and twittering like -the birds in an aviary. From the chairman's own -room, which he occasionally lends to his brother -members, sallied forth a Ministerial Whip, who seized -my host by the arm, held an open wine list before -him as though they were going to sing hymns out of -the same book, and asked him what champagne he -ought to order for his guests. That knotty point -being settled I gave up my hat and coat to an -attendant, and followed my host, who threaded his -way through the tables in the largest Strangers' -dining-room to his own particular dining spot in -a recess which commands a view of the whole of the -room.</p> - -<p>It is an exceedingly pleasant dining-room. The -walls are of panels of grey and white, framed in light -wood, with on them good prints in black frames, the -gifts of M.P.'s who love their House just as ordinary -men love their pet clubs. The four-square pillars -which support the roof are painted cream colour; -light is thrown up on to the ceiling from glass -electroliers, shaped like round shields, and here and -there a palm and some green screens give a restful -note of cool colour. At one end of the room a clock -on the wall reminds M.P.'s of the passing time, and -at the other end, on a roll of paper, which passes -through a wooden frame, is printed the name of the -member who at the moment is addressing the House. -The windows of this pleasant dining-room look out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> -on to the terrace and across the river to the great -hospital, behind which the sky still held some of the -rose of sunset. There were dinner-parties innumerable -being held in the room, and the manager informed -us later that he had been obliged to tell many -would-be hosts that he could not find room for their -parties.</p> - -<p>A great debate means a gala night in the dining-rooms -of the House, and had I not known where -I was, looking at the pretty and smartly dressed -ladies and their smiling hosts, I should have thought -that I was in one of the smaller dining-rooms of -one of our great restaurants. Here and there amongst -the guests and the dinner-givers were faces I recognised, -and the legislator told me during the course of -our dinner who were the other hosts at the different -tables, for he probably knows personally more men of -all the different parties than does any other member of -the House.</p> - -<p>"I have ordered a very small dinner," said my host, -as a waiter brought us a pot of caviare ensconced in a -basin of crushed ice, and this was the menu of the -said small dinner:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Caviare.<br /> -Consommé d'Aremberg.<br /> -Homard Sauté Paillard.<br /> -Noisettes d'Agneau aux Primeurs.<br /> -Pommes Suzon.<br /> -Cailles de Vigne sur Canapés.<br /> -Salad Cœur de Laitues au Citron.<br /> -Asperges Anglo et Française.<br /> -Sauce Mousseline.<br /> -Pêches Flambées.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The lobster was an admirable dish, the rice served -with it being a corrective to the exceeding richness of -the liquid, and when the chairman and myself had -eaten it with great relish I suggested to him that part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> -of the pleasure it had given us was the fact that -neither of us ought to have touched it at all, for the -chairman had only just recovered from a second bout -of influenza, and my tame doctor would have had -a fit if he had known that I made a clean plate of such -a rich delicacy. The dinner throughout was admirable, -and I asked my host who was the <i>chef de cuisine</i>, and -what was his history. The chef to the House, he -told me, is M. Roux, who looks to M. Escoffier as -the great master under whom he learned his art.</p> - -<p>My host had told me to ask him any questions -I liked concerning the catering and the management of -the kitchens and dining-rooms, and I learned that the -committee consists of sixteen members drawn from -every party in the House, and that it meets once a -week; that the allowance made by the House for the -upkeep of its dining-rooms is £2600 a year, and that -the turn-over is usually about £17,000 a year, -but that in 1912, being an exceptionally busy one, it -rose to £25,000. I also learned that there is always -first-class specialist advice ready to be called in, for no -matter what subject is under discussion—be it tablecloths, -or cutlery or glass—there is sure to be amongst -the members of the House someone who is the highest -authority on the subject, and who willingly comes to -the assistance of the Kitchen Committee.</p> - -<p>When I began to ask questions about the regular -House dinner and about that celebrated shilling dinner -of which the outside public hear so much, the Chairman -sent for the manager, a young man who has stepped -from the post of assistant into the full-blown dignity -of the managerial frock-coat, and asked him to show -me the menus of the day and the wine list. There -was a tone of pride in the manager's voice when he -said that 300 dinners had been served that evening in -the upstairs rooms, and he also told me the number -of the guests in the downstairs rooms—186, I think<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> -he said, in all. The shilling dinner, of which about 150 -are served each night, consists of fish or entrée, or -joints, two vegetables, bread or plain toast, a pat of -butter and Cheddar or Cheshire cheese. There is -also a vegetarian dinner ready at a quarter of an hour's -notice, from six till nine o'clock, which on that -particular night consisted of <i>crème d'asperges, œufs a la -tripe, carottes à la crème,</i> or <i>haricots verts au beurre</i> or -<i>macaroni Milanaise,</i> and cheese and butter. And there -is a half-crown dinner of the day of four courses, -vegetables and cheese and butter. Sixpence table -money is charged for guests. This is the menu of -the five-shilling dinner of that day, and it reads to -me a very good one:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon Glacé.<br /> -Consommé Froide or Crème d'Asperges.<br /> -Filets de Sole Dejazet.<br /> -Quartier d'Agneau à la Broche.<br /> -Pommes Fondantes.<br /> -Petits Pois au Beurre.<br /> -Cailles de Vigne Casserole.<br /> -Salade Romaine.<br /> -Bombe Fraisalia.<br /> -Croustades Maltaises.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>There is also a grill menu and a long list of cold -joints. To make the list of menus complete, the -manager showed me that of the two-shilling dinner, -which is ready at six o'clock, served in the dining-room -of the Press Gallery. Later on in the evening I -was shown the separate kitchen which serves the -dining-room of the Gallery and saw that it was -as well organised as is everything else in the -kitchen department of the House. Looking through -the wine list, I noticed that some of the sherries -have come from Windsor Castle, Marlborough House -and Sandringham; the most expensive of these being -that—bottled 1875—from Windsor, for which 12s. 6d<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>. -a bottle is charged. But a glass of Amontillado costs -no more than 4d. Sixpence a glass is the lowest price -charged for any port, and the most expensive on the -list is Cockburn's 1847, bottled 1850, which is a -guinea a bottle. There are some 1898 champagnes -still on the list, and some 1900. The wines of 1904 -make the longest list, Veuve Clicquot heading the roll -at 13s. 6d. a bottle; Heidsieck Dry Monopole, -Pommery and Greno, Pol Roger, Moët and Chandon, -Krug and Monte Bello varying in price from 13s. 6d. -to 10s. a bottle. The brand Deutz and Gelderman -is represented by pints at 6s. 6d., and the magnums -of Monte Bello cost 18s. 6d.</p> - -<p>Our dinner finished and all the questions that I -could think of asked and answered, my host took me -out on to the terrace to drink our coffee. All the -light of the sunset had died out, and the long lines of -lamps on the Embankment across the river were shining -brilliantly. Across Westminster Bridge the tramcars, -all blazing with light, were passing and repassing -each other, an effect I commend to Mr Arthur Collins -for use in some future Drury Lane production. The -terrace itself is dimly lighted by gas lamps, but this -half light, pleasant and in keeping with the solemn -mystery of the great, dark river that flows past, seems -to frame fittingly the brilliance of the wonderful night -scene. Little groups of ladies were about the tables -in that centre space where members may dispense hospitality. -The talk of the men who came to speak to my -host was all of what was in progress in the chamber of -debate upstairs, of the pity of it that no agreement had -been come to and that a division was necessary, of the -admirable speech that Mr Balfour had made in the -afternoon, and such-like matters.</p> - -<p>I felt that I had kept my host too long from his -place and wished to bid him good-night there and then, -but he said that though he had failed to obtain a ticket<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> -for me in the afternoon to hear the debate, he would -try again; so upstairs we went, and he left me in -charge, in the Members' Lobby, of a benign old -gentleman with a pointed white beard and wearing -knee-breeches, while he went inside to see what he -could do. He returned waving a card, the white-bearded -gentleman looked even more benign, and took -my hat and coat, and I was sent with the card up a -little flight of stairs. In perfect comfort I listened to -Mr Bonar Law making his points on the Unionist side, -rapping with his finger-nails on the big box on the -table as he did so, and then heard Sir Edward Grey, -tucking his right hand under his frock-coat as though -that garment pinched him below the arm, reply for -the Government; watched the members stream out for -the division, heard the numbers read out, and saw the -end of an historic debate.</p> - -<p>A most pleasant and interesting evening.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XIX" id="XIX">XIX</a></h3> - -<h3>A REGIMENTAL DINNER</h3> - -<h4>AT THE TROCADERO</h4> - - -<p>The Commissionaire at the centre entrance to the -Trocadero greets me with "Regimental dinner, sir? -First floor, leave your coat and hat to the right." -A very intelligent man this commissionaire, an old -soldier who knows another old soldier when he sees -him. I leave my coat and hat as directed, ascend in -the lift, and am disgorged into a corridor, the walls -of which are covered with an inlay of gold Venetian -glass tesseræ, pay the very small sum that subscribers -to the Regimental Dinner Club are mulcted, and go -into a screened-off space of the large banqueting-room -in which the feast is to be held. Here two -score gentlemen, old and young, most of them with -a bar of miniature medals on the lapels of their -evening coats, are talking, laughing, moving to and -fro, and shaking hands with great heartiness. It is -by no means a <i>mauvais quart d'heure</i> these minutes of -assembling before a regimental dinner, for old friends -who see each other only once a year meet then, and -the inquiries as to each other's health and prosperity -and happiness are no formal compliments, but a real -desire to know how the world wags with old -comrades in arms.</p> - -<p>The screens that divide the room in two are withdrawn -and the company take their places at the table -in no set order, though the veterans all try to sit -next to some old friend of their soldiering days -and the subalterns cling together in little swarms at -the far ends of the table. The room in which we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> -are dining, the Alexandra, is panelled to a man's -height with dark marbles, with central squares of -light marble, and there are at one end pillars of black -wood fluted with gold. It is a room with a dignity -of its own. Through the lace-curtained windows can -be seen the electric advertisements on the other side -of Shaftesbury Avenue, advertisements which set forth -in a blaze of alternating red and green and white light -the virtues of somebody's whisky and somebody else's -cigarettes, and through the open windows come the roar -of the traffic and the hoots of the motor horns. We are -dining on the very hub of London. The table for -the dinner is of horseshoe shape, with another length -of table running up the centre. There are candles -with pink shades, and pink flowers in vases and -strewn on the table in garlands. The Major-General, -who is the full Colonel of the regiment, who served -in it for many long years, and was at one time the -Adjutant of one of the battalions, sits at the top of -the bend of the horseshoe, and chance, not precedence, -has put me on one side of him. The two -Brigadier-Generals who are amongst the diners, each -of whom wears, as our chairman does, his C.B. cross -at one end of his long bars of miniature medals and -decorations, are somewhere farther down the curve of -the horseshoe, and brevet colonels and subalterns and -captains and lieutenant-colonels and majors all sit where -fancy leads them, some of the seniors to talk to the son -of an old friend, a boy who has just joined, some to -talk polo, or fishing, or gardening, or shooting, or the -iniquities of the Land Tax with friends of like tastes.</p> - -<p>A Regimental Dinner ought to be described by -some lady novelist who has never been to one and -is in no way hampered by any unromantic facts. -Grizzled men bearing the scars of old wounds should -talk to each other of midnight marches and fierce -charges and hand-to-hand combats, and tell the tale<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> -over their port of how Billy Bright Eyes, the curly-headed -drummer of Company B, won the Victoria -Cross on some day of awful slaughter. Unfortunately -for picturesqueness' sake the grizzled men talk about -nothing of the kind. The man who could narrate as -moving stories as ever Othello dropped into Desdemona's -willing ear tells his next-door neighbour of -the fishing in Norway he has taken this year and of -the advantages of travelling to it from the port in a -motor car instead of going on the old country -conveyances. The man who really earned a V.C. in -South Africa, though there were no lookers-on to -write glowing accounts to headquarters, is discussing -with another man of many battles the advantages of -Waterloo over other late-bearing strawberry plants, -and laments that there are no pears this year on any -of his trees. Tales of a big night at mess in "The -Shiny," when a Highland regiment, passing through, -was entertained at a dinner which only ended when -the pipes were playing "Hey Johnnie Cope" in the -grey before sunrise, may stray casually into the -conversation, and a regretful word or two may be -said that the regimental polo fund in India had not -enough ready money to buy a certain pony which -would just have won a match for the regiment in an -important tournament. Cricket, polo, grouse moors, -the coming hunting season, the present play at the -Gaiety, the merits of the various revues are the -things talked about, and "shop" is almost as rigidly -excluded from the conversation as though the dinner -was taking place in the regimental mess.</p> - -<p>The length of a regimental dinner is as difficult to -curtail as is that of a City feast or a Masonic banquet, -for any manager of a restaurant or any <i>maître d'hôtel</i> -considers it to be an "important" meal, and believes -that the guests will not think they have dined satisfactorily -unless they have eaten prodigiously. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> -the three officers who manage our Regimental Dinner -Club are happily men of the world as well as old -soldiers, and they insist that the dinner shall be -ordered to please the tastes of those who dine, and -not of those who serve the dinner. This is the menu -of the Trocadero dinner. The little circle of beef -offered to each man is the only heavy dish in it, and -the chicken with its tempting stuffing is the only -rich dish that it contains:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon Glacé.<br /> -Hors d'œuvre de Choix.<br /> -Tortue Claire.<br /> -Truite de Rivière au bleu, Beurre fondu.<br /> -Pommes nature.<br /> -Poularde du Mans Favorite.<br /> -Médaillon de Bœuf Rossini.<br /> -Spoom au Kummel.<br /> -Caille de Vigne sur Croustade.<br /> -Salade Romaine.<br /> -Asperges nouvelles, Sauce Maltaise.<br /> -Fraises à la Zouave.<br /> -Corbeille de Friandises.<br /> -Pailles au Parmesan.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -Café.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Vins.</span><br /> -Punch.<br /> -Johannisberger, 1900.<br /> -Chas. Heidsieck, 1904.<br /> -Moët et Chandon, 1904.<br /> -Château Branaire Ducru, 1900.<br /> -Dow's 1890 Port.<br /> -Courvoisier's 1831 Brandy.<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> - -<p>The menu, according to custom immemorial, is -decorated with the crests of the regiment, with the -date of its raising, 1572, and with a little picture of -the uniform of the regiment in the year 1684, when -the full privates wore black boy-scout hats, bands -such as barristers still wear, and coats with very long -skirts.</p> - -<p>Twenty years ago no regimental dinner could have -been held without interminable speeches, which were -sometimes listened to with scant patience by the -subalterns, who wanted to get to the Empire or the -Alhambra before the performance ended. Nowadays -there are no speeches, at all events at our dinner, and -the only toast proposed is that of "The King." -After this loyal toast has been drunk and the cigars -lighted, all formality vanishes, every man moves from -his place and goes to talk to those of his old friends -who have been out of earshot during dinner; the -subalterns make inquiries as to whether the Cabaret -Club or the Four Hundred Club is the most amusing -place in which to keep awake after all the restaurants -are shut, and as eleven o'clock comes some of the guests -go off to the Service clubs, some have to catch last -trains, and the commissionaire downstairs has a busy -time whistling for taxis.</p> - -<p>There is not much ancient history to delve into -with regard to the Trocadero Restaurant. Part of it -stands on the ground which, when Great Windmill -Street was a cul-de-sac, before Shaftesbury Avenue was -made, was occupied by the Argyle Dancing Rooms, -familiarly known as "The Duke's." "The Duke's" -played its part in the night life of London in the -sixties and seventies, when Kate Hamilton's and the -other night houses still existed in the Haymarket, and -though there were occasional rows there, some of the -officers of one of the Household cavalry regiments -being on one occasion marched off to the police station,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> -it was on the whole a well-conducted establishment, -with an admirable orchestra to play dance music. -But the spasm of morality which passed over London -towards the end of the last century swept the Argyle -Rooms out of existence, and their proprietor, Mr -"Bob" Bignell, converted the vacant rooms into the -Trocadero Music Hall. Mr "Sam" Adams was the -next proprietor of the music-hall, and then Mr -Joseph Lyons, who was not yet a knight, saw the -possibilities of the site for a restaurant, and gave a -very large price for the old hall. The Trocadero -Restaurant, when it first was built, was only half as -large as it is now, for that red-brick portion of it -which faces Shaftesbury Avenue was a nest of flats -and chambers, and the conversion of this building -when Lyons & Company bought it, into restaurant -premises, was an architectural feat. Where the old -building ends and the additions begin can be clearly -seen by the difference in the architecture.</p> - -<p>It is a curious fact that Sir Joseph Lyons, the head -and mainspring of the great organisation which -controls the scores of restaurants and hundreds of tea-shops -belonging to Lyons & Company, wished in -his youthful days to be an artist, and that his amusement -now, whenever he has any leisure, which he -rarely has, is to paint sunsets.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XX" id="XX">XX</a></h3> - -<h3>"JOLLY GOOD"</h3> - -<h4>A HALF-GUINEA DINNER AT THE TROCADERO</h4> - - -<p>No account of the Trocadero would be complete -without an allusion to the <i>table d'hôte</i> dinners which -are served in the great hall of the restaurant, and -I do not think that I can do better than reprint the -account of a half-guinea dinner I gave there some ten -years ago to a small Harrow boy. The Mr Lyons of -the article is now Sir Joseph, and I fancy that the -Messrs Salmon, who are now County Councillors and -members of many other important bodies, are too -busy to show even such an important person as a -young Harrovian all the glories of the restaurant. -But in all essentials the half-guinea dinner of to-day -at the Trocadero is much as it was ten years ago. It -was excellent then and is excellent now.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I dined one day early last week at the Trocadero, a -little specially ordered <i>tête-à-tête</i> dinner over which -the chef had taken much trouble—his <i>Suprêmes de sole -Trocadéro</i> and <i>Poulet de printemps Rodisi</i> are well worth -remembering—and while I drank the Moët '84, cuvée -1714, and luxuriated in some brandy dating back to -1815, the solution of a problem that had puzzled me -mildly came to me.</p> - -<p>An old friend was sending his son, a boy at -Harrow, up to London to see a dentist before going -back to school, and asked me if I would mind giving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> -him something to eat, and taking him to a performance -of some kind. I said "Yes," of course; but I felt it -was something of an undertaking. When I was at -Harrow my ideas of luxury consisted of ices at Fuller's -and sausages and mashed potatoes carried home in a -paper bag. I had no idea as to what Jones minor's -tastes might be; but if he was anything like what -I was then he would prefer plenty of good food, -combined with music and gorgeousness and excitement, -to the most delicate <i>mousse</i> ever made, eaten in -philosophic calm. The Trocadero was the place; if -he was not impressed by the dinner, by the magnificence -of the rooms, by the beautiful staircase, by -the music, then I did not know my Harrow boy.</p> - -<p>Jones minor arrived at my club at five minutes to -the half-past seven, and I saw at once that he was -not a young gentleman to be easily impressed. He -had on a faultless black short jacket and trousers, -a white waistcoat, and a tuberose in his buttonhole. -I asked him if he knew the Trocadero, and he said -that he had not dined there; but plenty of boys in -his house had, and had said that it was jolly good.</p> - -<p>When we came to the entrance of the Trocadero, -an entrance that always impresses me by its palatial -splendour, I pointed out to him the veined marble of -the walls and the magnificent frieze in which Messrs -Moira and Jenkins, two of the cleverest of our young -artists, have struck out a new line of decoration; and -when I had paused a while to let him take it in I -asked him what he thought of it, and he said he -thought it was jolly good.</p> - -<p>Mr Alfred Salmon, in chief command, and the -good-looking <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, both saw us to our table, -and a plump waiter whom I remember of old at the -Savoy was there with the various menu cards in his -hand. The table had been heaped with roses in our -honour, and I felt that all this attention must impress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> -Jones minor; but he unfolded his napkin with the -calm of unconcern, and I regretted that I had not -arranged to have the band play "See the Conquering -Hero Comes" and have a triumphal arch erected -in his honour.</p> - -<p>I had intended to give him the five-shilling <i>table -d'hôte</i> meal; but in face of this calm superiority I -abandoned that, skipped the seven-and-six <i>table d'hôte</i> -as well, and ordered the half-guinea one. I had -thought that three-and-sixpennyworth of wine should -be ample for a growing boy, but having rushed -into reckless extravagance over the food I thought -I would let him try seven-and-sixpenny worth of wine. -I personally ordered a pint of 277, which is an -excellent wine. I told Jones minor that the doctor -told me not to mix my wines, and he said something -about having to be careful when one got old that -I did not think sounded at all nice.</p> - -<p>While we paused, waiting for the <i>hors d'œuvre</i>, I -drew his attention to all the gorgeousness of the -grand restaurant, the cream and gold, the hand-painted -ceiling-panels, on which the cupids sport, the -brocades and silks of the wall-panels, the broad band -of gold of the gallery running round the room, the -crimson and gold draperies, the glimpse of the blue -and white and gold of the <i>salon</i> seen through the -dark framing of the <i>portières</i>; I bade him note the -morocco leather chairs with gold initials on the back, -and the same initials on the collars of the servants. -It is a blaze of gorgeousness that recalls to me some -dream of the Arabian Nights; but Jones minor said -somewhat coldly that he thought it jolly good.</p> - -<p>We drank our <i>potage vert-pré</i> out of silver plates, -but this had no more effect on Jones minor than if -they had been earthenware. I drew his attention to -the excellent band up above, in their gilded cage. -I pointed out to him amidst the crowd of diners two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> -ex-Lord Mayors, an A.D.C. to Royalty, the most -popular low comedian of the day, a member of the -last Cabinet, our foremost dramatic critic and his -wife, and one of our leading lawyers. Jones minor -had no objection to their presence, but nothing more. -The only interest he showed was in a table at which -an Irish M.P. was entertaining his family, among -them two Eton boys, and towards them his attitude -was haughty but hostile.</p> - -<p>So I tried to thaw him while we ate our whitebait, -which was capitally cooked, by telling him tales of -the criminal existence I led when I was a boy at -Harrow. I told him how I put my foot in the door -of Mr Bull's classroom when it was being closed -at early morning school time. I told him how I took -up alternate halves of one exercise of rule of three -through one whole term to "Old Teek." I told him -how I and another bad boy lay for two hours in a -bed of nettles on Kingsbury race-course, because we -thought a man watching the races with his back to -us was Mr Middlemist. And I asked him if Harrow -was likely to be badly beaten by Eton in the coming -match at Lord's.</p> - -<p>This for a moment thawed Jones minor into -humanity. Harrow, he said, was going to jolly well -lick Eton in one innings, and before the boy froze -up again I learned that the Headmaster's had beaten -some other house in the final of the Torpid football -matches, and several other items of interesting news.</p> - -<p>The <i>filets mignons</i>, from his face, Jones minor -seemed to like; but he restrained all his emotions -with Spartan severity. He did not contradict me -when I said that the <i>petites bouchées à la St-Hubert</i> were -good; but he ate three <i>sorbets</i>, and looked as if he -could tackle three more, which showed me that the -real spirit of the Harrow boy was there somewhere -under the glacial surface, if I could only get at it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> - -<p>Mr Lyons, piercing of eye, his head-covering worn -a little through by the worries of the magnitude of -his many undertakings, with little side-whiskers and -a little moustache, passed by, and I introduced the -boy to him, and afterwards explained the number -of strings pulled by this Napoleon of supply, and at -the mention of a "grub shop in every other street" -Jones minor's eyes brightened.</p> - -<p>When Jones minor had made a clean sweep of the -plate of <i>petits fours</i>, and had drained the last drops -of his glass of Chartreuse, I thought I might venture -to ask him how he liked his dinner, as a whole. This -was what he had conscientiously eaten through:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre variés.<br /> -Consommé Monte Carlo. Potage vert-pré.<br /> -Petites soles à la Florentine. Blanchailles au citron.<br /> -Filets mignons à la Rachel.<br /> -Petites bouchées à la St-Hubert.<br /> -Sorbet.<br /> -Poularde de Surrey à la broche.<br /> -Salade saison.<br /> -Asperges nouvelles. Sauce mousseux.<br /> -Charlotte russe.<br /> -Soufflé glacé Pompadour.<br /> -Petits fours. Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>He had drunk a glass of Amontillado, a glass of '89 -Liebfraumilch, two glasses of Deutz and Gelderman, -a glass of dessert claret, and a glass of liqueur, and -when pressed for a critical opinion, said that he -thought that it was jolly good.</p> - -<p>Impressed into using a new adjective Jones minor -should be somehow. So, with Mr Isidore Salmon -as escort, I took him over the big house from top to -bottom. He shook the chef's hand with the serenity -of a prince in the kitchen at the top of the house, -and showed some interest in the wonderful roasting -arrangements worked by electricity and the clever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> -method of registering orders. He gazed at the -mighty stores of meat and vegetables, peeped into -the cosy private dining-rooms, had the beauties of -the noble Empire ballroom explained to him, and -finally, in the grill-room, amid the surroundings of -Cippolini marble and old copper, the excellent string -band played a gavotte, at my request, as being likely -to take his fancy.</p> - -<p>Then I asked Jones minor what he thought of it -all, and he said that he thought it jolly good.</p> - -<p>I paid my bill: Two dinners, £1, 1s.; <i>table d'hôte</i> -wine, 7s. 6d.; half 277, 7s.; liqueur, 2s. 6d.; total, -£1, 18s.; and asked Jones minor where he would -like to go and be amused. He said he had heard -that the Empire was jolly good.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXI" id="XXI">XXI</a></h3> - -<h3>IN THE SHADOW OF THE -PALACE THEATRE</h3> - -<h4>KETTNER'S LE DINER FRANÇAIS</h4> - - -<p>I know as a result of my early training in Miss -Woodman's school for the "sons of the nobility and -gentry" in Somerset Street, off Orchard Street, that -a piece of land almost entirely surrounded by water is -called a peninsula. But I was never instructed in any -school as to there being a special name for a theatre -almost entirely surrounded by restaurants. If there -is such a name it should be applied to the Palace -Theatre, for restaurants have sprouted up about it -just as grass grows round the foot of a tree.</p> - -<p>Of this group of restaurants two at least that I -know deserve special mention, one as having been the -pioneer of clean restaurant kitchens and the other, -a very cheap restaurant, as having made the fortune of -one restaurateur and of being in the course of making -the fortune of his successor. Kettner's, in Church -Street, was the first small restaurant that dared to -show its kitchen to all comers at a time when the -kitchens of most little foreign restaurants were places -of horror. M. Auguste Kettner was a chef who had -learned his art in his native country, and who, as an -investment of his savings, started a small restaurant, -in 1867, in Church Street, Soho. Those were the -days before Shaftesbury Avenue was driven through -the slums, before Cambridge Circus was made, before -the Palace Theatre was built, and when Soho was a -maze of little streets. So puzzling to a stranger was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> -its geography that the district inspired W. S. Gilbert -to write a "Bab" ballad concerning Peter the Wag, -the policeman with a taste for practical jokes who -always sent the people who asked the way of him in -the wrong direction. Retribution came to Peter -when he lost his way near Poland Street, Soho.</p> - -<p> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"For weeks he trod his self-made beat,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through Newport—Gerrard—Bear—Greek—Rupert—Frith—Dean—Poland Streets,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And into Golden Square."</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Kettner's was discovered by a correspondent of <i>The -Times</i>, and the readers of the Thunderer, which in -those days took very meagre notice of the amusements -and enjoyments of life, were surprised to be told of -a little restaurant in the centre of Soho where the -kitchen was as clean as a new pin and where excellent -food was to be obtained at surprisingly cheap prices. -That article made the fortune of Kettner's just as -other articles in less august papers have made since then -the fortunes of other restaurants. Journalists, artists -and actors, the swallows who herald prosperity, came to -the restaurant, and George Augustus Sala, the author, -who was a <i>fin gourmet</i>, with a knowledge of the -practical side of cookery as well, became the great -patron of the restaurant.</p> - -<p>In the early seventies, as a young subaltern with -a microscopic income and a desire to make it -stretch as far as possible, I used often to dine at -Kettner's. It was a real chef's restaurant in those -days, an <i>à la carte</i> establishment where one ate one -or two dishes quite admirably cooked, and where a -walk through the kitchen and an inspection of the -larder always preceded or followed a dinner. I never -hurried over a meal to be in time for the rising of the -curtain at a neighbouring theatre, for there were no -neighbouring theatres then, but enjoyed my dinner to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> -the uttermost. M. Kettner then was so successful in -business that he was gradually absorbing house after -house, and his restaurant, instead of being in one -little house, occupied the ground floor of several -houses, doors being driven through the party walls. -The private rooms on the first floor were favourite -dining places of couples who wished to be <i>tête-à-tête</i>, -and I fancy that when the popularity of such little -dinners at restaurants was dimmed it was a blow to the -restaurant in Church Street. I have always thought -myself that the almost entire disappearance of the -small private dining-room from restaurants coincided -with the building of innumerable houses of flats, and -that the dinners which used to be given in the <i>cabinets -particuliers</i> are now eaten in flats.</p> - -<p>In 1877 two events of great importance to M. -Kettner happened: he wrote his "Book of the Table" -and he died. His table book, of which a second -edition has recently been published, is a curious -mixture of very useful recipes and scraps of information -concerning all matters under the sun that can in -any way be connected with cookery. Achilles, for -instance, is brought into the book that reference may -be made to the Achilles statue in Hyde Park, and -then to the great Duke of Wellington, of whom -the story is told that his cook, Felix, left his service -in despair because the Duke could not distinguish -between a dinner cooked by an artist and one horribly -mauled by a kitchenmaid.</p> - -<p>When at the height of his fame and prosperity M. -Kettner died and left a widow, and Madame Kettner, -when her days of mourning had passed, married -M. Giovanni Sangiorgi, who also became her partner -in the business, a kindly man who keeps a watchful -eye on the restaurant which is now controlled by a -company. The restaurant was in comparatively late -years rebuilt and an entrance hall given to it, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> -two rooms to the right of the hall were in 1913 very -tastefully redecorated, but it still retains its characteristic -of being several small houses joined together. -The first sight that greets one's eyes on entering the -hall is a view of the kitchen, generally with a cook in -white clothing busy about his work as the centre of -the picture, and those who lunch and dine are, as of -yore, asked to walk through the white-tiled, beautifully -clean domain of the chef. A grill-room now forms -part of the establishment, and the character of the -meals is changed in that <i>table d'hôte</i> dinners at various -prices are the trump cards of the establishment. I -fancy that the propinquity of the Palace, of the -Shaftesbury Theatre, and now of the Ambassadors' -may have had a great deal to say to this change, for -when I dine at Kettner's before going to the Palace -or the Shaftesbury I can see that most of my fellow-guests -are theatre-goers. A three-and-six <i>table d'hôte</i> -dinner in the grill-room and five-shilling and seven-and-six -ones in the restaurant are the early evening -meals of the establishment, and below is quite a fair -specimen of the menu of the five-shilling dinner. -It is the one I ate on the last occasion that I made a -pilgrimage to see Madame Pavlova dance. The quail -was fat and tender, and the <i>crème Victoria</i> a good -soup:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -<span class="smcap">Menu</span><br /> -Hors d'œuvre.<br /> -Consommé Bortsch.<br /> -Crème Victoria.<br /> -Turbotin Bercy ou Blanchaille.<br /> -Poulet Poëlé Derby.<br /> -Côtelette de Mouton Maréchale.<br /> -Pommes Nouvelles.<br /> -Caille Rôtie.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Glacé de Moka.<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> - -<p>But Kettner's now has to encounter many rivals, -for young men such as Kettner himself was when he -made the fame of his restaurant are following his example, -and all the Soho district bristles with little -restaurants which give wonderfully good food for the -small prices they charge. Kettner's will always, -however, be famous for showing its clients a spotlessly -clean kitchen when such kitchens were the -exception, and this excellent custom and example it -maintains to-day.</p> - -<p>The other noticeable restaurant of this group is -one founded by M. Roche, which bears in large -letters on its front "Le Dîner Français," and which -occupies the ground floor of No. 16 Old Compton -Street. A story I have been told of the origin of the -restaurant is rather picturesque. M. Roche was a -baker and <i>pâtissier</i>, and one day two Frenchmen came -into his shop and asked where they could get a good -French meal. M. Roche replied that he and his -family were about to eat their midday meal, and that -if the strangers from his native land cared to join -them he would be delighted. The two Frenchmen -enjoyed their midday meal so thoroughly that they -asked to be allowed, during their stay in London, -to take all their meals at the bakery, paying their -share, and M. Roche's establishment gradually -changed its character, becoming a full-blown -restaurant. That M. Roche served his apprenticeship -under Frederic at the Tour d'Argent in -Paris does not militate against the probability of -this story. M. Roche, having made a fortune in Old -Compton Street, returned to France and bought -an hotel near Granville. <i>Le Dîner Français</i>, from -which the establishment takes its name, was always -an eighteen-penny meal, and continued to be so -under the present proprietor, M. Béguinot, until -the epidemic of "lightning strikes" came in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> -spring of 1913, when, to cover the extra expense -entailed by giving cooks and waiters their weekly -holiday, the price was raised to one-and-nine. M. -Roche always had the reputation of buying the best -material in the market, and M. Béguinot has maintained -this reputation. The restaurant at dinner-time is -generally filled to its holding capacity, and as many as -four hundred dinners are sometimes served on one -evening. The restaurant is narrow, but it runs -far back, three rooms being thrown into one. The -walls are of cream colour, with a skirting of deep -orange; the floor is covered with oilcloth; the -knives are black-handled, but cheapness in M. -Béguinot's establishment does not mean dirt, for -everything is as clean as clean can be, and the waiters, -who all talk excellent English, wear shirts and aprons -as clean as the walls. Near the door in the first of -the rooms are two long tables, and at these any man -who is by himself takes a seat.</p> - -<p>For one-and-nine one is given a choice of either -<i>hors d'œuvre</i> or soup, fish, an entrée and an <i>entremet</i>, -and there is quite a reasonable choice of dishes under -each heading. I dined at M. Béguinot's restaurant -one Sunday night, and Sunday is by no means a bad -day on which to dine there, for the rooms are then -less crowded than on weekdays, and, sitting at one of -the long tables, I selected from the <i>carte</i> of the dinner -cold <i>consommé</i>, fried sole, sweetbread and spinach, -and an ice. The <i>consommé</i> was reasonably strong, the -sole was really a little slip, but quite fresh and well -fried; the small sweetbread was excellent, and the -diminutive portion of ice was all that it should be. -There was a liberal supply of bread on the table, and -the crisp sound of the cutting of the long yards -of bread at a side table was almost continuous -throughout dinner. When I had finished my meal -I certainly did not feel full to repletion, but it sufficed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> -My neighbour on one side of me had ordered a -<i>hors d'œuvre</i>, and the globule of butter given him -with his two sardines was a tiny one. He followed -fish with fish, and I noticed that the slice of cold -salmon of a pale pink came from the tail end. He -followed my suit in ordering sweetbread, and finished -his meal with a tartlet. I was extravagant in my -order for wine, for, passing over the elevenpenny -Graves and the next wine on the list, I recklessly -commanded a pint of Sauterne, which cost me 1s. 10d., -so that my bill came to 3s. 7d., and I got very -good value for my money.</p> - -<p>My fellow-guests on Sunday night were a selection -from all the respectable classes, little parties of ladies, -married couples and that contingent from the artistic -colony which is always to be found in every Soho -restaurant.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXII" id="XXII">XXII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE WELCOME CLUB</h3> - - -<p>In the days when I was still an enthusiastic amateur -actor, I was once "cast" for the insignificant part of -an aged peasant—the organiser of the performance -assured me that though there were only a dozen lines -in the part, it nevertheless "stood out"—and in a -smock-frock, a pair of second-best trousers tied up -with hay-bands, fishing boots, a bandana handkerchief -round my neck, a long, straggly white beard, a red -nose and an old tall silk hat, brushed the wrong way -to give it the appearance of beaver, I depicted the rude -forefather of the village. I spoke in a trembling, -squeaky voice and I was addressed by the lads and -lasses, yes, and even by the noble old squire and by -the black-browed villain, as "Granfer." The part did -not, apparently, stand out enough to catch the notice -of our audiences, but to those who played with me -that drama of village life I have remained "Granfer" -to the present day, and every summer I ask three of -them, my Pet Grandchild, my Tiny Grandchild and -Little Perce to dine with me one evening at the -Welcome Club and to go the round of the side-shows -afterwards, that being very much the sort of entertainment -that every real grandfather ought, I think, -to give his grandchildren.</p> - -<p>I made my acquaintance with the Welcome Club in -the year that it was first built, at the beginning of all -things at Earl's Court. Mr Alec Knowles was -the first secretary of the club. The idea of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> -Welcome Club, of which distinguished foreigners -could be made honorary members, originated at the -great Chicago Exhibition, in the grounds of which -there was a club of this name.</p> - -<p>The trees that were planted in front of the lawn of -the club have grown to a good size now, but even more -picturesque than the formal lines of planes are the -thorns and other old trees which were on the ground -before the makers of the exhibition gardens took -things in hand, and which were left there. Year -after year, additions and improvements have been -made to the Welcome Club. What was originally a -dining-room and a lawn has become a club-house in -a garden. The long shelter, a pleasant place in -which to dine on a summer's evening, has been -enlarged more than once, and now, with its alcoves, -each a tiny dining-room, with vines growing up its -supports and flower beds edging its railings, it pleases -the eye of the artist and architect as well as the eye -of the diner. On the other side of the club-house -is a pretty drawing-room for ladies, and Time, which -always works in sympathy with a clever architect, -has done its share in deepening the colour of the -tiles, in bringing the lawn to velvety perfection, and -in drawing up the young trees inch by inch. Never -before have the garden beds been so gay with flowers -as they were in 1913, and the interior of the club-house -has been brightened up to concert pitch.</p> - -<p>To organise the staff of a club that is only open -for four months in the year is no easy matter, for the -pick of <i>maîtres d'hôtel</i> and cooks and waiters do not -as a rule care to accept engagements that only last -for a third of a year. A club as far from its bases -of supply as is the Welcome cannot arrange its -catering so easily as can clubs in the centre of London, -which have their fishmonger's and butcher's shops -just round the corner, and a wet or a cold night<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> -means almost empty dining-rooms at Earl's Court. -Difficulties, however, only exist to be overcome, and -Mr Payne, the chairman of the Earl's Court Company, -determined that it shall no longer be said that it is -impossible to get a good dinner in any exhibition, -has brought all his energy to bear on the problem, -and with Mr Charles Bartlett, as secretary, with a -Bond Street firm of caterers responsible for the -personnel and material and with M. G. Thuillez -in charge of the club kitchens, I think that Mr -Payne made good his promise. I certainly have -never before at the Welcome Club eaten a dinner so -satisfactory in every way as the one I gave one fine -evening last July to my three grandchildren.</p> - -<p>I had written word to the secretary, an old friend, -saying on what evening I was coming to dine and -asking him to give the manager a hint whether to -reserve for me a table in the dining-room or the -shelter, according to whether the evening was warm -or cool. The weather that day was fine, but the -temperature kept about the temperate line. As the -manager was unable to guess whether the ladies -would find the shelter chilly and as there was that -evening no great rush for tables, he reserved until -I should appear upon the scene, a table for four -in the dining-room and another for the same number -in one of the alcoves of the shelter.</p> - -<p>When I came to the club, five minutes before the -hour of dinner, I opted at once for the table in the -alcove, looked at the menus of the <i>table d'hôte</i> dinners, -one a five-shilling one and the other a seven-and-six -one, and chose the latter, ordered my wine, a magnum -of Krug, and then sat in one of the big wicker chairs -on the lawn and waited for my guests.</p> - -<p>The scarlet-coated band of an infantry regiment -had taken their places in the band pavilion in the -centre of the gravelled space and the bandmaster was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> -rapping on his music stand to command his men's -attention. There were already many people sitting -on the circle of seats which surrounds the pavilion. -Away to the left men in dress clothes and ladies in -evening frocks were going in little parties into the -Quadrant Restaurant, and opposite to the Welcome -Club, with the breadth of the open space in between, -there were groups of men about the American bar -and the tea pavilion. The great tower, which is part -of one of the mountain railways, loomed big to the -right, but the cars that run on the rails had for a -time ceased to rattle and splash through the stream -of real water which forms part of the scenery. The -flying machines still farther to the right were also -still for the moment, the wire hawsers which support -them looking like the rigging of a ship. Presently -I saw my three guests approaching, having come -into the gardens by the most westerly entrance, and -we were soon seated in the alcove, where an electric -lamp hung from the ceiling and another lamp on the -table was alight, though the sun had only just set. -This was the menu of the dinner that we ate:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon Rafraîchi.<br /> -Consommé Tosca.<br /> -Crème Bonne Femme.<br /> -Turbot Bouilli Sauce Homard.<br /> -Tournedos Doria.<br /> -Pommes Rosette.<br /> -Noix de Ris de Veau en Cocotte Demidoff.<br /> -Sorbet Mandarinette.<br /> -Caneton d'Aylesbury rôti au Cresson.<br /> -Salade Cœur de Laitue.<br /> -Glacé Comtesse Marie.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Our conversation naturally enough drifted on to -stories of amateur acting; but not until my Tiny -Grandchild had first described a deed of heroism she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> -had done while staying at a country house. In the -dead of the night she heard a bell ring continuously, -and assuming that burglars were in the house and had -carelessly set an alarm bell ringing, she woke up her -husband in the next room and proposed that they should -there and then rouse all the inmates of the house and -capture the burglars. But her husband looked at his -watch and as an amendment suggested that, as the ringing -was probably an alarum clock, set by a diligent -housemaid, instead of alarming the household it would -be better for my T. G. to sleep out her beauty sleep. -We re-christened the daring lady "The Little -Heroine" as we supped our <i>crème bonne femme</i> and -declared it to be good. With the <i>tournedos</i> my -imperfections of memory with respect to "words" -were cast into my teeth, and especially of a sentence. -I introduced into <i>His Excellency the Governor</i>, -when, as Sir Montague, I declared to Ethel that I -would "dower her with the inestimable guerdon of -my love," words that Captain Marshall never wrote. -And, further, it was recalled that most of us who had -played together in this comedy, and its author, went -one evening to see Mr H. B. Irving and Miss Irene -Vanbrugh and Mr Dion Boucicault and Mr Marsh -Allen and others play the comedy, and how a shout -of delight went up from our row of stalls and -puzzled our neighbours sorely when Mr Irving, -primed, no doubt, by Captain Marshall, declared that -he would dower <i>his</i> Ethel with the "inestimable -guerdon" of <i>his</i> love.</p> - -<p>To change the subject I drew the attention of my -three grandchildren to their surroundings, for there -are a few minutes of supreme loveliness at the -Welcome Club when the light is fading from the -western sky and all the electric lamps suddenly -spring into brilliancy. The tower of the mountain -railway no longer appears to be a thing of wood and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> -canvas, but stands a great, dark, solid mass against -the sky, with the twinkle of some letters of electricity -upon its battlements. In the trees on the lawn, lamps, -red and blue and golden, shimmer like fireflies; all -about the bandstand are garlands of white light, and -the flying machines, shadows dotted with coloured -light, go swinging round in the distance.</p> - -<p>When we had finished our dinner we sat in contentment -for a while on the lawn, listening to the music of -the band and drinking our coffee, and then, as an aid to -digestion, went in to The Hereafter side-show, almost -next door, where skeletons dance and a bridge swings -and rocks over a torrent of painted fire; and then on -to the booths where the china of "happy homes" can -be broken up at a penny a shot, where the two ladies -did desperate execution against the kitchen service. -And next to the revolving cylinders, where we -watched enterprising young gentlemen stand on their -heads involuntarily, and to the variations on hoop-la -stalls, at one of which we all tried unsuccessfully -to win watches. And on to the summer ballroom; -and to the bowl-slide; and finally, as the supreme -digestive, we all four went down the water chute, -I taking the precaution of leaving my tall hat below in -charge of the gate man: for one year going down -this chute my Tiny Grandchild, being shot into the air -by the bump on the water, descended on my hat, -which I held in my hand, and turned it into a good -imitation of an accordion.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII">XXIII</a></h3> - -<h3>GOLDSTEIN'S</h3> - - -<p style="text-align:center"> -<span class="smcap">Hors d'œuvre.</span><br /> -Smoked Salmon. Solomon Gundy.<br /> -Olives.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Soups.</span><br /> -Frimsell. Matsoklese.<br /> -Pease and beans.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Fish.</span><br /> -Brown stewed carp. White stewed gurnet.<br /> -Fried soles. Fried plaice.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Entrées.</span><br /> -Roast veal (white stew).<br /> -Filleted steak (brown stew).<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Poultry.</span><br /> -Roast capon. Roast chicken.<br /> -Smoked beef. Tongue.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Vegetables.</span><br /> -Spinach. Sauerkraut.<br /> -Potatoes. Cucumbers.<br /> -Green salad.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Sweets.</span><br /> -Kugel. Stewed prunes.<br /> -Almond pudding.<br /> -Apple staffen.<br /> -</p> - -<p>When I looked at the above I groaned aloud. Was -it possible, I thought, that any human being could -eat a meal of such a length and yet live? I looked -at my two companions, but they showed no signs of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> -terror, so I took up knife and fork and bade the -waiter do his duty.</p> - -<p>The <i>raison d'être</i> of the dinner was this: Thinking -of untried culinary experiences, I told one of the -great lights of the Jewish community that I should -like some day to eat a "kosher" dinner at a typical -restaurant, and he said that the matter was easily -enough arranged; and by telegram informed me that -dinner was ordered for that evening at Goldstein's -and that I was to call for him in the City at six.</p> - -<p>When I and a gallant soul, who had sworn to -accompany me through thick and thin, arrived at the -office of the orderer of the dinner, we found a note -of apology from him. The dinner would be ready -for us, and his best friend would do the honours as -master of the ceremonies, but he himself was seedy -and had gone home.</p> - -<p>On, in the pouring rain, we three devoted soldiers -of the fork went, in a four-wheeler cab, to our fate. -The cab pulled up at a narrow doorway, and we -were at Goldstein's. Through a short passage we -went towards a little staircase, and our master of -the ceremonies pointed out on the post of a door that -led into the public room of the restaurant a triangular -piece of zinc, a Mazuza, the little case in which is -placed a copy of the Ten Commandments. Upstairs -we climbed into a small room with no distinctive -features about it. A table was laid for six. There -were roses in a tall glass vase in the middle of the -table, and a buttonhole bouquet in each napkin. A -piano, chairs covered with black leather, low cupboards -with painted tea-trays and well-worn books -on the top of them, an old-fashioned bell-rope, a -mantelpiece with painted glass vases on it and a little -clock, framed prints on the walls, two gas globes—these -were the fittings of an everyday kind of -apartment.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> - -<p>We took our places, and the waiter, in dress -clothes, after a surprised inquiry as to whether we -were the only guests at the feast, put the menu -before us. It was then that, encouraged by the -bold front shown by my two comrades, I, after a -moment of tremor, told the waiter to do his duty.</p> - -<p>I had asked to have everything explained to me, -and before the <i>hors d'œuvre</i> were brought in the -master of the ceremonies, taking a book from the top -of one of the dwarf cupboards, showed me the Grace -before meat, a solemn little prayer which is really -beautiful in its simplicity. With the Grace comes -the ceremony of the host breaking bread, dipping the -broken pieces in salt, and handing them round to his -guests, who sit with covered heads.</p> - -<p>Of the <i>hors d'œuvre</i>, Solomon Gundy, which had -a strange sound to me, was a form of pickled herring, -excellently appetising.</p> - -<p>Before the soup was brought up, the master of -the ceremonies explained that the Frimsell was made -from stock, and a paste of eggs and flour rolled into -tiny threads like vermicelli, while the Matsoklese -had in it balls of unleavened flour. When the soup -was brought the two were combined, and the tiny -threads and the balls of dough both swam in a liquid -which had somewhat the taste of vermicelli soup. -The master of the ceremonies told me I must taste -the pease and beans soup which followed, as it is -a very old-fashioned Jewish dish. It is very like a -rich pease-soup, and is cooked in carefully skimmed -fat. In the great earthenware jar which holds the -soup is cooked the "kugel," a kind of pease-pudding, -which was to appear much later at the feast.</p> - -<p>Goldstein's is the restaurant patronised by the -"froom," the strictest observers of religious observances, -of the Jewish community, and we should by -right only have drunk unfermented Muscat wine with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> -our repast, but some capital hock took its place, and -when the master of the ceremonies and the faithful -soul touched glasses, one said "Lekhaim," and the -other answered the greeting with "Tavim." Then, -before the fish was put on the table, the master of -the ceremonies told me of the elaborate care that -was taken in the selection of animals to be killed, of -the inspection of the butcher's knives, of the tests -applied to the dead animals to see that the flesh is -good, of the soaking and salting of the meat and the -drawing-out of the veins from it. The many restrictions, -originally imposed during the wandering -in the desert, which make shell-fish, and wild game, -and scaleless fish unlawful food—these and many -other interesting items of information were imparted -to me.</p> - -<p>The white-stewed gurnet, with chopped parsley -and a sauce of egg and lemon-juice, tempered by -onion flavouring, was excellent. In the brown sauce -served with the carp were such curious ingredients as -treacle, gingerbread and onions, but the result, a -strong, rich sauce, is very pleasant to the taste. The -great cold fried soles standing on their heads and -touching tails, and the two big sections of plaice -flanking them, I knew must be good; but I explained -to the master of ceremonies that I had already nearly -eaten a full-sized man's dinner, and that I must be -left a little appetite to cope with what was to come.</p> - -<p>Very tender veal, with a sauce of egg and lemon, -which had a thin, sharp taste, and a steak, tender also, -stewed with walnuts, an excellent dish to make a -dinner of, were the next items on the menu, and I -tasted each; but I protested against the capon and -the chicken as being an overplus of good things, and -the master of the ceremonies—who, I think, had a -latent fear that I might burst before the feast came -to an end—told the waiter not to bring them up.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> - -<p>The smoked beef was a delicious firm brisket, and -the tongue, salted, was also exceptionally good. I -felt that the last feeble rag of an appetite had gone, -but the cucumber, a noble Dutch fellow, pickled in -salt and water in Holland, came to my aid, and a slice -of this, better than any <i>sorbet</i> that I know of, gave -me the necessary power to attempt, in a last despairing -effort, the kugel and apple staffen and almond -pudding.</p> - -<p>The staffen is a rich mixture of many fruits and -candies with a thin crust. The kugel is a pease-pudding -cooked, as I have written above, in the pease -and beans soup. The almond pudding is one of -those moist delicacies that I thought only the French -had the secret of making.</p> - -<p>Coffee—no milk, even if we had wanted it, for milk -and butter are not allowed on the same table as flesh—and -a liqueur of brandy, and then, going downstairs, -we looked into the two simple rooms, running into -each other, which form the public restaurant, rooms -empty at nine <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, but crowded at the midday meal.</p> - -<p>Mr Goldstein, who was there, told us that his -patrons had become so numerous that he would soon -have to move to larger premises, and may by now -have done so, and certainly the cooking at the -restaurant is excellent, and I do not wonder at its -obtaining much patronage.</p> - -<p>What this Gargantuan repast cost I do not know, -for the designer of the feast said that the bill was to -be sent to him.</p> - -<p>I think that a "kosher" dinner, if this is a fair -specimen, is a succession of admirably cooked dishes. -But an ordinary man should be allowed a week in -which to eat it.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV">XXIV</a></h3> - -<h3>THE MITRE</h3> - -<h4>AT HAMPTON COURT</h4> - - -<p>We all know that in the spring a young man's fancy -lightly turns to thoughts of love, but it is not such -common knowledge that in the early summer the -thoughts of a man of mature age turn with equal -agility to duckling and green peas. And with duckling -and green peas I always associate the Mitre at -Hampton Court. So it came to pass that I asked a -crony of like tastes to myself to meet me on a spring -Sunday at Hampton Court in the late afternoon, and -suggested that we should walk in the gardens of the -Palace and see the rhododendrons, which were then -in great beauty, and that we should afterwards dine -at the Mitre, sup green pea soup and eat duckling -and green peas.</p> - -<p>The Mitre is the most typically late Georgian, or -early Victorian, inn that I know of in the neighbourhood -of London, and its great attraction is that it -has kept the old cookery, the old furniture, the old -pictures, the old china, the old plate, and last, but -not least, the old manners. It has been quite unconscious -of the changes in the outside world, it -knows nothing of electric light and such newfangled -ideas, there are no French rolls to be found in its -bread baskets, and its ducklings are spitted and -roasted before an open fire, being well basted the -while.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> - -<p>This, very briefly, is the history of the Mitre. -It is the direct successor of the Toy Inn, an old -house which stood on Crown property, and the lease -of which expired about the year of the battle of -Waterloo. The Toy was pulled down, and Mr -Goodman, and Mr Sadler with him, were obliged to -look for a new home in which to carry on the old -traditions. This they found in three houses standing -together near the wooden bridge (alas and alack that -the picturesque old bridge has given place to the -dull-red iron horror which was built in 1865!), and -one of the charms of the Mitre is the quaint irregularity -of its architecture, the brown bricks and red -tiles of its face turned towards the Palace, its white -face and slate roof on the river side, the great -wistaria and the ivy knitting together all the various -features.</p> - -<p>And parenthetically I wish to protest against the -hiding away of the Mitre from the view of the -people as they cross the bridge, or of those who row -or go by launch or river. Just in front of the Mitre -Hotel is an eyot, which I believe is Government -property. The willows on this have been allowed -to grow so high that they entirely blot out the view -from the river of the white face of the Mitre, and -the long row of windows of its banqueting-room; -and equally, of course, the trees obstruct the view -of the river from the delightful little bowling-green -with ivied arches which is between the hotel and the -backwater. If, whoever he is, the Government -official who has this eyot in his charge will walk -across the Hampton Court bridge or sit for ten -minutes on the lawn before the Mitre he will, I am -sure, require no further prompting to order the -pollarding of the trees.</p> - -<p>Mr Goodman came to the three old houses and -put up the name of the Mitre in golden letters, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> -gave orders that the pillars that support the great -bow-window on the first floor should be painted as -though they were of very variegated marble, and -with him from the old inn he brought the little glass -bow window which looks out from the bar parlour -into the Mitre hall, and he also brought with him all -the old Spode china from the Toy. Some of the -original china is still preserved at the Mitre, and -whenever new plates and new dishes are required -Messrs Copeland, the successors to Spode, make -them in the old moulds, though those moulds are -now wearing out; and the plates from which the -guests of to-day eat their lunches and dinners are -identical with those that came across the Green from -the Toy. After a while Mr Goodman moved on to -the Whitehall Hotel, a big white-faced house which -looks out on to the Green, and which abuts on -Cardinal Wolsey's old stables, and Mr Sadler the -First reigned in his stead.</p> - -<p>It was Mr Sadler the First who bought the old -Sheffield plate which makes such a brave show at -the banquets at the Mitre, tureens in which the soup -comes to table, and the platters on which the fish is -served.</p> - -<p>Six o'clock was the hour at which I had asked my -crony to meet me on the steps of the Mitre that we -might consult together as to the menu of our dinner, -and I found him waiting for me chatting to Mr -Sadler, the elder of the two sons of Mr Sadler the -First, and in the background was Bagwell, the head -waiter, who is a model to all British head waiters. -He has the appearance and the comforting manner of -a high dignitary of the Church, and I am quite sure -would wear knee-breeches and an apron and rosetted -tall hat with as good grace as any bishop in the land. -The oldest inhabitants of Hampton Court, when I -have sung Bagwell's praises to them, have said to me:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> -"Ah, but you ought to have known Smith," the head -waiter who flourished some thirty years ago. But -to them I reply that not having known Smith it is a -comfort to me to be acquainted with Bagwell. Bagwell -had on a card a suggested menu for our dinner, -which ran thus:—Green Pea Soup, Grilled Trout, -Stewed Eels, Duckling and Green Peas and New -Potatoes, cold Asparagus and Gooseberry Tart. -The eels I looked upon as a superfluity, though they -are one of the dishes of the house and are kept alive -in the hotel in tanks until the moment comes for their -sacrifice. I also parried the suggestion that sweetbreads -should be included, for I hold that a duckling, -if he be a good duckling, well roasted and filled with -savoury stuffing, is so good a dish that he requires -no supplement of any kind.</p> - -<p>When at seven we returned from our walk through -the gardens of the Palace a table had been spread for -us in the bow-window, whence the view of the river, -and the house-boats, and the towing path, and the -walls of the Palace Gardens, and the big trees and -the old gates, is a very splendid thing. A quiet-footed, -quiet-mannered waiter was ready to attend on -us, and on the table were the shining cruets and a -little loaf and a slab of beautiful butter, and to the -tick of half-past seven the soup in a plated tureen -was put in front of me.</p> - -<p>The soup was excellently hot and of a strength -unusual in a vegetable soup. It had, I fancy, been -laced with all manner of good things. It made an -excellent commencement to the dinner. The trout, -a fine salmon trout, of a beautiful pink, came straight -up from the grill on a plated dish, and with it the -Tartar sauce in a plated boat. When the cover was -taken off from the duckling, set down before me to -carve, the sweet savour of good roasting and the -perfume of the stuffing gratified the sense of smell.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> -And that duckling was as tender as a duckling should -be, and the peas were large and cooked to the -requisite degree of softness, and the apple sauce was -excellent. That our plates were the old Spode -plates, soft blue in their pattern, and that the knives -and forks and spoons were all of an old pattern, were -all tiny points of enjoyment. The asparagus was good -green English asparagus, and the crust of the gooseberry -pie was of meringue-like lightness.</p> - -<p>At the table to one side of us in the big bow sat -a couple who were also dining on duckling and -drinking a bottle of champagne, for the Mitre -has an excellent cellar of wines at prices far below -those of London restaurants, and at the table on the -other side were two ladies and three men who had -been on the river and had brought river appetites and -river good spirits to table with them. Farther back in -the room were other little parties of diners. I had asked -host Sadler some questions about the Masonic banquets -which are held in the red-walled rooms the windows -of which overlook the bowling-green, and after our -dinner was finished he brought me a little sheaf of -menus of banquets, and he also brought a bottle of -the old Cognac of the house, which he was anxious -that we should taste. I looked through the menus, -and the following of a banquet of the Bard of -Avon Lodge seemed to me to be that of a distinctly -English feast. It has in it the <i>matelote</i> of stewed -eels and the braised sweetbreads for which I did not -find room in our little dinner for two:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -<span class="smcap">Soup.</span><br /> -Purée of Asparagus. Spring.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Fish.</span><br /> -Grilled Trout. Sauce Tartare.<br /> -Stewed Eels en Matelote.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Entrée.</span><br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>Braised Sweetbreads.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Removes.</span><br /> -Roast Fore Quarter of Lamb.<br /> -French Beans.<br /> -Ducklings. Peas.<br /> -Asparagus.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Sweets.</span><br /> -Gooseberry Foule. Cream.<br /> -Madeira Jellies.<br /> -Iced Pudding.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Dessert.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>My crony and I sat sipping the old brandy, talking -at intervals, and watching how the daylight gave -place to the afterglow, how the people on the towpath -thinned in numbers to single figures, and the homeward -bound boats on the river became fewer and fewer. -As the light died out the river became a sheet of -dull silver, and the colour of the old brick walls of -the Palace gardens and its out-buildings grew to -deeper and a deeper purple, and the great trees -became warm black silhouettes against the darkening -sky and the lights in the house-boats moored by the -bank began to throw reflections into the stream.</p> - -<p>Everything, even a spring evening at Hampton -Court, must come to an end, and at last I called for my -bill. The dinner was eight shillings a head, and so -moderate had we been in our summer beverages—the -old brandy was host Sadler's contribution—that the -total came to a sovereign.</p> - -<p>We walked along the path up the river in the cool -of the evening till we could see the lights in Garrick's -Villa, and then my crony and I bade each other good-night -and went our separate ways.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXV" id="XXV">XXV</a></h3> - -<h3>IN THE HANDS OF PI(E)RATES</h3> - -<h4>THE CONNAUGHT ROOMS</h4> - - -<p>When it was decided by the contributors to <i>Printer's -Pie</i> to entertain their editor, "The Pieman," a -little committee of artists and writers, with the editor -of <i>The Tatler</i> as secretary, considered various plans for -giving Mr Hugh Spottiswoode a dinner with unusual -surroundings.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 434px;"> -<a id="pierates"></a> -<img src="images/pierates.jpg" width="434" height="230" alt="Pi(e)rates Menu" /> -</div> - -<p>A decision was arrived at that the contributors to -the <i>Pie</i> should become Pi(e)rates, for one night -only, and in that guise should entertain the Pieman in -a pirate haunt, and then the next question was the -choice of a dining place and the difficult matter of -finding the proprietor or manager of a restaurant -who would enter thoroughly into the spirit of the -burlesque and would provide a real pirate feast with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> -blood-curdling piratical surroundings. A member of -the committee suggested Mr George Harvey, who -controls the Connaught Rooms in Great Queen Street, -as the very man, and to the next meeting of the -committee Mr George Harvey came, quiet, humorous -and resourceful, and when he heard the outlines of -our scheme he smiled, and said that he thought he -quite understood what we wanted.</p> - -<p>It was essential to the success of our little joke -that the guest of the evening should know nothing of -the reception he would get, and when the Pi(e)rates -were informed that the dress of a bold buccaneer -was to be the wear at dinner at the Connaught -Rooms, they were entreated to keep this a secret -from the Pieman. Strangely enough, the secret was -kept; he had no inkling of what was going to happen -to him. When, heralded by a commissionaire, he -came up the grand staircase of the restaurant, -faultlessly attired in his best evening clothes, he gave -a jump when the Master-at-Arms of the Pirates, -attired in the levee uniform of a pirate king, suddenly -appeared before him with drawn cutlass and a -ferocious look, and told two stalwart members of -the pirate gang to "Arrest that man!"</p> - -<p>If it would interest you to know who the pirates -are, when they are not pirating, you have only to look -at the contents pages of <i>Printer's Pie</i> and you can -there read the list of the authors and artists who -were busy between seven and eight o'clock one -Friday, in a little room in Great Queen Street, -transforming themselves from fairly respectable -members of society into the most shocking criminals -that ever went to sea. There were pirates of all -kinds, all centuries and all classes. There were -gentlemen pirates with nickel-plated revolvers; one -pirate of particular ferocity from the Barbary Coast -had given himself an emerald-green complexion;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> -another pirate, who feared that his good-natured face -might belie his costume, carried on his breast a large -placard with a photo on it for identification purposes, -and the legend "I am an [adjective] pirate." Some of -the pirates wore long false noses; many of them had -the skull and crossbones on their jerseys; cocked -hats with feathers were quite fashionable wear, and -no belt had less than three pistols stuck into it. One -writer of humorous short stories came as an old -growler cabby, explaining that cabmen were the only -pirates that he had ever met. The chairman of the -dinner, who had been selected for that onerous post -because, as the designer of the covers of all the -<i>Printer's Pies</i> he had always come first amongst -its contributors, had added an Afghan sheepskin coat -to his other piratical garment—luckily for him the night -was very cold—and was attended by a minor pirate, -who carried on a long stick a triangular lantern as -a sign of authority.</p> - -<p>When the pirates' prisoner was arrested he was -requested to step into a little boat on wheels, the -doors of the ante-room were flung wide open and the -boat was dragged into the presence of the pirate -Captain, who stood in the centre of the room, with the -pirate band playing "Down Among the Dead Men" -on silvered papier-maché instruments to his left, and -to his right the pirate crew flourishing pistols and -cutlasses. The little boat paused for a moment while -the pirates gave a blood-curdling boarding yell, and -then continued its career at hydroplane pace into the -dining-room, with the pirates following after.</p> - -<p>The Crown Room had become a pirates' lair -prepared for a feast. The walls had been shut out by -scenery representing sea and mountain; the floor was -an inch deep in sawdust; in the corners of the room -were plantations of palm-trees, with parrots in cages -in the midst of them. These parrots missed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> -opportunity of their lives, for they were so stunned -by the noise the pirates made at their meal that they -never uttered a single scream.</p> - -<p>At one side of the pirates' lair was a great dhow, -such as one sees sailing in and out of Aden. It was -really a stage for the band and the after-dinner -performers, but it had been converted into a dhow. -In its tall stern a piano was housed; it had high -bulwarks, a tall mast and a great lateen sail. From -the mast-head flew the "Jolly Roger," and in the -rigging was a huge red lantern.</p> - -<p>A dozen round tables had been prepared for the -pirates, with sheets of brown paper laid on them as -tablecloths. The room was lighted by candles stuck -into bottles and set on the tables. Of knives and -forks there were none apparent; the salt was great -lumps of the rock variety, the mustard was in teacups -and the pepper in screws of brown paper. The -menu, which is reproduced at the head of this chapter, -was written with an inky stick on torn bits of brown -paper, and each pirate's place was marked for him -by a card with blood spots on it. Every table had a -big card in a split cane set up to mark a pirate -locality. There were Skeleton Cove and Murder -Gulch, Coffin Marsh, Gallows' Hill, Cannibal's Creek, -Dead Man's Rock and others, and the ship's officers, -the roll of which included the Stale Mate, the -Hangman, the Powder Monkey and the Ship's -Parrot, presided each at a table. The first mate sat -next to the Captain, and it was his business to wave -a black flag over his great commander's head at -intervals, and to beat constantly a big drum which -was concealed under the table.</p> - -<p>The waiters at the feast looked even greater -ruffians than the feasters, which is saying a great -deal. They were the most shocking set of criminals -and marine cut-throats that ever carried a dish of salt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> -junk. Most of them had black eyes; their bare -arms were wondrously tattooed, and they all smoked -short clay pipes as they went about their work. The -pirates, because of their superior station, smoked long -churchwardens, of which, and playing-cards, there -was a plentiful supply scattered about the tables. -One waiter entered so thoroughly into his part that -he danced a little hornpipe as he took round the -dishes.</p> - -<p>When the feast had commenced with oysters, the -pirate waiters suddenly produced a supply of knives -and forks, and menus of what the real dinner was. -Below is the menu of the real dinner, and an excellent -dinner it was. Pirates who had known better days -nodded to each other approvingly across the table -when they had eaten the fish dish, which was exceptionally -good. Mr George Harvey most certainly -has succeeded in regilding the faded glories of the -Freemasons' Tavern and in putting the Connaught -Rooms, which is the title of the rebuilt house, very -firmly on the dining map of London.</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Huîtres Royales.<br /> -Consommé Excelsior.<br /> -Timbale de Sole Archiduc.<br /> -Poularde Hongroise.<br /> -Nouilles au Parmesan.<br /> -Noisette de Pré-Salé Montmorency.<br /> -Pommes Anna.<br /> -Faisan en Cocotte à la Truffe.<br /> -Salade Jolly Roger.<br /> -Jambon d'York au Champagne.<br /> -Poires St George.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Barquettes de Laitances.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -Café Double.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The band, a real string orchestra, in white jackets, -on the deck of the dhow, played rag-time melodies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> -and other inspiriting airs, and occasionally made itself -heard above the noise with which the pirates settled -down to their feast. The big drum was always in -action, and somewhere outside the hall a waiter shook -a sheet of theatre-thunder in a vain attempt to equal -the noise of the drum within; pistols were discharged -in all parts of the lair, and the pirate with an emerald-green -complexion, whenever he thought the Captain -looked dull, walked over to his table and fired a -pistol into his ear to cheer him up. When this -failed to attract the Captain's attention, a large cracker -was set fire to under his chair.</p> - -<p>One of the groups of pirates, thinking that the -band were having far too peaceable a time, suddenly -drew pistols and cutlasses, boarded the dhow, and -put the musicians to the sword, which delighted the -fiddlers very much. There was also dancing during -the dinner, for two of the pirates, wishing to give -a real society touch to the function, rose and performed -a wild Tango in and out of the tables. That -was not the only dance, for a fat carver, who wore -a conical white cap and white garments plentifully -besprinkled with gore, had stood during the early -stages of dinner and had looked on at the pirates' -antics, being much amused thereat. One of the -pirates, thinking that a spectator ought to have some -share in the active work of the fun, seized him and -forced him to dance, and dance the carver did, with -such good will that he finally tired the pirate out, -and remained, perspiring and smiling, the victor in -the dance.</p> - -<p>When dinner was over the guest of the evening -was tried by court-martial. He was accommodated -with a chair in the centre of the room and given a -cigar and a drink; a wide circle of candles in -bottles was put about him to give light to the proceedings, -and all the pirates sat in groups in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> -sawdust, the master-at-arms, with drawn cutlass, -behind the prisoner, the accuser, a picturesque ruffian, -and the prisoner's friend, an equally forbidding -scoundrel, and the pirate Captain being the only -individuals standing up. This grouping formed a -really striking picture, and I have no doubt that -many artistic eyes took in its possibilities. The -accusation brought against the prisoner was that -he had paid income tax (groans from the pirates), -that he was even suspected of paying super-tax (yells -of fury from the pirates), that he kept tame animals, -notably Welsh rarebits, and that he fed them. The -pirate Captain had already warned the prisoner that -his sentence had been determined upon, and therefore -that it was no use for him, or anybody else on his -behalf, to plead his cause; but the prisoner's friend -had a speech ready, and loosed it off, making the -case very much blacker against his client than it had -been before. Sentence was then duly pronounced, -but as the pirate Captain had mislaid the plank on -which the victim was to walk, and as the goldfish -which were to represent sharks had been left -downstairs, the doom of the victim resolved itself -into the presentation to him of a pair of silver hand-cuffs -with a tiny watch at the end of one of them.</p> - -<p>After the court-martial, the pirates gave themselves -and their guest an entertainment. One pirate sang -admirably; another pirate, whose name, I think, -before he went to sea, was Walter Churcher, told -excellent stories, and a third pirate went through the -whole performance that the flashlight photographer -inflicts on good-natured diners, his apparatus being -a whisky bottle and a tin mug, and then handed -round photographs he pretended to have taken of our -guest.</p> - -<p>There was more fun to come, but as midnight was -drawing near, and as I belong now to the early-to-bed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> -sect of sea-wolves, I departed quietly. The lift -boy at my flat, when he saw the brick-dust of my -marine complexion, said to me, as he took me up: -"Good gracious, sir, whatever has happened to your -face?"</p> - -<p>It was a great night altogether!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI">XXVI</a></h3> - -<h3>APPENRODT'S</h3> - - -<p>I had been, like every other Londoner, aware of -the coming of Appenrodt's shops into the panorama -of the London streets; but I had never gone into -one of the Appenrodt establishments until a year -ago, and it was the dread of the armour-plate sandwich -of the buffets that sent me there.</p> - -<p>I often, when I am going to an early first night at -the theatre, cut matters so fine as to dinner that I have -only time to eat a couple of sandwiches at a buffet, -and as often as not the barmaid, knowing that I am -not a regular customer, does a feat of sleight of hand -and gives me the roof, the two top sandwiches of the -pile. If I protest I am assured that they were fresh-cut -not a quarter of an hour ago, and being a moral -coward in such matters, I eat them. If I postpone my -sandwich meal until after the theatre a second thickness -of armour-plate has been added to the bread.</p> - -<p>One evening, walking home after the theatre to my -flat in the wild north-west, I became aware when I -reached Oxford Circus that I was very hungry. -Through the windows of Appenrodt's shop at Oxford -Circus I could see men in white jackets very busily -slicing bread and making sandwiches for the people -who sat at the little tables. I went in, ate a couple -of ham sandwiches which had been made for me -before my eyes, and blessed the name of -Appenrodt, for they were all that a ham sandwich -should be.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> - -<p>When Appenrodt's headquarters at No. 1 Coventry -Street were a-building I watched with interest -the putting in of the big plate-glass windows, and -after its completion I looked whenever I passed at the -big <i>cartes du jour</i> which are put up outside wherever -there is space for them. One evening, on my way to -a club in the Leicester Square district to dine, I found, -just as I arrived at the Coventry Street corner, that I -had cut my time very close, and that if I dined at -the club I should not be in my place at the rising of -the curtain. I looked at the big bills of fare outside -Appenrodt's, and went up into the restaurant on the -first floor to see whether I could get there a quickly -served meal. I had an excellent plate of <i>chicken -consommé</i>, a cut from one of the joints of the day—roast -veal and bacon—and a rice pudding. I found -this simple food quite excellent, and I got to my -theatre in plenty of time.</p> - -<p>My first experience led me on to other dinners -in Appenrodt's restaurant on the first floor, and I -found that the dishes, without exception, were -admirably cooked, and that the soup and the <i>soufflé -omelette</i> with which I now always begin and end a -repast at Appenrodt's are noticeably excellent. -There is plenty of choice, for the menu of the day -comprises four soups, ten fish dishes, at least the -same number of entrées, some of these being those -that Germans love, vegetables and sweets in due proportion, -four joints at lunch-time and the same -number at dinner.</p> - -<p>This is a typical dinner that I ate one night at -Appenrodt's, and these are the prices I paid for the -dishes:—<i>crème conti</i>, an excellent white soup, 6d.; -<i>suprême de brill Dugleré</i>, 1s. 6d.; <i>pilaff de foie de -volaille à la Grecque</i>, 1s. 3d.; and <i>omelette Mylord</i>, -which is a form of <i>omelette surprise</i>, 1s. 6d.; and -I drank therewith a pint of Rhenish sparkling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> -muscatel with all the taste and bouquet of the grape -in it.</p> - -<p>The restaurant is all white and gold, and has a low -ceiling, but as it has a row of windows on two sides I -have no doubt it will be quite cool in summer. The -curtains to the windows are of some pleasant straw-coloured -material, with pink spots on it; the carpet is -dark. A glass screen is in front of the lifts which -bring the dishes down from the kitchen at the top of -the house. There are two staircases, one, the main -one, from Coventry Street, and another one from -Wardour Street, leading up to the restaurant. The -waiters are mostly Germans, who speak good English, -and who have the bearing of drilled men. I have no -doubt that Mr Appenrodt, who at one time sacrificed -a growing business to go back to Germany to do his -military training, does not engage any of his countrymen -who have shirked their years of service. The -only drawback to the restaurant that I have noticed -is an unavoidable one owing to the construction of the -house, that the personnel of the coffee kitchen have to -pass through the restaurant coming and going about -their work.</p> - -<p>The people who dine in the restaurant at Appenrodt's -seem to belong to all classes. When I have dined -there early I have seen amongst the customers men -and ladies whom I recognised as belonging to the -Variety profession, and who eat an early meal before -going to the theatres where they perform. Many of -Appenrodt's countrymen and countrywomen dine in -the restaurant, and the black-coated classes of respectable -Londoners and their womenfolk have already -found out how good the food is there.</p> - -<p>Having seen all these things, and feeling sure that -Appenrodt, with his many shops and his restaurants, -meant a new power come into the centre of London, I -became curious as to the owner, or owners, of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> -name and asked whether it was just a <i>nom de -fantasie</i> or whether there really is such a person in -the flesh as a Mr Appenrodt. I was assured that -there was a Mr Appenrodt and that if it would -gratify my curiosity to talk to him he would be very -pleased to meet me.</p> - -<p>And so it came that I met Mr Appenrodt in his -own restaurant, and found him to be a very quiet, -patently sincere German gentleman, with a round face, -pleasant, steady eyes, hair a little thin on the top and -a large dark moustache. He told me across a luncheon-table -the story of his life, and I was able to assure him -that other people besides myself would find the history -of his early struggles in England an interesting one.</p> - -<p>He was born in Berlin in 1867, and, having been a -clerk in a Hamburg shipping agency, came to this -country when he was nineteen years old to learn the -English language. He soon found a billet in a City -office, as correspondence clerk at a pound a week, and -he determined to stay in England, though his father, -who was a spirit distiller, wished him to return to -Germany and the distillery.</p> - -<p>When he was twenty years old he thought he knew -London well enough to engage in business on his own -account. His father would not help him, but he had -£2000 left him by his mother, and with this he -engaged in various speculations, the thought of which -now moves him to hearty laughter. He wanted to -induce the English to smoke the German students' -long pipes and to use washable india-rubber playing -cards.</p> - -<p>These and other such brilliant ideas made a very -serious inroad on his capital. He held, amongst other -agencies, one for a manufacturer of preserves, and this -brought him into touch with German provision shops. -These shops were all tucked away in little side streets -in the Soho district, and Mr Appenrodt thought that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> -there would be a good opening for German <i>delicatessen</i> -if it was possible to show them in better premises and -with more appetising surroundings. He opened in a -basement at the corner of Lombard Street and Gracechurch -Street a shop, in a room about twenty feet -square. At that time there were no light refreshment -places in the City except the A.B.C. shops, and -Mr Appenrodt soon had a large clientele for his little -shop. He saw that there was a fortune to be made in -catering for the wants of the middle classes, but -before he experimented on a larger scale he went back -to Germany to serve his one year of military service, -having sold his little business to a man who transferred -it to some licensed premises and made a fortune -by it.</p> - -<p>When Mr Appenrodt came back, having completed -his term of military service, he found that his luck in -the City had petered out, for not one of the shops he -opened in succession proved to be a success. The -last straw was a shop in the Commercial Road, which -seemed likely to eat up all the funds he had left. -But it was during this last attempt that his luck -turned. He engaged a young lady as shop assistant, -and she brought him good luck and success; and his -love story, for it was a love story, led up to the right -ending of all love stories, a happy marriage. And he -backed his luck, for he and his wife made a last -bold bid for fortune by taking a shop in the West End, -at the corner of Coventry Street and Whitcomb Street. -This venture proved an instantaneous success. Mr -Appenrodt and his wife at first did all the work themselves, -and their business hours were from nine <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> -until one the next morning. They had no afternoons -or evenings off, and worked all and every Sunday.</p> - -<p>Easier times came, assistant after assistant was engaged, -and one branch after another was opened. -Not all of these proved successes, but in spite of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> -minor set-backs, the firm of two continued to flourish -more and more, and has now the big shop and -restaurant at Coventry Street, eight branches in -various parts of London and a big depot in Paris. -Mr Appenrodt has refused many offers to turn -his undertaking into a company. He looks on his -five hundred employees as his family, and is not -willing to put them at the mercy of strangers.</p> - -<p>That was Mr Appenrodt's story to me across the -table, and when I asked him questions he amplified -his personal history in various ways. He told me -how the Parisian depot came to be established: that -one day he met a former employee, one of his own -countrymen, who talked French like a native of -France. He knew his man, and he told him that he -was just going over to Paris, and that if he could find -a suitable shop to let there, he would take it and put -his old friend in as his partner and as the manager. -He found the shop, put his friend into it, and it has -proved a most successful speculation. He told -me of the various obstacles he had to overcome in -building his premises in Coventry Street; of the large -sums he expended to buy out the owners of the three -houses he required and of the difficulties he experienced -in obtaining a licence to sell beer and other -liquors; how at last he bought two public-houses and -surrendered their licences, and how the Licensing -Magistrates then gave him permission to serve -alcoholic drinks, but only with food. His prices, -Mr Appenrodt told me, are fixed as being the -lowest prices at which he can sell first-class food -and make a reasonable profit on it without looking -to any profit from the drinks that are sold, for no -pressure whatever is put on the patrons of his -restaurant to drink anything stronger than water.</p> - -<p>I asked Mr Appenrodt what his special hobby was, -and he told me that it was to buy public-houses and to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> -turn them into Appenrodt establishments, which, -if you come to think of it, is as true a work of reform -as any that is being carried out in London.</p> - -<p>He and his wife, he went on to say, love the work -they do. They go together frequently to the firm's -factory in the country, where workmen, many of them -imported from Germany, make the sausages, the -glassed delicacies and other specialities of the house, -and on fine days to the farm they own at Hendon, -a picturesque tract of country through which the -River Brent flows, where they breed pigs for the -pork sausages—though English pork is so firm that -Dutch pork or other foreign porks must be mixed -with it to make it bind—and fowls and other farm -produce.</p> - -<p>Before I said good-bye to Mr Appenrodt he asked -me if I would like to see the kitchen and other parts -of the house, and I said "With pleasure," for I never -think that the final word can be said regarding a -restaurant until one has seen the kitchen that supplies -it. We went upstairs to the top of the house, -passing on the way a room in which half-a-dozen -women were peeling potatoes for the potato salads, -potatoes specially imported from Germany, for -English potatoes crumble too easily to be satisfactory -material. And eventually we came to a big kitchen -at the top of the house, very airy and very clean, -where a French <i>chef de cuisine</i> rules over cooks of all -nationalities. Descending again, we went into the -basement to look at Appenrodt's <i>Keller</i>, decorated -after the German style with landscapes and figures, -where two bands play alternately all the afternoon -and evening, and where good Germans, and Englishmen -who like good German beer, congregate to eat -simple food and drink the produce of Austrian and -German hop-fields.</p> - -<p>And finally I walked round the big shop on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> -ground floor, where at the marble counter the men -in white were busy cutting sandwiches, and Mr -Appenrodt explained to me the beauties of the -glassed delicacies and the great variety of sausages of -all countries, and as he took up one after another, -sausages of majestic size, products of Germany or -Italy, cut so as to show a section, and smaller -sausages in glass jars, and bunches and packages -of sausages, and Swiss sausages in a shape to take up -very little room in a knapsack, I felt coming over me -exactly the same feeling that I experience when a -collector of beautiful china, or priceless lacquer or -wonderful metal-work explains to me the beauties of -his collection, a feeling that I too want to collect -that particular kind of curio. If I were much in Mr -Appenrodt's company I feel quite sure that I should -become an enthusiastic amateur in the matter of -sausages.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII">XXVII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE BURFORD BRIDGE HOTEL</h3> - - -<p>One of the pleasantest short runs out of London by -motor car is to Box Hill and the little hotel which -lies just below it. In summer the most picturesque -way of getting to the hotel is either by one of the -Brighton coaches, which make it their lunching -place, or by the coach which goes to Box Hill and -back in a day. And by no means an uncomfortable, -and certainly the cheapest, way of going down to the -hotel is to do as I did one Sunday—journey by the -L.B. & S.C. Railway, getting glimpses of Epsom and -the great rolling common land of Ashtead, of little -rivers, and old mills, and wooded downs, on the way.</p> - -<p>The Burford Bridge Hotel, which takes its name -from the wide brick bridge near by, over the River -Mole, stands alongside the high road where it curves -from the hill-side down to the level. It is a -picturesque building, for when the Surrey Trust, -of which more anon, took the house, it was a mere -wayside inn. It has been gradually built on to, and -is now more a group of houses of white rough-cast -and slate roofs than one house. It has rambling -tiled-roofed stables and a garage alongside it, and -is surrounded by tall trees. Behind it, just where -the hill begins to rise, are its gardens, with turf -terraces and geraniums in terra-cotta pots on white -pedestals. A great cedar stands in the midst of one -of the lawns and another lawn is a bowling-green.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> -Some of the trees on the hill-side stretch out great -branches which give shadow to the garden-seats.</p> - -<p>Creepers climb over the house, there are rose-bushes -by the paths, and out beyond the bowling-green -an orchard of old fruit-trees is on the banks -of the Mole, a brown stream in which the weeds -wave gently as it moves with a pleasant rustle -through the down country on its way to join the -Thames. There are two dovecotes in the garden -of the hotel, and the flutter of white wings in the -sunlight is pretty to see. Behind the gardens is -Box Hill, one part of which is steep, grassy down -scored with white footpaths, the other half stony -slopes so steep as to be almost cliffs, up which the -woods and undergrowth climb. On the Sunday of -my visit the dark green of these woods was scarcely -touched by the russet and orange of the autumn -tints.</p> - -<p>In the old portion of the house there are small -rooms on the ground floor, and above, a dozen little -bedrooms with flower-boxes in their windows and -bell-pulls hanging by the fireplaces; for though -there is electric light all over the house, the old-fashioned -bell-pulls and the long line of bells in the -corridor have been left as an old-world touch. Out -into the garden there juts a newly built part of the -house, with a large dining-room on the ground floor -and bedrooms above. The dining-room is panelled -with chestnut wood to within a couple of feet from -the ceiling. It has on one side recesses, one of -which forms an ingle-nook for the fireplace, and -opposite to them, in the wall facing the garden, are -many French windows which give on to the lawns. -At one end of this pleasant room is a great bow-window -looking down the length of the lawns and -orchard, and the tables in this bow are the ones most -sought after. The strips of red carpet on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> -polished wooden floor deaden the sound of the feet -of the waiters as they go to and fro, the chairs are -handsome ones of red leather, and as they bear on -their backs a scroll with "The Gaiety" on it, I -presume they were bought when the Gaiety -Restaurant breathed its last.</p> - -<p>All the classes for which the old inn, turned hotel, -caters are provided for. There is a refreshment-room -for the chauffeurs, a bar for the rustics. -There is also a very pleasant sanctum, which I should -have called the bar parlour, but which is dubbed -the lounge, in which are the heads of some of the -foxes killed by the local pack of hounds, and a -photograph of a meet at the hotel, some coaching -prints, a picture of a racehorse and its jockey, some -little stags' heads which were in the house when -it was bought by the Trust, a grandfather clock, -some Japanese bronzes and Wedgwood vases, some -old-fashioned wooden arm-chairs and some big -leather ones. It is in this comfortable room, with -a long stretch of window looking on to the road, that -the worthies of the neighbourhood assemble to talk -over local politics and other important matters. -There is a little ante-chamber to the dining-room -with comfortable seats in it, a coffee-room and -a drawing-room which runs the full width of the -old house and is the room in which the ladies -staying in the house sit after dinner.</p> - -<p>The Surrey Public House Trust, which bought -the Burford Bridge Inn, and in whose hands it has -become one of the most flourishing small country -hotels in England, is an association of noblemen and -gentlemen of Surrey who have bought a dozen inns -and hotels in the county, and who run them on the -sanest and soundest possible lines. The sale of -alcoholic drinks is not looked to as the principal -source of profit, and as none of the houses owned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> -by the Trust are tied houses, the goods, eatable and -drinkable, are purchased in the best and cheapest -markets. The company has as its manager at -Burford Bridge Mr "Mike" Hunt, who comes of -the family who were the lessees of the Star and -Garter at Richmond in its palmy days. Mr Hunt, -plump, light-haired, with a moustache somewhat -resembling that of the German Emperor, knows all -there is to know of hotel management, and the eight -and a half years he has been at Burford Bridge are -the years in which the hotel has risen to its present -fame. He knows pretty nearly every motorist who -uses the Brighton road, and is a keen supporter -of local sport.</p> - -<p>The road to Dorking at certain times of the day, -especially on Sundays, is alive with motor cars and -motor cycles, and the cars at lunch-time and at tea-time -cluster in front of the hotel like swarming bees. -In the big dining-room the lunch that is served is an -excellent one. There is a choice of two soups, one -thick, one clear; fish—on this particular Sunday there -were some excellent lobsters—a great choice of cold -meats and one hot meat dish, and a choice of puddings. -A cut from the cheese is the ending of lunch, and then -a cup of coffee served under one of the trees on the -lawn. Half-a-crown is the charge made for this very -ample meal.</p> - -<p>If you are making a day of it, as I did on this Sunday, -it is pleasant in the afternoon to stroll past the station, -near which a little wooden chapel stands thatched with -reeds, and on through country roads where the little -roses of the brambles were turning to blackberries, -and past garden hedges where the box and holly -mingle, out towards Updown Woods. Once away -from the clatter and roar of the main road one is soon -in the heart of the most beautiful country in Surrey, -and one comes back to the hotel, when the rush of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> -motors returning to town is lulling, to find a little blue -mist coming up from the valley before the distant -wooded hills, and all the rooks winging their way -homeward to their rookery in the great trees, and in -the broad meadow by the Mole across the road, scores -and scores of rabbits out for a frolic.</p> - -<p>This is the dinner that I ate on that Sunday evening -at Burford Bridge:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Consommé à la Reine.<br /> -Thick Giblet Soup.<br /> -Boiled Turbot, Sauce Hollandaise.<br /> -Roast Leg of Mutton.<br /> -French Beans. Potatoes.<br /> -Roast Duckling or Roast Partridge.<br /> -Salad.<br /> -Beignets Soufflés.<br /> -Tartlets Confiture.<br /> -Cheese, etc.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The giblet soup was excellent, the turbot fresh, -and, though the mutton might have been the more -tender for another day of hanging, the partridge and -the salad were capital and the <i>beignet</i> made with a very -light hand. The price of the dinner was 4s. 6d., -and I drank with it a pint of Rüdesheimer, which cost -me 2s. 9d.</p> - -<p>A large party of ladies and men who were staying -in the hotel had a table in the centre of the big room -and were very merry over their meal. Two pretty -girls and a young man, motoring up to London, who -stopped at the hotel to eat a dinner on their way, two -pleasant-faced ladies staying at the hotel, and various -couples of men, were some of the diners that night. -After dinner I watched the departure of the motorists, -who were completing their journey up to London, sat -for a while by the fire in the drawing-room, for there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> -was sharpness in the September night air, and at ten -o'clock, gently tired by my afternoon's walk on the -hills, went up to bed in a clean little bedroom with -some good old prints on its walls. Next morning the -sound that woke me was the cawing of the rooks on -their way to the fields.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII">XXVIII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE RITZ</h3> - - -<p>The Ritz Hotel and Restaurant will keep in the -remembrance of Londoners the name of the foremost -<i>hôtelier</i> of our days, M. Ritz, a man whose genius is -written across Europe and America, from Paris to -Frankfort, from Biarritz to Salsomaggiore, from -Lucerne to Madrid, from Budapest to New York. -Too much quick brain work unfortunately has broken -down M. Ritz's health, and he is never likely to take -any share again in the control of the hotels which bear -his name. He was the man who first taught the -mass of the rich English how to dine in cultured -comfort in their own capital; yet to the great -majority of those who benefited by his perfect taste -and his genius for giving unostentatious luxury to the -gourmets of the world he was an unknown personality. -Duchesses and actresses, legislators and actors, -explorers and curates, all are known to the public by -their photographs in shop windows and in the newspapers, -but I never saw a photograph of Ritz in a -Regent Street shop or in a journal.</p> - -<p>It was by chance that he first came to England. -When the Savoy Hotel was opened M. Ritz was -manager of the Hotel National at Lucerne and of the -Grand Hotel at Monte Carlo: Mr D'Oyly Carte -found him at the Grand Hotel, and asked him if he -would come to the Savoy for six months to put the -restaurant in order. He came, bringing with him -M. Escoffier, who had been chef at the Grand. Ritz<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> -at the Savoy made the supper after the theatre the -popular meal it still continues to be, though it is, -thanks to the Early Closing Act, a scramble to eat -five-shillings' worth of food in half-an-hour, and he -also discovered, while at the Savoy, that if a -restaurant wishes a large number of its guests to be -of the softer sex a band is a necessity. He saw that -an Austrian band, engaged at the suggestion of Mr -Hwfa Williams, kept the diners half-an-hour longer -at their tables over their cigars and coffee, and that -ladies soon came to consider a dinner unaccompanied -by music a tame feast. For the music, often over-loud, -to the accompaniment of which I eat my meals -in most restaurants, I am not in the least thankful to -M. Ritz; but the majority of diners, especially those -in petticoats, if such things exist nowadays, think -differently.</p> - -<p>The fight to obtain music at restaurants on Sundays -was one of M. Ritz's great battles. I remember -the days, not so very long ago, when a band could -not play on Sunday in a restaurant unless some -individual dinner-giver engaged it to play for his -guests, and had no objection to the other diners -listening to it. Another advance made by Ritz was -the obtaining of newly baked bread for those who -lunched and dined at the Savoy restaurant on a Sunday. -The baker who at first supplied this bread broke -some law or some regulation in doing this, and -was summoned; but M. Ritz, not to be beaten, -established a bakery in the hotel to supply the bread. -Other restaurants followed suit. He had an enormous -facility for quick work, no detail was too small for -him, and when he had made up his mind that a thing -should be done he took unlimited trouble to have -it carried out. At one time, when he managed the -Carlton, he could not understand why the coffee made -there should not be quite up to the level of the coffee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> -at his hotels on the Continent. He tried every experiment -possible, brought water from all parts of England, -took every precaution against the dampness of our -climate, and finally asked one of the Rümpelmayers, -the great pastrycook family of the south of France, -to come to London to advise him in this matter.</p> - -<p>I used to see M. Ritz at this period of his life very -often, and used to chat with him on matters of -<i>gourmandise</i>. Very slim, very quiet, with nervous -hands clasped tightly together, he would move -through the big restaurant seeing everything, saying a -word under his breath to a head waiter, bowing to -some of the diners, staying by a table to speak to -others, possessing a marvellous knowledge of faces -and of what the interests were of all the important -people of his clientele. There was a maxim, he said, -which should be carved in golden letters above the -door of every <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, and that maxim was, in -English, "A customer is always right," and he always -bore this in mind. Whenever at that period M. -Escoffier invented a new dish a little jury of three, -M. Escoffier, Madame Ritz and M. Ritz, used to sit -in judgment on it in solemn conclave before it was -allowed to appear on a menu in the restaurant. I -once asked Madame Ritz, who has been M. Ritz's real -helpmate and counsellor throughout his married life, -to what quality she attributed her husband's success -in life, and she answered, "sensibility," giving the -word its French meaning.</p> - -<p>M. Ritz had a talent for doing the right thing at -the right time in the right way. I once saw him in -the early morning on the platform of the station in -Rome. He looked, as he always looked, as though -he had come out of a band-box, well-shaved and -well-brushed, the ends of his moustache pointed -upwards, his whiskers brought down to the level of -his mouth, wearing those dark garments of extreme<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> -neatness which one always associates with the manager -of hotels. He was the one male person on the platform -that morning who was not dishevelled, nor tired, nor -unshaven; but he had raced across the Continent as -fast as trains could carry him to be there to receive -a duke and duchess who were going to stay at the -hotel in which he had an interest.</p> - -<p>A <i>coup du maître d'hôtel</i>, of which he told me -afterwards with a smile, was the method by which he -put a large luncheon-party of ladies on easy terms -with each other. It was a luncheon given at the -Carlton and attended by the ladies who were sending -the hospital-ship out to South Africa during the Boer -War. Many of the ladies did not know each other -well, and M. Ritz, exceedingly anxious that the -luncheon should be a success, feared that they -might not be easily conversational, so at the commencement -of the feast he took round a bottle of -Château Yquem and suggested to each lady that a -little glass of white wine made a good beginning to -lunch. In two minutes every lady was chatting -most pleasantly to her neighbours whether she had -ever seen them before or not. Of the determination -of M. Ritz in his early days to learn everything that -was to be learned in the restaurant world, I remember -one instance, told me by his wife. He held a well-paid -post in one of the smart Parisian restaurants, but -left it to go to Voisin's at a smaller salary, because he -thought there was more to be learned in the good old -restaurant in the Rue St Honoré than in the other -place of good cheer.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 403px;"> -<a id="ritzp184"></a> -<img src="images/ritzp184.jpg" width="403" height="527" alt="Photo of M. Ritz" /> -<div class="caption">M. RITZ</div> -</div> - -<p>But it is of the Ritz Restaurant, not of Ritz himself, -that I am writing in this chapter. I have read -that the Ritz has swallowed up the site of the old -"White Horse" cellars, from which so many of the -coaches used to start, but the White Horse cellars had -crossed the road a century and a half before I began to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> -know my London. The Isthmian Club-house at one -time occupied the portion of the site overlooking the -Green Park, and when the Club moved on to other -quarters it became the Walsingham, part chambers, -part restaurant, one of the group of houses and -hotels which stretched from the Green Park to -Arlington Street. When M. Gehlardi managed the -Walsingham, and M. Dutru was its chef, there was -no better dining place in London.</p> - -<p>The great white stone building of the Ritz, with -its arcaded front and its entrance to the restaurant and -ballrooms right in the middle of the arcade, is a -comparative new-comer to London, in that it was -opened in 1906. It is a building, inside and out, of -the Louis XVI. period, with every modern luxury -added. The Winter Garden, where one awaits one's -guests, is a delightful place of creamy marble pillars -and gilt trellis-work, casemented mirrors, carved -amorini and a fountain with a gilt lead figure of -"La Source" looking up at the golden cupids poised -above her. The little orchestra of the hotel plays in -this Winter Garden, and its music in no way interferes -with the conversation in the restaurant.</p> - -<p>The restaurant itself may be said to be dedicated to -Marie Antoinette, for the gilt bronze garlands which -hang from electrolier to electrolier, forming an oval -below the painted sky, were designed to represent the -flower decorations at one of Marie Antoinette's feasts, -and though the garlands have been much lightened, -for at first they were too heavy in design, they are -still reminiscent of the poor little queen who lived -such a merry life and met so sad an end. It is a -restaurant of soft colours, of marbles, cream and rose -and soft green, of tapestried recesses and of handsome -consoles in the niches. Towards the Green -Park long arched windows look on to one of the -pleasantest prospects in London, and below these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> -windows and between them and the Park is a little -forecourt, in which a green tent is pitched when a -great ball is to be held in the suite of rooms below -the restaurant, and where on hot summer evenings -dinner is served in the open air. At one end of the -restaurant is a gilt group of Father Thames contemplating -an exceedingly attractive lady who represents -the Ocean. Everything in the restaurant is of the -Louis XVI. period, and the Aubusson carpets and the -chairs and all the silver and the china and the glass -used in the restaurant and the banqueting rooms -harmonise with that period.</p> - -<p>The restaurant is not a very large one, and sometimes -tables for its guests are set in the Marie -Antoinette room with which it connects, and in that -portion of the corridor which forms an ante-room. -But though it is not of a very great size, the Ritz has -a most aristocratic clientele. Royal personages often -lunch and dine there, and diplomacy regards it as its -own particular dining place, for tables are retained by -the secretaries and attachés of two of the Embassies, -the German and the Austrian, and, I fancy, by a third -one also.</p> - -<p>Lady Amalthea had very graciously said she would -dine with me at the Ritz, so I went in the afternoon -of a hot day to interview M. Kroell, the manager, -who stepped across Piccadilly from the Berkeley to -succeed M. Elles, who, for a time, managed both the -Ritz in Paris and the Ritz in London. With M. -Kroell was M. Charles, the manager in charge of -the restaurant, and I asked that I might be given -that evening a little dinner for two, not of necessity -an expensive dinner, but one suitable for a warm -evening, and I sent my compliments to M. Malley, -the <i>chef de cuisine</i>, and said that I hoped that I should -find some of the specialities of his kitchen amongst -the dishes.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> - -<p>M. Malley came from the Ritz at Paris when the -London Ritz was first opened, having acquired his -art at the Grand Véfour and the Café Anglais. He -presides over a very spacious range of white-tiled -kitchens, in which all the rooms which should be -hot are divided by a wide corridor from the rooms -which should be cold, and he has a talent for the -invention of new dishes, amongst these being a very -splendid dish of salmon with a <i>mousse</i> of crayfish, -which he has named after the Marquise de Sévigné, -a reminiscence of his days at Vichy, and his <i>pêches -Belle Dijonnaise</i>, of which more anon. Russian soups -are one of the specialities of the Ritz kitchen, and -there is a Viennese pastrycook amongst the members -of M. Malley's brigade, who makes exquisite pastry. -The late King Edward had a special fancy for the -cakes made at the Ritz, and a supply used to be -sent to Buckingham Palace, but M. Elles told me -that this was a State secret, for M. Ménager, the -King's chef, might not have liked it to be known -that anything from another kitchen entered Buckingham -Palace.</p> - -<p>As I had left my dinner in the safe hands of the -experts, so I also left the question of the champagne -we should drink, only asking that it should be one -recommended by the house.</p> - -<p>Before going on my way I reminded M. Kroell -that on the last occasion that I had word with him -he was presented with a miniature in brilliants of the -order bestowed on him by the King of Spain, and I -asked him if he had been awarded any other decorations. -M. Kroell laughed, and then modestly owned to -the German military medal, and as he told me this he -involuntarily squared his shoulders as an old soldier.</p> - -<p>Lady Amalthea arrived with military punctuality -(she is a soldier's wife) in the best of spirits, wearing -a dream of a dress, and her diamonds and turquoises.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> -A table had been kept for us at the upper end of -the room, where Lady Amalthea could both see all the -guests and be seen by them. She ran through a -little selection from Debrett as she took her seat, -having scanned most of the diners as she came in, -and I was enabled to add to this by identifying a -group at one of the tables as some of the Peace -Delegates from the Balkans.</p> - -<p>Then we settled down to the infinitely important -matter of seeing what the dinner was that M. Malley -and M. Charles in counsel had arranged for us.</p> - -<p>This is the menu, and though at first sight it -seems a long one for two people it is an exceedingly -light dinner, and we neither of us ate the tiny cutlets -which were the <i>gros pièce</i> of the feast. The wine -to go with it was a bottle of Roederer 1906:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon.<br /> -Consommé Glacé Madrilène.<br /> -Filet de Sole Romanoff.<br /> -Cailles des Gourmets.<br /> -Côtes de Pauillac Montpensir.<br /> -Petits Pois.<br /> -Velouté Palestine.<br /> -Poulet en Chaudfroid.<br /> -Salade à la Ritz.<br /> -Pêche Belle Dijonnaise.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The melon, delightfully cold, struck the right -note in a dinner for a hot evening; the Madrilène -soup, beautiful in colour and flavoured with tomato -and capsicum, carried on the summer symphony; the -Romanoff sole was quite admirable, served with -small slices of apple and artichokes and with mussels, -the apple giving a suspicion of bitter sweetness as a -contrast to the flesh of the fish. M. Charles happened -to be near our table at this period, not, I think, quite -by chance. I assured him that if there was such a -thing as a gastronomic nerve M. Malley's creation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> -had found it. The quails formed part of a little -pie brought to table in a pie-dish of old blue willow -pattern, and with them were coxcombs and truffles -and other good things. The <i>poulet en chaudfroid</i> was -a noble bird, all white, and in it and with it was a -pink <i>mousse</i> delicately perfumed with curry powder, -a quite admirable combination. The Ritz salad is of -<i>cœurs de romaine</i>, with almonds and portions of tiny -oranges with it. Last of the dishes in the dinner -came the <i>pêche Belle Dijonnaise</i>, which is one of the -creations which have made the fame of M. Malley, -and which will become historical. It is a delightful -combination of peaches and black currant ice with -some cassis, a liqueur of black currants, added to it, -and it is called <i>Belle Dijonnaise</i> because of the old -Burgundian proverb: <i>A Dijon, il y a du bon vin et des -jolies filles</i>.</p> - -<p>I do not doubt that many people dined well in -London on that hot June evening, but this I will -warrant, that no two people, however important they -might be, or whatever they paid for their dinner (my -bill came to £2, 10s.), dined better than did Lady -Amalthea and I at the Ritz, and I make all my -compliments to M. Malley.</p> - -<p>I should not do the Ritz full justice if I did not -refer to the banquets which are served in the Marie -Antoinette room and in the great white suite below -the restaurant. As typical of the Ritz banquets I -give you the menu of one that Lord Haldane gave to -the foreign officers visiting London in June 1912, -and I also give the accompanying wines:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Caviar d'Esturgeon.<br /> -Kroupnick Polonaise.<br /> -Consommé Viveur Glacé en Tasse.<br /> -Timbale de Homards à l'Américaine.<br /> -Suprême de Truite Saumonée à la Gelée de Chambertin.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>Aiguillette de Jeune Caneton à l'Ambassade.<br /> -Courgettes à la Serbe.<br /> -Selle de Veau Braisée à l'Orloff.<br /> -Petits Pois. Carottes à la Crème.<br /> -Pommes Mignonette Persillées.<br /> -Soufflé de Jambon Norvégienne.<br /> -Ortolans Doubles au Bacon.<br /> -Cœurs de Laitues.<br /> -Asperges Géantes de Paris, Sauce Hollandaise.<br /> -Pêches des Gourmets.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Mousse Romaine.<br /> -Tartelettes Florentine.<br /> -Corbeille de Fruits.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Vins.</span><br /> -Gonzalez Coronation Sherry.<br /> -Berncastler Doctor, 1893.<br /> -Château Duhart Milon, 1875.<br /> -Heidsieck Dry Monopole, 1898.<br /> -G. H. Mumm, 1899.<br /> -Croft's Port, 1890.<br /> -La Grande Marque Fine, 1848.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The dinner looks at first glance to be an exceedingly -long one, but it is also an exceedingly light one, -the saddle of veal being the only substantial dish of -the feast. The <i>aiguillettes</i> of duckling from one of -the special dishes at the Ritz, and the <i>soufflés</i> and the -<i>mousses</i> that come from the Ritz kitchens are always -ethereal. This banquet is an excellent example of -a feast which is important without being heavy.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX">XXIX</a></h3> - -<h3>SOME OUTLYING RESTAURANTS</h3> - - -<p>In calling the restaurants about which I write in this -chapter "outlying" ones, I do not mean that they are -in the far suburbs, but only that they are some little -distance from Nelson's Column, which I take to be the -centre of restaurant land, and that each of them is in -a part of London having its own entity—Knightsbridge, -Belgravia, Sloane Square and Bloomsbury.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Rinaldo, in the days when he was at the Savoy, -used to stand at the desk by the door and tell us all -as we came in what tables had been reserved for us. -Of course, as <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, he had other duties, but as -he knew my whims concerning the position of my -table, and as he always sent me just where I wanted -to be, I have him in grateful remembrance for doing -this. When he left the Savoy he set up on his own -account at No. 15 Wilton Road, which is just -opposite Victoria Station, and there, I am glad to say, -he still flourishes. He is no longer quite the slim -Spanish don with a peaked black beard that he used -to be, but proprietorship has a waistcoat-filling effect -on restaurateurs, and time softens black hair with -streaks of grey.</p> - -<p>Rinaldo's restaurant is quite spacious, a high and -airy room with plenty of light. Its walls are of -pleasant grey with decorations in high relief in the -upper part, and on the stained glass of the sky-light -are paintings of game and fruit. Baskets of ferns in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> -the shape of boats hang from the roof, and there are -always bunches of roses on the tables. Behind a -screen at the far end is the service bar where the -wines are served out, and in the centre of the room is -a very appetising table of cold meats and fruit; the -melons and other things that should be kept cold -being on a long box of broken ice; the mushrooms -reposing in big wooden baskets; the crayfish and -the egg-fruit and the other delicacies, according to -seasons, all being set out with exceptional taste -and looking very tempting.</p> - -<p>Quite an aristocratic clientele lunches and dines at -Rinaldo's restaurant. Many of the great people of -Belgravia like to lunch in a restaurant which is no -great distance from their homes; the Monsignori from -the neighbouring Roman Catholic Cathedral often go -there, and quite a number of gourmets who like -the Italian dishes—for Rinaldo, though he looks like -a Spaniard, is an Italian—of which there are always -some on the bill of fare, are very constant patrons.</p> - -<p>The restaurant has an extensive <i>carte du jour</i>, and -most people who lunch there prefer to order that meal -from the card, though there is a two-shilling lunch -for those who are in a hurry. On the <i>carte du jour</i> -which I took away with me on the last occasion -I lunched in Wilton Road I found amongst the entrées -<i>ris de veau financière, Vienna schnitzel, côte de veau -Napolitaine, bitock à la Russe, entrecôte Tyrolienne</i> and -<i>fritto misto à la Romaine</i>, which shows that the -restaurant caters for many nationalities and many -tastes. My lunch on this occasion—it was a warm -summer day—consisted of a slice of cantaloup melon, -9d.; <i>fritto misto</i>, 1s. 6d.; a cut of cheese; an iced -<i>zabajone Milanaise</i>, 1s., and a cup of coffee, which is -always excellent at Rinaldo's, and which, disregarding -his early bringing-up—for Italians never allow metals -to touch coffee—Rinaldo pours out of a fascinating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> -little metal pot. A three-and-six dinner is the dinner -of the house, and Rinaldo explained to me that this -rarely contains Italian dishes; for Englishmen in the -evening find them rather difficult to digest. This is -a menu, taken by chance in the autumn, of the dinner -of the restaurant:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre.<br /> -Consommé Tosca.<br /> -Crème Portugaise.<br /> -Turbot Bouilli. Sce. Homard.<br /> -Filet d'Hareng Meunière.<br /> -Mignonette d'Agneau Marigny.<br /> -Grenadine de Veau Clamart.<br /> -Grouse rôti.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Choufleur au Gratin.<br /> -Glacé Napolitaine.<br /> -Mignardises.<br /> -</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Gretener, who is the proprietor of the New Albert -Restaurant, 77 Knightsbridge, also, in the past, scored -good marks in my memory, for he was manager of -that very difficult proposition, the restaurant of the -Gare Maritime at Boulogne, and during his reign -there it was always possible, by giving him warning -beforehand, to get an excellent luncheon excellently -served. As most of the business of that restaurant is -to put the greatest amount of food in the shortest -possible time into travellers who keep one anxious -eye on the train outside, or to cater for big parties of -excursionists at the cheapest possible rate, a manager -must have a soul for the gastronomic art to keep his -restaurant under these conditions a place of delicate -cookery. When M. Gretener and his pretty wife came -to England they established themselves at a restaurant -in Knightsbridge, which has a tessellated pavement -and walls of ornamented glazed tiles with mirrors at -intervals, and a ceiling on which cupids in high relief -gambol on medallions with a blue ground. A stained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> -glass window is at the far end of the restaurant, a -wide staircase leads to the first floor, and under the -staircase is a little glassed-in serving-room. M. -Gretener has collected a very faithful clientele, and he -also sends out meals to the dwellers in the houses -of flats which abound in Knightsbridge. In the -summer-time many people who go out of a morning -to Hyde Park, strangers in the land, French, Germans, -and Italians amongst them, see Gretener's as they go -through the Albert Gate and make it their lunching -place. A three-shilling dinner is the dinner of the -house, but whenever I have been there I have ordered -my meal <i>à la carte</i> from the very moderately priced -card of the day, and this is a typical bill. <i>Crème -Lentils</i>, 8d. Mayonnaise of Salmon, 2s. <i>Noisette -d'agneau Doria</i>, 1s. 6d. <i>Haricots verts sautés</i>, 6d., -and <i>Bavarois chocolat</i>, 4d.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Queen's Restaurant, No. 4 Sloane Square, is -one to which I often go when there is a first night at -the Court Theatre, for it is only just across the road -from that house. Its proprietor, M. Coppo, who -learned his business at the Café Royal, bustles about -his restaurant with a napkin under his arm doing the -work of <i>maître d'hôtel</i>. The restaurant, with cream-coloured -walls and mirrors in white frames, consists -of several rooms thrown into one, the part by the -entrance door being narrow and just holding two -rows of tables, while at the back there is plenty of -space. The clientele, on the occasions that I have -been there, has been a mixture of all the comfortable -classes—Guards' officers from the neighbouring -barracks, fashionable people of both sexes from -Sloane Street and its neighbourhood, dramatic critics -making a hurried meal before going to the theatre, -business men, and an artist or two from the Chelsea -studios. M. Coppo gives his patrons a set dinner,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> -the price of which, I fancy, is 3s. 6d.; but I -have always ordered my dinner from the <i>carte du jour</i>, -and I have found the food to be quite reasonably -cheap and good.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I wonder how many people of the tens of hundreds -who take their books to Mudie's to be exchanged -know that the Vienna Café just across the road is an -excellent place at which to lunch. In the upstairs -rooms I have eaten, in the middle of the day, Austrian -and German dishes excellently cooked, and there is a -Viennese cheese cake which is a speciality of the house -for which I have a liking, and with a slice of which -I have always ended my meal. The coffee of the -house is the excellent coffee made in the Austrian -manner, and at tea-time the Café down below is -always crowded with people, especially ladies, who -like the Viennese cakes and pastries that they obtain -there.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXX" id="XXX">XXX</a></h3> - -<h3>THE KING'S GUARD</h3> - -<h4>ST JAMES'S PALACE</h4> - - -<p>"The best dinner in London, sir!" was what our -fathers always added when, with a touch of gratification, -they used to tell of having been asked to dine -on the Guard at St James's; and nowadays, when -the art of dinner-giving has come to be very -generally understood, the man who likes good -cooking and good company still feels very pleased -to be asked to dinner by one of the officers of the -guard, for the old renown is still justified, and there -is a fascination in the surroundings that is not -to be obtained by unlimited money spent in any -restaurant.</p> - -<p>Past the illuminated clock of the Palace, the hands -of which mark five minutes to eight, in through an -arched gate, across one of the courts, and in a narrow -passage where a window gives a glimpse of long -rows of burnished pots and pans, is a black-painted -door with, on the door-jamb, a legend of black -on white telling that this is the officers' guard.</p> - -<p>Up some wooden stairs with leaden edges to them, -stairs built for use and not for ornament: and, the -guests' coats being taken by a clean-shaved butler -in evening clothes, we are at once in the officers' -room.</p> - -<p>It is a long room, lighted on one side by a great -bow-window, flanked by two other windows. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> -the farthest end of the room from the door is a -mantelpiece of grey and white marble. The walls -are painted a comfortable green colour, and there are -warm crimson curtains to the windows. There are -many pictures upon the walls; and a large sofa, -leather-covered arm-chairs, and a writing-table in the -bow of the window give an air of comfort to the -room. A great screen, which, in its way, is a work -of art, being covered with cuttings of all periods, -from Rowlandson's caricatures to the modern style -of military prints, is drawn out from the wall so as -to divide the room into two portions. On the door -side of the screen stands in one corner the regimental -colour of the battalion finding the guard, -and here, too, are the bearskin head-dresses of the -officers.</p> - -<p>On the fireplace side of the screen is a table ready -set for dinner, the clear glass decanters at the -corners being filled with champagne, a silver-gilt -vase forming the centre-piece, and candles in silver -candelabra giving the necessary light. By the -fireplace the officers of the guard, in scarlet and -gold and black, are waiting to receive their -guests.</p> - -<p>In addition to the officers of St James's guard, the -adjutant and colonel of the battalion that finds the -guard, the two officers of the Household Cavalry -on guard at the Horse Guards and some of the -military officials of the Court have a right to dine. -But it is rarely that all entitled to this privilege avail -themselves of it, and the captain and officers of the -guard generally are able to ask some guests to fill -the vacant chairs.</p> - -<p>As, on the stroke of eight, on the evening I am -writing of, we sat down to dinner my host told me -that he had ordered a typical meal for me. This was -the menu:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Potage croûte-au-pot.<br /> -Eperlans à l'Anglaise.<br /> -Bouchées à la moëlle.<br /> -Côtelettes de mouton. Purée de marrons.<br /> -Poularde à la Turque.<br /> -Hure truffée. Sauce Cumberland.<br /> -Pluviers dorés.<br /> -Pommes de terre Anna.<br /> -Champignons grillés.<br /> -Omelette soufflée.<br /> -Huîtres à la Diable.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The spatchcocked smelts, the boar's head, with its -sharp-tasting sauce, and the <i>soufflée</i>, I recognised as -being favourite dishes on the King's Guard.</p> - -<p>On this evening the wearers of the black coats, -as well as the red, had served his Majesty, at one -time or another, in various parts of the world, and -our talk drifted to the subject of the various officers' -guards all over the British world. In hospitality the -castle guard at Dublin probably comes next to the -guard at St James's, for the officers of the guard fare -excellently there at the Viceregal expense. The -Bank guards, both in the City of London and at -College Green, have compensating advantages, and -the officers' guard at Fort William, Calcutta, has -helped many an impoverished subaltern to buy a -polo pony. The story goes that some rich native -falling ill close to the gate of Fort William, the -subaltern on guard took him up to the guardroom -and treated him kindly, and in consequence, in his -will, the native left provision for a daily sum of -rupees to be given to the subaltern on guard. These -rupees are paid to the officer minus one, retained by the -<i>babus</i> as a charge for "stationery," and though all the -little tin gods both at Calcutta and Simla have exerted -themselves to recover for the subaltern that rupee, -the power of the <i>babu</i> has been too strong and the -imaginary stationery still represents the missing rupee.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> -We chatted of the Malta guard, with its collection -of pictures on the wall; of dreary hours at Gibraltar, -with nothing to do except to construct sugar-covered -fougasses to blow up flies; and of exciting moments -at Peshawar, when the chance of being shot by one's -own sentries made going the rounds a real affair -of outposts.</p> - -<p>Then I asked questions about the gilt centre-piece, -which is in the shape of an Egyptian vase with -sphinxes on the base, and was told that the holding -capacities of it were beyond the guessing of anyone -who had not seen the experiment tried. Some of -the other plate which is put upon the table at the -close of dinner is of great interest. There is a -cigar-lighter in the shape of a grenade given by his -late Majesty King Edward, a silver cigar-cutter, -a memento of an inter-regimental friendship made -at manœuvres, and a snuff-box made from one of the -hoofs of Napoleon's charger Marengo. Which hoof -it was is not stated on the box, but the collective -wisdom of the table decided that it must have been -the near hind one. Excepting on days when the -Scots Guards are on guard, the Sovereign's health is -not, I believe, drunk after dinner—though I fancy -that King Edward, when Prince of Wales, dining -on guard, broke through this custom. The regiment -from across the Border was at one time suspected -of a leaning towards Jacobitism, and while the officers -were ordered to drink his Majesty's health they -were not allowed to use finger-glasses after dinner, -lest they should drink to the King over the water.</p> - -<p>Dinner over, the big sofa is pulled round in front -of the fire and a bridge-table claims its devotees. -I asked my host to be allowed to inspect the pictures -which pretty well cover the walls. The most -important is an excellent portrait of Queen Victoria -in the early part of her reign. It is the work of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> -"Lieut.-Col. Cadogan," and was begun on the -wall of a guardroom—at Windsor, I fancy. The -surface of the wall was cut off, the picture finished, -and it now hangs, a fine work of art but a tremendous -weight, in the place of honour. There is an admirable -oil-colour of the old Duke of Wellington, showing -a kindly old face looking down, a pleasant difference -from the alert aquiline profile which most of his -portraits show. There are prints of other celebrated -generals, mostly Guardsmen, and an amusing caricature -of three kings dining on guard. It is a very -unfurnished guardroom, with a bare floor, in which -their Majesties are being entertained, but the -enthusiasm with which the officers are drinking their -health makes up for the surroundings. A key to -the print hangs hard by, but the names attached -to the various figures are said to have been written -in joke. Many of the pictures are sporting prints -and hunting caricatures; but the original of <i>Vanity -Fair's</i> sketch of Dan Godfrey is in one corner; and -a strange old picture of a battle, painted on a tea-tray, -hangs over the door.</p> - -<p>On either side of the looking-glass, above the -mantelpiece, are the list of officers on duties and the -orders for the guard, the latter with a glass over -them, which is supposed to have been cracked in -Marlborough's time. Some very admirably arranged -caricatures, with explanatory notes, are bound into -a series of red volumes and kept in a glazed set -of shelves, and these, with a number of blue-bound -volumes of <i>The Pall Mall Magazine</i>, form the greater -portion of the library available for the officers on -guard.</p> - -<p>As the hands of the clock near eleven, the butler, -who has been handing round "pegs" in long -tumblers, takes up his position by the door. Military -discipline is inexorable, and we (the guests) know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> -that we must be out of the precincts of the guard -by eleven o'clock. We say good-night to our hosts, -and as we go downstairs we hear the clank of swords -being buckled on.</p> - -<p>Outside in the courtyard a sergeant and a drummer -and a man with a lantern are waiting for the officer -to go the rounds.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI">XXXI</a></h3> - -<h3>THE OLD BULL AND BUSH</h3> - - -<p>There is no side of London life that has died out -more completely, so far as the upper classes are -concerned, than the visits to the old tea-gardens -which used to be the resort of the well-to-do classes -from the days of King Charles II. up to the beginning -of the last century. Bagginnage Wells, to which -Nell Gwynne first brought the bucks, is only a name -now, but Coleman, in his comedy, <i>Bon-ton</i>, defined -good tone as to</p> - -<p> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Drink tea on summer afternoons</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At Bagginnage Wells with china and gilt spoons."</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Sadler's Wells was a tea-garden with a music-room -before Rosoman pulled down the building to put up -a theatre. White Conduit House used to take fifty -pounds on a Sunday afternoon for sixpenny tea tickets, -and its white bread was considered a great luxury. -The bowling alleys of Marylebone Gardens were -famous; and there were tea-gardens and a bowling-green -at the Yorkshire Stingo, opposite Lisson Grove. -Kilburn Wells advertised that its gardens and great -room were adapted to the use of "the politest -companies," and at Jenny's Whim there was a great -garden, in different parts of which were recesses, and -in a large piece of water facing the tea alcoves big -fish and mermaids showed themselves above the -surface. The Apollo Gardens in the Westminster -Road, and Cuper's Gardens opposite Somerset House,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> -were amongst these old places of amusement, most of -which are now only names. There is, however, at -the present time a tavern with tea-gardens of the -old-fashioned kind quite close to London, which, besides -its picturesqueness, has other recommendations -which give it a right to inclusion in a "Gourmet's -Guide."</p> - -<p>The Bull and Bush at North End, Hampstead, -which is the tavern to which I refer, has no very long -history behind it. It was a farmhouse when Jack -Straw's Castle and the Spaniards were inns with tea-gardens -attached, the gardens of the latter house -being laid out in the formal Dutch style, which -became fashionable after the Revolution. Tradition -has it that the Bull and Bush was at one time -Hogarth's house, and Mr Austin Dobson, who -garnered information from all quarters into his book -on Hogarth, admits the claim of the house to this -distinction, but thinks that it was a house to which -Hogarth went for "a visit." There are long periods -in Hogarth's life, before his father-in-law, Sir John -Thornhill, forgave him for his elopement with his -daughter and took the young pair to live with him -in the family house in Covent Garden, of which no -record has been kept, and I should like to imagine -that the blue-eyed, bold young artist carried away -the girl he loved to the farmhouse on the breezy -common to spend their honeymoon there, and that he -and she together planted the ring of fir-trees in the -garden which are still called "Hogarth's firs." The -house ceased to be a farm, and became a place of -refreshment in later days, and W. H. Pyne (Ephraim -Hardcastle), in his collection of essays, "Wine and -Walnuts," tells of an imaginary excursion made to the -Bull and Bush by a party which included Sir Joshua -Reynolds, Gainsborough, Sterne and Garrick, and -puts in Gainsborough's mouth praise of the creamy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> -milk and the fine Dutch damask to be found at the -little inn.</p> - -<p>And the great Victorian painters and writers -followed the example of their predecessors in going -on jaunts to the Bull and Bush, for when Harry -Humphries, a great favourite with all men of the pen -and brush, was the host of the house, Dickens used -to frequent it, and George Augustus Sala, Clement -Scott and E. L. Blanchard, and those two great -<i>Punch</i> artists, George du Maurier and Charles Keene, -and many more of a like kidney.</p> - -<p>There is no difficulty in finding the old inn to-day, -for at the flagstaff and the pond which mark the -western end of the long, bare backbone of the -common (from which London can be seen below to -the south in its veil of smoke, and on clear days the -Surrey hills beyond, while to the north are the hills -and fields of the great landscape that stretches from -Harrow round to Hainault) the North End road -plunges down, with common land, furze and undergrowth -and big trees and grassy knolls to one side, -and on the other old oaken park palings and big -trees.</p> - -<p>Just where the road first dips a blind fiddler stands, -and all day long he plays one air, and that air is Kate -Carney's song, "Down by the old Bull and Bush." -The inn itself is almost in the shadow of a big -mansion, Pitt House it is called, to which the great -Lord Chatham retired when he suffered from his -nerve storms, refused to see any of his fellow-ministers -and could not even bear the presence of a -servant, his food being passed in to him through a panel -in the door. In the road to one side of the inn a -peripatetic photographer generally establishes his -studio. The Bull and Bush is a white-faced building -with a slated roof, standing a little back from the -highway, and behind it and on both sides of it are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> -many trees. It is an old house with a big window to -its large room on the first floor and nice old-fashioned -bow-windows with small panes to the two bar-rooms -on the ground floor. One of these bar-rooms -is a real snuggery adorned with sketches by some of -the artists who have made themselves at home in the -inn. Various large boards set forth that lunches, -dinners and teas are obtainable; that the name of the -host is Mr Fred Vinall; that there are private dining-rooms, -a coffee-room and billiards; and that a two-shilling -ordinary is ready every Sunday from two to -three o'clock. This "ordinary," which I believe is -a very noble feast for the money charged, is held in -the big room upstairs.</p> - -<p>The gardens are at the back of the inn, and though -summer is the real time to enjoy the attractions of the -arbours at the Bull and Bush, it is quite pleasant -when the new leaves are covering, in the spring, the -trees with the lightest green, or on a still, autumn -day when the tints around the lawn are all russet and -copper, to drink tea on the little terrace behind the -house in the centre of which is a great stone vase for -flowers and at which little tables with red and white -and yellow and white covers are set for the tea-drinkers. -The tea is excellent, and though the slices of bread -and butter are thick they are of fine bread and the -freshest of butter. When spring merges into summer -the green bowling lawn, with turf as thick and level -as a carpet, also has its quota of cane chairs and little -tables, and the rustic arbours all around it, on the roofs -of which are boxes of flowers, are also all occupied. -The waiters are kept busy carrying cakes and bread -and butter and tea and stronger beverages all through -a summer day to the little family parties who take -their ease in the garden of their inn.</p> - -<p>As a neighbour to the bowling-green is the -platform which serves as an out-of-door dancing floor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> -when Cinderellas are held on summer evenings, and -as the flooring on which the chairs are put when a -concert is given on a little stage which is to one side -of this planked space. In the middle of this dancing -and theatre floor is the circle of firs which bears -Hogarth's name. There are electric lights on the -terrace and amidst the trees and round the lawn -and dancing floor. Tuesdays and Thursdays and -Saturdays are the days on which the concerts or -the dances are generally held in summer.</p> - -<p>Mr Fred Vinall, short in stature, genial in manner, -with close-clipped grey beard and moustache, has -just as distinguished friends amongst players and -artists and men of the pen as any of his predecessors. -He has revived the old pleasures of the tea-gardens of a -hundred years ago, and to see the gardens of the Bull -and Bush on a warm summer evening is to learn that -Londoners can take their evening pleasures out of -doors with cheerful mirth and with sobriety as well.</p> - -<p>And now at last I come to the reason why the Bull and -Bush should be recommended to gourmets not only as -a place where Londoners can be seen amusing themselves -sanely, but as a place of excellent eating. -Mrs Vinall, wife of the host of the old inn, Belgian by -birth, has all the talent of a Cordon Bleu, and if -warning is telegraphed or written to the inn of the -coming of a party of gourmets, a lunch or a -dinner, admirably cooked under Mrs Vinall's supervision, -will be ready for the gastronomers, the table -set in the open air, and they will, I am sure, eating in -the invigorating air of Hampstead Heath food admirably -cooked, thank me for having told them of a -lunching and dining place clear of the London smoke.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII">XXXII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE BERKELEY</h3> - - -<p>The pleasant, white-faced hotel, with its restaurant -on the ground floor, which faces the Ritz across -Piccadilly, stands on classic ground, for it was at -the corner of Piccadilly and Berkeley Street that -Francatelli, the great cook and <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, pupil of -the even greater Carême, was in command of the -St James's Restaurant and the hotel of that name -which in the middle of the last century stood first, -with no <i>proxime accessit</i>, amongst the restaurants of the -capital.</p> - -<p>Nowadays we take our great French cooks in -London for granted; they are part of the life of -London. But in the fifties Clubland was still a little -astonished and flattered that the great chefs were -willing to desert their own country to dwell amidst -the fogs and rain of England, and restaurants were -comparatively rare, and few of them were of a very -high class. Hayward, who first published his "Art -of Dining" in 1852, gives in his book little biographies -of Ude and Francatelli, and alludes rather slightingly -to Soyer, who was the third of the trio of very great -cooks. Disraeli, who had enough of the artistic temperament -in him to assign to gastronomy its proper place -amongst the pleasures of life, recorded the dismissal -of Ude from Crockford's in the following words:—"There -has been a row at Crockford's, and Ude -dismissed. He told the committee he was worth -£4000 a year. Their new man is quite a failure, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> -I think the great artist may yet return from Elba." -The "new man" was Francatelli, and he was so far -from being a failure that when it was thought that -Buckingham Palace should possess the greatest cook -in England the position of chief cook and <i>maître d'hôtel</i> -to the Queen was offered to him. He did not find -the position a comfortable one, and resigned at the -end of two years. For a time he lived in retirement, -but in the sixties he once more placed himself on the -active list, and took charge of the St James's.</p> - -<p>In doing so he was following the example of Soyer, -who, in the fifties, established a restaurant in Gore -House, which had been the residence of Lady Blessington. -Soyer expected that the Great Exhibition would -send a crowd of rich people to his restaurant, and many -great people patronised it, but in the end he lost -£7000 by his venture. Hayward says concerning him -that "he is more likely to earn immortality by his -soup kitchen than by his soup," alluding to the soup -kitchens that Soyer as a Government Commissioner -established at the Royal Barracks in Dublin during -the great famine in Ireland.</p> - -<p>In 1868, when "The Epicure's Year Book," an -attempt to copy Grimod de la Reynière's "Almanach -des Gourmands," was published by Bradbury and -Evans, Francatelli was at the zenith of his fame at the -St James's, and the anonymous author, in that book, -who wrote the chapter on "London Dinners," after -paying a compliment to British fare, saying that -Wilton and Rule are not afraid of comparison with -any oyster dealers in the world, and extolling the -flounders and steaks of the Blue Posts in Cork Street, -declares that cookery "such as Ude once served at -Crockford's and his successor Francatelli is now -serving at the St James's Hotel, Piccadilly, is not -reached by any other hotel or tavern in London." -As it may interest my readers with a taste<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> -for antiquarian lore to know which were the -restaurants recommended in the sixties for good -plain food, I continue the quotation. "At the Ship -and Turtle in Leadenhall Street, or at Birch's (Ring -and Brymer), on Cornhill, the turtle is cooked with -perfect art; and the punch would satisfy the author -of 'Le veritable art de faire le Punch.' The fish, at -the fish dinner at Simpson's in Cheapside, is admirable. -Nay, you may have a chop broiled under your nose, at -Joe's, behind the Royal Exchange, that shall defy -criticism. At Simpson's in the Strand; at the Albion, -by Drury Lane Theatre; at Blanchard's (ask for his -Cotherstone cheese), in Beak Street, Regent Street, -the Earl Dudley's neck of venison, duckling with -green peas, or chicken with asparagus—the main -elements of his dinner 'fit for an emperor,' are to be -bought excellently well cooked. The Rainbow, in -Fleet Street, is a well-known, good, plain house; and -a grill well cooked and served, where Messrs Spiers -and Pond have put up their silver gridiron, at -Ludgate Hill, is a new illustration of London plain -cookery. The London, in Fleet Street, is an admirable -house; cheap, and yet where there are—a rare -thing in the City—well-kept tables. This house -publishes its menus in the evening papers. Our -oyster shops have no rivals in the boastful capital of -gastronomy. Take Pim's, for example, in the Poultry, -where there are perfect oysters, and the luncheon -delicacies of our modern day. But when the -ambitious diner glances along the line of entrées, even -in the best of the houses I have cited, he is in danger. -In the City, the Albion is the best kitchen for -elaborate dishes, and the dinners given here are -smaller than the crowds which meet over huddled, -flat, and chilled dishes at our great public dinners. -Yet nobody would for one moment think of comparing -the most carefully prepared dinner for sixty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> -with such a menu as Francatelli prepares for half-a-dozen -in Piccadilly." From this general damnation, -however, the author exempts Willis's, in King -Street, St James's, where, he says, the mutton pies of -the Old Thatched House Tavern may still be eaten; -Epitaux', in Pall Mall; the Burlington, in Regent -Street; Verrey's and Kühn's, in which places "very -respectable French cookery is to be had."</p> - -<p>"The Epicure's Year Book" gives amongst its -menus of remarkable dinners of 1867 one of the -"Epicure" dinner served at the St James's. The -<i>dîner à la Russe</i> was in those days ousting the dinner -in the French style, in which the dishes were placed -in three services or relays upon the table and carved -by host and guests, and such an epicure as Captain -Hans Busk, who was the gourmet <i>par excellence</i> of -the sixties, gave his guests at the United University -Club very much such a dinner as men eat to-day, -though his dinners were of too many courses. But at -the Mansion House the first and second and third -services were still adhered to. Francatelli, though -conforming to the new style, made concessions to -the old school, as this menu shows. His French was -a little shaky, for he did not know when "<i>à la</i>" -should be used and when it should not be used:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>Les Huîtres.</p> - -<p><i>Potages</i>.—La purée de gibier à la chasseur; à la Julienne.</p> - -<p><i>Poisson</i>.—Les epigrammes de rougets à la Bordelaise; le -saumon à la Tartare.</p> - -<p><i>Entrées</i>.—Les mauviettes à la Troienza; les côtelettes à la -Duchesse; les medaillons de perdreaux à la St James; le selle -de mouton rôtie.</p> - -<p><i>Legumes ... Salade.</i></p> - -<p><i>Second Service</i>.—Le faisan truffé à la Périgueux; la mayonnaise -de crevettes; les chouxfleurs au parmesan; la charlotte de -pommes; le gâteau à la Cérito.</p></blockquote> - -<p>The St James's was not by any means the first -hostelry at the corner of Berkeley Street, for in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> -stage-coach days a coffee-house—the Gloucester, -I think—occupied the site, and some of the coaches -for the west used to start from it; but I have already -given you a fill of the history of the forerunners -of the Berkeley, and will come at once to recent -years and the modern building.</p> - -<p>M. Diette, who was one of the men who -awakened London from its mid-Victorian gluttony -and taught Londoners to dine lightly and dine well, -was for a time at the Berkeley before he went to the -Continent to make the Hotel du Palais at Biarritz -a very splendid place of entertainment. He died -recently at Le Touquet, where one of his many -sons-in-law, M. Recoussine, is in command of two -of the big hotels. In 1897 there were many -alterations and additions made to the Berkeley, the -restaurant was almost doubled in size, and when -M. Jules was manager of the hotel and Emile was -in charge of the restaurant, and M. Herpin was -<i>chef de cuisine</i>, the Berkeley was, as it is now, one -of the "best places" at which to dine in London. -The restaurant in those days was panelled with light -oak, and the ante-room, by the entrance, was all old -gold. Jules was translated to the Savoy and now, -as a proprietor, is comfortably settled at the Maison -Jules in Jermyn Street. M. Kroell was another -manager who stepped from the Berkeley to a larger -hotel, having only to cross the road to reach the -Ritz. Mr Raymond Slanz, the manager who controls -the Berkeley in this year of grace, is as eminent as -any of his predecessors. He is young, energetic, -and has brains, which he has used unsparingly in -keeping the Berkeley abreast of the times. He -is the most cosmopolitan of managers, for he has -gained his experience all over the Continent, in -England, America and South Africa. He has been -the architect of his own fortunes, for when he first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> -came to London he started his upward career from -the position of extra waiter at the Savoy. The -restaurant to-day is all white; its walls have a deep -white frieze, with on it in relief a wood through the -trees of which a mediæval hunting party thread their -way, half the animals that came out of the Ark being -afoot in this wonderful preserve. There is some -gold ornamentation just below the frieze and on the -casings of the windows, and gilt electroliers are in -the centre of the panels. Shields of semi-opaque -glass and lamps hidden by the cornice throw light up -on to the ceiling and there are gilt capitols to the -fluted columns. The rose and grey of the carpet -and the rose of the chair cushions form a pleasant -contrast to the white. The ante-room in which a -string band of musicians in gorgeous uniforms play -has the same decoration as the restaurant. The -Berkeley restaurant flourishes so satisfactorily that -more tables are wanted, though it is comparatively -lately that a new room was added, and the space -occupied by the cashiers is to be thrown into the -restaurant. M. Arturo Giordano, who is generally -known as "Arthur" and who used to oscillate -between the Palais at St Moritz and the Berkeley, -is now permanently in charge of the restaurant, and -M. J. Granjon, who came to London from the -Grande Cercle Républicain, and who has been created -a Chevalier of the Order of Mérite Agricole, is the -<i>chef de cuisine</i>.</p> - -<p>One warm July evening I found myself at eight -o'clock dinnerless in Mayfair. I was to have dined -with friends at their house, but on arriving there found -that my hostess had been taken suddenly ill and that -dinner was the last thing concerning which the -household was troubling itself. My room under -these circumstances was more welcome than my -company. My favourite table in my favourite club<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> -would, I knew, be occupied by somebody else; the -Berkeley was the nearest restaurant, and I accordingly -walked there and found one of the small tables at the -far end of the room unoccupied. At the Berkeley -there is always a <i>carte du jour</i> with an abundant choice -of dishes, those ready being marked with a cross. -It is the custom of the house, and a very good one -too, to allow the diners to choose their own dinner -from the <i>carte</i> and to charge them half-a-guinea or -twelve and six, according to whether the dinner is a long -one or a short one. I was in the course of ordering -a short dinner and had selected <i>rossolnik</i>, a -Russian soup, some turbot, a wing of a chicken -<i>en cocotte</i>, and was hesitating over the various -<i>entremets</i>, when Arthur espied me, came to my -table and took matters into his own hands. He -asked to be allowed to alter my menu slightly in -order that some of the specialities of the house -might play a part in it. I was nothing loth, -for my dinner under those circumstances became -interesting, and I was prepared to consider critically -any of M. Granjon's creations that Arthur might put -before me. This was the menu:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon Cantaloup.<br /> -Crème Raymonde.<br /> -Turbotin Beaumarchais.<br /> -Suprême de Volaille Bagatelle.<br /> -Velouté Châtelaine.<br /> -Pêches Glacés Hortense.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The soup was a cream of chicken, delightfully -soft, a very gentle introduction to what was to -follow. The <i>turbotin Beaumarchais</i> is a noble dish, -a strong white wine sauce with the essence of the -fish in it, and sliced truffles, and mushrooms and -carrots being served therewith, parsley, and just -a suspicion of onion. The <i>suprême de volaille Bagatelle</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> -I recommend to anyone who, like myself, is -occasionally warned off red meats by sundry twinges, -as being a dish of fowl which is interesting and not -in the least vapid. Asparagus and mushrooms and -truffles go with it, and the principal ingredients of -the sauce are port and cream reduced. The <i>entremet</i> -consisted of peaches and grapes, raspberries, and -a cream ice with, I fancy, more than one liqueur -added, the whole forming a noble <i>Coupe-Jacques</i>, -served in a silver bowl. My dinner being a short -one, I had plenty of appetite left for this admirable -fruit dish.</p> - -<p>The Berkeley, both the hotel and the restaurant, -always seem to be a stronghold of the country -gentleman. If I heard that an M.F.H. of my -acquaintance whom I wished to see was in town and -I did not know his address, the hotel to which I should -telephone first to ask whether he was staying there -would be the Berkeley, and no doubt the wonderful -frieze of the restaurant is a compliment to the mighty -hunters who stay in the hotel. Many squarsons and -the higher ranks of the clergy are amongst the patrons -of the Berkeley, and whenever I dine at the -restaurant it seems to me that it ought to be the -week of the Oxford and Cambridge or Eton and -Harrow cricket matches, for I always see amongst -the guests at the dinner-parties pretty girls with -complexions of cream and rose, the sisters of Varsity -lads and public schoolboys, country maidens whom -I always associate with "Lord's," light and dark blue -ribbons, and wild enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>I have never dined at the Berkeley without coming -away a pleased man, and the dinner that M. Granjon -cooked for me when I was dinnerless in the wilderness -which borders the Green Park sent me away -from the Berkeley rejoicing.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII">XXXIII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE JOYS OF FOREIGN TRAVEL</h3> - -<h4>THE RESTAURANT GUSTAVE</h4> - - -<p>There are one or two tales of wonderful discoveries -of excellent little restaurants in unexpected places -abroad that, with variations, I hear over and over -again from travelled folk.</p> - -<p>One of these stories is a motoring one. The scene -is usually the south of France, and a long day's -journey, an early <i>déjeuner</i>, a breakdown in some -desolate spot and a long delay before the damage -could be repaired are the preliminaries, all told -at considerable length. Then comes a harrowing -description of the oncoming of darkness, of the -discovery that the town at which the travellers intend -to spend the night is still many, many kilometres -away, of a shortage of petrol, of the faint feeling that -comes through lack of food. A shower of cold rain, -or mud up to the axles, a broken-down bridge or -a swollen stream generally come into the story at this -period to lead up to the sense of relief, described with -rapture, which the travellers experience when, at a -turning of the road, a light is seen at a distance. -This is found to be the window of a little inn, quite -unpretentious outside, with a sanded floor inside, -everything quite clean, the host a retired <i>maître d'hôtel</i> -who had in his time been a waiter in Soho, and -talks a little English, the hostess an excellent cook. -And then the story ambles along to its happy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> -ending with the description of the <i>soupe à l'oignon</i> -which is put on table, over which a clean napkin -is spread, of the delicious savour it emits and -how beautifully hot and strong it is, of the -grilled wings of a chicken which follow; of an -<i>omelette au confiture</i>, which the cook herself brings to -table; of country wine and country butter; a long -stick of bread and some cheese made on a neighbouring -farm. And the "tag," in a dozen words, tells -how the chauffeur, who has also been well fed, finds -a fresh supply of petrol, and how the contented -travellers reach at midnight the town where they -intend to sleep.</p> - -<p>The scene of another story is a minor cathedral -town in Italy or Spain, and the tale commences with -a vigorous denunciation of the principal hotel in the -place: stuffy rooms, vile food cooked in rancid oil; -an impudent head waiter and an unhelpful hall-porter. -The central division of the story deals with a long day -of sight-seeing; a midday meal of sandwiches, "horrid -things made of the ham of the country and coarse -bread"; and a terrifying adventure when, having lost -their way in a network of streets, the ladies of the -party are stared at by some horrible unshaven men -who say un-understandable things in patois, and then -laugh. The tale concludes thus:—"Just as we -thought that we should have to pay one of the -impudent little boys to show us the way back to that -disgusting hotel we turned a corner, and there we -saw a clean little restaurant with little trees in front -of the window and a bill of fare, with lots of nice -things on it quite cheap, hanging on the door-post."</p> - -<p>There are unlimited variations on the above, and -the tale can take from two minutes to three-quarters -of an hour in the telling, according to the volume of -guide-book gush and the amount of lip-smacking -over the food that is introduced into it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> - -<p>But why go to France, Italy or Spain to obtain -these materials for a story? The circumstances can -be exactly reproduced in London. The preliminaries -are to eat nothing between breakfast and dinner-time -and to tire yourself out with exercise. Then, if you -wish to indulge in the motoring adventure, engage -the most rickety taxi-cab to be found on any stand and -drive round and round the inner circle of Regent's Park -until the inevitable breakdown occurs. When, after -a quarter of an hour's delay, the chauffeur says that -he is ready to go on again, tell him to drive to Soho -Square, then to go down Greek Street, and to stop -when he comes to the Restaurant Gustave.</p> - -<p>Or if it is the cathedral city incidents you would -like to live through once more, start in a worn-out -condition from Golden Square, and make your way -in a zigzag through the narrowest streets and -alleys you can find to St Anne's, Soho, which is big -enough to be a second-class cathedral, and go on, -still zigzagging, till you reach Greek Street and -Gustave's.</p> - -<p>And this is what you will find when you get there. -A little restaurant with a chocolate face and with a -plate-glass window, on which the fact is announced -that it is an <i>à la carte</i> establishment. Two little trees -are in front of the window—little evergreen trees -are fashionable just now in Soho—and the name -"Gustave" is well in evidence above, with an electric -lamp to throw light upon it. Inside the window -a long lawn curtain gives privacy to the restaurant. -The card of the day, with half-a-hundred names of -dishes written in black ink, hangs in a brass frame by -the door.</p> - -<p>Go inside, and you find yourself in a little room—a -French gentleman who went on my recommendation -to Gustave's described it to me afterwards as a -<i>boîte</i>—with cream-coloured walls and a chocolate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> -skirting. A counter, to which the waiters go to -fetch the dishes, with a girl behind it very busily -engaged, is at one side of the room. Oilcloth is on -the floor, and a little staircase leads to the first floor. -Eleven tables are in this room, all of them generally -occupied, mostly by French people; but there is a -second smaller room on beyond, which holds four -tables, and on the two occasions lately that I have -dined at Gustave's I have found one of these tables -vacant.</p> - -<p>Everything is very clean at Gustave's, and if the -napery is thin and the glass is thick, that is quite in keeping -with the travel story. The people at the other tables -are probably French. They belong to the respectable -classes, and they behave just as well as though they -carried innumerable quarterings on their escutcheons. -A young waiter puts the <i>carte du jour</i>, with an ornamental -blue border, on the table in front of you, and -Monsieur Gustave, who, napkin on arm, bustles about -his little restaurant, comes to give advice, if needed, -as to a choice of dishes.</p> - -<p>Gustave—who must not, of course, be confused -with that other Gustave who was manager of the -Savoy, and who is now at the Lotus Club—is a -little Frenchman, with a moustache, who is very -wide awake. He has a sense of humour, and he -talks excellent English. He was for a time at an -hotel in Hatton Garden, and at the Restaurant des -Gourmets before he came to Greek Street.</p> - -<p>The first item on a bill of fare that I took away, -with me reads: "½ doz. Escargots, 8d.," but long -ago, at Prunier's in Paris, I tried to attune my palate -to snails, and failed, so on this particular night I did -not even consider their inclusion in my dinner. Nor -did I dally with <i>hors d'œuvre</i>, though I might have -had sardines, or <i>filets de hareng</i>, or <i>anchois</i>, or -<i>salmis</i> for twopence. But I ordered soup, and I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> -think I went up in Gustave's opinion when I preferred -three-pennyworth of <i>soupe à l'oignon</i> to <i>pot au -feu</i> at the same price. There were three fish dishes -on the card, <i>moules Marinières</i>, 6d.; <i>merlan frit</i>, -6d.; <i>sole frit</i>, 10d.; and Gustave recommended the -<i>moules</i> as being a dish of the house, and having come -in that morning.</p> - -<p>Looking down the list of entrées to find something -sufficiently bizarre in taste to match the commencement -of my dinner, I hesitated over a <i>pilaff</i>, which -would have cost me 8d., almost plumped for a <i>râble -de lièvre</i>, which meant an outlay of 1s., and then, -remembering that it was Christmas-time, as near as -possible ordered a <i>boudin</i>, which is the sausage that -all good Frenchmen eat once a year at the <i>réveillon</i> -suppers on Christmas Eve. But I remembered the -nightmare that followed the last <i>réveillon</i> supper to -which I went in Paris, and, passing over all the -entrées, ordered nothing more exciting than a wing -of chicken, 1s., and a <i>salade chicorée</i>. A <i>crème -chocolat</i>, 4d., was my <i>entremet</i>.</p> - -<p>The onion soup proved to be excellent—quite -strong and quite oniony, which, as I was not going -into polite society that evening, could offend no one. -The mussels quite justified M. Gustave's eulogium, -but as I did not eat the whole bowlful, and left some -of the savoury liquid, M. Gustave, with an expression -of concern on his face, came to my table to ask -whether I had found any fault with the dish. I -assured him that my appetite, not the mussels or the -cook, was alone to blame. The wing of the chicken -was plump and tender, and had I paid half-a-crown -it could not have been better. The <i>crème chocolat</i> -certainly tasted of chocolate, if the cream was not a -very pronounced feature in it.</p> - -<p>It was a very excellent meal—at the price—and -had I carried out the starvation and strong exercise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> -and vivid imagination preparation that I have so -strongly recommended to you, instead of lounging -out to tea in the afternoon with a pretty lady and -eating tea cake and sugary things at five o'clock, I -should have recorded all the beautiful things about -the little restaurant that I hear in the travel stories.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV">XXXIV</a></h3> - -<h3>A SUPPER TRAIN</h3> - - -<p>One day last year I ate two meals under roofs owned -by the Great Eastern Railway Company.</p> - -<p>I lunched in the dining-room of the Great Eastern -Hotel, Liverpool Street, a splendid, airy room, -light grey and gold, with brown Scagliola marble -columns. The tables in this dining-room are set -a good distance apart, rather a rare luxury in the -City, where space is very limited; one is not -forced to overhear the conversation of the people -dining at other tables, and waiters do not kick -one's chair every time they pass. The people -lunching seemed to be a happy blend of visitors -staying in the hotel and City men who had come -in from their offices, but there was none of that -breathless hurry-scurry that I always associate with -a lunch in the City.</p> - -<p>A curious piece of furniture, glass above, wood -below, caught my eye as we went into the room. It -looked at a distance like a jeweller's showcase, and I -asked my host if it was that. He laughed and told -me to inspect the jewels that it contained. It was a -sideboard for the cold meats, showing them, but at -the same time keeping the dust from them. It is -cooled by ice. It is such a happy idea that the -Carlton Club has copied it.</p> - -<p>This is the menu of the lunch that I might have -eaten in its entirety had I chosen:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Consommé Pluche.<br /> -Potage Solferino.<br /> -Boiled Salmon, Caper Sauce.<br /> -Fried Fresh Haddock.<br /> -Omelette Alsacienne.<br /> -Grilled Kidney, Vert Pré.<br /> -Roast Haunch of Mutton, Red Currant Jelly.<br /> -Roast Veal à l'Anglaise<br /> -(Or choice of cold meats).<br /> -Cabbage. Tomatoes.<br /> -Boiled and Lyonnaise Potatoes.<br /> -Roast Partridge and Chips.<br /> -Damson Pudding. Baked Custard.<br /> -Stewed Apricots.<br /> -Cheese. Radishes. Watercress.<br /> -</p> - -<p>I know of old that the cookery at the hotel is -excellent, for I have often lunched both there and at -the Abercorn Rooms, next door, so I did not feel in -honour bound to form myself into a tasting committee -of one, and to go through the menu. I ate salmon -and partridge and damson pudding, and found them -excellent. On the menu I saw that the price of the -lunch was 3s. 6d.</p> - -<p>My host, being a Freemason of high degree, asked -me if I had ever seen the Masonic temple in the -Abercorn Rooms, and as I said that I had not we -crossed on the first floor from the hotel to the rooms, -and, meeting Mr Amendt, the manager of all the -Great Eastern catering enterprises, on the way, he -showed us the temple, splendid with panels of onyx -and columns of delicately tinted marble, the lamps of -onyx, dish-shaped and throwing their light up to the -ceiling, seeming to me to be the most beautiful things -of their kind I have ever seen in a temple. Mr -Amendt, having his master key in his pocket, took -us through many ante-rooms and small banqueting-rooms, -with pictures by Lely of some of the beauties -of Charles II.'s Court on the walls, and we looked -in, on my way to the street, at the great Hamilton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> -Hall, a replica of the banqueting-room of the Palais -Soubise, where the waiters, lunch being finished, -were putting the chairs upside down on the tables, -and at the grill-room, named after the county of -Norfolk, which, with its violet marble pilasters and -its paintings of City celebrities—Nell Gwynne being -cheek by jowl with such eminent respectabilities as -Whittington and Gresham—is at night one of the -pleasantest little banqueting-rooms in which I have -ever feasted.</p> - -<p>As I said good-bye to my host and to Mr Amendt, -I remarked that I should be at Liverpool Street again -early next morning, as I was going down to Southend -for the week-end, and that if I had not been due at -a London theatre that night I should have enjoyed -sleeping in the fresh sea air. Whereon Mr Amendt -pointed out to me that I could perfectly well go to -the play and catch the supper train down to Southend -at midnight. If this suited me I had only to telegraph -to the hotel at which I was going to stay, and Mr -Amendt said that he himself would order my supper -for me. It all seemed to fit in so admirably that -I said, "Thank you very much," and sent off my -telegram at once.</p> - -<p>I had abundant time to change my clothes after the -theatre, and taxied down to Liverpool Street Station -through the deserted City streets. At the station, -however, there were many people on the platforms, -the refreshment rooms blazed with light, and scores -of little parties in them seemed to be partaking of -midnight tea. I found that a table had been reserved -for me in the restaurant car of the Southend train, and -a white-jacketed waiter told me that my supper would -be served immediately the train started, and that -a compartment in the carriage next to the restaurant -car was at my disposal. Mr Amendt had been even -better than his word.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> - -<p>Waiting on the platform, I watched another train, -a suburban one, on the next line of rails, fill up. -Bare-headed ladies, clutching in their hands the -programmes of the theatres to which they had been, -came sailing along; little messenger boys, their -evening's work over, climbed into the carriages, and -one gentleman, who evidently thought his time for -rest had arrived, took the whole of one side of a -third-class compartment to himself, lay down, and -went at once to sleep.</p> - -<p>When the suburban train had left, a few minutes -before midnight, the stream of passengers set towards -the Southend train, and I wondered which of them -were going to be my fellow-supperers in the restaurant -car. A party consisting of an elderly gentleman—I -am sure he was an uncle, for he had the good-natured -look that all genuine Dickensy uncles acquire—had -evidently brought up two nieces and a little -schoolboy nephew to see some play. They were -returning in the highest of spirits, and got into the -restaurant car at once, the uncle asking whether his -champagne had been properly iced. A clergyman -with a paper bag in his hand, which I think must have -contained sponge cakes, looked regretfully at the car, -and told the guard that had he known that it was -running he would not have brought his supper with -him. I saw nobody else who was an obvious supperer, -but when the whistle blew and the flag was -waved, and the train started, I found that in the -section of the restaurant car where my table was there -were two elderly ladies at one of the tables, a young -man in spectacles at another, the good uncle and his -little party at the third and that the fourth was -reserved for me. There was on my table a little -bunch of chrysanthemums in a glass vase with a heavy -foot to prevent it from overturning, and I noticed with -appreciation several devices for holding in their places<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> -cruets, water bottles, salt cellars and glasses should -the train at express pace threaten to shake things off -the table. This was the menu of the supper that Mr -Amendt had ordered for me:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Lobster Mayonnaise.<br /> -Mutton Cutlets Reform.<br /> -Roast Grouse. Straw Potatoes.<br /> -Salad.<br /> -Omelette au Confiture.<br /> -Devilled Sardines.<br /> -Cheese. Biscuits. Butter.<br /> -Watercress. Lettuce. Celery.<br /> -Black Coffee.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Like my lunch earlier in the day, the Great Eastern -offered me more than I had sufficient appetite to cope -with. I found the <i>mayonnaise</i> excellent, and did full -justice to the grouse, the <i>omelette</i> and the devilled -sardines. The young man in spectacles, I could see, -had ordered for his supper fried cod and a glass of -porter; the elderly ladies were drinking tea and -eating cake; and the uncle and his little party were, -like myself, eating a sumptuous meal.</p> - -<p>As I ate my supper the train rushed through the -East of London, and Bethnal Green and Stratford -were patches of lighted windows in the darkness, but -when we were out of the zone of bricks and mortar -and in the country there was a full moon high above, -and fields and trees all grey and shadowy in the mist -that was rising.</p> - -<p>The two elderly ladies had gone back to their compartment, -the young man in spectacles paid his bill, -and I judged from this that we must be nearing -Southend, and asked for mine. The waiter bowed -politely and informed me that I was the guest -of the Great Eastern Company. As I could not -argue with such an indefinite thing as a railway<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> -company, I had to accept the situation, and therefore -I cannot set down how much the excellent meal I ate -should have cost me.</p> - -<p>When the train ran in to the terminus at Southend -it certainly did not seem to me that I had been -travelling for an hour.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV">XXXV</a></h3> - -<h3>THE ADELAIDE GALLERY</h3> - - -<p>There is no story of the success of a London restaurant -more interesting than that of the Adelaide -Gallery, which is more generally known as Gatti's.</p> - -<p>The first Gatti to come to this country from the -Val Blegno in the Ticino Canton of Switzerland, on -the Italian side of the Alps, was the pioneer of penny -ices in England, and his shop in Villiers Street by the -steps leading down to the steamboat pier below -Hungerford Market was for the sale of these ices -and <i>gaufres</i>, the thin batter cakes pressed in a -mould and baked, a delicacy the small children of -Continental countries love, but which has never -ousted the British penny bun for its pre-eminence in -these islands. When Hungerford Market was swept -away to give space for the building of Charing Cross -Station, its name, however, being perpetuated by the -bridge, the first Gatti's was re-established under the -arches of the station and became in due course the -Charing Cross Music Hall.</p> - -<p>To the Gatti of Villiers Street and the Arches came -from their native village two of his young nephews, -Agostino and Stefano—the wags of the later Victorian -days called them Angostura and Stephanotis. -They determined, as soon as they felt their feet, to -launch out on their own account. They leased the -derelict Adelaide Gallery, which had its entrance in -Adelaide Street, converted it into a café restaurant -after the Continental pattern, and opened it on 21st<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> -May 1862. So juvenile were these enterprising -young Swiss that the younger brother could not -legally sign the lease, being under twenty-one. The -Adelaide Gallery was then right in the centre of -the triangle of buildings bounded by King William -Street, Adelaide Street and the Strand: it was parallel -to the Lowther Arcade, and the entrance to it was by -a narrow corridor from Adelaide Street, a street named, -of course, after King William the Fourth's queen.</p> - -<p>The gallery had been built in 1832 as the Gallery -of Practical Science, at a time when object lessons in -science were considered essential for the improvement -of youthful minds; and in the long gallery, which is -now a part of the restaurant, were working models -of shaft wheels, while down its centre ran, waist-high, -a long tank with a suspension bridge across it -and a lighthouse in its midst. In this tank, working -models of steamboats with very long smoke stacks -puffed up and down. A gallery ran round this long -hall and had pictures on its walls and models on -stands of the various forms of architectural pillars. -The Polytechnic, opened six years later, which this -generation still remembers in its Diving Bell and -Pepper's Ghost days, was run on similar lines. The -gallery became subsequently a Marionette theatre, a -casino and the home of some negro minstrels, but -it never settled down successfully to any form of -moneymaking until the young Gattis started it on its -career as a café restaurant. An habitué of the -Gallery in its scientific or in its casino days would -only recognise the building to-day by its arched -ceiling and by the circular openings in the roof for -light and air.</p> - -<p>Agostino and Stefano Gatti put marble-topped -tables in the Gallery, couches against the walls and -chairs on the other side of the tables, and in the -basement they made billiard-rooms. Chops and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> -steaks and chip potatoes, the last a novelty to London, -were the trump cards of their catering. At first the -magistrates, possibly suspecting that the casino -might be revived under another name, refused the -Gallery a music licence, but that was granted later on -in its existence. The Adelaide Gallery as a restaurant -was a direct challenge to the old chop-houses. It -gave very much the same fare under more airy and -more cheerful conditions, and the Londoners took -a wonderful fancy to the "chips."</p> - -<p>My earliest memory of a visit to the Adelaide -Gallery is a schoolboy one, for I was taken there -to sup after seeing Fechter play in <i>The Duke's -Motto</i> at, I think, the Lyceum. I ate on that -occasion chops and tomato sauce, went on to pastry, -and finished with a Welsh rarebit—a schoolboy has -no fear of indigestion. I came to know the -restaurant very well in the eighties, when I was -quartered at Canterbury and at Shorncliffe for a spell -of home service. I got at that time as much fun out -of life in London as a Captain's pay and a small -allowance would permit. I had sufficient knowledge -of matters gastronomic to know that I received -excellent value for my money at Gatti's, and the -ladies to whom I used to give dinners said that they -liked Asti Spumante and Sparkling Hock just as -well as champagne—and perhaps they really did, -bless them.</p> - -<p>Early in the eighties most of the improvements -made to the Gallery had been completed, and the -restaurant ran right up to Adelaide Street and down -to the Strand. Whether the entrance and new rooms -on the King William Street side had then been made -I forget, but if they had not been they soon after -came into existence. One special friend of mine in -those days was the big man in uniform who stood at -the Strand entrance, and whose constant companion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> -was a large St Bernard dog. The big man always -had a cheerful turn of conversation, and if by any -chance I grew impatient because a lady whom I -expected to dine did not appear, he would console me -by saying that "probably nothing worse than a cab -accident has happened." The St Bernard in its -old age grew snappy, and eventually, when it had -come back twice from new homes which had been -provided for it, had to be destroyed. Both Messrs -Agostino and Stefano Gatti were still alive in those -days, grave-faced, pleasant gentlemen, who lunched -together and dined together at a table not far from the -entrance to the kitchen, and who when their meals -were finished, sat at a semicircular desk and took the -counters from the waiters as they had done ever since -the first days of the restaurant.</p> - -<p>I was somewhat later to make their acquaintance, -and this was how it happened. Little "Willie" -Goldberg, who was known to all the English-speaking -world as The Shifter, was a man of brilliant -ideas, which he rarely had the patience to carry into -effect. I received one morning from him a telegram -asking me to meet him at ten minutes past one at the -Strand entrance of Gatti's, adding that it concerned -a matter of the highest importance, which would -bring much profit to both of us. I arrived at Gatti's -in time, and was met at the door by The Shifter, -who told me that the Gattis wanted a military -melodrama for the Adelphi, that theatre being their -property; that he had thought of a splendid title for -a soldier play; that he and I would write it together; -that the Gattis had asked him to lunch to talk the -matter over; and that he had suggested that I should -come too. Then we hurried into the restaurant. -We lunched with Messrs Gatti, and when, after -lunch, they very gently said that they were ready to -hear anything that we might have to tell them, The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> -Shifter disclosed the title, which pleased them, and -then sat back in his seat as though the matter was -settled. The Messrs Gatti asked for some slight -outline of the play, but The Shifter put it to them -that an advance of authors' fees should be the next -step in the business. This, the Gattis said, was not -the way in which they transacted the business of -their theatre, whereon The Shifter closed the discussion -by saying farewell. When we were outside -in the street again, I suggested that the next thing -to do would be to get out a scenario to submit to the -Gattis; but The Shifter was in high dudgeon; he -wrinkled up his long nose in haughty scorn and then -said: "These Gattis don't understand our English -ways of doing business"—and that was the beginning -and the end of our great military melodrama. But -I had made the acquaintance of the Gattis, and was -always afterwards on very pleasant terms with them.</p> - -<p>It is not within the scope of this article to deal -with the Gattis' enterprises in theatres, but the tale -of their purchase of the Vaudeville Theatre should -be told as an instance of their kindness of heart. -Amongst the many Gatti enterprises was the establishment -of a great electric-light-distributing business. -This began with a very small installation in the -cellars of the Adelaide Gallery, and increased and -increased until it is now one of the greatest electric -light companies in London. At one time the electric -light plant was established in a building just behind -the Vaudeville Theatre, and Mr Tom Thorne, the -actor, whose management had not prospered greatly, -told the Messrs Gatti that his ill-success of late was -owing to the noise the engines made behind the stage. -Messrs Gatti, to obviate this grievance, bought the -theatre, or at least as much of it as is freehold.</p> - -<p>There always has been a strong theatrical element -amongst the clientele of Gatti's, and the authors who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> -wrote the Adelphi melodramas—Dion Boucicault, -Henry Pettitt, George R. Sims, Robert Buchanan -and others—used constantly to be amongst the people -lunching and dining in the Gallery. In their -theatrical enterprises the Gattis never forgot the -Adelaide Gallery, and the one thing essential in an -Adelphi melodrama was that it should conclude in -time to allow the audience to sup at the restaurant. -All the black-coated classes patronised the Gallery, -from the comfortable business man, who got as good -a chop there in the evening as he did in his City -restaurant in the middle of the day, to the little clerk -who took the girl he was engaged to there because -she liked the music and the brightness of the place. -The country cousins all knew Gatti's, and knew that -it was a place where they would get a good meal at -a reasonable price, and that no advantage would be -taken of their ignorance of London charges. Salvini, -the great actor, used to take his meals at Gatti's -when he was in England, and the great Lord Salisbury -had a fondness for a chop and chips, and used to -gratify it by going to the Adelaide Gallery. An old -Garibaldian, a fine, white-haired old gentleman in a -slouch hat and a long, threadbare cloak, was the -most remarkable of the clientele of Gatti's in the -early eighties; he was evidently very poor and one -dish with him constituted a meal, but because he had -fought as a red-shirted hero, the waiters at Gatti's -treated him with more deference than they would -show to any prince, and took the copper he gave as -a tip with as much gratitude as they would have -expressed for the gold of the millionaire.</p> - -<p>The Gatti's of to-day has adapted itself to modern -requirements, but it caters for much the same class -as of yore, and its food is still excellent material, -well cooked, though there is a great deal more -variety now than there was in the old chops and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> -chips days. It retains, however, all its old democratic -ways. Its clients choose their own tables and their -own seats, hang up their own coats and then catch -the attention of the waiter who has charge of the -table. The restaurant—cream and gold, with French -grey panels in its roof—has now four entrances: the -Adelaide Street one, two in King William Street and -one in the Strand. While the main restaurant -remains an <i>à la carte</i> establishment with a plentiful -choice of dishes, including a list of grills, there is a -<i>table d'hôte</i> room at the King William Street side, a -handsome hall with a gilded roof and pink-shaded -electroliers, which throw their light up on to the -ceiling. The latest addition to the dining-rooms is -a banqueting hall, reached by marble stairs from -King William Street. It is a handsome and well-proportioned -room, with a musicians' gallery at -one side, and an ante-room half-way up its stairs, -and it holds one hundred and fifty feasters quite -comfortably.</p> - -<p>At the same little table where their father and their -uncle sat, the two Messrs Gatti of to-day—John -(ex-Mayor of Westminster) and Rocco—sit, young -copies of their predecessors, in that one of them has -kept a plentiful head of hair, whereas the other one -has been less conservative. They give the same -attention to the business of the restaurant that the -original Gattis did, but the semicircular desk has -vanished and the work of taking the counters is now -done by deputies on either side of a great screen -which stretches before the wide entrance to the -kitchen. Mr de Rossi, dapper and energetic, is the -manager of the restaurant, and it is always a comfort -to me that when I lunch or dine under the musicians' -gallery the <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, whom I have known for -thirty years, comes and gives me fatherly advice as to -the choice of dishes for a meal.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> - -<p>The kitchen of the Adelaide Gallery is one of the -few in London that possess a large open fire for -roasting, and its Old English cookery is, therefore, -always good. It caters, however, for all nationalities, -and as an indication of what its prices are, and of the -variety of its fare, I cannot do better than give you -the list of entrées I find on the <i>carte du jour</i>, which I -took away the last time I dined at Gatti's:</p> - -<p><i>Carbonnade de bœuf à la Berlinoise</i>, 1s. 2d.; <i>lapin -sauté Chasseur</i>, 1s. 4d.; <i>vol-au-vent de ris d'agneau -Financière</i>, 1s. 6d.; <i>pieds de porc grillés Sainte -Menehould</i>, 1s. 2d.; <i>fegatino di pollo alla Forestiera</i>, -1s. 4d.; <i>terrine de lièvre St Hubert</i> (cold), 1s. 9d.; -<i>côte de veau en casserole aux cèpes</i>, 1s. 9d.; <i>tournedos -Rouennaise</i>, 2s.; <i>chump chop d'agneau, purée -Bruxelloise</i>, 1s. 6d.; <i>tête de veau en tortue</i>, 1s. 6d.; -<i>salmis de perdreaux au Chambertin</i>, 2s.; <i>langue de -bœuf braisée aux nouilles fraîches</i>, 1s. 6d.; <i>escalopes de -veau Viennoise</i>, 1s. 6d.; <i>mironton de bœuf au gratin</i>, -1s. 4d.; <i>côtelettes d'agneau Provençale</i>, 2s.; <i>pigeon St -Charles</i>, 2s. 6d.; <i>noisettes de pré-salé Maréchal</i>, -1s. 9d.; <i>entrecôte Marchand de Vin</i>, 2s. 6d.; <i>demi -faisan en casserole</i>, 4s.</p> - -<p>And here is the menu of the five-shilling dinner -I ate one Friday in October in the <i>table d'hôte</i> room, -in company with many people, who were evidently -going later to theatres:—</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre à la Parisienne.<br /> -Consommé Julienne.<br /> -Crème d'Huîtres.<br /> -Turbotin d'Ostende Réjane.<br /> -Anguilles Frites. Sce. Tyrolienne.<br /> -Côtelettes de Volaille Pojarski.<br /> -Petit Pois au Sucre. Pommes Comtesse.<br /> -Faisan Ecossaise Rôti en Casserole.<br /> -Salade Sauté.<br /> -Glacé Mokatine.<br /> -Délicatesses.<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> - -<p>Gatti's, like every other restaurant of standing, has -its own special dishes, and some of these were -included in a lunch which I ate with Messrs John and -Rocco Gatti when they were good enough in a chat -we had to refresh my memory in regard to the early -days of the restaurant:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre à la Parisienne.<br /> -Zéphire de Sole Adelaide.<br /> -Suprême de Volaille Royal.<br /> -Asperges vertes. Sce. Chantilly.<br /> -Perdreau Rôti à la Broche.<br /> -Cœur-de-Laitue à la Française.<br /> -Cerises Montmorency Sarah-Bernhardt.<br /> -Corbeille de Délices.<br /> -Café.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The <i>zéphire de sole Adelaide</i> is an admirable <i>filet de -sole</i> and oysters therewith; the breast of the chicken -was served with an excellent white sauce; and the -<i>entremet</i> was worthy of the distinguished tragedienne -after whom it is named.</p> - -<p>The wine list at Gatti's is a document to be carefully -studied. The Gattis of the previous generation -laid down some very fine wines, and clarets and -Burgundies of the great years of the end of the -last century are to be found in the Adelaide cellars. -The champagnes of great years and of great houses -are priced far lower than they are to be found on the -lists of fashionable restaurants, and there is some old -cognac in the cellars to which I take off my hat -whenever I am privileged to meet it. It was bought -by the Gattis at the time of the Franco-Prussian War, -when stocks of old brandy were sold at low prices. -It is marked so as to show a profit on the purchase-money—not -at its worth—and I know of no better -brandy at any London restaurant, whatever price -customers may choose to give.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI">XXXVI</a></h3> - -<h3>THE COMPLEAT ANGLER</h3> - - -<p>I deserted, shamelessly and openly deserted, but -I had an excuse.</p> - -<p>When we started, a boatload of men in a launch -from above Boulter's Lock on a still, hot summer -Sunday afternoon, the sky was grey above and the -river and Cliveden Woods were all in pleasant -shadow; but when we were come to Odney Weir -and Cookham Ferry the sun broke through the clouds -and sucked them up, and at Bourne End the river -sparkled and the sails of the sailing-boats tacking up -the long stretch below Winter Hill gleamed in the -sunlight. It was as hot an afternoon as we ever get -in England, and as we steered into the eye of the -sun the glare hurt my eyes, and there was no dodging -it. When we came to the Compleat Angler, just -below Marlow Bridge, and lay alongside its green -lawn, with the flower beds and rose-trees right at the -garden edge, I looked at the people sitting on the -rustic chairs by the rustic tables in the shadow of the -line of trees that acts as a screen against the western -sun, and the villagers who loll the Sunday through on -the railing of the bridge and stare at the hotel, and I -thought how pleasant it would be to sit in the shade -until dinner-time came, to eat that meal with the -burble of the water falling over the weir in my ears, -and afterwards to go back to town by a late train. So -I deserted openly and shamelessly.</p> - -<p>The Compleat Angler is a very old inn, so old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> -that no one knows when it was built. But it was -very probably in existence when the bodies of -Warwick, the King-maker, and his brother Montacute -were carried to Bisham Abbey to be buried. An -engraving of a hundred years ago shows the old inn -with a rope walk by its side, where the gardens -of the hotel now stretch on the bank of the swift -stream below the weir. The old wooden bridge -which the present suspension bridge has replaced -started at the angle of land by the weir, an angle -now covered by the dining-room of the hotel, and -it was under this bridge—not the present one—that -a legendary hero of gastronomy, the Marlow -bargee, ate the Puppy Pie.</p> - -<p>In the pre-railway days the Compleat Angler -looked for its patrons amongst the fishermen and the -simple folk who gained their living on the river. -The hotel to-day is one of the most comfortable -old-fashioned riverside inns between Oxford and -London, an inn that stoutly upholds its old English -characteristics. The brown roofs of the old building -and its old brick walls are still there, and the old -fruit-trees of the orchard give shade on its lawn; -but new wings have been built on as the custom -of the hotel has increased, and the great stretch -of delightful garden behind the hotel, from which -there is a glorious view of the Quarry Woods, must -be a comparatively new addition. Mr Kilby, the -present landlord, his face tanned by the river air and -river sunshine, his hair and moustache almost white, -has been in possession of the house for twenty-two -or twenty-three years; but before this time it had -been in the hands of one family from generation to -generation, right back into the misty past. Mr -Kilby has kept the hotel Old English in character -in all essential particulars. There is good black old -oak panelling in the little hall, and Jacobean furniture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> -and an old grandfather clock, and on its walls, in -glazed cases, are monster perch and other giants of the -Thames caught at Marlow, and engravings of local -celebrities and local magnates of past days; while -in the dining-room are caricatures by Gillray and -other wielders of the pencil in Georgian days. -The gardens, kitchen garden and flower garden -and lawns, behind the house, are also delightfully -English, for the flowers that grow there are the -Old English flowers, roses and lilies, stocks and -pinks, ladies'-slippers and cherry pie, and a host -of others, flowers that are old friends and which -fill the air with scent on a hot afternoon. There -are roses everywhere around the Compleat Angler. -Those who land from their boats pass under a great -arch of roses, and in the garden the roses climb over -many bowers—for "pergola" is a word I hesitate -to use in writing of this Old English pleasance. -Honeysuckles grow up the supports of the verandah -that gives shade to the windows of the dining-room, -and there are bright flowers in all the window-boxes. -Above all, there is the charm of the river, the -indescribable freshness that always comes with -tumbling water, the delight of the long, trembling -reflections thrown by the trees and the spire of the -church across the river, the grace of the white-clad -girls who punt upstream and of the swans that sail -quite secure by the edge of the weir, and the -pleasant "lap, lap" of the water as the launches cut -through it. If I wished in one hour to give an -American friend an idea of the charm of the Thames -I would take him to the chairs under the great -willow that stands by the weir in the grounds of the -Compleat Angler, and when he had sat in this shade -for half-an-hour watching the calmness of the river -and the eddies of the weir stream, the rushes, the -reeds, the trees, the long line of wooded hills, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> -swans and the boats, if he did not understand what -the Thames is to an Englishman, I should despair -of him. If I was interested in a young couple who -were hesitating on the brink of matrimony, and I -wished to push them into it, I would invite them -to take tea with me on the lawn of the Compleat -Angler, and when the sun dropped low and the -shadows of the trees lengthened and the air grew -heavy with the scent of the roses, I would leave -them together for an hour, and if in that hour -the man had not proposed I would consider him -a base deceiver, a heartless wretch incapable of -sentiment.</p> - -<p>In the late afternoon, when the bells of the -church were ringing for evening service, I walked -up the High Street, in which the lads of the -village and the lasses all in white were abroad, -and looked at Marlow's sole antiquarian relic—the -stocks, which stand in an enclosure of turf and -trees and flower-beds. I continued my pilgrimage -to Shelley's house in West Street, and then on -over the wooden bridge of old grey wood to the -Lock.</p> - -<p>The sun had set and the west was all opal with -the dying light when I came back to the lawn of the -Compleat Angler. The launch that had lain the -afternoon through by the steps was gone, with its -load of merry people, and the motor cars were all -off on their return journey to London. Only the -people staying in the hotel remained. It was dinner-time, -but I was loth to leave the open air, for the -hush of the evening had fallen. I could hear faintly -the sound of a hymn being sung in the church, and -that sentimentality, which is not religious feeling, -but which is akin to it, had fallen upon me. I was -at peace with all mankind. I forgave the architect -who designed Marlow Church tower for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> -triviality of his Gothic; I had no rancour against the -tailor who took three weeks to make me three white -evening waistcoats; I could think kindly of the -people who send me insufficiently stamped letters -from abroad, and I could remember that even the -income-tax collector is a fellow-man. Had there -been anyone by to whom I could recite poetry -I would have been prepared to quote Herbert to my -purpose, but the only companionable soul available -at the moment was a friendly Irish terrier, and -terriers have no soul for verse.</p> - -<p>At last I went in to dinner. A corner table in the -biggest of the three dining-rooms, a real summer-house, -its walls being all windows, had been reserved -for me, and from my seat I could look across the -river to one side and on to the weir stream on the -other. The light of day was not all gone, and -I hardly needed the shaded lamp which kept -company on the table with a great bunch of sweet-smelling -flowers from the garden. I had not ordered -any special dinner, but ate the <i>table d'hôte</i> meal of -the house, the charge for which is six shillings. It -was a good English dinner, and my only complaint -regarding it is that there were some tags of unnecessary -French upon the menu card. This, in plain English, -was the dinner I ate and enjoyed:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Thick Mock Turtle.<br /> -Salmon.<br /> -Clear Butter Sauce.<br /> -Braised Ham.<br /> -Broad Beans.<br /> -Madeira Sauce.<br /> -Roast Chicken.<br /> -Chip Potatoes.<br /> -Green Peas.<br /> -Raspberries and Cream Ice.<br /> -</p> - -<p>I might have added a savoury to this, but I like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> -to end my dinner with a sweet taste to linger on my -palate. My bill altogether came to seven-and-six.</p> - -<p>Feeling contented with myself, and life, the -Compleat Angler, and my fellow-men, I sauntered -to the railway station in time to catch the nine-forty -train back to London.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII">XXXVII</a></h3> - -<h3>ARTISTS' ROOMS</h3> - -<h4>DIEUDONNÉ'S. PAGANI'S</h4> - - -<p>There used to be two little rooms in London restaurants -with walls made interesting by the signatures of -great artists of song and colour and sculpture and -music, who, some of them, had sketched little scenes -above their names, and others had dotted down a -few notes of music.</p> - -<p>One of these little chambers was the sitting-room -of Madame Dieudonné, in Ryder Street. Madame -Dieudonné was an old French lady who kept a -boarding-house much patronised by the great artists -who came over to London from France. In her kitchen -was an admirable chef, and the fame of the <i>table d'hôte</i>—a -real <i>table d'hôte</i> in its original sense, for Madame -always sat at the head of her own table—was so great -that people who loved good cooking used to ask -permission to be allowed to dine at it. But -Madame Dieudonné did not give this permission to all -comers, and it was necessary that the would-be -guest should be presented to Madame and should -obtain from her an invitation to her circle before a -place was laid for him. Any special favourites -amongst the guests were asked by Madame to come -after dinner into her sitting-room, there to drink -coffee and to chat, and amongst these favourites -were the great musicians, and the great actors and -great painters of her own land, who stayed at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> -boarding-house. When any man, or any lady, was -asked for the first time into this holy of holies, he -or she placed a signature upon the wall and any -further embellishment that came to mind. Gradually -the middle portion of the walls became a perfect -treasure-house of autographs.</p> - -<p>Madame Dieudonné died, and her circle was broken -up, the old lodging-house became a hotel, and when -M. Guffanti, its present owner, brought his great -energy to bear upon it, it soon became prosperous. -Alterations were made, the white room on the first -floor, with its panel pictures of gallants and ladies in -silks and brocades, which is now used for banquets, -was constructed, and when Madame Dieudonné's little -room was thrown into what is now the entrance hall, -the workmen destroyed the signatures on the walls, -evidently regarding them as mere dirt, in spite of all -the precautions M. Guffanti had made to preserve -them, and the only remembrances left of the stately -old lady who used to sit at the head of her own -table is in the name of the hotel and restaurant.</p> - -<p>Dieudonné's has flourished exceedingly, and M. -Guffanti, his hair a little thinner on the top of his -head than when first I made his acquaintance, but -with the same majestic curve to his moustache ends, -and possessing the same invincible energy, has -increased the size of his hotel by taking in several -other houses.</p> - -<p>The Dieudonné's of the present day is a large building -of white stone and red brick, always very spick -and span, and decked out with flower boxes. The -restaurant on the ground floor is a fine room in the -Adams style, a very light grey in colour, with some -of the ornamentation just touched with gold. At one -end are three large bow-windows, and at the other -end there is a musicians' gallery for the orchestra. -On the side walls the ornamentation suggests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> -doorways with mirrored panels, pink shades on the -electroliers have subdued the light, which, when the -room was first built, I found too white and too -brilliant, and the lamps on the tables are also pink-shaded. -The carpet is of a deep rose, and the white -chairs are also upholstered in that colour. It is -a very pleasant dining-room, and the people who -dine there are all pleasant to look at, and do -good food the compliment of going dressed in -becoming garments. I very rarely dine at Dieudonné's -without seeing a ladies' dinner-party in progress, -for Dieudonné's has always been a favourite dining -place of the gentler sex since the early days when -Giovanini, the old <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, with bushy eyebrows -and Piccadilly weepers, used to consider any ladies -without an escort as being put under his special and -fatherly protection.</p> - -<p>Dieudonné's chiefly relies on two <i>table d'hôte</i> -dinners, one the opera dinner, at six-and-six, and the -other the Dieudonné dinner, at eight shillings. On -the last occasion that I dined at Dieudonné's before -going on to the Russian Opera at Drury Lane I ate -the opera dinner, the menu of which I give below. -It was the day of President Poincaré's state entry into -London, and that event is celebrated by two of the -dishes in the dinner:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -<span class="smcap">Menu.</span><br /> -Hors d'œuvre Variés.<br /> -Consommé à la Française.<br /> -Crème de Laitues aux Perles.<br /> -Saumon d'Ecosse Poché.<br /> -Sauce Mousseline.<br /> -Pommes Nature Concombres.<br /> -Côtes de Pré-Salé Poincaré.<br /> -Canetons d'Aylesbury à l'Anglaise.<br /> -Petits Pois Nouveaux.<br /> -Coupe Entente Cordiale.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Dieudonné dinner on this day only differed -from the shorter one by the inclusion in it of -<i>escaloppes de ris de veau George V.</i></p> - -<p>The other restaurant which created and retains -an artists' room is Pagani's, in Great Portland Street, -in the immediate neighbourhood of the Queen's Hall -and St George's Hall. When, in 1871, Mario Pagani -opened a little shop, which became a restaurant, in a -house in Great Portland Street, the German Reeds were -in possession of St George's Hall, with, I think, Corney -Grain, as a newly risen star, in their company. The -Queen's Hall had not been built and St James's Hall, the -site of which is now occupied by the Piccadilly Hotel, -was the musical centre of London. M. Pagani, being -an Italian, gave his customers Italian cookery, and -very good Italian cookery too, and the journalists and -the painters and the singers soon heard of the new little -restaurant where there were always Italian dishes on -the bill of fare. Pellegrini, the <i>Vanity Fair</i> cartoonist, -and Signor Tosti were two of the first patrons of the -restaurant. Mr George R. Sims, doyen to-day of -literary gourmets, loved the restaurant as it was in -its early state, and wrote of the good Italian food to -be obtained there, and his portrait, on a china plaque, -occupies, rightly enough, the centre of one of the walls -up in the artists' room. In 1887 M. Mario Pagani -retired, and for a time his brother and his cousin carried -on the restaurant; the latter, M. Giuseppe Pagani—left, -in 1895, in sole control—taking as partner M. -Meschini, the latter of whom eventually became the -sole proprietor, bequeathing, when he died, the -restaurant to his widow and to his son.</p> - -<p>Pagani's in the forty odd years of its existence, has -increased in size to an extraordinary extent, and the -building, with its elaborately ornamented front of -glazed tiles with complicated figures in the pattern -and ornaments of Della Robbia ware, its squat pillars<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> -of blue and its arches, luminous at night with electric -light, differs immensely from the little, stuffy Italian -restaurant that it originally was. It has a second -entrance now in a side street, and a Masonic banqueting-room, -and a lift, and its restaurant on the ground -floor is a very large one and always reminds me of -those great establishments that I see in the German -cities. It is a very comfortable restaurant, and its -brown walls, its mirrors with trellis-work and creepers -painted on them set in brown wooden frames, and its -ceiling painted in quiet colours, all give a sense of -cosiness. There is in this downstairs restaurant -a dispense bar, which looks very picturesque seen -through a glazed screen, and just by this screen is the -entrance from which the waiters stream out from the -kitchen carrying the dishes ordered by the patrons of -the restaurant, which they show as they pass to a -clerk. To dine habitually at Pagani's at a table -facing the kitchen entrance is to obtain a complete -knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of the Italian waiter. -He is not run into a mould as a French waiter is, but -retains many individualities. He always wears a -moustache, and is pleasantly conversational with his -fellows and with the customers.</p> - -<p>In its early days, the cookery at Pagani's was Italian -and nothing but Italian, but with ever-increasing -prosperity the scope of the kitchen has broadened, -and now most of the dishes on the <i>carte du jour</i> have -French names. The head cook, however, is a good -Italian, M. Faustin Notari, who has climbed the ladder -of promotion to the top during the twenty years he -has been in the kitchens of Pagani's, and there are -always some Italian dishes on the bill of fare. The -following are the dishes that I most frequently see on -the card:—<i>Minestrone, minestrone alla Genovese, zuppa -alla Pavese, filetti di sole alla Livornesse, spaghetti,</i> and -Macaroni done in every way possible, <i>ravioli al sugo</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> -or <i>alla Bolognese, gnocchi alla Romana, fritto misto alla -Tosti, ossi buchi, arrostino annegato,</i> and I generally -finish my dinner at Pagani's with a <i>zambaglione</i>. -Pagani's has its specialities of the house apart from -Italian dishes, and when I have dined, as I often do, -as one of the committee of an amateur dramatic club, -in the Artists' Room, I generally find <i>poulet à la -Pagani</i>—a very toothsome way of cooking the -domestic fowl—on the menu of our little feasts. -<i>Filet de sole Pagani</i> is another excellent dish, an -invention of the house. <i>Poule au pot</i> and <i>cassôlet à la -Provençale</i> and the <i>bisque</i>, and the <i>bortsch</i> at Pagani's -are always excellent. The diners whom I see at the -other tables downstairs at Pagani's all seem to me -to belong to that very pleasant world, artistic Bohemia. -The great singers of the opera and the great musicians -who play at the Queen's Hall go there to lunch and -dine and sup, and their artistic perception is not confined -entirely to music, for I notice that they generally -bring very pretty ladies with them to eat the good -dishes of the restaurant. A little touch of Bohemia -that always pleases me at Pagani's is the boy who comes -round with a tray selling cigars and cigarettes. The -restaurant-rooms on the first floor used, in the early -days when Pagani's was quite a small place, to be the -rooms to which the sterner sex used to take ladies to -dine, and there was a particular corner by a window -with a tiny conservatory in it which was the favourite -spot in the room. The gentler sex now dines everywhere -in the restaurant, but in the first-floor rooms, -with pleasant red walls, glazed screens put between -the tables give a sense of privacy.</p> - -<p>The Artists' Room is on the second floor, just on -the top of the staircase. There is not room for -many people in it, and the dinner-parties held there -must of necessity be small ones. But there is no -room in any restaurant in London which is in itself so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> -interesting as this one. The walls are almost entirely -covered with signatures and sketches and caricatures; -there is a large photograph, framed and autographed, -of Sir Henry Irving as Becket; there are drawings by -Dudley Hardy and three or four caricatures, including -one of himself, drawn by Caruso. There is a photo -of poor Phil May in riding kit on a horse; there -is the menu of the dinner given by the artists of the -Royal Opera at Covent Garden to Mr Thomas -Beecham. On the mantelpiece stand some good -bronzes of English and French Volunteers, and -the menu of a banquet given by Pélissier, the head of -the Follies, to his friends, and his invitation to this -feast, which commences in royal style: "I, Gabriel," -etc., and ends with the earnest request, "Please <i>arrive</i> -sober," have been honoured with frames. Mademoiselle -Felice Lyne's autograph records one of the latest -successes in opera. There are two smoked plates with -landscapes drawn on them with a needle, and there -is the medallion in red of Dagonet I have already -mentioned. The name of Julia Neilson, written in -bold characters, catches the eye as soon as any other -inscription on one of the sections of the wall covered -with glass; but it is well worth while to take the -panels one by one, and to go over these sections of -brown plaster inch by inch. Mascagni has written -the first bars of one of the airs from <i>Cavalleria -Rusticana</i>, Denza has scribbled the opening bars of -"Funiculi, Funicula," Lamoureux has written a tiny -hymn of praise to the cook, Ysaye has lamented that -he is always tied to "notes," which, with a waiter and -a bill at his elbow, might have a double meaning. -Phil May has dashed some caricatures upon the wall, -a well-meant attempt on the part of a German waiter -to wash one of these out having resulted in the -sacking of the said waiter and the glazing of the wall, -Mario has drawn a picture of a fashionable lady, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> -Val Prinsep and a dozen artists of like calibre have, in -pencil, or sepia or pastel noted brilliant trifles on the -wall. Paderewski, Puccini, Chaminade, Calvé, Piatti, -Plançon, De Lucia, Melba, Mempes, Tosti, Kubelik, -Tschaikovsky, are some of the signatures.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXVIII" id="XXXVIII">XXXVIII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE PICCADILLY RESTAURANT</h3> - - -<p>It was a chance remark made by "The Princess," as -three of us sat at lunch one Saturday in the open air -at the Ranelagh Club, that nowhere in Central -London was there an open-air dining place, that led -me to ask her and "Daddy," her husband, both of -them my very great friends (which is the reason that -I permit myself to call them, as the Irish would say, -"out of their names"), to dine with me one night in -July, weather always permitting, in the open air -within fifty yards of Piccadilly Circus.</p> - -<p>Walking down Piccadilly, and looking up at the -façade of the great Piccadilly Hotel, a building which -has something of the nobility of a Grecian temple, -and something of the heaviness of a county jail, I -had noticed that a grey tent had been put up on the -terrace, half-way up to the heavens, behind the -great pillars and the gilded tripods, and I knew that -this meant that as soon as the evenings were warm -the restaurant would cater on the terrace for those -who like to dine in the freshest air obtainable in -muggy London.</p> - -<p>Some form of covering is a necessity for any roof -garden in Central London, not as a protection from -rain or cold, but to deliver diners from the plague -of smuts. Some day, when electricity and gas have -between them driven coal far outside the boundaries -of the capital, it will be possible for Londoners to -breakfast under the plane-trees planted on their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> -roofs, and to look, while they eat, at the roses -climbing on the trellis-work which hides their little -pleasance from the neighbours on the next roof; -but in this present year of grace an open-air meal -within the three-mile radius necessitates the blowing -of smuts off each plate as soon as it is put on the cloth, -and a great portion of the conversation of the table -talk centres round the black smudges to be wiped -off the diners' noses. The Piccadilly, by pitching -its tent on its terrace, has gone as near to open-air -dining as is possible in our London atmosphere.</p> - -<p>It was well that I had added the provision -"weather permitting" to my invitation, for on the -evening that my two guests motored up from their -old manor-house near Richmond the sky had clouded -over, a misty rain was falling, and the temperature -had dropped to November level. The dinner-table -that would have been reserved for me on the terrace -was cancelled, and a table for three laid in the -restaurant of the big hotel—that very handsome -saloon panelled with light wood, with gilded carving -in high relief on the panels, with a blue-and-gold -frieze, and elaborately decorated ceiling and casemented -mirrors—a saloon which is a noble example -of Louis XIV. decoration. I had ordered my dinner -beforehand, taking care to include in it some of the -specialities of the kitchen of the Piccadilly, and had -interested in the designing of the little feast M. -Berti, the restaurant manager, and the <i>chef de cuisine</i>, -M. Victor Schreyeck; while M. Pallanti, one of the -<i>maîtres d'hôtel</i>, who is an old acquaintance, had put -me in that portion of the room which is under his -special charge. The dishes on which the kitchen -of the Piccadilly especially prides itself are its <i>délices -de sole</i> and its <i>filets de sole</i>, both named after the -establishment, its <i>poularde à l'étuvée au Porto</i>, its -<i>poularde Reine Mephisto</i>, its <i>cailles Singapore</i>, and its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> -<i>vasques</i> of peaches, or of raspberries, or of strawberries, -all titled Louis XIV. in sympathy with the -decoration of the room.</p> - -<p>This was the dinner that I ordered, a summer -dinner for a hot evening, for I had hoped that the -weather would be kind, and that we should be able -to eat on the terrace:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon de Cantaloup Frappé.<br /> -Kroupnick.<br /> -Sole à la Piccadilly.<br /> -Suprême de Volaille Jeannette.<br /> -Caille Royale Singapore.<br /> -Cœur de Romaine.<br /> -Asperges Vertes. Sauce Divine.<br /> -Vasque de Fraises Louis XIV.<br /> -Corbeille d'Excellences.<br /> -</p> - -<p>I waited for my guests in the lounge where the -orchestra plays, a lounge panelled, as the restaurant -is, and with paintings of fruit in the circular wreaths -above the doors, with cane easy-chairs and cane -tables with glass tops scattered about, with palms in -great china vases, with gilt Ionic capitals to the -pilasters on either side of the great supports to the -roof, and with a great painted ceiling. A glazed -screen with windows and doors in it separates the -lounge from the restaurant.</p> - -<p>"The Princess," when my guests arrived, was -wearing a most becoming gown, and had brought -her furs with her, in case I, as a mad Englishman, -might insist on dining on the terrace in spite of the -rain. "Daddy," who is, like myself, an old soldier -<i>en retraite</i>, had put on one of his Paris unstarched -shirts with many pleats, and was wearing his fusilier -studs. M. Berti, his beard pointed like that of a -Spaniard, bowed to us at the entrance of the -restaurant, and directed us to our table, by which -was a second little table with on it all the apparatus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> -for the elaborating of the fish dish before our eyes. -Near it stood the <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, pale and determined, -feeling, I think, that the reputation of the house was -in his hands, and a waiter and a <i>commis</i> under his -immediate orders. "The Princess," as I have written, -wore a most becoming gown, and it pleased me that -she should have so framed her native beauty, and I -am sure it also pleased her, for at the other tables -all the other guests were exceedingly well groomed -and well frocked—a most good-looking company.</p> - -<p>The soup, a white Russian soup with barley as its -dominating ingredient, is one of those peasant soups -the French have borrowed from the Russians, and -have refined in promoting it to the <i>haute cuisine</i>. -The <i>sole à la Piccadilly</i> is a fish dish which grows to -perfection as it is manipulated before the eyes of the -expectant diners. A wide bath of mixed whisky and -brandy boils up over the spirit lamp, and into this -the boiled soles make a plunge before they are -carried away to be filleted; then into the almost -exhausted mixture of spirits is poured the sauce, -which is a "secret of the house," and as this boils -up first cream and then butter is added to it. The -<i>filets de sole</i> come hot to table, and over each portion -of the fish is poured the precious sauce, sharp tasting, -with a suggestion of anchovy amidst its many flavours. -While this sole was being prepared, "Daddy" at -first talked on of polo matches at Ranelagh and golf -at Richmond, and did not notice that both "The -Princess" and myself had become silent, as gourmets -should be when watching a delicate culinary operation, -but he, too, after a while felt the solemnity of -the moment, and became dumb until the fish was -before him, and he could pronounce it to be "very -good indeed," an emphatic expression of opinion on -the part of all three of us which, I trust, was -conveyed to M. Schreyeck in his domains. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> -<i>suprême de volaille</i> was a noble <i>chaudfroid</i> of chicken -with a rich stuffing or farce, I am not sure which is -the correct description, in which <i>foie gras</i> was the -dominating note. The quails were named after the -island of Singapore, because with them in the china -dish came a most savoury accompaniment of pine-apple -pulp and juice—and there are thousands of acres of -pine-apples in Singapore—an admirable contrast to the -flesh of the plump birds. To this dish also our -council of three gave high praise. The bowl of -strawberries and ice and fruit flavouring, another of -the dishes of the house, made an admirable ending -to a very good dinner, and with this dinner we -drank a champagne strongly recommended by the -house, Irroy 1904. I paid my bill, the total of which -came to £3, 13s. 6d., the charge being 12s. 6d. a -head for the dinner, which was a small sum for such -delicate fare, and then we went into the lounge, -where the band was still playing, to drink coffee and -liqueurs, and to allow "Daddy" to smoke one of -the very long cigars of which he always carries a -supply.</p> - -<p>It was still raining when my two guests started -in their motor car back to Richmond, but they -declared that they were fortified for their journey -down into the country by a most satisfactory dinner.</p> - -<p>The Piccadilly Hotel of to-day stands partly on the -site of the agglomeration of halls and bar and -restaurant which all came under the name of St -James's Hall, the bar and restaurant being, in the -mouths of the frequenters thereof, "Jemmy's." The -great hall was in its day the centre of the musical -world, and its Monday Pops and its classical concerts -were celebrated. In a smaller hall the Moore and -Burgess Minstrels flourished for many years until -fickle London for a while grew tired of burnt-cork -minstrelsy. The big bar of the St James's declined,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> -as did most other restaurant bars, when gentlemen no -longer cared to be seen taking their liquid refreshment -standing, and the clientele of the restaurant -was decidedly Bohemian. When "Jemmy's" was -wiped off the map of London there were not many -tears shed at its disappearance. The Piccadilly -Hotel and its restaurant, when they were first -opened, went through their teething troubles, as do -most new establishments. The restaurant opened -with a great flourish of trumpets, most of its -personnel coming straight from Monte Carlo to -London, but though the <i>maîtres d'hôtel</i> knew who was -who in the principality of Monaco they were not -so well acquainted with the personalities of London -life. All these matters invariably straighten themselves -out. I read in the columns of City intelligence -that the hotel, under the management of Mr F. Heim, -who is now managing director, is a financial success, -and is paying good dividends. The restaurant has -gathered to itself a clientele that is smart and well-dressed, -and it treats its guests excellently.</p> - -<p>To the great grill-room, which lies down in the -basement below the restaurant, and which is one -of the largest and one of the busiest places of good -cheer in London, I allude in my chapter concerning -some of the grill-rooms.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XXXIX" id="XXXIX">XXXIX</a></h3> - -<h3>THE RENDEZVOUS</h3> - - -<p>Behind every successful restaurant there is some -personality—a clever proprietor, a great cook, a -managing director with a talent for organisation, -or a popular <i>maître d'hôtel</i>. The Rendezvous, in -Dean Street, has been brought to prosperity and -popularity by the work of one man, its proprietor, -M. Peter Gallina. He is a dapper little Italian, with -a small moustache, a man of good family who ran -away from home as a boy and has made his way -by his native cleverness and perseverance, and by -the possession of an exceptionally keen palate. He -grounded himself well in all that concerns a restaurant -in a small Parisian establishment not far from the -Avenue d'Iéna. When he had learned there enough -of the trade to qualify him to be a manager of any -restaurant he came to England with his savings in -his pocket and took the position of manager in -a small Strand restaurant, while he looked about -for an opportunity to become a proprietor and to -possess a restaurant of his own. He had the name -of his restaurant ready before he found a suitable -house, for one day after a meal he sat thinking of -various matters and idly scribbled on the tablecloth -a series of capital "R's." Then, with no special -intention, he fitted on names to the "R's"—Rome, -Renaissance, Renommé, Rendezvous, and suddenly -found that the title he wanted had come to him. -And in the same chance way he found the position<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> -he wanted for his restaurant. During the period -that he was at the restaurant in the Strand he -used to go to Dean Street to buy coffee for his little -household, and he noticed one day that a house -there was to let. It had been used by one of -those mushroom clubs which spring up almost in a -night in Soho, and the police had terminated its -short existence by making a raid on the premises as -a gaming-house. M. Gallina saw his opportunity, -took it, spent some money in brightening it up, and -gave it an old-English window on its ground floor, -and that was the beginning of the Rendezvous.</p> - -<p>The gastronomic scouts soon discovered that Peter -Gallina in his little restaurant was giving extraordinarily -good value at very moderate prices, and some -of them sent me word concerning it. Mr Ernest -Oldmeadow, the distinguished novelist, was one of -the first of Gallina's customers, and brought many -others to the newly established restaurant. Mr -G. R. Sims, the genial "Dagonet" of <i>The Referee</i>, -was one of the first among the scribes to tell the -general public of the existence of the Rendezvous, -and he wrote a ballad in its honour. I, in the -early days of the existence of the restaurant, made -the acquaintance both of it and its proprietor, who -then, as now, affected clothes of an original cut. -In his restaurant Peter Gallina wears a small double-breasted -white jacket, with skirts and a very wide -opening in front. This opening is filled by the most -voluminous black cravat that has been seen since the -days of the Dandies. A small white apron is another -article of his costume. In those early days M. Gallina -oscillated rapidly and continuously between the -kitchen and the restaurant, first seeing that the dishes -were properly prepared, and then watching his -customers appreciatively eat the food. He had -no licence then to sell wines, and a small boy was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> -constantly sent scurrying across the road to a wine-merchant's -shop almost opposite, a shop which should -have interest for all readers of books, for its proprietor -is a well-known author.</p> - -<p>M. Gallina in a little book of "Eighteen Simple -Menus," with the recipes for all the dishes, a very -useful little book which he used to give away to -his customers, but which he now sells to them for -a shilling, has in a preface set down some "Golden -Rules for Cooks," and the first of these is "Buy -good materials only. The best cook in the world -cannot turn third-class materials into a first-class -dish." This rule M. Gallina has always observed -himself.</p> - -<p>The Rendezvous has constantly been increased -in size. A house next door to it fell vacant, and -M. Gallina at once took it and converted it into part -of his restaurant. Then with larger dining-room -came the necessity for a larger kitchen, and this -matter was put in hand. A wine licence granted -to the restaurant brought with it all the responsibilities -of a cellar, and M. Gallina has now -an admirable kitchen and offices, with walls of -shining white tiles, and a cellar big enough to hold -all the wine that his customers require. A tea and -cake shop, with tea-rooms on the first floor, the -Maison Gallina, next door but one to the restaurant, -was the next achievement of the enterprising little -man, and, finally, he rounded off his restaurant by -building at the back a new room, all dark oak and -mirrors and Oriental carpets, with a handsome oak -gallery running round it.</p> - -<p>The Rendezvous Restaurant is now one of the -landmarks of Dean Street. The wide windows of -its ground floor are of little square panes, each -window set in a white wooden frame, above a facing -of glazed red tiles, and before them stands a line<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> -of Noah's Ark trees in green tubs. Over these -ground-floor windows the restaurant's name is -written in Old English characters on a white ground. -A line of shrubs in winter and flowers in summer -is beneath the windows of the first floors of the two -old houses, and at night a row of globes blazes with -electric light above the name of the restaurant.</p> - -<p>The interiors of the two front rooms on the ground -floor of the restaurant have been decorated to -represent the parlours of an Old English farmhouse. -There are heavy black beams supporting the ceiling, -the walls are panelled with green cloth in wooden -frames, the electric lamps give their light in old lanterns, -and there are silver wine coolers with ferns in -them on the broad window-sill. Upstairs, and there -are three staircases in the restaurant, one of the rooms -on the first floor is kept in its original Georgian -panelled simplicity, while the other is a Dutch room -with plaques of Delft ware on the walls. The new -room at the back I have already described.</p> - -<p>The clientele of the restaurant comprises every -class of Londoner from princes to art students. The -late Prince Francis of Teck often dined there. I -have seen ladies in all their glory of tiaras of -diamonds and of pearl necklaces eating an early meal -at the Rendezvous before going to the opera; and -the youngster who is one day going to obtain -Sargent's prices for his pictures, but is still in the -chrysalis stage, and the as yet undiscovered Melbas -and Clara Butts receive just as much attention when -they eat the one dish which forms their lunch or -dinner as do the great people of the land who -indulge in many courses. The Royalty is but a score -of steps away from the Rendezvous, and many -playgoers on their way to that theatre dine at the -restaurant or sup there after the performance. -Messrs Vedrenne and Eadie quite appreciate the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> -advantage it is to have a flourishing restaurant just -outside their doors, and gave M. Gallina every -encouragement when he first established himself in -Dean Street.</p> - -<p>The Rendezvous has a <i>carte du jour</i> which gives -a great choice of dishes. The long card is covered -with items printed in red or written in blue ink, -and special delicacies are set down in scarlet. There -are various sole dishes and a score of those of other -kinds of fish. The entrées take up half the card, -and birds and salads, vegetables, savouries and -dessert each have a thick little column of written -items under their respective headings. The prices, -as I have already written, are quite moderate for -good material. The fish dishes average eighteenpence, -the entrées a little less. I have eaten at a dinner-party -given in the new room a very noble feast, and -I have dined by myself on soup, sole, a <i>navarin</i> of -lamb and an <i>entremet</i>, my dinner, without wine, -costing me five-and-threepence.</p> - -<p>There are two specialities of the house—the -<i>sole Rendezvous</i> and the <i>soufflé Gallina-</i>—which should -be included in any typical dinner of the establishment, -and the last time that I dined at the restaurant and -entertained a lady I included both of these in the -menu, which ran thus:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon Cantaloup.<br /> -Crème Fermeuse.<br /> -Soles Rendezvous.<br /> -Aile de Poularde en Casserole.<br /> -Aubergine à l'Espagnole.<br /> -Soufflé Gallina.<br /> -Café.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The <i>sole Rendezvous</i> is an admirable method of -cooking the fish with a white wine sauce and most -of the other good things that a cook can use in a fish -dish, all of which make it admirable to the taste but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> -exceedingly rich. The <i>soufflé Gallina</i> is a <i>soufflé</i> with -brandied cherries, and it is served in a little lagoon -of fine champagne cognac which is set alight. It -is by no means a teetotal dish. This dinner for two, -with a pint of Vieux Pré, a champagne recommended -by the house, and a bottle of Mattoni, came very near -a sovereign.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XL" id="XL">XL</a></h3> - -<h3>THE PALL MALL RESTAURANT</h3> - - -<p>Every Londoner knows the Pall Mall by sight, the -restaurant one door above the Haymarket Theatre, -and is familiar with the lace-curtained window of its -buffet, its entrance and the line of five French windows -with flowers before them on its first floor, and there are -few playgoers who have not, before spending an -evening at the Haymarket or His Majesty's over the -way, dined at one time or another at the Pall Mall -Restaurant. It is a restaurant which has prospered -exceedingly, and has done so because its two proprietors, -MM. Pietro Degiuli and Arnolfo Boriani—both -ex-head waiters at the Savoy and the Carlton—see -to every detail concerning their restaurant -and their kitchen and their cellar with untiring -diligence and with a complete knowledge. They are -both—Degiuli, small and neat and dapper, M. Boriani, -broad, wearing a curled-up moustache and looking -like a <i>tenore robusto</i>—always in the restaurant at -meal-times doing the work of <i>maîtres d'hôtel</i> and -giving personal attention to every member of their -clientele.</p> - -<p>In the ten years that have elapsed since they -rechristened the restaurant, which for a short period -had been known as Epitaux's, they have made many -improvements. The restaurant itself, a high room -with a curved roof and two sliding skylights in the -roof, which not only let in the light but fresh air as -well, is now a white restaurant, with deep rose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> -panels alternating with mirrors between the pilasters. -There is a little gilding in the decoration, but as -carpet and chairs and lamp-shades conform to the -scheme of rose, the restaurant may be described as -all white and deep pink. There was originally a -musicians' gallery at one end of this dining-hall, a legacy -from the Café de l'Europe, as it was called in the -fifties, and in the days of the café the doorway was -cased in to prevent draughts reaching the worthies -who used to sup there after the performance at the -Haymarket Theatre. The old wooden screen to -the door has been swept away, and people lunch -and dine and sup in the gallery which has replaced -the domain of the musicians. A little lounge where -hosts can wait for their guests, made by absorbing -part of the premises of the shop next door, is -one of the most recent additions to the Pall Mall, -and the Fly-fishers' Club having moved to larger -premises, MM. Degiuli and Boriani have been able -to construct a banqueting-room on the first floor -that, with a private dining-room which can accommodate -twenty diners, gives them now quite a large -establishment.</p> - -<p>As I have written, the two proprietors give -personal attention to every matter connected with -the restaurant, and they have not forgotten that they -are Italians, for in their <i>table d'hôte</i> lunch, the price of -which is half-a-crown, one of the dishes is usually an -Italian one, and all the coffee made in the establishment -is made after the Italian fashion, no metal being -allowed to come in contact with the fluid. For their -supper menu they always choose simple dishes, -which can be cooked directly an order has been given -by those who sup. There is a <i>carte du jour</i>, but the -dinners that nineteen out of twenty diners order are -one or other of the <i>table d'hôte</i> dinners of the day, a -four-shilling and a five-and-six one. This was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> -menu of the more expensive of these two dinners on -the last occasion that I dined at the Pall Mall:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre Variés.<br /> -Consommé Madrilène Froid and Chaud or Germiny.<br /> -Saumon Hollandaise.<br /> -Cailles Richelieu à la Gelée.<br /> -Selle d'Agneau Soubise.<br /> -Fonds d'Artichauts Barigoule.<br /> -Pommes Château.<br /> -Volaille en Cocotte.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Fraises Melba.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The soup was good, the quail especially attracted -my notice, for its jelly was flavoured with capsicum, -giving it thus a special cachet.</p> - -<p>The service at the Pall Mall is quick and silent, -and, though there is no unseemly hurry, the dinner -is quickly served, for most of the people who dine -at the Pall Mall are going on to a theatre.</p> - -<p>The Pall Mall has an exceedingly <i>comme il faut</i> -clientele, and any man who did not wear evening -clothes or a dinner jacket in the restaurant would -feel himself rather a fish out of water there at dinner-time, -and would probably take cover in the gallery. -I see at the Pall Mall very much the same people -whom I see at the Savoy and the Carlton, and the -lady who dines at the smaller restaurant before going -to a theatre to-day, probably to-morrow, when a -dinner constitutes the entertainment for the evening, -is taken to dine at one of the larger restaurants. -And perhaps because the Pall Mall stands where the -stage of one of the theatres in the Haymarket used to -be, the restaurant numbers amongst its clientele -many of the great people of the opera and of the -theatre, as its book of autographs shows. This is a -book full of scraps of wisdom and wit, and the Stars -of Song and Politics and the Stage have not been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> -afraid to cap each other's remarks. Thus when Madame -Patti leads off on the top of a page with a charming -platitude, "A beautiful voice is the gift of God," -Madame Yvette Guilbert inscribes below a reminder -that "An ugly voice is also the gift of God"; Sir -Herbert Tree, taking a different view from that of -either of the ladies, asks whether a voice should not -be considered "A visitation of Providence"; Miss -Mary Anderson sides with her sex, for she opines -that "All things are the gift of God"; and Sir Rider -Haggard rounds off the discussion with "But the -greatest gift of God is Silence." Lord Gladstone, -about to depart for South Africa, writes, "Faith in -the Old Country" as his contribution, and Mr Lloyd -George puts immediately below it a sentence in -Welsh, which being translated means "Liberty will -conquer"; Mr Ben Davies, also a man of gallant little -Wales, writes in his native tongue, below Mr Lloyd -George's sentence, "You are quite right, Lloyd -George, but your liberality has taken most of my -money." Mr John Burns, dining at the restaurant on -"Insurance Day, 1911," was not stirred up to any -poetic flights by the occasion, "Health the only -wealth" being his rhymed contribution.</p> - -<p>Amongst the signatures in the book is that of -Signor Marconi, who is not inclined to write his -name more often than is necessary. His contribution -was coaxed from him by a flash of wit on the part -of M. Boriani. On the menu of the dinner eaten by -the inventor of wireless telegraphy appeared the item -"<i>Haricots verts à la Marconi</i>." The great electrician -asked why they were so named. M. Boriani trusted -that the beans were not stringy, and the inventor -having reassured him on this point, he said that in -this case they might rightly be described as "<i>Sans -fil</i>."</p> - -<p>MM. Degiuli and Boriani have chosen as the motto<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> -of their restaurant, "<i>Venez et vous reviendrez</i>," and -this confident prediction has been justified.</p> - -<p>There is much history concerning the site on which -the Pall Mall now stands. In the latter years of the -Stuart dynasty, when the lane which led from -Piccadilly down to the Mall gradually became a street -of houses, Charles II. gave permission to John Harvey -and his partner to sell cattle as well as fodder in the -Haymarket. All along this market, on both sides, inns -sprang up, and one of them occupied the site where -the Pall Mall Restaurant now stands. The inn was -pulled down early in the eighteenth century, and on -its site Mr Potter, a carpenter, built a "summer" -theatre; this theatre was converted by Samuel Foote -somewhere about 1760 into a winter theatre. Mr -A. M. Broadley has written for the proprietors of the -Pall Mall an interesting booklet which deals at length -with this theatre and its managers, Foote and the -Colmans, and with the great actresses and actors -and musicians who appeared on its stage. Mozart -played on the spinet there as an infant prodigy; -Margaret Woffington made her first bow to an -English audience in the part of Macheath in <i>The -Beggars' Opera</i>, "after the Irish manner"; and two -actresses who married into the peerage—Lavinia -Fenton, who died Duchess of Bolton, and Elizabeth -Farren, afterwards Countess of Derby—played on its -stage. But on 14th October 1820, the Little Theatre, -as it was called, closed its doors with the tragedy of -<i>King Lear</i> and a farce. It was not at once pulled -down, and was still standing in a battered state when -the present Haymarket Theatre, built by John Nash, -was opened in 1821, just a fortnight before the -coronation of George IV. When the Little Theatre -was eventually pulled down shops were erected on its -site. Two of these were in the year of the first -Great Exhibition converted into the Café de l'Europe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> -the great hall of which, somewhat altered, is the large -room of the present restaurant. Mr William John -Wilde, who was Buckstone's treasurer at the Haymarket -Theatre, became the proprietor of the Café de -l'Europe in the late fifties, and as there was no early-closing -law in those days the café naturally enough -became the favourite supping place for those who had -sat through a long evening at the theatre almost next -door, and the sturdy critics who congregated in the -first row of the pit ate their devilled bones and tripe -and onions, Welsh rarebits, chops and potatoes in -their jackets, at the café after midnight and passed -judgment on the performances of Buckstone and -Liston, Sothern and the other famous comedians -of the theatre as they supped. Mr D. Pentecost was -the last proprietor of the old café. He was, as -"Dagonet" in <i>The Referee</i> has lately reminded us, a -nephew of Pierce Egan, the author of "Tom and -Jerry," and he was, amongst other things, the refreshment -contractor to the Alhambra. He was also the -proprietor of the Epitaux Restaurant in the colonnade -of the opera house in the Haymarket. When that -building was pulled down, in order that the Carlton -and His Majesty's Theatre should be built on its site, -Mr Pentecost transferred the name of Epitaux to the -Café de l'Europe. The building was redecorated and -MM. Costa and Rizzi became the lessees. Ten years -ago, as I have previously written, MM. Degiuli and -Boriani became the proprietors and gave the restaurant -its present name and its present appearance.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLI" id="XLI">XLI</a></h3> - -<h3>IN JERMYN STREET</h3> - -<h4>MAISON JULES. BELLOMO'S. LES LAURIERS</h4> - - -<p>Jermyn Street used to be sacred to small private -hotels, shops and bachelors' chambers, but the -restaurants have now invaded it and there are half-a-dozen -places of good cheer which have their front -doors in the street, while some of the Piccadilly -restaurants have a back entrance there.</p> - -<p>M. Jules had the happy idea of taking two houses, -one of them at one time the home of Mrs Fitzherbert, -as a medallion of the head of King George IV., found -under the drawing-room floor proves, and converting -them into a hotel and restaurant. It has proved so -successful in Jules' case that he is now adding on to -his hotel and restaurant, building at the same time a -nice little suite of rooms with bow-windows for himself -and his wife. As you walk down Jermyn Street -from St James's Street towards Lower Regent Street, -the Maison Jules is on the right-hand side. You cannot -miss it, for an illuminated terrestrial globe and the -name above the doorway catch your eye. A little -ante-room is separated from the restaurant by a glazed -screen to keep off draughts. The restaurant itself, a -long room running the whole width of the house, is -all white, with a little raised ornamentation on its -walls, with gilt capitals to the white pillars, and on -the marble mantelpiece a clock and candelabra of -deep blue china and ormolu. At the end of the room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> -a big window, which is almost a wall of glass, is -cloaked by lace curtains. There is a second room -running at right angles at the back, which either -can be used as part of the restaurant or can be -partitioned off.</p> - -<p>Jules himself will welcome you as you come into -the restaurant. I have known him for many years, -having first made his acquaintance when he was -manager at the Berkeley, when his hair was of lustrous -brown, and I have always been one of his supporters -at the hotel in Piccadilly and at the Savoy—when he -became manager there, and now in Jermyn Street, -where, with his wife and his daughter, who has married -the <i>chef de cuisine</i>, and his son, who is following in his -father's footsteps, he controls the restaurant and the -hotel. The girth of his waist may have increased -a little, possibly to match the bow-windows of those -new rooms, since I have known him, and his hair -is now powdered with grey, but his good-natured, -round, rosy face, and his eyes, which almost close -when he smiles, remain the same. He is always -so pleased to see me that I find that a dinner at the -Maison Jules does me more good than most tonics do.</p> - -<p>The people who dine at the Maison Jules are all -pleasant and well-to-do, and all the men wear dress -clothes. Some of the men are grey-haired people -like myself who have followed Jules in all his -migrations; but the restaurant is by no means a -home of rest for the elderly, for on the last occasion -that I dined there one of the prettiest of the younger -generation of actresses was being entertained at the -next table to mine; and young as well as elderly -diners appreciate the bonhomie that seems to be in the -atmosphere at the Maison Jules. The dinner of the -house is an eight-shilling one. The dinner I ate -when I last dined <i>chez</i> Jules is quite a fair specimen -of the evening meal:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre.<br /> -Consommé aux Quenelles.<br /> -Crème Américaine.<br /> -Suprême de Sole Volga.<br /> -Riz de Veau Souvaroff.<br /> -Médaillon de Bœuf Algérienne.<br /> -Poularde à la Broche.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Haricots Verts au Beurre.<br /> -Mousse aux Violettes.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The <i>crème Américaine</i>, a pink thick soup, was -excellent, and so was the cold dish of sole, with -jelly and a little vegetable salad. The <i>mousse aux -violettes</i> was an ice with crystallised violets on the -top; and the <i>riz de veau</i> and the <i>poularde</i>—for -which Jules wished to substitute a partridge—were -both excellent of their kind. When Jules, before I -left, came to me and told me that some gentlemen a -little farther down the room had told him that there -was absolutely nothing to criticise in the dinner, I was -not hard-hearted enough to tell him that the beans -were stringy, which, to tell the truth, they were. -Otherwise I agreed with the gentlemen farther -down the room. The wine list is a well-chosen one, -and there is in the cellar some 1820 Martell brandy, -landed in England in 1870, which used to be the -pride of the old St James's Restaurant, and the -whole of which Jules bought at the sale.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A little farther down the street on the same side -is a restaurant and hotel controlled by another old -acquaintance of mine in the restaurant world. The -restaurant is Bellomo's, and the hotel of which it -forms a part is Morle's Hotel. In the days when -I thought it my duty to do my share of drinking, at -the Café Royal, a particularly excellent cuvée of -Cliquot Vin Rosé, the waiter who was in charge of -the table at which I usually sat, and who attended to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> -all my wants with admirable intuition, was not at all -one of the lean kind, and to identify him from his -fellows I always called him, and wrote of him as, -"the fat waiter." He prospered and ran up the -tree of promotion, as good waiters do at the Café -Royal, so that in his later development he became -<i>maître d'hôtel</i> in charge of the grill-room, and wore -a frock-coat and a black tie. But the anxieties of his -new position in no way caused him to grow thin. A -year or two ago a friend wrote to me saying that he -and some others had found the money to set up -Bellomo, whom, of course, I remembered at the Café -Royal, in a restaurant of his own in Jermyn Street, -and hoped that I would go and see how he prospered -there. I went, not feeling quite sure who Bellomo -was, and found my fat waiter of old, now a plump -proprietor. His restaurant, which consists of two -rooms thrown into one, has walls with a light shade -of pink on them, and at night is lit by electroliers -with pink shades. A few steps lead from the front -to the back. The restaurant is a cosy little establishment, -and the two dinners which are served there—one -a three-and-six one and the other a five-shilling -one—are invariably well cooked, for M. Bellomo has -brought the good Café Royal traditions with him to -his new home. This is a typical menu, a winter -one, of Bellomo's three-and-six dinner:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre.<br /> -Consommé Rothschild or Thick Mock Turtle.<br /> -Filet de Sole Chauchat.<br /> -Carré de Mouton Niçoise.<br /> -Oie rôti.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Glacé Mont Blanc.<br /> -Gaufrettes.<br /> -</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Farther along the street and on the opposite side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> -is Les Lauriers, which takes its name from the two -little evergreen trees which stand in tubs at its door, -and which is higher and more airy than most of the -restaurants of its size, for at some time or another -the entresol has been thrown into the rooms on the -ground floor. Les Lauriers consists, like most of -the Jermyn Street restaurants, of two rooms joined -together with a space screened off by the door to -form a tiny ante-room. Its walls are panelled and -painted cream colour, and lamps with pink shades -hang from the ceiling. The green carpet and the -dark wooden chairs at the three rows of tables give -a comfortable look to the place. The proprietor is -M. Giolitto, who was a head waiter at the Savoy -before he came to Jermyn Street to make his -fortune. A very comfortable clientele patronises Les -Lauriers, and there are two dinners provided for -them, one a short dinner which is served until a -quarter to eight, and the other a more elaborate one, -priced 3s. 9d. and 5s. 6d. respectively. The last -time I dined at Les Lauriers I, feeling rich, indulged -in the longer dinner. This was the menu:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Melon Cantaloup or Driver's Royal Natives.<br /> -Consommé Viveur or Crème Doria.<br /> -Homard froid, Sce. Mayonnaise or Aiguillettes de Turbot en Goujons.<br /> -Tournedos à la Florentine.<br /> -Perdreau rôti sur Canapé.<br /> -Petits Pois à la Française.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Ananas Master Joe.<br /> -Mignardises.<br /> -</p> - -<p>It was a well-cooked dinner, and I do not wonder -that M. Giolitto was able to tell me that his -restaurant flourishes exceedingly.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLII" id="XLII">XLII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE MEN WHO MADE THE SAVOY</h3> - - -<p>If I were to attempt to give you all the early history -of the ground on which the Savoy stands I should -have to delve back to Tudor times, and the Savoy -Palace and the politics of that very turbulent period. -For me, however, the past history of the Savoy -begins with the time when the Savoy Theatre was -built on reclaimed ground and opened in 1881. -The offices of the theatre were in Beaufort House, -which stood on the hill, and beside the theatre was -a space of rough waste land, much like the County -Council's wilderness in Aldwych. On this unoccupied -land Mr D'Oyly Carte put up a shed to -house the electric light plant for the theatre, for the -Savoy was the first theatre in London that used -electric light. The Savoy Hotel and Restaurant -eventually rose where the electric light shed first -stood, and they were opened in 1889. The hotel -and restaurant then faced the Embankment, and had -no Strand frontage. To get to the restaurant one -had either to do a glissade in a hansom down the -steep Savoy hill to the side entrance which led into -a courtyard, in the centre of which stood a majolica -fountain, or to go to the front entrance opposite to -the Embankment Gardens. The restaurant was -smaller than it is now; it was panelled with -mahogany; it had a red and gold frieze and a ceiling -of dead gold. It was a very comfortable restaurant, -and the mahogany walls gave it a homelike feeling,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> -though, of course, they absorbed a great deal of the -light. The private rooms, named after the various -Gilbert and Sullivan operas, were, as they are now, -next to the restaurant. The grill-room was tucked -away in the middle of a block of buildings. There -was below the restaurant a <i>table d'hôte</i> dining-room, -and on the garden level was a ballroom and its -ante-rooms. The balcony was but half its present -width. No block of buildings has been more greatly -improved from time to time than the Savoy has been. -There has hardly been a year without some adornment -being added, and in 1904 the largest additions during -the history of the hotel were completed, and the -hotel and restaurant gained their Strand outlet.</p> - -<p>It would be possible to write a history of the -Savoy by taking note of the successive improvements -and additions made to it. It would also be possible -to tell the history of the great restaurant by an -account of some of the eras of great dinners, the -period, for instance, when the South African -millionaires were spending money like water during -the great "boom," and the period of freak dinners, -when Caruso sang from a gondola to diners sitting -by a canal in Venice, which was really the flooded -courtyard; and when, on another occasion, the same -space was turned into a Japanese garden for a Japanese -dinner. I was a guest at some of these great dinners, -at the Rouge et Noire one which two magnates -of the financial world gave to celebrate a great <i>coup</i> -at Monte Carlo, when all the decorations of the table, -all the flowers, as much of the napery as was possible, -reproduced the two colours, when the waiters wore -red shirts and red gloves, and the number on which -the money was won was to be found everywhere -in various forms on the table. And I was bidden -to the return banquet, a white and green one, which -strove to outdo the luxury of the former one,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> -whereat fruit-trees bearing fruit grew apparently -through the table, and each chair was a little bower -of foliage.</p> - -<p>But I prefer to chat concerning the men who made -the history of the house. Not the men who pulled -the strings behind the scenes, the Board of Directors -and their admirable managing director, Mr Reeves -Smith, but the men whom the public saw or heard -of in the restaurant, the general managers, the -managers of the restaurant, and the chefs. The -managers whom I knew were Ritz, Mengay, Pruger, -Gustave, and now Blond. In the restaurant were -Echenard, Joseph, Jules, Renault, and now Soi. -The chefs have been Escoffier, Thouraud, whom -Joseph brought over with him from Paris, Tripod, -and now Rouget; and most of these I knew well.</p> - -<p>When Mr D'Oyly Carte was putting in order the -organisation of the newly opened Savoy Hotel, he, -at Monte Carlo, asked M. Ritz, who was then at the -Grand Hotel there, to come to London and take -charge of the Savoy Restaurant. M. Ritz came and -brought M. Escoffier with him to make history in -the kitchens. When M. Ritz permanently took over -the management of the hotel and the restaurant -he asked M. Echenard, the proprietor of the Hotel -du Louvre at Marseilles, to come to London and -assist him in the restaurant. This triumvirate -worked admirably together. M. Ritz, thin, nervous, -splendidly neat, knowing all his patrons and their -tastes, was a great <i>maître d'hôtel</i> as well as a great -manager. The saying which he constantly quoted, -"The customer is always right," he acted up to. -If some ignorant diner found fault with one of -M. Escoffier's most exquisite creations it would be -swept away without a word and something suited -to a lower intelligence and an uncultivated palate -substituted for it. If an old and valued customer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> -had come into the restaurant and had ordered for -dinner, tripe and onions and sausages and mashed -potatoes, M. Ritz would have greeted such an order -as though it were a flash of genius, and would -probably have sent out to the nearest cab shelter for -the dishes.</p> - -<p>During the early days of the Savoy M. Ritz was -quietly teaching the English with money to spend -that a good dinner is not of necessity a long dinner, -and that a few dishes exquisitely cooked are better -than a long catalogue of rich dishes. M. Echenard, -looking like a Spanish hidalgo, quite understood the -ways of his two great colleagues—for MM. Ritz -and Escoffier are two of the greatest men in -gastronomic history—and backed them up nobly. -The cholera year in Marseilles took M. Echenard -back to his hotel in the south, and he has prospered -exceedingly there, being now the proprietor of the -Reserve and the hotel just below it on the Corniche, -as well as the Louvre. MM. Ritz and Escoffier -have since made the fortunes of other London -restaurants.</p> - -<p>When the Ritz-Escoffier regime at the Savoy -came to an end the directors bought the Restaurant -Marivaux in the street by the side of the Opéra -Comique in Paris, and brought over M. Joseph, the -presiding genius of that restaurant, to take charge -of the Savoy Restaurant. The Marivaux had a unique -reputation in the Paris of that day for its cookery. -Joseph came, bringing with him his chef, M. Thouraud. -Joseph was, I think, the most inspired <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, -with the exception, perhaps, of Frederic of the Tour -d'Argent, I have ever met. The Savoy Restaurant -was rather too large for his system of management, -for he liked to take a personal interest in each dinner -that was progressing in his restaurant and to give it -his constant supervision. He was born of French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> -parents in Birmingham, and his one great amusement -was that northern sport, pigeon flying. He had -pleasant brown eyes and bushy eyebrows, he wore all -that remained of his hair rather long, and had a -tiny moustache. He was quite wrapped up in his -profession, and, as he told me once, looked at his boots -the whole time that he took his afternoon constitutional -walk, that he might think of new dishes. -Whenever any novel idea occurred to him he tried -it at home in his own little kitchen before asking -M. Thouraud to make experiment on a larger scale. -To see Joseph carve a duck was to see a very -splendid exhibition of ornate swordsmanship, and his -preparation of a <i>canard à la presse</i> was quite sacrificial -in its solemnity. There was in his day a dinner given at -the Savoy at which Madame Sarah Bernhardt was the -chief guest, and most of the other people present -were "stars" of our British stage. Joseph cooked -before them at a side table most of the dishes of the -dinner, and told me that he did so because he wished -to show actresses and actors, who constantly appeal -to the imagination of their audiences, that there was -something also in his art to please the eye and -stimulate the imagination. When I asked why he -never went to the theatre, he told me that he would -sooner see six gourmets eating a well-cooked dinner -than watch the finest performance that Madame -Bernhardt and Coquelin could give. Joseph had -quite a pretty wit and facile pen. This was the <i>jeu -d'esprit</i> that he once wrote in a young lady's album:—"C'était -la première côtelette qui coûta le plus cher à -l'homme—Dieu en ayant fait une femme." And he -wrote for me a little essay on the duties of a <i>maître -d'hôtel</i> that was very sprightly in style. He was even -a greater believer than M. Ritz in the short dinner, -and declared that we in England only tasted our -dinners and did not eat them. Three dishes he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> -considered quite enough for a good dinner, and this -was a tiny feast which he ordered for me on one -occasion when I took a lady to dine at the Savoy:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Petite marmite.<br /> -Sole Reichenberg.<br /> -Caneton à la presse. Salade de saison.<br /> -Fonds d'artichauts à la Reine.<br /> -Bombe pralinée. Petits fours.<br /> -Panier fleuri.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The <i>panier fleuri</i> he carved himself at table from an -orange.</p> - -<p>Joseph became homesick, for he was a thorough -Parisian, and went back eventually to the Marivaux, -but he soon after died.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;"> -<a id="josephp276"></a> -<img src="images/josephp276.jpg" width="418" height="399" alt="Joseph carving a duck" /> -<div class="caption">JOSEPH CARVING A DUCK<br /> -<i>After a drawing by Paul Renouard</i></div> -</div> - -<p>The directors of the Savoy Company, which owns -the Berkeley and Claridge's as well as the Savoy -Hotel, brought jolly, genial, rosy-faced M. Jules, -under whose rule the Berkeley had prospered -exceedingly, from that white-faced hotel to the Savoy, -and his rule on the Thames Embankment was as -successful as it had been in Piccadilly. It was during -his managership that the additions that were to give -the entrance on to the Strand were planned, and, I fancy, -were begun, and when M. Jules left the Savoy to make -for himself a restaurant and hotel in Jermyn Street, -M. Renault, from the Casino at Biarritz, came to the -Savoy Restaurant, and the quick-witted M. Pruger -became general manager.</p> - -<p>This was a period of great activity and of many -alterations in the building. No Savoy manager has -ever had more brilliant inspirations for great feasts -than M. Pruger had. The gondola dinner was one of -his ideas and he always thought of something novel -and amusing for the Christmas and New Year's Eve -parties. M. Renault is now in Rome at the hotel -there owned by the Savoy Company; M. Pruger was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> -tempted away to America to manage a mammoth -restaurant on modern lines, but came back from New -York to take over the management of the Royal -Automobile Club when its great club-house in Pall -Mall was opened. M. Gustave, of the russet beard, -who had steered the newly built Café Parisien of the -Savoy to great success, next became manager of the -hotel, and that brings us down to the history of to-day, -for when he resigned his appointment M. Blond, the -present manager, succeeded him.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLIII" id="XLIII">XLIII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE DUTIES OF A <i>MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL</i></h3> - - -<p>I have mentioned in the previous chapter that Joseph -wrote me a sprightly letter on the duties of a <i>maître -d'hôtel</i>. This is it:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p><span class="smcap">Mon cher Colonel</span>,—Vous me demandez pour -votre nouveau livre des recettes. Méfiez-vous des -recettes. Depuis la cuisinière bourgeoise et le Baron -Brisse on a chanté la chanson sur tous les airs et sur -tous les tons. Et qu'en reste-t-il; qui s'en souvient? -Je veux dire dans le public aristocratique pour qui -vous écrivez, et que vous comptez intéresser avec -votre nouvelle publication, cherchez le nouveau dans -les à propos de table, donnez des conseils aux -maîtresses de maison, qui dépensent beaucoup d'argent -pour donner des dîners fatiguants, trop longs, trop -compliqués; dîtes leur qu'un bon dîner doit être -court, que les convives doivent manger et non goûter, -qu'elles exigent de leur cuisinier ou cuisinière de -n'être pas trop savants, qu'ils respectent avant tout le -goût que le bon Dieu a donné à toutes choses de ne -pas les dénaturer par des combinaisons, qui à force -d'être raffinées deviennent barbares.</p> - -<p>On a beaucoup parlé du cuisinier. Si nous exposions -un peu ce que doit être le Maître d'Hôtel.</p> - - -<p>LE MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL FRANÇAIS</p> - - -<p>La plus grande force du Maître d'hôtel Français, je -dis Maître d'hôtel Français à dessein, car si le cuisinier<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> -Français a su tirer parti des produits de la nature avec -un art infini, pour en faire des aliments aimables, -agréables, et bienfaisants, le Maître d'hôtel Français -seul est susceptible de les faire accepter et désirer. -Or voilà pour le Maître d'hôtel le champ qu'il a à -explorer. Champ vaste s'il en fût, car deviner avec -tact ce qui peut plaire à celui-ci et ne pas plaire à -celui-là, est un problème à résoudre selon la nature, -le tempérament et la nationalité de celui qu'il doit -faire manger. Il doit donc être le conseil, le tentateur, -et le metteur en scène. Il faut pour être un maître -d'hôtel accompli, mettre de côté, ou de moins ne pas -laisser percer le but commercial, tout en étant un -commerçant hors ligne (je parle ici du maître d'hôtel -public de restaurant, attendu que dans la maison -particulière, le commerce n'a rien à voir, ce qui -simplifie énormement le rôle du maître d'hôtel. Pour -cela il faut être un peu diplomate, et un peu artiste -dans l'art de dire, afin de colorer le projet de repas -que l'on doit soumettre à son dîneur). Il faut donc -agir sur l'imagination pour fair oublier la machine que -l'on va alimenter, en un mot masquer le côté matériel -de manger. J'ai acquis la certitude qu'un plat -savamment préparé par un cuisinier hors ligne peut -passer inaperçu, ou inapprécié si le maître d'hôtel, qui -devient alors metteur en scène, ne sait pas présenter -l'œuvre, de façon à le faire désirer, de sorte que si ce -mets est servi par un maître d'hôtel qui n'en comprend -pas le caractère, il lui sera impossible de lui donner -tout son relief, et alors l'œuvre de cuisinier sera -anéanti et passera inaperçu.</p> - -<p>Ce maître d'hôtel doit être aussi un observateur et -un juge et doit transmettre son appréciation au chef de -cuisine, mais pour apprécier il faut savoir, pour savoir -il faut aimer son art, le maître d'hôtel doit être un -apôtre.</p> - -<p>Il doit transmettre les observations qu'il a pu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> -entendre pendant le cours d'un dîner de la part des -convives, observations favorables ou défavorables, il -doit les transmettre au chef et aviser avec lui. Il doit -aussi être en observation, car il arrive le plus souvent -que les convives ne disent rien à cause de leur -amphitryon mais ne mangent pas avec plaisir et -entrain le mets présenté: là encore le maître d'hôtel -doit chercher le pourquoi. Il y a aussi dans un -déjeuner ou un dîner un rôle très important réservé -au maître d'hôtel. La variété agréable des hors-d'œuvre, -la salade qui accompagne le rôti, le façon de -découper ce rôti avec élégance, de bien disposer -ce rôti sur son plat une fois découpé, découper bien et -vite, afin d'éviter le réchaud qui sèche. Savoir -mettre à point une selle de mouton, avec juste ce qu'il -faut de sel sur la partie grasse, qui lui donnera un -goût agréable.</p> - -<p>Pour découper le maître d'hôtel doit se placer -ni trop près ni trop loin des convives, afin que ceux-ci -soient intéressés, et voient que tous les détails sont -observés avec goût et élégance, de façon à tenter -encore les appétits qui n'en peuvent presque plus -mais qui renaissent encore un peu aiguillonnés par le -désir qu'a su faire naître l'artiste préposé au repas, et -qui a su donner encore envie à l'imagination, quand -l'estomac commençait à capituler.</p> - -<p>Le maître d'hôtel a de plus cette partie de la fin -du dîner, le choix d'un bon fromage, les fruits, les -soins de température à donner aux vins, la façon de -décanter ceux-ci pour leur donner le maximum de -bouquet; le maître d'hôtel ne peut-il encore être un -tentateur avec la fraise frappée à la Marivaux? ou avec -la pêche à la cardinal, qu'accompagne si bien le doux -parfum de la framboise, légèrement acidulé d'une -cuillerée de jus de groseille. Notre grand Carême -qualifiait certains plats le "manger des Dieux." -Combien l'expression est heureuse!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p> - -<p>Depuis que je suis à Londres j'ai trouvé un nombre -incalculable d'inventeurs de ma "pêche à la Cardinal." -Il me faudra leur donner la recette un jour que j'en -aurai l'occasion.</p> - -<p>N'est-ce pas de l'art chez le maître d'hôtel qui tente -et charme les convives par ces raffinements, et qui -comme un cavalier sur une moture essoufflée -sait encore relever son courage et lui faire faire -la dernière foulée qui décide de la victoire? Après un -bon repas le maître d'hôtel a la grande satisfaction -d'avoir donné un peu de bonheur à de pauvres gens -riches, qui ne sont pas toujours des heureux.</p> - -<p>Et comme l'a dit Brillat Savarin "Le plaisir de -la table ne nuit pas aux autres plaisirs." Au contraire, -qui sait si <i>indirectement</i> je ne suis pas le papa de bien -des Bébés rieurs, ou la cause au moins de certaines -aventures que mes jolies clientes n'évoquent qu'en -souriant derrière leur éventail?<br /> -<br /></p> - -<p> -<span class="smcap">Joseph</span><br /> -<br /> -<i>Directeur du Savoy Restaurant, Londres,<br /> -et du Restaurant de Marivaux, Paris.</i><br /> -</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLIV" id="XLIV">XLIV</a></h3> - -<h3>THE SAVOY TO-DAY</h3> - - -<p>After the Houses of Parliament, the Law Courts, -the National Gallery, St Paul's and Westminster -Abbey, the Savoy Hotel is probably the building -that the well-to-do Londoner knows best. He -cannot walk or drive down the Strand without his -eye being caught by its milk-white frontage on that -tumultuous street, and by the stern-faced gilded -warrior above the courtyard entrance who leans on -a shield that bears an heraldic bird, which I have -no doubt is a very noble eagle, but which looks as -though it had been plucked. When he comes home -from abroad he, if he is looking to the right as he -crosses the railway bridge to Charing Cross, sees -the garden front of the hotel, with its balconies and -many windows, and its flag aflutter, and recalling -many good dinners in the past, looks forward to -many others in the immediate future.</p> - -<p>All the preliminaries to a dinner at the Savoy are -pleasantly dignified. The drive into the courtyard, -the cessation of noise as the wheels of car or carriage -come upon the india-rubber paving under the glazed -roof, the cream and dark green marbles of the -entrance front, the trellis and flowers outside the -Café, all contribute to pleasant anticipation; and -once inside the doors, the hall panelled with dark -woods, the glimpse through a long window of the -light-coloured reading-room, and the progress down -a flight of crimson-carpeted stairs, with walls of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> -buff and brown marble on either side, form the first -stage of the diner's progress to the restaurant.</p> - -<p>Servants in the handsome state livery they wear -in the evening—French grey and dark blue—take -one's coat and hat, and it always gives me a moment -of gratification that I am such an old habitué that -it is not considered necessary to give me a ticket. -Then if one is a host there is nothing to do except -to sit in one of the comfortable chairs in this ante-chamber -and to look alternately up the crimson stairs -to see whether one's guests are arriving and down -another flight of stairs across the great lounge to the -crystal screen of great panes framed in gilt metal -which is the transparent barrier between the -restaurant and its approaches.</p> - -<p>The lounge—crimson under foot, with walls light -cream in colour, good copies of portraits by British -old masters in panels alternating with looking-glass -doorways; with pillars of buff marble, veined with -brown and having gilt capitals, and bronze amorini -and sculptured groups of the Graces as supports for -electroliers—is a delightful room, as one realises -after dinner when the hour of coffee has come. The -band, wearing in the evening their uniform of dark -blue, the leader distinguished by a silver sash—in -the daytime they are in crimson—are in a corner -of the lounge close against the crystal screen that -their music may be heard in the restaurant. -Arched entrances in the eastern wall lead into the -Winter Garden, another great hall with a glazed -ceiling, with roses climbing up trellis-work, and with -a great recess, up a broad flight of stairs, with pillars -of green marble and a gilded fountain against its wall. -The <i>salon de verdure</i>, as it is grandiloquently called, -is above the new ballroom, the two great apartments -occupying the space where the courtyard -used to be.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> - -<p>My guests of the particular night I am describing -were my friend and old comrade, Pitcher, the editor -of <i>Town Topics</i>, and his wife and his pretty -daughter. I had determined that they should eat -a typical Savoy dinner, and had been at some pains -to obtain a really representative feast. Before I -went away on my travels in the summer I had -interviewed M. Blond, the general manager (who -was brought back when he was half-way to Rome -two years ago to take up the management of the -Savoy), in his sanctum, telling him that when in -the autumn I intended to write a couple of -chapters concerning the Savoy, I should like to -give a dinner including some of the specialities -of the cuisine, and that I should like to have -something descriptive to say as to such of the -dishes of which the Savoy is proud that were -not included in my little feast. We took into our -conference M. Rouget, the Maître-Chef of the -Savoy, who looks the genial, burly, contented -person that the head of a great kitchen should -be, and we chatted over new dishes and dishes -with new names (which are not the same thing), -and he gave me some particulars of his kitchens -and of the great army of cooks employed in the -Savoy, there being as many as two hundred and -ten in the brigade.</p> - -<p>When, being back again in London, I carried out -my intention of asking my editor to dinner, M. Soi, -the manager of the restaurant, came into counsel. -When I had made up my mind on the important -matter whether my dinner should cost twelve-and-six -or fifteen-and-six a head, and had stated that I should -like the more expensive feast, I added that I hoped -that no beef would be included in the menu, for -Pitcher had been complaining of preliminary symptoms -of gout. M. Soi on the day we were to dine—a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> -Sunday—submitted to me a menu which I duly -initialled as approved.</p> - -<p>My guest and his wife, looking as young as her -pretty daughter, duly arrived to the moment. -M. Soi, young and good-looking, with a light -moustache—he was under Ritz in various restaurants, -and has been at the Grand Hotel in Rome as -restaurant manager, going in the summer to the -Palace Hotel at St Moritz, before three years ago -he came to the Savoy—received us at the entrance, -and we were piloted to a table a comfortable distance -away from the band, from which the ladies had -a full view of the room, full, as it always is, with -good-looking people, the softer sex all being in -frocks that gave my lady guests plenty to talk about. -I gave my guests the menu, which, of course, I had -previously seen, to look at, as soon as they had -settled down, and I used my eyes to take in my -surroundings.</p> - -<p>Though I regret the disappearance of the mahogany -panelling, which is stowed away somewhere in the -hotel, as one regrets the loss of an old friend, the -pleasant buff colouring of the present restaurant, with -its frieze of raised decoration and the electric light -thrown up on to the ceiling and reflected down, which -is most comfortable to the eye, make for lightness; and -light as distinguished from glare is an aid to good -spirits in a restaurant. The balcony of to-day, twice -the width of the old balcony, and fitted with a -long awning for use on sunshiny days—an awning -which cost an almost incredible sum of money—is in -request both at lunch and dinner and supper-time; -and at lunch it has the supreme advantage of commanding -the one great view in Central London, the -river and the gardens and the Houses of Parliament -grouping into a splendid picture, only spoiled by the -blot of the unlovely railway bridge.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p> - -<p>This was the menu of the Savoy dinner that M. Soi -considered typical:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Délices de Sterlet.<br /> -Blinis de Sarrasin.<br /> -Consommé de Terrapine en Tasse. Kapusniack.<br /> -Suprême de Sole Divine.<br /> -Diablotin Cancalaise.<br /> -Filet de Perdreau Bonne Bouche.<br /> -Croquettes de Marrons.<br /> -Noisette d'Agneau de Galles Eldorado.<br /> -Fond d'Artichaut Clamart.<br /> -Poularde soufflée Savoy.<br /> -Salade Cornelia.<br /> -Poire de Paris Tosca.<br /> -Frivolités.<br /> -Canapé Esperanza.<br /> -</p> - -<p>—and as the accompanying wine I had ordered some -sherry with the <i>caviar</i>, a magnum of Pommery and -some Mattoni water.</p> - -<p>A most admirable dinner it was, rather long, -perhaps, to my taste, but it would have been difficult -to get enough distinctive dishes into a shorter menu. -The <i>sterlet caviar</i> on the little Russian pancakes made -an admirable <i>hors d'œuvre</i>; the <i>consommé</i> was of -turtle, but much lighter than the usual turtle soup; -the <i>kapusniack</i> is a Russian soup, in which leeks, -celery, turnips, onions, mushrooms, pig's ear, crushed -tomatoes and cabbage seasoned with vinegar play a -part, and it is served with cream stirred into it, and -with those little <i>pâtés</i> of which the Russians are so -fond when broken into the soup. The sole was -garnished with fried oysters covered with bread-crumbs, -and the <i>filet de perdreau</i>, which was the -supreme triumph of the dinner, consisted of grilled -<i>suprêmes</i> of partridges and grilled rashers of bacon -dipped in <i>poivrade</i> sauce. The <i>noisettes</i> were the one -plain dish of the dinner, but the asparagus ends -tucked away in the hearts of artichokes gave it its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> -cachet. The cold chicken filled with a <i>mousse</i> of <i>foie -gras</i> was a very noble dish, and tiny mushrooms, -formed from some kind of <i>mousse</i>, which apparently -grew amidst the truffles, and slices of chicken breast -which surrounded the white bird adorned with -Pompeiian drawings, were a very happy idea. The -nuts soaked in Kummel which we found in the -interior of the pears, which were served with a red -currant ice, was another happy idea much appreciated -by the ladies, and the <i>canapé esperanza</i> proved to be -soft roes on toast.</p> - -<p>This dinner takes a very high place amongst the -many good dinners I have eaten in my time in the -Savoy Restaurant. My bill came to £5, 2s.</p> - -<p>Some of the Savoy specialities for which there -were not room in one dinner menu are <i>huîtres -Baltimore</i>, which are oysters grilled with bacon; -<i>bortsch Polonaise, homard Miramar, sylphide Savoy,</i> which -is a very attractive way of serving lamb sweetbreads; -<i>mignonettes d'agneau à la Delhi, soufflés belle de nuit,</i> which -is a variant of the <i>soufflé surprise</i>, peaches and strawberry -and vanilla ice being used in it; and the noble -<i>bécasse à la Soi</i>, an invention of M. Soi, which is the -breast of a woodcock served with a most delightful -sauce on toast covered with <i>foie gras</i>.</p> - -<p>I have mentioned the ballroom which has taken the -place of the old courtyard and its fountain, and in -which many of the great banquets given at the Savoy -are held. It is a fine room, light grey in colour, -splendidly spacious, and when lighted up its colour -shows off the ladies' dresses to perfection. My only -objection to it as a banqueting-room was that the -white light, which is admirable for a ballroom, was -rather too glary for a dining-room. This has now -been obviated by lessening the light when dinners -are given in the room. If the Savoy could find some -means of shading the lamps with pink or putting on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> -pink glasses to the lamps on the occasion of banquets, -it would, I think, please those like myself who think -that the best light for a dining-room is a pink one.</p> - -<p>I asked M. Blond to give me the menu of any -recent Savoy banquet of which the management was -especially proud, not that I have not preserved many -menus of many great dinners, but that I wished to -shift the responsibility of selection on to his shoulders. -This is the menu of the banquet and wines he has -sent me as being typical of great Savoy feasts:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Caviar de Bélouga.<br /> -Blinis à la Gouriew.<br /> -Queue de Bœuf à la Française.<br /> -Crème Germiny.<br /> -Filets de Sole à l'Aiglon.<br /> -Suprême de Volaille à l'Aurore.<br /> -Côte d'Agneau de Lait au Beurre Noisette.<br /> -Pommes Lorette.<br /> -Velouté Forestière.<br /> -Délice de Strasbourg à la Gelée de Vin du Rhin.<br /> -Bécassine Double Flambée à l'Armagnac.<br /> -Perles du Perigord.<br /> -Cœurs de Laitues Suzette.<br /> -Asperges Vertes de Paris.<br /> -Comices Toscane.<br /> -Soufflé Pont l'Évêque.<br /> -Corbeilles de Fruits.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Wines.</span><br /> -Schloss Johannisberg Cabinet, 1893.<br /> -Veuve Clicquot, 1904.<br /> -Magnums Pommery and Greno (Nature), 1904.<br /> -Chât. Haut Brion "Cachet du Château," 1888.<br /> -Cockburn's 1890 (Bottled 1893).<br /> -Croft's 1881 (Bottled 1884).<br /> -Hennessey's 70 year old Cognac.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Many of the dishes included in this great dinner I -hope I may meet at a future time at Savoy banquets.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLV" id="XLV">XLV</a></h3> - -<h3>THE RESTAURANT DES GOURMETS</h3> - - -<p>Dining one wet night in September at the Restaurant -des Gourmets in Lisle Street I told the young -manager, with whom I chatted, that it must be ten -years since I dined there, and that at that time -M. Brice was the proprietor. The manager's reply -was that fourteen years ago M. Brice sold the -restaurant to its present proprietors. I looked up -the date of my last visit to the Gourmets when -I got home, and found that it was in 1898. It was -a queer little place of very eatable food at extraordinarily -cheap prices when first I made its acquaintance. -It then occupied the ground floor of one of -the little houses in Lisle Street, the street in which -is the stage door of the Empire Theatre, and Mr -George Edwardes' offices at the back of Daly's -Theatre. The outside of the restaurant in those -days did not look inviting. The woodwork was -painted leaden grey, and a yellow curtain hung -inside the window to screen the interior from the -view of the public. The glass of the door was -whitened and "Entrée" written across it in black -paint. There were as many little tables, to hold two -or four, as could be crammed into the little room; -the benches by the wall were covered with black -leather, the walls were grey, with wooden pegs all -round on which to hang hats and coats, and, here -and there, notices on boards "La Pipe est interdite." -By the window was a long counter, on which were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> -bowls of salad and stacks of French loaves, and -a metal coffee-making machine. By this counter -stood a plump Frenchwoman in black with an apron, -who shouted orders down a lift, and up the lift -came presently in response the dish called for. -M. Brice, a little Frenchman with a slight beard and -wearing a grey cap, came and sat on a chair by the -table and told me who the star guests were amongst -the people of all nationalities who filled all the space -on the chairs and benches. The <i>chef d'orchestre</i> of -the Moore and Burgess Minstrels at St James's Hall -was one of the celebrities; another, a gentleman wearing -a red tie, was a journalist who contributed -articles on Anarchists to the newspapers; there were -some Frenchmen who were big men in the greengrocery -line, and came over occasionally to Covent -Garden; and the greatest celebrity of all was a clean-shaven, -prosperous-looking person, the coachman of -the Baron Alfred de Rothschild. My bill that -evening totalled 2s. 7d., and for this I obtained <i>hors -d'œuvre</i>, 2d.; <i>pain</i>, 1d.; <i>potage, pâté d'Italie</i>, 2d.; -<i>poisson</i>, 8d. (the expensive dish of my dinner, turbot -and caper sauce); <i>gigot haricot</i>, 6d.; an <i>omelette</i>, -4d.; cheese, 2d.; and a pint of claret, of which -M. Brice had purchased a supply at the sale of the -surplus wines of the Café Royal, which cost me no -more than 6d.</p> - -<p>The front of the Restaurant des Gourmets to-day -stretches across three of the houses in Lisle Street, -and it has, besides the ground-floor rooms, quite -a spacious restaurant on the first floor, made by -throwing the three rooms of the houses into one. -Its ground-floor front is painted chocolate colour, and -its principal entrance, between two of the houses, -is quite imposing, has little Noah's Ark trees and a -<i>chasseur</i> in buttons, stationed there to direct visitors -to the different rooms and to call taxis. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> -staircase, with brass edges to the steps and a brass -rail, and with walls of white panelling, leads to the -restaurant upstairs, and a little pay-desk, with an -opening like those in a railway ticket office, faces one -at the entrance, and it is here that every visitor pays -his bill as he goes out. I looked in at all three -downstairs rooms, which are bright with coloured -papers on their walls, and found all the tables -occupied, before I went upstairs into the larger -restaurant. There I found a little table vacant, and -sat down at it with grim apprehension that I might -have what scanty hair I possess on the top of my head -blown off, for just above it was a large electric fan. -It was, however, not necessary, the night being cool, -to set this going, and I ate my dinner in a calm -atmosphere.</p> - -<p>The Gourmets has become quite smart since -Madame H. Cosson and her son succeeded M. Brice -in the proprietorship. The upstairs restaurant is -panelled with white woodwork above a green skirting, -there are mirrors in the panelling, and the -range of windows looking out on to Lisle Street have -white lace curtains. There is a table in the middle -of the room, and upon it fruits and big-leaved plants -and a basket with bunches of grapes hung invitingly -along the handle. Two big stands of Austrian bent-wood -for hats and coats are placed as sentinels on either -side of this table. There is a round-faced clock on -the wall to tell the time, and at intervals notices to -say that all drinks must be paid for in advance, which -means, I suppose, that the Gourmets has not yet -obtained a wine and spirit licence. No notice forbidding -pipes is now necessary. The waiters in -dress clothes and black ties bustle about, and when -I had given my order for <i>crème de laitue, cabillaud -frit, poulet au riz, sauce suprême,</i> and pudding -Gourmets, I looked round at my fellow-guests to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> -if I could pick out any celebrities. There was no -M. Brice this time to act as a "Who's Who in Lisle -Street," and most of the people who were dining -seemed to me to be young couples. Indeed from -the tables in my vicinity a painter could have limned -a series of pictures of the various stages of matrimony. -At the table next to mine sat a young couple who -were still in the holding hands state of love, who -were thinking a great deal about each other and very -little about their dinner, and who ordered anything -that the waiter suggested to them; further on was -a couple, each of whom was reading a newspaper, -and next to them again a young husband and wife, -who had brought out to dinner a pig-tailed little girl -of six or seven, whose manners were most admirable, -for she bade the waiter "Good-night" when she -went away with all the grace of a duchess. Beyond -these again was an elderly couple, who sat together -at one side of a table, an affectionate Darby and Joan.</p> - -<p>My soup when it came tasted rather too strongly -of pepper, but the fried cod was excellent. The -<i>poulet au riz</i> was all that it should be, and the -pudding Gourmets was a simple version of the well-known -pudding Diplomate.</p> - -<p>Prices have gone up a little at the Gourmets since -my first visit there, owing, of course, to the general -rise in the price of material. I was charged 3d. for -the soup, 6d. for the cod; I had rushed into wild -extravagance in ordering chicken, for that cost me -1s. 3d., and the price of the pudding Gourmets -was 4d.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLVI" id="XLVI">XLVI</a></h3> - -<h3>THE MAXIM RESTAURANT</h3> - - -<p>There may not appear at first blush to be any close -connection between Wardour Street, that length of it -which lies between Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry -Street, and the pleasant Austrian watering-place of -Marienbad; but whenever I traverse the thoroughfare -where the wax figures simper in Clarkson's, the -wig-maker's, windows, and where the French library -at one of the corners always keeps some passers-by -in front of it looking at the illustrated papers and -post cards, the china figures and the covers of the -novels, there rises before me when I come to the -Maxim Restaurant a vision of hills covered with pine-woods -and of the Café Rubezahl, a castellated building -of great red roofs and turrets and spires, high up -on the green hill-side, the café at which the late King -Edward often drank the good Austrian coffee of an -afternoon during his annual August trip to the town -of healing waters.</p> - -<p>The Rubezahl was, in an indirect manner, the -parent of the Restaurant Maxim in Wardour Street, -for when the organisers of the Austro-Hungarian -Exhibition at Earl's Court cast about for attractions -which would be in keeping with the spirit of the -exhibition it occurred very naturally to them that an -Austrian restaurant where the admirable plain Austrian -dishes could be eaten and where the Hungarian wines -and the cool beer of Pilsen could be drunk would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> -a pleasant novelty; and such a restaurant was established -opposite to the Welcome Club, and was eminently -successful. And to manage this restaurant the -son-in-law of the proprietor of the Rubezahl came -from the Austrian Highlands, and when King Edward -lunched at the restaurant and was given a typical -Austrian meal of "cure food" he recognised M. -Maximilian Lurion, the manager, and chatted with -him concerning Marienbad and the Rubezahl. When -Earl's Court had closed its doors for the winter M. -Maxim Lurion was not unwilling to stay in London, -and he, in conjunction with a British syndicate, -thought that a site at the corners of Wardour and -Gerrard Streets, which was then in the market, -would be a suitable position for a restaurant. A -small public-house carrying a licence was included in -the purchase, and when everything else on the site -was pulled down the business part of the old house of -refreshment stood, looking like a saloon of the Wild -West, amidst the ruins. When a name had to be -found for the new restaurant, the shortened form of -M. Lurion's Christian name was chosen, and the -building became the Restaurant Maxim. No doubt -Maxim's, in Paris, came by its name in a like manner, -for Maximilian is a very usual name in central and -eastern Europe.</p> - -<p>Maxim's has always kept a clean face in a street not -remarkable for smartness, and its white exterior, the -touches of gilding on the wreaths that embellish its -outer walls, its rows of mauresque white-curtained -narrow windows on the first floor, its turret domed -with silver, the flowers in its green and gold balconies, -and the commissionaire in a well-fitting coat who -stands by the front door, near the two large menus -which set forth what is the dinner of the day, make it -a pleasant feature of the street.</p> - -<p>When the Maxim was first opened M. Lurion took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> -me over the establishment from garret to basement, -and showed me how the coffee is made in Austria, -though Austrian coffee never tastes so well in London -surroundings as it does under the little trees of -the hill-side cafés in Carlsbad or Marienbad, or in -one of the open-air restaurants in the Prater of -Vienna. The Maxim, however, did not at first -fulfil the hopes of its promoters. Whether its name -frightened people or whether it was too ambitious -in its aims I do not know, but it soon changed -hands.</p> - -<p>When one evening last summer I went to the -Maxim to dine before going to one of the theatres in -Shaftesbury Avenue, I found M. Ducker, the present -manager, in the entrance hall near the cloak-room -where hats and coats are left, and he told me all about -the varying fortunes of the restaurant, who are its -present proprietors, and of the struggle that was -necessary to bring it to its present state of prosperity, -for prosperous it now is, there being not a vacant -table either on the ground floor or the first floor -when I came in. While I talked to M. Ducker a -couple, who had finished their dinner, rose from a -table by the brass ornamental rail surrounding the -oval opening which makes the restaurant on the first -floor a balcony to the room below, a waiter slipped -a clean cloth on to the table, and in a few seconds it -was ready for my occupation. M. Ducker hoped -I would have a good dinner, and left me to the care -of the <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, and as the waiter covered the -table with little dishes containing <i>hors d'œuvres</i> I -looked at the menu, at my surroundings, and at the -company. This was the menu of the half-crown -dinner of the house, the arms of the establishment, three -stags' heads on a shield, with a boar's head as a crest, -and two stags as supporters, being at the top of the -menu card:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre à la Russe.<br /> -Consommé Chiffonnette.<br /> -Crème Gentilhomme.<br /> -Suprême de Barbue Niçoise.<br /> -Carré de Pré-Salé Bourguignonne.<br /> -Pommes fondantes.<br /> -Poulet en Casserole.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Glacé Chantilly.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>In the upper restaurant of the Maxim, where I sat, -the walls are papered deep red, with white woodwork -and white classic ornamentation. There are mirrors -on the walls, and on a large panel the arms of the -house are displayed in proper heraldic colours. The -cut glass electroliers, some hanging, some fixed to the -ceiling, give light both to the upper and lower -restaurants. The lower restaurant is panelled and is -all white, red-shaded lamps on the tables and some -palms making a contrast of colour. Down in the -basement is a grill-room. The chairs are of white -wood upholstered in green leather, and the carpets are -a deep rose in colour. The little string band of the -establishment plays in the upper restaurant, its leader, -who is a talented violinist, standing close by the -brazen railing so that his music shall be as well heard -below as it is above.</p> - -<p>Every table, as I have written, was occupied this -evening in both the stages of the restaurant. There -are two circular lines of tables above, one close to the -railings, one against the walls, and the people who sat -at them belonged to all the various grades of -respectable London. At the table by the wall level -with mine were a young man and a pretty girl. He was -smoking a cigarette, she was drinking a cup of coffee, -and they were evidently obtaining their evening's -entertainment in listening to the music. At the table -beyond them were a little lady whom I include<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> -amongst my pleasant acquaintances, her husband and -a friend. Four men, in dinner jackets and black ties, -were at the table beyond them, and then other couples, -young and old, and other little parties of three and -four. Here and there were people, like myself, -dressed to go to a theatre; but the Maxim is in the -land of Bohemia, where there are no customs as to -wearing clothes of ceremony. What chiefly struck -me as to the diners at the Maxim was that they were -all enjoying to the uttermost their half-crown's worth -of dinner and music. There were smiling faces at all -the tables, and the applause at the conclusion of each -item of the band programme was very enthusiastic. -The eating of satisfactory food and the drinking of -sound wine are not the only dining pleasures that -make glad the heart of an epicure, and to be amongst -people who are enjoying themselves thoroughly is a -delight that cannot be written down on a menu or -contained between the covers of a wine list.</p> - -<p>To come to the important matter of the dinner I ate -at the Maxim, the <i>crème gentilhomme</i>, a thick green -soup, flavoured, I fancy, with spinach, was excellent, -and there was no fault to find with the fish and its -pink accompaniment of tomatoes and shrimps. When -I came to the next course a strange thing happened. -I had noticed, and appreciated as a special personal -compliment, the presence of a jar of caviare amongst -the <i>hors d'œuvres</i>; but when, instead of <i>pré-salé</i> mutton, -a tender <i>tournedos</i> of beef was put before me, a great -fear came upon me that I was eating somebody else's -specially ordered dinner, perhaps that of the manager -himself. On consideration, when a plump roast -chicken was brought me instead of a portion of the -bird <i>en casserole</i>, I came to the conclusion that the -manager had conspired with the cook to give me more -than my half-crown's worth of food, and when a -noble bowl of <i>fraises Melba</i> was placed before me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> -instead of the small <i>glacé Chantilly</i> I felt sure that -I had been put on the "most-favoured nation" basis. -But this overkindness was not needed, for, watching -my neighbours, I saw that the mutton they ate looked -toothsome; I would just as soon have been served my -wing of a chicken from a white-metal <i>casserole</i> as from -a plate, and I am quite sure that the temptation to eat -too many strawberries and ice brought me near the -deadly sin of greediness.</p> - -<p>To anyone making a dining tour of the restaurants -of London, I commend the Maxim Restaurant as a -bright and cheerful place, in a neighbourhood where -brightness is not the rule, where good-tempered, -pleasant diners appreciate the food and the music they -get for their half-crowns.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLVII" id="XLVII">XLVII</a></h3> - -<h3>BIRCH'S</h3> - - -<p>No. 15 Cornhill, which dates back to about 1700, is -a little slip of a building, old-fashioned in appearance -and tall in comparison to its breadth, its ground area -being just fifteen feet by thirty. This is Birch's, -the famous little pastry-cook's shop, which for years -almost unnumbered has supplied the Lord Mayor's -Mansion House banquets and the great feasts at the -Guildhall.</p> - -<p>Its ground floor has an old-fashioned carved front -with three windows with little panes, one of ground -glass in the centre of each window setting forth that -soups, ices and wine are to be obtained within. -The woodwork of the front is curiously carved, the -carving having reappeared in recent years, when -coat after coat of paint was taken off, a section of the -various layers being of as many colours as a Neapolitan -ice. The double door of the little shop, unusual in -shape, also has glass panels. There used to be on -the woodwork of the door an old brass plate on -which, in letters almost worn out by constant rubbing, -the name of the proprietor was given as Birch, late -Hornton. But some young bloods one night screwed -this off and it has disappeared. Through the glass -windows can be seen many wedding cakes, biscuits in -tall glass cylinders and a royal crown which was -probably part of the table decorations at some great -feast.</p> - -<p>The little shop has an atmosphere of its own.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> -Directly one goes into it one smells the good scent of -turtle soup and Old Madeira, with an added aroma -of puff pastry. The shop is divided into two parts -by an open screen, and a counter runs its full length. -There are old black bottles in glass cupboards, and -decanters on shelves, and an old clock. The floor is -saw-dusted, and men in white aprons bustle about -attending to the wants of the customers. Tray after -tray of pastry of all kinds is put on the counter and -cleared within a few minutes of their appearance. -Dignified City men, plate in hand, jostle each other -to get a first chance at the macaroons, to obtain a -still smoking bun, or a three-cornered puff fresh -from the oven. Plates of sandwiches are put before -customers to disappear with great rapidity. Whiskies -and sodas, glasses of Old Madeira or Port or East -Indian Sherry seem to be the favourite drinks. -When a customer has eaten all he wants and drunk -all he wants, he tells an amiable lady in black what -he has taken, and she, being a lightning calculator, -tells him in reply what he has to pay.</p> - -<p>The soup-room on the first floor, to which a -flight of narrow little steps ascends, has a calmer -atmosphere. Here, in a room with walls the paper of -which has been turned to a deep amber tint by the -London atmosphere, gentlemen sup, sitting down, -their plates of turtle soup or oxtail, and drink their -wine with dignified composure. There are tall white -wedding cakes under glasses in this room also. The -servitors in white aprons are busy in the soup-room, -though not quite as busy as downstairs amongst the -jam puffs.</p> - -<p>Up yet another Jacob's ladder of stairs is the -ladies' room, which I fancy is used as a chapel of -ease for the soup-room, though it is said that rich -old widow ladies going quarterly to draw their -income from the Bank of England always go into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> -Birch's for a plate of turtle soup and a glass of -sherry. Yet one flight of stairs higher is the office -of the firm of Messrs Ring and Brymer, who have -owned Birch's since 1836. In this room, in old -leather-covered books, are wonderful records of -hecatombs of baked meats and roasted fowl served -at City banquets without end. The two oldest -members of the firm have died of late years. These -two old gentlemen, Mr Ring and Mr Brymer, who -looked like archdeacons in mufti, and had exactly the -right dignity for men who provide and control the -Lord Mayor's feasts, had both a wonderful memory -for banquets that the firm had provided. I happened -to mention one day in their presence that a forbear of -mine, a banker and brewer, Alderman Newnham, had -been Lord Mayor of London, and at once they said -that in their books were the details of a feast given -by the worthy old gentleman when he was sheriff, -and taking down an old volume they showed me how -many gallons of turtle soup, the number of sirloins of -beef, and the quantity of fair white chickens, orange -jellies and plum puddings that the old alderman -paid for. It is a very cosy little room in which to -lunch, this office of the firm, and the turtle soup, -with its great squares of turtle flesh in it, a sole -Colbert, a grouse pie, angels on horseback, and a big -helping of that wonderful orange jelly, a clouded -delicacy that has the flavour of the orange stronger -than any other jelly made by any other pastry-cook, and -which is a speciality of the house, taste all the better -for being eaten in the little room on the walls of -which are old Guildhall menus and old pictures -of City feasts and portraits of city celebrities, and -many letters from the great panjandrums of City -companies, giving praise to Messrs Ring and Brymer -for the excellence of the banquets supplied by them.</p> - -<p>All the preparations for a Guildhall or a Company<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> -banquet, except the cooking that goes on in the -kitchens of the halls, used to be made in the kitchens -below No. 15 Cornhill, and the houses on either side -of it, and it used to be one of the free afternoon -sights of the City to see the kitchen-men carrying out -through the little entrance door the soup and the -pastry, the jellies and the cakes for a City banquet. -When two great insurance offices squeezed in on -either side of the pastry-cook's shop, Messrs Ring -and Brymer had to look for other kitchens, and they -now have a house in Bunhill Row, where on the top -storey there is a great kitchen for the cooking of the -soup and other delicacies, and where in the basement -the turtles spend their last sad days before being -butchered to make a Lord Mayor's holiday. At -Bunhill Row there is also a cosy little office with the -arms of many of the City companies as its wall -ornaments.</p> - -<p>Old Tom Birch, who was the second of his line, -the son of Lucas Birch who succeeded the Hornton -dynasty, was a man of many interests and a great -celebrity of the City. His Christian name was Samuel, -but he was "Tom" in the mouths of all City men. -He was Lord Mayor of London in 1814, the only -pastry-cook who has ever attained to that high -dignity. He was a great orator, and an enthusiastic -supporter of Pitt; he was Lieut.-Colonel of the first -regiment of Loyal London Volunteers raised at the -time of the French Revolution, and he wrote several -comedies which were performed at Covent Garden -and Drury Lane. There is still extant a song of the -day, which no doubt in its time had a great success -in City circles, in which a Frenchman coming to -London, and being taken round the sights, is surprised -to learn that the colonel of a regiment he sees on -parade is old Tom Birch, the pastry-cook; that a -governor holding forth to the boys at St Paul's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> -School; that an orator in the Guildhall; and that -the author of a comedy at Covent Garden, are all one -and the same estimable old Tom.</p> - -<p>A Lord Mayor's Guildhall banquet to-day has all -the same outward pomp and gorgeousness that it had -eighty or a hundred years ago. But a Lord Mayor's -banquet, so far as good things to eat and to drink are -concerned, is absolutely different to-day from what it -was half-a-century ago. This is the menu of the -feast that Messrs Ring and Brymer provided on Lord -Mayor's day 1913 for the Guildhall banquet. The -baron of beef is, of course, just as much a civic dish -as is the turtle soup, but the dinner is, on the whole, -quite a light one:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Turtle. Clear Turtle.<br /> -Fillets of Turbot Duglère.<br /> -Lobster Mousse.<br /> -Turban of Sweetbread and Truffles.<br /> -Baron of Beef.<br /> -Salad.<br /> -Casserole of Partridge.<br /> -Cutlets Royale.<br /> -Tongues.<br /> -Orange Jelly.<br /> -Italian Creams. Strawberry Creams.<br /> -Maids of Honour.<br /> -Princess Pastry.<br /> -Ices. Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The wines for this occasion were: Punch. Sherry—Gonzalez. -Hock—Rüdesheim. Champagne—Clicquot, -1904; Bollinger, 1904. Moselle—Scharzberger. -Claret—La Rose, 1899. Port—Dow's, 1896. Bénédictine. -Grande Chartreuse. Perrier. The cost of -the dinner, including wine, came to about two guineas -a head.</p> - -<p>And now as a contrast I give you the menu of the -banquet given in the Guildhall on Lord Mayor's Day, -1837. This was a Royal entertainment. The menu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> -is a yard in length, and it comprises the dishes at the -Royal table and the general bill of fare as well. I -only give you the dishes served at the Royal table, -which form an extraordinary mass of flesh, of fish, -fruit, fowl, in season and out of season. The buffet, -no doubt, held the dishes for which there was not -room on the table. The wines served at this banquet -are put down simply as Champagne, Hock, Claret, -Burgundy, Madeira, Port, Sherry:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -<span class="smcap">Three Potages.</span><br /> -Potage de Tortue à l'Anglaise.<br /> -Consommé de Volaille.<br /> -Potage à la Brunoise.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Three Plats de Poisson.</span><br /> -Turbot bouilli garni aux Merlans frits.<br /> -Rougets farcis à la Villeroi.<br /> -Saumon bouilli garni aux Eperlans.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Three Relevés.</span><br /> -Poulets bouillis, aux Langues de Veau Glacés, garnis de<br /> -Croustade à la Macédoine.<br /> -Noix de Veau en Daube décorée à la Bohémienne.<br /> -Filet de Bœuf à la Sanglier en Chasse.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Eight Entremets.</span><br /> -Ris d'Agneau piqués à la Turque aux petits Pois.<br /> -Sauté de filets de Faisans aux Truffes.<br /> -Pâté chaud aux Bécassines à l'Italienne.<br /> -Casserole de pieds d'Agneau aux Champignons.<br /> -Sultanne de filets de Soles à la Hollandaise, garnis aux Ecrevisses.<br /> -Timbale de Volaille à la Dauphine.<br /> -Filets de Lièvre confis aux Tomates.<br /> -Côtelettes de Perdreaux au Suprême.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Buffet.</span><br /> -Potage à la Turque.<br /> -Hochepot de Faisan.<br /> -Tranches de Cabillaud.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>Eperlans frits.<br /> -Langue de Bœuf.<br /> -Jambon à la Jardinière.<br /> -Bœuf rôti. Mouton rôti.<br /> -Agneau rôti. Agneau bouilli.<br /> -Hanche de Venaison.<br /> -Pierre grillé au Vin de Champagne,<br /> -Petit Pâtés aux Huîtres.<br /> -Croquettes.<br /> -Côtelettes d'Agneau aux Concombres.<br /> -Dindon rôti aux Truffes à l'Espagnole.<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -SECOND SERVICE.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Three Plats de Rôti.</span><br /> -Faisans.<br /> -Bécasses.<br /> -Cercelles.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Three Relevés.</span><br /> -Souflet de Vanille.<br /> -Pommes à la Portugaise.<br /> -Gaufres à la Flamande.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Four Pâtisseries Montées.</span><br /> -Vase en Croquante garni de Pâtisserie aux Confitures.<br /> -Fontaine Grecque, garnie aux petit-choux.<br /> -Vase de Beurre frais aux Crevettes.<br /> -Fontaine Royale garnie de Pâtisserie à la Genévoise.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Twelve Entremets.</span><br /> -Crème d'Ananas garnie.<br /> -Gelée au Vin de Champagne garnie aux fruits.<br /> -Homards à la Rémoulade.<br /> -Mayonnaise de Poulet à l'Aspic.<br /> -Fanchonettes d'Orange, garnies aux Pistaches.<br /> -Compôte des Pêches, en petits Panniers.<br /> -Tartelettes aux Cerises, en Nougat.<br /> -Petites Coupes d'Amarids à la Chantilly.<br /> -Culs d'Artichauts en Mayonnaise.<br /> -Anguille au Beurre de Montpellier.<br /> -Gelée au Marasquin, décorée.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>Gâteaux de Pommes en Mosaïque, à la Crème d'Abricot.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Buffet.</span><br /> -Poulets rôtis.<br /> -Bécassines rôties.<br /> -Canards Sauvages rôtis.<br /> -Tourte aux Pommes.<br /> -Tourte aux Cerises.<br /> -Beignets de Pommes.<br /> -Fondu de Parmesan.<br /> -Trifle à la Crème.<br /> -Plum Pudding.<br /> -Mince Pies.<br /> -</p> - -<p>No wonder our grandfathers mostly died of -apoplexy!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLVIII" id="XLVIII">XLVIII</a></h3> - -<h3>A CITY BANQUET</h3> - -<h4>THE MERCERS' HALL</h4> - - -<p>I do not think that of all the dinners I have eaten with -various hospitable City Companies in their halls I -could select a more representative one than one I ate -with the Mercers. That we drank 1884 Pommery at -the banquet shows that it did not take place yesterday.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>If there was one City Company that I was anxious -to dine with it was the Mercers, for most of my forebears -had been of the guild. My great-great-uncle, -who was Lord Mayor and an M.P., and who fell into -unpopularity because he advocated paying the debts -of George IV., was a Mercer; my great-uncle was in -his turn Master of the Company, and my grandfather, -who was a very peppery and litigious old gentleman, -has left many pamphlets in which he tried to make it -warm for everybody all round because he was not -raised to the Court of Assistants when he thought he -should have been. I had looked out Mercers' Hall in -the Directory, and found its position put down as -4 Ironmonger Lane, Cheapside; so a few minutes -before seven o'clock, the hour at which we were bidden -to the feast, I found my way from Moorgate Street -Station to Ironmonger Lane, and there asked a policeman -which was the Mercers' Company Hall. He -looked at me a little curiously and pointed to some -great gates, with a lamp above them, enshrined in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> -rather dingy portal. I passed a fountain, of which -two cherubs held the jet and three stone cranes contemplated -the water in the basin, and found myself in -a great pillared space. A servant in a brown livery, -of whom I asked my way, pointed to some steps and -said something about hurrying up. At the top of the -steps a door led me into a passage, on either side of -which were sitting gentlemen in dress clothes. I -looked at them and they looked at me, and I thought -for a second that the Mercers' guests were rather a -queer lot; and then the true inwardness of the -situation burst on me. I had come in by the waiters' -door.</p> - -<p>I was soon put right, my hat and coat taken from -me, and my card of invitation placed in the hands of a -Master of the Ceremonies, who in due time presented -me to the Master, to the Senior Warden, and to the -House Warden, who stood in a line, arrayed in -garments of purple velvet and fur, and received their -guests.</p> - -<p>The ceremony of introduction over, I was able to -look around me and found myself in a drawing-room -that took one away from the roar of Cheapside to -some old Venetian Palace. The painted ceilings, -the many-coloured marbles, the carved wood, the -gilding and inlaying make the Mercers' drawing-room -as princely a chamber as I have ever seen.</p> - -<p>While the guests assembled my host's sons took me -away into another room, which, with its long table, -might have been a council chamber of some Doge, and -here were hung portraits of the most distinguished -of the Mercers. Dick Whittington looked down -from a gilt frame, and so did Sir Thomas Gresham, -and there was Roundell Palmer in his judge's robes. -But, preceded by someone in robes carrying a staff -of office, the Master was going into the hall, and the -guests streamed after him. "It only dates from after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> -the Fire," said my host, as I gazed in admiration at the -magnificent proportions of this banqueting-house, the -oak almost black with age, relieved by the colours of -the banners that hang from the walls, by the portraits -of worthies, by some noble painted windows, by the -line of escutcheons which run round the room, bearing -the arms of the Past-Masters of the Company, and by -the carved panels, into all but two of which Grinling -Gibbons threw his genius, while the two new ones -compare not unfavourably with the old. At the far -end of the hall is a musicians' gallery of carved oak. -A bronze Laocoon wrestles with his snakes at one -side of the hall, and on the other, on a mantel of red -marble, a great clock is flanked by two bronzes. -Three long tables run up the room to the high table, -at the centre of which is the Master's chair, and -behind this chair is piled on the sideboard the Company's -plate. And some of the plate is magnificent. -There are the old silver salt-cellars, there are great -silver tankards, gold salvers, and the gold cup given -to the Mercers by the Bank of England and the Lee -cup and an ornamental tun and waggon, the first of -which is valued at £7000 and the second at £10,000.</p> - -<p>"Pray, silence for grace," came in the deep bass -tones of the toast-master from behind the Master's -chair, and then all of us settled down to a contemplation -of the menu and to a view of our fellow-guests.</p> - -<p>This was the dinner that Messrs Ring and Brymer, -who cater for the Mercers, put upon the table:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Tortue. Tortue claire.<br /> -Consommé printanière.<br /> -<br /> -Salade de filets de soles à la russe.<br /> -Saumon. Sauce homard.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>Blanchaille.<br /> -<br /> -Ortolans en caisse.<br /> -Mousse de foie gras aux truffes.<br /> -<br /> -Ponche à la Romaine.<br /> -<br /> -Hanches de venaison.<br /> -Selles de mouton.<br /> -<br /> -Canetons.<br /> -Poulets de grain.<br /> -Langues de bœuf.<br /> -Jambons de Cumberland.<br /> -Crevettes en serviette.<br /> -<br /> -Macédoines de fruits.<br /> -Gelées aux liqueurs.<br /> -Meringues à la crème.<br /> -<br /> -Bombe glacé.<br /> -<br /> -Quenelles au parmesan.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Wines.</span><br /> -<i>Madeira.<br /> -Hock. Steinberg</i>, 1883.<br /> -<i>Sauterne. Château Yquem</i>, 1887.<br /> -<i>Champagne. Pommery</i>, 1884.<br /> -<i>Burgundy. Chambertin</i>, 1881.<br /> -<i>Claret. Château Latour</i>, 1875.<br /> -<i>Port</i>. 1863.<br /> -</p> - -<p>I always rather dread the length of a City dinner, -but in the case of the Mercers a happy compromise -seems to have been arrived at, the dinner being important -enough to be styled a banquet, and not so -long as to be wearying. Messrs Ring and Brymer's -cook is to be congratulated, too, for his <i>mousse de foie -gras</i> was admirable.</p> - -<p>There were some distinguished guests at the high -table. At the far end, where the Senior Warden sat, -there were little splashes of colour from the ribbons -of orders worn round the neck, and the sparkle of -stars under the lapels of dress-coats.</p> - -<p>The Master had on his right a well-known baronet, -and on his left a special correspondent who had just -returned from the Far East, where for a time he was -a prisoner of war. Next to him was an ex-M.P. and -next to him again one of the House of Commons—an -Irish Q.C., with clean-shaven, powerful face.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p> - -<p>At the long tables sat as proper a set of gentlemen -as ever gathered to a feast; but with no special characteristics -to distinguish them from any other great -assemblage. The snow-white hair of a clergyman -told out vividly against the background of old oak, -and a miniature volunteer officer's decoration caught -my eye as I looked down the table.</p> - -<p>The dinner ended, the toast-master's work began -again, and first from the gold loving-cup and from -two copies of it, the stems of which are said to have -been candlesticks used when Queen Elizabeth visited -the Company, we drank to each other "across and -across the table." The taste of the liquor in the cup -was not familiar to me, and when my host told me -how it was compounded I was not surprised. It is a -mixture of many wines, with a dash of strong beer.</p> - -<p>Grace was sung by a quartet in the musicians' -gallery, and then the company settled down to listen -to speeches interspersed with song. By each guest -was placed a little cigar-case, within it two cigars; -but these were not to be smoked yet awhile. While -we sipped the '63 Port, we listened to an M.P. as he -responded for "The Houses of Parliament." Later -the Irish Q.C., who spoke for "The Visitors," caught -up the ball of fun, and tossed it to and fro, and -charming ladies and mere men sang songs and quartets, -and my host told me, in the intervals, of the great -store of the old Clarets and Ports that the Mercers -had in their cellars, which was enough to make a -lover of good wine covet his neighbour's goods. And -still later, after the cigars had filled the drawing-room -with a light grey mist, I went forth, this time down -the grand oaken staircase, with its lions clasping -escutcheons. I passed into Cheapside with a very lively -sense of gratitude to the Mercers in general, and my -hospitable host in particular.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="XLIX" id="XLIX">XLIX</a></h3> - -<h3>THE CAVENDISH HOTEL</h3> - -<h4>A GREAT BRITISH WOMAN COOK</h4> - - -<p>Often enough during the past quarter of a century -I have heard some hostess say reassuringly to someone -whom she had asked to a dinner-party to meet someone -else of the first importance: "Mrs Lewis is -coming to cook the dinner." That short sentence -has meant a great deal, for Mrs Lewis is the most -celebrated woman cook that this or probably any -other age has produced. I do not even except the -great Mrs Glasse. If in England there was a <i>cordon-bleu</i> -for women cooks Mrs Lewis would be a Grand -Officer of the Order.</p> - -<p>She is the proprietress of the Cavendish Hotel, -which occupies three houses, 81 to 83 Jermyn Street, -and it was to Jermyn Street that I went to make her -acquaintance. I waited in the tea-room of the hotel, -a room, round the walls of which hangs a line of -photographs of some of the great ones of the world, -and I wondered what kind of a lady it might be that -I was presently going to meet, for though I had -tasted Mrs Rosa Lewis's handiwork often enough -I had never set eyes on her in the flesh.</p> - -<p>Somehow my ideas of a successful petticoated ruler -of the kitchen have always been associated with -portliness, majesty, black silk, a heavy gold chain and -cameo jewellery. I think that a boyish remembrance -of my mother's cook in her church-going attire must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> -have left this impression on my mind. But these -vague ideas were shattered and sent spinning into -space when into the tea-room came a slim, graceful -lady with a pretty oval face and charming eyes, and -hair just touched with grey. She was wearing a -knitted pink silk coat, and one of those long light -chains that mere men believe were intended to support -muffs. She was arm in arm with one of the prettiest -of the young comediennes of to-day, and when she -told me that amongst the people she had asked to -lunch was an ex-Great Officer of the Household, -a young officer of cavalry, and an American editor, -I began to feel that at last I was moving in Court -circles, and instead of formulating the questions that -I intended to ask about cookery began to babble of -great houses and coroneted personages just as though -I was a newsman getting together my column of -society gossip.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 399px;"> -<a id="mrslewisp314"></a> -<img src="images/mrslewisp314.jpg" width="399" height="547" alt="Photo of Mrs. Lewis" /> -<div class="caption">MRS. LEWIS.</div> -</div> - -<p>But Mrs Lewis brought me back to Jermyn Street -and my object in going there by telling me at the -lunch-table in the grey dining-room that all the -members of her kitchen brigade are girls, that she -was going presently to take me down to show me -them at work, and that Margaret, who is twenty-six -years old, was responsible for the lunch we were -going to eat, even to the <i>pommes soufflés</i>, and she -further declared her entire belief that it was more -satisfactory to have an accomplished woman cook than -an accomplished chef in a kitchen; for the women -are more resourceful, are less apt to make difficulties, -and grumble less at their work, but that, on the other -hand, they are as a rule more extravagant than the -men cooks, for they do not understand the economic -side of kitchen finance.</p> - -<p>And very excellent indeed Margaret's handiwork -proved to be. Our first dish was of grilled oysters -and celery root on thin silver skewers, and then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> -came one of those delicious quail puddings which are -one of Mrs Lewis's inventions and for which King -Edward had a special liking. There was a whole -quail under the paste cover for everyone at table, -with a wonderful gravy, to the making of which go -all sorts of good things and which when it has soaked -into the bottom layer of paste makes that not the -least delicate part of the dish. Had not a turn of the -conversation taken Mrs Lewis off to a description -of how beautiful the twins just born to a member -of the aristocracy are, I should have liked to have -heard more concerning King Edward's tastes in -cookery, for no one, except, perhaps, M. Ménager, -who was his Majesty's chef, knew them better than -did Mrs Lewis, to whom many an anxious hostess -entertaining Royalty for the first time has looked -as her sheet-anchor. A turn of the conversation -brought up the name of the Duke of Connaught, who, -I know, has the same admiration for Mrs Lewis's -handiwork that the late King so often expressed. -Another appreciative monarch for whose appetite -Mrs Lewis has catered is the Kaiser, for she ruled -the kitchen at Highcliffe Castle during the Emperor's -stay there of three weeks. A personal gift of -jewellery marked H.I.M.'s approval.</p> - -<p>Mrs Lewis lays it down that three dishes are the -right number at any lunch, for she, like all other -really great authorities on gastronomy, is opposed -to a long menu; but she, as great authorities sometimes -do, broke her own rule in giving us, after the -quail pie, a dish of chicken wings in bread-crumbs and -kidneys before the pears and pancakes, an admirable -combination, with which our lunch ended. After -lunch Mrs Lewis took the little gathering that had -congregated about the lunch-table for coffee down -in the lift to her kitchen, a splendidly airy and -spacious one, running the full length of the three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> -houses, and with its windows opening out on a -courtyard at the back. It is as cheerful and light -and as well ventilated a kitchen as I have seen anywhere. -The rooms which should be cold for the -keeping of provisions are just at the right temperature, -the lines of pots and pans shine brilliantly, and -bustling about were half-a-dozen girls of all ages, -from the light-haired Margaret, head of the kitchen, -to a little girl of fourteen, the youngest recruit, all -wearing the white caps that men cooks wear, which -form a very becoming head-dress. And Mrs Lewis, -talking of "my girls," as she calls them, told me -that she was a year younger than the youngest of -them when she first, with a pig-tail of hair down her -back, began to learn the art of cookery in the kitchen -of the Comtesse de Paris, and she added that she -could show me the character she received from her -first place when, as a beginner, she was earning the -large sum of a shilling a week. Her second place -was with the Duc d'Aumale at Chantilly, and the -first kitchen over which she had complete rule was -that of the Duc d'Orléans, when he was at Sandhurst. -She at one time controlled the kitchen of White's -Club, and Mr Astor, both at Hever and in London, -puts his kitchens in Mrs Lewis's charge when he -gives his great parties.</p> - -<p>No cook with her training completed leaves Mrs -Lewis's kitchen for another place at less than £100 a -year, but her girls are never anxious to go elsewhere, -which I can quite understand, for they seemed a -very happy family down in that cheerful, airy kitchen.</p> - -<p>And presently in the tea-room I gained Mrs Lewis's -undivided attention for a minute or two and drew -from her some opinions as to the changes in dinners -that she had noticed since she first began to rule the -roast. One difference is a matter of finance, that -people in Victorian days were quite content to pay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> -three guineas a head for a dinner, but that now -hostesses bargain that their dinners shall not cost -them more than a guinea a head. Dinners have -become much shorter, but people in society have a -greater knowledge of gastronomy than they used -to possess. In past days a small jar of compressed -caviare was all that was needed for a dinner-party; -nowadays a large bowl or jar of the fresh unpressed -caviare is required. People were satisfied at one -time with half a stuffed quail, but now a whole -roasted quail is the least that can be set before any -one person. Again, in times now past, a sliced -truffle went a long way, whereas now each individual -guest likes to have a whole truffle "as big as your -fist" offered her or him.</p> - -<p>And, making the most of my opportunity, I asked -Mrs Lewis what was the time-table of her day when -she went out to cook one of those dinners that have -made her so famous. It is a very long day's work. -She is at the market at five <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> to buy her material; -at seven her staff is ready to help her in her own -kitchen, and she begins with the last dishes of the -dinner, preparing the sweets and ices; next she -turns to the cleaning and preparation of the vegetables, -and then to the materials for the soup and the making -of the cold dishes. By one o'clock the meats and birds -are all prepared for the cooking, and at six all the -things to be cooked at the house where the dinner is -to be given are put in hampers and taken over there.</p> - -<p>To step for an evening into command of a kitchen, -very often over the heads of one or two men cooks, -is not always an unmixed pleasure, and Mrs Lewis, -who has a very keen sense of humour, told me some -of her experiences in some kitchens which will make -very amusing reading if ever she writes her reminiscences, -as she should do. Sometimes she is asked -to build up a tent for some great dinner, which she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> -is ready to do, and she often furnishes it, and -ornaments its walls with china and pictures. Sometimes -when a host or hostess wishes to entertain -many guests to dinner and a ball Mrs Lewis takes -a big vacant house and furnishes it for one night, -in all the rooms that are seen, as completely as -though its owners were still occupying it. "I have -made almost as much in the past year out of my gold -chairs and my china as I have out of my pots and -pans," she told me. She has a little army of devoted -waiters who have been at her call for twenty years -and who are always ready to serve under her banner.</p> - -<p>A menu of one of Mrs Lewis's ball suppers, at -Surrey House, may well find a place here. She, -I believe, first made the great discovery that young -men who have danced an evening through prefer -eggs and bacon and Lager beer in the small hours -of the morning to <i>pâté de foie gras</i> and champagne:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -<i>Chaud</i>.<br /> -Consommé de Volaille.<br /> -Cailles Schnitten.<br /> -Poussin à la Richelieu.<br /> -Poulet grillé, Pommes soufflées.<br /> -<br /> -<i>Froid.</i><br /> -Petites Crabes. Homard. Truite au Bleu.<br /> -Poularde en Gelée.<br /> -Dindonneaux Hezedia.<br /> -Canard pressé en Parfait.<br /> -Bœuf et Agneau à la Mode.<br /> -Mousse de Jambon en Belle-Veu.<br /> -Asperges.<br /> -Fraises du Bois Monte Carlo.<br /> -Mélange de Fruits.<br /> -Pâtisserie.<br /> -Café Noir (à deux heures).<br /> -Grenouilles à la Lyonnaise.<br /> -Œufs pochés au Lard.<br /> -Rognons grillés.<br /> -Pilsener Lager Beer.<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> - -<p>She has cooked dinners for the regiments of the -Household Cavalry when they entertained a sovereign; -when a good fellow, now dead, kept open-house for all -his friends in the club-room during Warwick Races, -Mrs Lewis undertook the difficult task of providing -the best of lunches for an unknown number, and she -has contracted for many of the feasts of the great -Government Departments.</p> - -<p>Mrs Lewis has the artist's appreciation of a critical -judgment of her handiwork, but to cook a dinner -for people who cannot understand its excellences -is, in her opinion, like "feeding pigs on mushrooms." -There is not one iota of jealousy in Mrs Lewis, for -when I told her that in my opinion she held, as -a woman ruler of the kitchen, a parallel position to -that which M. Escoffier holds as a man, she told me -how much she admires the great French Maître-Chef, -not only as a great cook, but as a great gentleman.</p> - -<p>Before I left the Cavendish Hotel Mrs Lewis -showed me some of the rooms, and when I was loud -in praise of the perfect taste and the happy combination -she has achieved of keeping all the charm of the -fine old chambers and yet adding to them all the -modern conveniences, she laughed, told me that she -had been her own architect, added that it was not an -expensive education that had enabled her to do all -this, and likened herself in her apprentice years to -the little girl of fourteen whom we had seen down -in the kitchen.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="L" id="L">L</a></h3> - -<h3>THE RÉUNION DES GASTRONOMES</h3> - - -<p>Of clubs formed for the noble purpose of eating good -dinners—clubs that have no club-houses—there are -very many. Sometimes there is a literary tinge as an -excuse for the dinners, sometimes a Bohemian, sometimes -a Masonic. But there are two dining clubs that -deserve especial recognition in a Gourmet's Guide, -for they are clubs of professional gourmets whose -business concerns the organisation of good feeding. -One of these clubs, which held its annual dinner this -year in the new banqueting-room of the Piccadilly -Hotel, is the Réunion des Gastronomes. This -association consists of proprietors, managing directors -and managers of hotels, restaurants and clubs. It -holds meetings to discuss and take action in all matters -which concern the prosperity and welfare of the -gastronomic art, and once a year its members and -their guests banquet at one of the hotels or restaurants -which are represented by members of the Réunion. I -have been fortunate enough to be a guest of late years -at many of these banquets, and look back with -pleasure to the feasts held at the Hyde Park Hotel, at -the Café Royal, at Prince's Restaurant, and other -temples of gastronomy.</p> - -<p>Two lifts take banqueters down from the entrance -hall of the Piccadilly Hotel to the ante-chamber of the -new banqueting-room somewhere down in the bowels -of the earth. The new rooms are below the grill-room, -and the Piccadilly must have almost as much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> -depth below the street level as it has height above it. -The ante-room is classic in its ornamentation, is white, -or a very light grey, in colour, and its decoration is -elaborate. Here, between eight o'clock and half-past -eight, some three hundred Gastronomes and their -guests assembled, and I received a warm welcome -from Mr Louis Mantell, of the National Liberal Club, -the hon. secretary of the society, and from Mr -J. L. Kerpen, of the Hyde Park Hotel, the president -of the society, who was wearing his jewel of office, -hung by a gold chain round his neck. Colonel Sir -William Carington, the hon. president of the society, -was to have taken the chair at the dinner, but a -bereavement prevented him from being present, and -the president of the year presided in his place. I -found pleasant familiar faces all about me. There -were, amongst many others, Mr Judah of the Café -Royal, M. Soi of the Savoy, M. Kramer of the -Carlton, M. Jules from Jermyn Street, M. Gustave -from the Lotus Club, Mr George Harvey from the -Connaught Rooms, M. Luigi of Romano's, Mr -Edwardes, M. Pruger from the Automobile Club, -M. Boriani from the Pall Mall, Messrs Harry and Dick -Preston up from Brighton, and scores of other pleasant -acquaintances. At the half-hour punctually, a young -toast-master with a most majestic voice announced that -dinner was served, and the three hundred of us made -our way next door into the new great banqueting-room -that was receiving its gastronomic baptism.</p> - -<p>It is a fine spacious room, though its construction is -rather curious, for, no doubt owing to exigency of -space, the roof of a portion of it is comparatively low, -though the major part is quite lofty. It must, however, -have admirable ventilation, for at no period -during the evening did the room become uncomfortably -warm or the atmosphere uncomfortably -smoky. The colouring of the walls is of stone with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> -a slight tinge of chrome. Round a portion of the -hall runs a gallery with a handsome railing of black -and gold, and a double staircase at the end of the -room leads up to this gallery. The ceiling is -ornamented with fine paintings of gods and goddesses -in the clouds; there are large mirrors on one side of -the room and, in spite of the different heights of -portions of the ceiling, the acoustic properties of the -great hall are excellent. An admirable band, the -leader of which I think I remember as a solo violinist -on the stage, played us in to dinner and made music -during dinner, there being loud calls for M. Boriani, -the Caruso of the gastronomic world, when a selection -from <i>La Bohème</i> was played.</p> - -<p>A long table ran the whole length of the room, -and smaller ones branched off from it like the prongs -of a rake. The tables were decorated with flowers -of all shades of crimson and flame colour, and the -effect was quite beautiful. This was the menu of the -dinner, and the manager of the Piccadilly and the -chef were both warmly congratulated on a most -admirable feast. Following the menu are the wines -which accompanied it:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Caviar Frais d'Astrakan.<br /> -Blinis.<br /> -Tortue Claire.<br /> -Délices de Sole au Coulis d'Ecrevisses.<br /> -Selle de Chevreuil Grand Veneur.<br /> -Purée de Marrons.<br /> -Suprême de Volaille Princesse.<br /> -Neige au Champagne.<br /> -Reine des Prés en Cocotte.<br /> -Salade Trianon.<br /> -Rocher de Foie Gras à la Gelée au Porto.<br /> -Vasque de Pêches aux Perles de Lorraine.<br /> -Corbeille d'Excellence.<br /> -Croûte Piccadilly.<br /> -Fruits.<br /> -Moka.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> * * * * *<br /> -<br /> -Zeltinger Auslese, 1906.<br /> -Niersteiner Rollaender, 1911.<br /> -Volnay, 1903.<br /> -Ernest Irroy and Co., 1906.<br /> -Giessler and Co., 1906.<br /> -Bouget Fils, 1906.<br /> -Château Pontet Clanet, 1895.<br /> -La Grande Marque<br /> -(60 years old)<br /> -Specially selected for the Gastronomes' Dinner.<br /> -Liqueurs.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The crawfish sauce with the filleted sole was of -a most delicate taste; the venison admirable; the -<i>volaille princesse</i> a most dainty dish of fowl, and the -quail, the "Queen of the Fields," admirably plump -little fellows. The <i>foie gras</i>, served in the shape of a -circular fort, I did not taste, for I had already dined -very well. The <i>vasque de pêches</i> was one of those -combinations of fruit and <i>confitures</i> and ice that are -now so popular.</p> - -<p>With the coffee came the Royal toasts, and then the -cigars, and as the smoke curled up and the liqueurs -were brought round the musical programme which had -been arranged commenced. A gentleman in Highland -costume assured us that the joys of lying in bed were -greater than the joys of getting up in the morning, and -a young lady with a fascinating dimple sang "You -Made Me Love You," to the three hundred of us.</p> - -<p>"The Guests" was the next toast, to which Dr -O'Neill responded, thanking the professors of -gastronomy for the patients who so often came by -means of <i>gourmandise</i> into the hands of his profession. -Then after "Snooky Ookums," by another fascinating -lady, who wore a large red feather in her hair, there -was a little ceremony which delighted the Gastronomes -and their guests very much. It was a presentation of -a handsome silver-gilt cup on behalf of the Réunion -des Gastronomes to their hon. secretary, Mr Louis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> -Mantell, to whose cheery management of the feasts so -much of their success is due. The whole company -united in singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," -so as to give Mr Mantell time to collect his thoughts -before acknowledging his Christmas box in the shape -of a cup.</p> - -<p>Some good stories from Mr Cooper Mitchell, a little -more oratory, though speeches at the Gastronomes' -banquet are always kept within the shortest space, -and with more songs, a very merry evening ended. -If future banquets in the Piccadilly banqueting-hall -are all nearly as successful as the first one held there -it will become a hall of good will and good fellowship -as well as a hall of good cheer.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LI" id="LI">LI</a></h3> - -<h3>THE LIGUE DES GOURMANDS</h3> - - -<p>Saint Fortunat has deposed Saint Laurent from his -position as Patron Saint of Cooks. Saint Laurent -was an impostor in the matter of <i>gourmandise</i> for he -owed the proud position he occupied for so many -centuries as the Patron of the Chefs to the exceedingly -uncomfortable position in which he met his -martyrdom. He was broiled on a gridiron. Saint -Fortunat not only thoroughly enjoyed good things to -eat and drink, but wrote excellent Latin verses in -praise of gastronomy, some of which M. Th. -Gringoire, the secretary of the Ligue des Gourmands -and the editor of the <i>Carnet d'Epicure</i>, a clever -Parisian journalist who has settled in London, has -translated into flowing French verses. Saint Fortunat -was the father-confessor to the Queen-Saint -Radegonde and to Saint Agnes, and these two ladies, -the first of the <i>cordons-bleus</i>, prepared <i>ragoûts</i> and -<i>friandises</i> for the holy man, who thanked them in -poetry. He died in the odour of sanctity as Bishop -of Poitiers.</p> - -<p>The Ligue des Gourmands, which is the association -of the great French chefs in London, and whose -president is Maître Escoffier, the eminent chef of the -Carlton, celebrates the feast day of the Saint, in -December, by a banquet in his honour. The dinner -in 1913 was the second of the St Fortunat banquets -and the fourteenth feast held by the Ligue.</p> - -<p>The Ligue has branches pretty well all over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> -world wherever there are French cooks. If London, -under the presidency of M. Escoffier, takes the lead -with sixty members, Paris comes a good second with -forty-three members, and Marseilles, New York -and Montreal tie for third place, with twelve -members each. Brussels has a group of six members, -and there is a forlorn hope of five devoted French -chefs in the heart of the enemy at Berlin. Delhi and -Dakar, Constantinople and Ajaccio, Bombay and -Gumpoldskirschen, Lowestoft and Lahore, Shanghai -and Syracuse, Yokohama and Zurich, and a hundred -other towns are advance posts of the Ligue, and -wherever there is a group of the leaguers they and -their guests eat the St Fortunat dinner, the menu of -which is composed by M. Escoffier, and the <i>recettes</i> -of the especial dishes in which are sent in advance -to the members before the Saint's day. In 1913 the -most important dinner of the Ligue next to that held -at Gatti's was the one at Paris, where the leaguers -dined together at Paillard's and sent congratulations -to their brethren in London.</p> - -<p>M. Jean Richepin, the great French poet, is -bracketed with M. Escoffier in the presidency of the -Ligue, and many of the dishes that M. Escoffier has -invented for the feasts of the Gourmands are -named after celebrities in art and letters. The -<i>fraises Sarah Bernhardt</i>, which was the surprise dish of -the first dinner of the Ligue, has become a household -word in all the restaurants of all the nations. M. -Escoffier is no believer in keeping his inventions as -<i>secrets de la maison</i>, and his <i>recettes</i> for the dinners of -the Ligue are always published both in French and -English, in the <i>Carnet d'Epicure</i>, which is the -mouthpiece of the Ligue.</p> - -<p>In this open-handedness and open-mindedness, -M. Escoffier is very wise. I always assure ladies -who ask me to obtain for them recipes of various<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> -dishes, and remind great chefs when I beg <i>recettes</i> -from them, that it is not so much the ingredients of -a dish as the hand of the cook that makes a masterpiece. -No painstaking amateur, following exactly -the directions given by a master of the art, ever -reproduces a <i>chef-d'œuvre</i>, any more than an amateur -painter, copying the work of some great master of the -brush is able to obtain that master's effects.</p> - -<p>The dish that M. Escoffier had invented for the Dîner -St Fortunat in 1913 was the <i>cochon de lait St Fortunat</i>, -with <i>pommes Aigrelettes</i> and <i>sauce groseille au Raifort</i>.</p> - -<p>We, the hosts and the guests, began to assemble at -eight o'clock in the ante-room half-way up the great -staircase on the King William Street side of the -Adelaide Gallery. The great cooks are not so -selfish as many other banqueters are, for they -welcome ladies to their feasts, and very pretty indeed -are most of the chefs' wives and daughters, and -cousins and aunts, who grace these feasts. No one, -unless he knew who the members of the Ligue are, -would tell by seeing them as they gathered for their -banquet what their profession is. M. Escoffier, the -president, with thoughtful eyes and gentle expression, -looks, as I have, I know, before said, like an -ambassador or some great painter or sculptor. M. -Cedard, the King's chef, who is usually at these -feasts, but who was absent from this one, looks like -an attaché of an embassy; M. Malley, of the Ritz, -has the appearance and the aplomb of an officer of -Chasseurs à cheval, and so on through the whole list. -Some of them, of course, are the plump and rosy -gentlemen that artists love to draw presiding over -pots and pans, but great cooks are not all run into -one mould, either in figure or in intellect. And the -guests of the Liguers vary in type, as the Liguers -themselves do. I shook hands on Saturday night -with distinguished soldiers and their wives, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> -<i>bon-vivants</i>, with proprietors of restaurants, with representatives -of the great champagne firms of Rheims, -with journalists and authors who are epicures, with -doctors who do not practise themselves in the matter -of diet all that they preach to their patients.</p> - -<p>The banqueting-room at the Adelaide Gallery holds -comfortably one hundred and fifty diners, and we must -have been quite that number, for more gourmets -wished to make trial of the sucking-pig of the Saint -than it was possible to find room for, and though as -many tables as possible had been put into the space -M. Gringoire had to refuse tickets to would-be diners -who had postponed the request until the eleventh -hour.</p> - -<p>Soon after half-past eight, which is the dinner-hour -of the Ligue—for the great chefs like to see the -dinners from their kitchens well under way before -they change from their professional white clothing -into dress clothes—we streamed up the stairs from -the ante-room into the banqueting hall—a fine room, -with a musicians' gallery occupied for the occasion by -an Hungarian orchestra in hussar uniform, and with, -for this especial occasion, the French and the English -flags draped together at each end of the room. A -long table ran the full length of the room, and from -it jutted out smaller tables, each presided over by an -officer of the Ligue.</p> - -<p>When we were seated I could see some faces of -well-known chefs whom I had missed in the press -downstairs. There were there, besides the names I -have already mentioned, M. Aubin, of the Russell -Hotel; M. Espezel, of the Union Club; M. Briais, -of the Midland Hotel; M. Grunenfelder, of the -Grand Hotel; M. Vicario, of the Carlton; M. Müller, -of the Hyde Park Hotel; M. Görog, who was one -of the four founders of the Ligue; M. Génie, of -Prince's Restaurant; M. Ferrario, of Romano's;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> -M. Vinet, who was for many years chef at "The -Rag"; Mr Coumeig, chef to the Duchess of Marlborough; -and M. Saulnier, <i>sous-chef</i> of the Piccadilly, -a rising star. If all these names are not French -names, those amongst the chefs of the Ligue who -were not born in France have, by adopting the cult -of the Haute Cuisine Française, become naturalised -Frenchmen in gastronomy.</p> - -<p>There are various little ceremonies observed at the -dinners of the Gourmands, one of them being that -at the commencement of dinner a member of the -Ligue rises and reminds his fellow-members that only -French wine should be drunk at these banquets. -Another little ceremony is that each dish in turn is -announced by the toast-master—of course, for this -occasion a Frenchman—who rolls his "r's" with fine -resonance as in a thunderous voice he tells us what -we are going to eat.</p> - -<p>This was the menu with Escoffier's signature -appended to it:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Crêpes au Caviar frais.<br /> -Huîtres pimentées.<br /> -Croûte au Pot à l'Ancienne.<br /> -Turban de Filets de Sole au gratin.<br /> -Chapon fin à la Toulousaine.<br /> -Cochon de Lait Saint-Fortunat.<br /> -Pommes Aigrelettes.<br /> -Sauce Groseille au Raifort.<br /> -Bécassines Rosées.<br /> -Salade Lorette.<br /> -Pâté de foie gras.<br /> -Biscuit glacé Caprice.<br /> -Mignardises.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The caviar and the little pancakes are always -delightful, and the <i>croûte au pot à l'Ancienne</i>, in its -delicate plainness, always makes an excellent beginning -to a dinner. The <i>gratin</i> with the sole made it -a rather drier dish than fish dishes usually are, and I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> -know that this was the criticism passed on it by the -president of the Ligue, but it was very excellent to -the taste. The <i>chapon</i>, with its rich sauce, was -admirably cooked, and served in dishes with at either -end heads of fowls admirably reproduced by the -sculptors in the kitchen, and then to a triumphal -march from the band a little sucking-pig, its crackling -golden from the fire, was brought in processionally -and shown to the chairman of the feast and the guests -in general before it was carried out to be carved. -And very admirable the flesh of this piglet and his -companions was when brought to table, with round -each dish apples in their skins, the top of each apple -being cut off to serve as a little lid. A sharp-tasting -sauce, in which the flavours of red currant and horse -radish mingled, formed an agreeable bitter-sweet. -What the various ingredients were that formed the -admirable stuffing of the little pigs I do not exactly -know, but there were barley and chestnuts amongst -them, but, like all good stuffing, one flavour after -another chased each other over the palate. M. -Escoffier's own criticism on his own creation was that -a sucking-pig is more suited for a <i>petit comité</i> than for -a large gathering; but, though I quite agreed with -him that the right party in numbers to eat a sucking-pig -is just that number that one sucking-pig will -satisfy, I think it very hard luck if greater numbers -were to be prevented by this very fine distinction -between a dish for a dinner-table and a dish for a -banqueting-table from eating a very great delicacy. -The snipe and salad, the <i>pâté de foie gras</i>, served on a -great bed of crust, and an admirable ice, finished the -banquet. Then came the after-dinner ceremonies -and songs, which at these feasts are varied and lively. -The toast of "The King" and "The President," -with the two National Anthems, was followed by a -little discourse in honour of the Patron Saint by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> -chairman, who coupled the name of the saintly patron -of gastronomy with those of his two <i>continuateurs</i>, -the great poet and the great chef, and to this speech -M. Escoffier replied with great modesty. The toast -of "The Ladies" next brought all the male guests -to their feet, and then followed the hymn to St -Fortunat, sung by a gentleman from the musicians' -gallery, with orchestral accompaniment, the guests -taking up the refrain:</p> - -<p> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Saint Fortunat, honneur à toi,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O notre chef! O notre roi!</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saint Fortunat!"</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>If the leaguers were a little slow in picking up the -air and paid very little attention to the time, the -heartiness with which they chorused the Saint's name -made amends for any other shortcomings. "The -Ligue," "The Visitors," "The Press"—for whom -Mr John Lane, of <i>The Standard</i>, returned thanks—and -"The Cuisine and Wines of France" were toasted -by various orators, some of whom spoke in English, -some in French. And then M. T. Fourie, the chef -of the Adelaide Gallery, bearded, and blushing in his -white uniform of the kitchen, was called up to the -high table that the president of the Ligue and the -chairman of the dinner might shake him by the hand -and congratulate him on the admirable feast which -he had prepared. This is a very pretty little -ceremony always observed at these feasts, and a -very right one, for at most banquets the chef who -has been the cause of so much pleasure to the guests -is not asked to come in person to receive the thanks -which are so legitimately due to him.</p> - -<p>After this ceremony the concert, an Anglo-French -one, commenced. Mademoiselle Suzanne Ollier, -Miss Marianne Green and Miss Winifred Green, of -the Gaiety, Mademoiselle Bianca Briana, and Miss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> -Mabel Martin all sang charmingly, and were presented -with bouquets on behalf of the Ligue, and -M. Siffre, the president of the Club Gaulois, sang -"Margot" quite excellently, without an accompaniment. -He was presented with a cabbage stuck on -a fork, for the leaguers dearly love their little jokes -at their banquets. At last the band played the -<i>Père la Victoire</i> march and the National Anthem, -and the dinner came to an end.</p> - -<p>In gratitude to M. Escoffier, the president, to -M. Th. Gringoire, the secretary, and to all the -members of the Ligue for being permitted in their -company to taste for the first time the sucking-pig -of St Fortunat—a dish that will go the round of the -globe—let me quote a few words appropriate to the -occasion from Charles Lamb's prose Hymn of Praise -in honour of roast pig:</p> - -<p>"Pig—let me speak his praise—is no less provocative -of the appetite than he is satisfactory to the -criticalness of the censorious palate. The strong -man may batten on him, and the weakling refuseth -not his mild juices."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LII" id="LII">LII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE CAVOUR RESTAURANT</h3> - -<h4>FOR AULD LANG SYNE</h4> - - -<p>I head this chapter "For Auld Lang Syne," for the -future of the Cavour Restaurant has been, since the -death of Philippe, who brought the restaurant into -celebrity, uncertain. The Cavour has been put up of -late years once to public auction and bought in, and -there have been rumours without number that this, -that and the other actor-manager was going to -purchase the building.</p> - -<p>In spite of all these rumours, the Cavour still -continues in the hands of Mrs Dale, who was -manageress under Philippe in old days, and to -whom he left the property, just as it used to be in -Philippe's time, which is to say that it is one of the -best bourgeois French restaurants to be found in -London.</p> - -<p>Every Londoner knows the white-faced restaurant -almost next door to the Alhambra in Leicester -Square. It is one of the few restaurants that still -retains a bar, though it is nowadays called a buffet, -and the three-and-six dinner which is served in the -restaurant is still as it used to be, a most excellent -meal, unstinted, well cooked, and all its material of -excellent quality.</p> - -<p>The bar of the buffet has always been a favourite -resort of actors, and it was there that I first heard -Arthur Roberts tell the story of "The Old Iron<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> -Pot," a tale the success of which led to the invention -of the game of "Spoof," that masterly feat of -bamboozling the guileless which gave amusement in the -eighties to all Bohemia and added a new word to the -English language. The Old Iron Pot figured largely -in a tale which Arthur Roberts never wearied of -telling to "Long Jack" Jarvis, another actor. No one -ever heard the beginning of the tale, for it was -always well in progress when the victim of the -harmless pleasantry came on the scene. Arthur was -so intent on the story, the other conspirator so -immensely interested, that the new-comer was at once -interested also, dispensed with all greetings, and -tried vainly to understand all the ramifications of the -story into which new characters seemed constantly to -come, and which all revolved round an old iron pot. -Jack Jarvis apparently thoroughly understood the -story, occasionally asked questions, and now and -then corrected Arthur Roberts as to the relationship -of the various characters, and the other listener very -soon found himself pretending that he too comprehended -all the twists and turns.</p> - -<p>Somehow or another, in those days the spirit of -harmless practical joking seemed to be in the atmosphere -of the Cavour bar. Perhaps it was, because in -the days when Leicester Square was a waste ground -with the damaged equestrian statue of George the -Third in its midst some practical jokers sallied out -one night from the little restaurant which occupied -the site of the bar, to play the best practical joke of -the last century. They painted the statue's horse -with red spots, put a fool's cap on the statue's head, -and a long birch broom in the hand which should -have held a field-marshal's baton.</p> - -<p>Philippe was the one and only waiter in those days -at the little restaurant which was kept by a Frenchman -and his wife. Next door, and extending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> -behind the restaurant, was a tin shanty, where -judge and jury entertainment was held and <i>poses -plastiques</i> were exhibited. It was a disreputable -place, for Brookes, who was its proprietor, and who -had been associated with "Baron" Nicholson at the -Coal Hole, had not the Baron's wit, though he had -the same flow of doubtful oratory.</p> - -<p>When the old couple died, and Philippe succeeded -to the business, he soon bought up the tin shanty -and the ground belonging to it, built the Cavour as it -now is, the bar occupying the site of the original -restaurant, and made a little garden on the space now -occupied by a cinema show.</p> - -<p>Of this little garden Philippe was very proud. He -liked to be able to go out of his restaurant and pick -a bunch of mignonette to give to any lady, and he -grew some vegetables and oranges there as well as -flowers. He had an eye also to the main chance, for -when anyone pointed out to him that he was wasting -a valuable site by making a garden of it, he nodded -his head, and replied: "The earth he grow more -valuable every day."</p> - -<p>Philippe, short, grey-haired, with a little close-clipped -moustache, always wearing a turned-down -collar and a black tie, had a very distinct personality -of his own. He was a first-class man of business, -was up every morning at five o'clock to go the rounds -of the market, riding in one four-wheeled cab, with -another one following behind, into which he put -his purchases and brought them home with him. -He had no love for teetotalers, and he budgeted for -the very liberal dinner of the house on the understanding -that his customers should drink wine therewith. -When he found that some of the guests were -drinking only water, he used at once to send a -waiter to them or to talk to them himself, and to -tell them that he would charge them sixpence extra.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> -After a time he found it entailed less loss of temper -to notify this on the bill of fare, and the Cavour menu -still bears the legend: "No beers served with this -dinner. Dinner without wine, sixpence extra."</p> - -<p>The restaurant of the Cavour is a large white room, -with a smaller room, also white, running back from it. -Access to the big room is obtained from Leicester Square -by a narrow corridor decorated with allegorical figures -of the various months of the year—awful daubs, whoever -it was who painted them. The big room is lighted -from above by a sky-light, and there are large globes -of electric light in the ceiling. There are many large -mirrors let into the walls, and down each side of the -room run brass rails for hats and coats. There is oilcloth -on the floor, with strips of carpet over it in the -gangways. The waiters go to a bar near the entrance -door for the wine and other drinkables, which are -served out there by Mrs Dale, or by her deputy. -Some of the waiters, mostly French, were in the -restaurant for many years under Philippe, but there is -a new manager now with a curled-up black moustache.</p> - -<p>If any of the habitués wish to entertain guests to an -elaborate dinner at the Cavour, the custom is to pay -five shillings instead of three-and-six, and certain extra -dishes are put into the dinner of the day for this price. -The ordinary dinner, however, is so good that these -additions are hardly needed. This is the menu of a -three-and-six dinner I ate at the Cavour this winter. -It is served from five to nine, so as to meet the -convenience of all the patrons of the restaurant, from -the actor who makes a hurried meal before going to -the theatre, to the City man who comes in very late -after a day of hard work and goes home after his dinner:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre variés.<br /> -<br /> -<i>Soup.</i><br /> -Consommé de Volaille à la Royal.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>Crème à l'Indienne.<br /> -<br /> -<i>Fish.</i><br /> -Boiled Turbot au Sauterne.<br /> -Fried Fillet of Plaice.<br /> -Grilled Herring.<br /> -<br /> -<i>Entrée.</i><br /> -Filet Mignon aux Haricots panachés.<br /> -Calf's Head à la Reine.<br /> -<br /> -<i>Roast.</i><br /> -Chicken.<br /> -Quails on Toast<br /> -<br /> -Salad. Cheese. Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>There was a fine selection of <i>hors d'œuvre</i> to choose -from, and plenty of each, not the one sardine looking -lonely in a little dish, the two radishes and the potato -salad that so often are the sole representatives of the -first course at cheap dining-places. I was given a -big plateful of good thick mulligatawny soup, and -when I had eaten the very liberal helping of boiled -turbot, excellently firm, I felt that I had finished -quite a good dinner. However, I summoned up -enough appetite to dispose of the little <i>vol au vent</i> put -before me, the pastry of which was noticeably -excellent, and then attacked a quail, which was quite -a good bird, even if it had not those layers of fat -which distinguish a "special" quail on a club dinner -list from the ordinary one. A scoop from an -excellent Stilton cheese ended my repast.</p> - -<p>It may be selfish to hope that Mrs Dale may not -sell her property to be converted into a theatre, but -the Cavour dinner is such a good meal of its kind -that I should be sorry if it disappeared from the map -of London That Dines.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LIII" id="LIII">LIII</a></h3> - -<h3>VERREY'S</h3> - - -<p>If I compare Verrey's in Regent Street to Borchardt's -in the Französischerstrasse of Berlin, I am paying -Verrey's a high compliment, for Borchardt's is the -classic restaurant of the German capital, run on good -French lines by a German proprietor.</p> - -<p>Mr George Krehl the First, founder of Verrey's -as a restaurant, was born near Stuttgart, and came -over from Germany in 1850; and the recent manager -of the restaurant, Mr Stadelmaier, is also German -born, for he, like Mr Krehl, came from near -Stuttgart, and he, before he went to Egypt, to Paris, -to Düsseldorf and elsewhere, to become a cosmopolitan, -served his apprenticeship in gastronomy -under old Mr George Krehl at Verrey's.</p> - -<p>But French—French of the second empire—Verrey's -is, particularly at dinner-time. At lunch-time -the restaurant is always quite full of ladies who -shop in Regent Street, and of their escorts, and the -rooms on the first floor are also given over to lunchers—and -even then, sometimes, would-be customers have -to wait a little while to obtain tables. Therefore the -luncheon menu is adapted to the wants of ladies who -are probably in a hurry, for though there is a very full -list at lunch-time of delicacies that can be ordered, there -are also several entrées and several joints always ready.</p> - -<p>It is, however, at dinner-time that Verrey's enjoys -the peaceful, unhurrying atmosphere that always -should surround a classic restaurant, and which is so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> -thoroughly in keeping with the old bow-windows with -small panes of the café, which look out on to Regent -Street. A little corridor leads from the street to a -tiny waiting-room—a comparatively recent addition, -for it used to be the old still-room, a room which is -so small that the round table of ormolu with a china -plaque in its centre, on which is a portrait of Louis -XV., and smaller oval plaques all about it, almost -fills all the available space.</p> - -<p>The restaurant, lighted from above, used in old -Mr Krehl's days to be known as the Cameo Room, -for on the centre of each of its panels was a medallion -in the style of Wedgwood. I rather wish that this -old decoration had been retained, but I remember the -pride with which Mr George Krehl the Second -showed me the new Oriental decorations—decorations -which still remain—the silvered roof with mirrors -reflecting it, the electric lights on the cornice with -great shells to act as reflectors, an electric clock -shaped like a star, and the panels of old gold Oriental -silk. Time has mellowed the gorgeousness of this -Eastern setting, which in its first bloom I thought a -little too <i>voyant</i>, and the dark carpet and the dark -wood and upholstery of the chairs, all keep the -scheme of colouring a restful one. The napery at -Verrey's is the good thick napery of the classic restaurant. -Its glass is thin; its silver is heavy—all -trifles which are important as adding to the delight -of a good dinner. The lights at the tables are wax -candles, with pink shades, in old silver candlesticks, and -there is a Japanese simplicity in the two great bunches -of flowers in glass vases, one of which is on a dark -wooden stand in the centre of the room, and the other -on the sideboard. There are flowers also, in glasses, -on all the tables.</p> - -<p>It adds to the pleasure of dining at Verrey's to be -known and to be recognised by the old servants who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> -have been in the restaurant as long as I can remember -it. There is an old head waiter, a fine specimen of a -Briton—portly, with little side whiskers, dignified -and unhurrying, who might have stood as a model for -that Robert whose wit and wisdom used to enliven -the pages of <i>Punch</i>, who always remembers my -name and all my gastronomic history. And the head -waiter in the café, who now has a full head of grey -hair, I remember when he first came to Verrey's -a youth with the blackest of black hair. Mr -Stadelmaier, though he looks on the right side of -forty, remembers how young Mr George Krehl, in -the days of his father's rule, one day took me out into -the yard at the back of the house to show me his -dogs and the kitchen which looks out on to this open -space, and the last time I dined at Verrey's brought -me in from the yard, to look at a delightful little -Samoyede puppy, looking like one of the woolly toy -dogs in the shops, for he too, like Mr George Krehl -the younger, is a breeder of prize dogs, and has -established a club for the owners of sleigh dogs.</p> - -<p>Mr Stadelmaier has now left Verrey's and is manager -of Kettner's.</p> - -<p>The patrons of Verrey's at dinner-time are some of -them grey-headed, for I am sure that all its old patrons -always return to their first love; but there are young -couples as well, and the restaurant, though it is quiet, -is by no means dull. It has this distinction, rare -amongst modern restaurants, that it has never surrendered -to the modern craze for music during meals, -and it is possible to talk to a neighbour at the dinner-table -without raising one's voice to a shout. I fancy -that Mr Albert Krehl, the survivor of the two sons of -old Mr George Krehl, would as soon think of introducing -gipsy music into the restaurant as they would -of engaging Tango dancers to do "the Scissors" in -and out of the tables.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p> - -<p>Verrey's has so far acknowledged the tendencies of -to-day towards a <i>table d'hôte</i> dinner that it offers its -patrons, if they wish it, a dinner at seven-and-six. But -it is true to its old traditions in that although it offers -this dinner, no dish of the dinner is cooked until the -order has been given, and it is practically a dinner <i>à -la carte</i> selected for the diner at a settled price. This -is the menu of one of these dinners:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre Variés.<br /> -Consommé Duchesse.<br /> -Crème de Volaille.<br /> -Suprême de Sole Regina.<br /> -Filet de Bœuf Jussieuse.<br /> -Pommes Château.<br /> -Faisan rôti.<br /> -Salade d'Endive.<br /> -Celeri braisé au jus.<br /> -Parfait de Vanille.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Croûte Baron.<br /> -</p> - -<p>But to eat a dinner ordered by somebody else, -because I am too lazy to order it myself, is to me just -as unsporting as it is to land a fish that somebody else -has hooked, so that when I dine at Verrey's I pay M. -Schellenberg, the <i>chef de cuisine</i>, who is an Alsatian, -the compliment of giving careful consideration as to -which of his <i>plats</i> I shall order, and I generally like -to include in my dinner some of Verrey's specialities, -of which there are quite a number. The last time I -dined there I was given an excellent <i>bortsch</i> soup, one-and-three—it -is the custom at Verrey's to charge for -a half-portion, which is ample for one person, a little -more than half what is charged for a whole portion, -which suffices for two; <i>sole à la Verrey</i>, a filleted sole -with an admirable sauce, which is one of the secrets -of the house, but in which the taste of ketchup is -discernible, two shillings; and a <i>soufflé Palmyre</i>, two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> -shillings. This with a pint of good claret was a -dinner not to be despised.</p> - -<p>I asked Mr Stadelmaier whether the Queen's Hall -and the Palladium, two neighbouring places of music -and entertainment, had brought the restaurant many -customers. The concerts at the Queen's Hall, he -told me, had done so, and he said that people going to -the Palladium, when it gave a one-house variety entertainment, -used often to dine at Verrey's, but that its -present "two houses a night" policy did not send -diners to the restaurant.</p> - -<p>There is an abundance of history behind Verrey's, -and if a careful record had been kept of the great -dinners given in the rooms on the first floor, such a -record as the Café Anglais in Paris kept, it would -make very interesting reading. One of the merriest -dinners probably ever given in those upper rooms was -the one at the time of the late Victorian revival of -road coaching, at which most of the guests were well-known -whips. Every man at this dinner was presented -with a pink waistcoat, and as after dinner most of the -men went on either to music halls or theatres, the -appearance in the boxes of the young bloods wearing -pink waistcoats astonished the audiences, who thought -that a new fashion was being set. A quieter dinner, -but an even more distinguished one, was that at which -King Edward, when he was Prince of Wales, was -present. This was its menu:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Œufs à la Ravigote.<br /> -(Vodkhi.)<br /> -Bisque d'écrevisses. Consommé Okra.<br /> -Rougets à la Muscovite.<br /> -Selle de mouton de Galles.<br /> -Haricots panachés. Tomates au gratin.<br /> -Pommes soufflées.<br /> -Timbale Lucullus.<br /> -Fonds d'artichauts. Crème pistache.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>Grouse.<br /> -Salad Rachel.<br /> -Biscuit glacé à la Verrey.<br /> -Soufflé de laitances.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Many distinguished men have dined in the Cameo -Room—Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, was a great -crony of Mr George Krehl the elder, and he kept all -kinds of mementoes of the poet. Mr Gladstone was -another frequenter of the Cameo Room, and he liked -to talk to Mr Krehl of the revolutionary days of -'48 in Germany.</p> - -<p>The tragedy which is associated with the name of the -house was the fate of the beautiful Miss Fanny Verrey. -Verrey, from whom the restaurant takes its name, was -a Swiss confectioner, who came over from Lausanne -in the second decade of the last century and established -his shop in Regent Street. To add to the -attractions of his establishment he brought over from -Lausanne his pretty young daughter, who was engaged -to a Swiss pastor. She was young and lively -and beautiful; she chatted with her father's customers, -and learnt English by talking with them; the bucks -of those days made her a toast; and Lord Petersham -wrote some verses in honour of "The Pretty Confectioner," -in which he dubbed her "Wild Switzerland's -Queen," and ended one of the verses with these -lines:</p> - -<p> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Thy mind—brightest gem—is the Temple of Love;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But bright as thou'rt fair—thou'rt pure as a dove";</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>which shows that his lordship, though his sentiments -were praiseworthy, was not a great poet. The fame -of Miss Verrey's beauty drew crowds not only into -the shop, but outside it, and spiteful and jealous -rivals spread rumours concerning Miss Verrey's -lightness of behaviour, which were entirely untrue. -The crowds outside the shop became such a nuisance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> -that the authorities interfered in the matter. Mr -Verrey removed his daughter from the shop, and she -kept to her room to avoid public notice. The turmoil, -the unmerited scandal, and the lampoons in the papers -so affected the girl's health that she pined away and -died. But even then her memory was not respected, -and as a good example of the want of taste of the -time—the year was 1828—this riddle was published -in one of the papers: "Why was Miss Verrey's -death like a window front?" <i>Answer:</i> "Because it is -a paneful case."</p> - -<p>At one period Verrey's was known as the Café -François; but I can find no particulars concerning it -under this title. I also think that Verrey must at -some time or another have occupied another shop in -Regent Street, for some of his advertisements, notably -one of Howqua's teas, "as patronised by their -Majesties," were issued from 218 Regent Street, -whereas Verrey's to-day occupies 229 Regent Street.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LIV" id="LIV">LIV</a></h3> - -<h3>THE CATHAY RESTAURANT</h3> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 314px;"> -<img src="images/cathay.jpg" width="314" height="93" alt="Chinese characters" /> -</div> - - -<p>In full view of all who pass to and fro through Piccadilly -Circus, there shines on one of the tall houses which -encircle it the announcement that the upper part of -the building is occupied by the Cathay Restaurant, -which modestly on its menu describes itself as a -"pioneer, first-class, Chinese restaurant."</p> - -<p>As I take into my descriptive net every manner of -eating-house, so long as the food and drink to be -obtained there is good of its kind, I experimented in -the first days of this year of grace, at lunch-time, on -the Cathay Restaurant, and found that it has selected -in its very long <i>carte du jour</i> those Chinese dishes -which are palatable to the European, as well as to the -Chinese taste.</p> - -<p>Chinese food is no novelty to me, for during -the five years that I was quartered in the Far -East—at Penang, Singapore and Hong-Kong—I was -frequently one of the guests at feasts given by Chinese -merchants, and learned by experience which were the -dishes that one could safely eat and which were the -Chinese delicacies that it was wise to drop under -the table. A Chinaman, when he wishes to be very -polite at table, takes up with his chop-sticks some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> -especially dainty morsel from his own plate and pops -it into the mouth of his European neighbour at table. -A kindly young Chinaman once thus put into my -mouth a slip of cold pig's liver wrapped round a -prune, and I do not think that I ever tasted any -nastier combination.</p> - -<p>Two Chinese banquets at which I was a guest -remain very clearly marked in my memory. One was -given by a rich Chinaman at Penang, on the occasion -of the marriage of his son, to all the European -officials and the officers of the garrison and the -leading British merchants. It was a feast at which -the dishes were alternately Chinese and European -ones, and by each man's and by each lady's dish, for -the ladies were also invited, were chop-sticks, and -knives and forks and spoons. One Chinese dish -I remember at this feast as being quite excellent—a -salad of vegetables and of small fish of all kinds. -All the guests ate quite heartily both of the European -dishes and the Chinese dishes, but that night nearly -all the Europeans who had been to the banquet -believed that they had suddenly been stricken with -Asiatic cholera. I was one of the happy exceptions, -and I suppose that I must have skipped whatever was -the dish that worked such havoc amongst my fellow-guests.</p> - -<p>Messengers from half the bungalows in the leafy -lanes of Penang were sent off post-haste to the civil -surgeon, begging him to come at once to the bedside -of unhappy sufferers, and each messenger as he -arrived at the civil surgeon's house received the news -that the doctor believed himself to be in the throes -of the same dread Asiatic disease, and did not think -that he would survive the dawn. Nobody, however, -did die, and two or three days later all the aristocracy -of Penang, looking even paler than Europeans always -are in that land of lily-white complexions, and very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> -shaky about the knees, gathered together at a cricket -match and discussed the matter. Somebody had -already gone to the Chinese merchant and had told -him of the havoc that his banquet had made. He -was profoundly grieved, pointed out that none of his -Chinese guests had suffered the slightest inconvenience, -and laid the blame on the European dishes, -which he had procured as a compliment to his white -guests, saying that he "always mistrusted the cookery -of the barbarians."</p> - -<p>The other unforgettable feast was given by the -head Shroff, the native cashier, of one of the banks -in Hong-Kong. I had been talking at the house of -one of the bankers as to my experiences of Chinese -dishes, and had rather decried the cookery of the -Flowery Land. I had (I was afterwards told) been -especially sarcastic as to the Chinaman's partiality for -puppy-dog, and more or less ranked all Chinese -dishes with the detestable rat soup which a Chinaman -sold in the early mornings just outside the barrack -gates to the coolies on their way to their work. The -orderly officer going to inspect rations always had -to pass the unsavoury cauldron from which the soup -was ladled out, and, in the hot weather, the only -thing to do was to put a handkerchief to one's nose -and run past it.</p> - -<p>Some little time after these conversational flourishes -of mine the banker asked me if I would like to eat -a real, well-cooked Chinese dinner, for the head -Shroff of his bank had asked him to honour him with -his company at his villa in Kowlun—which is where -the "Mr Wu's" come from—and had told him that -he would be delighted if he would bring some of his -European friends. The dinner, which consisted -chiefly of fish, was an excellent one, the all-pervading -taste of soy not being too persistent, and I was -especially delighted with a white stew of what my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> -host said was Cantonese rabbit, which I thought -quite the most tender and the fattest rabbit I had -ever tasted. When the dinner was over, the banker -told me that the "Cantonese rabbit" to which I had -given such unlimited praise was really a Cantonese -edible puppy, fattened on milk and rice. After that -incident I found that whenever I dined out in Hong-Kong, -conversation always seemed to turn on to -Cantonese puppies, and I was gently chaffed for at -least six months as to my sudden conversion to the -delights of baby chow as a <i>pièce de résistance</i>.</p> - -<p>I found, however, neither puppy-dog nor rat on -the <i>carte du jour</i> of the Cathay Restaurant.</p> - -<p>The restaurant is on the first floor above a bank. -A commissionaire stands at the outer portals, and -there is a lift for the benefit of anyone who is too -lazy to walk up a single flight of stairs. The -restaurant itself is hardly sufficiently Oriental in -appearance to be a Cockney's beau ideal of a Chinese -restaurant. It is just what a progressive restaurant -for Chinamen in Peking would be, for though the -food is Chinese food, cooked by a Chinese cook, the -appearance of the restaurant is almost European, an -exaggerated copy of a French restaurant, with here -and there Chinese touches which redeem the place -from tawdriness. There is on the wall a paper with -a pattern of gold fleurs-de-lis, the carpet is crimson, -the chairs and tables are of European make, the -waiters are of European nationalities and wear dress -clothes. But a strip of good Chinese embroidery -is hung along that side of the restaurant where the -serving-room is behind a glassed screen; there are -porcelain vases on the two mantelshelves; a great -Chinese ornament of carved wood, gold and crimson -and black, hangs by a ribbon just inside one of the -windows; the big curtains to the windows are of old -gold Chinese silk, and the little curtains, also of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> -Oriental silk, are lilac in tint. The manager of the -restaurant is a Chinaman with short-cut hair, and he -wears the same neat, dark garments that all European -managers assume. I sat down at one of the tables, -asked the young Italian who came to wait on me -to show me a <i>carte du jour</i> and the menu of the set -lunch, if there was one, and then looked round at the -people who were taking their meal there.</p> - -<p>The Chinese in London certainly patronise their -own restaurant, for quite half the people who were -eating luncheon were Celestials. There were two -young Chinese boys in the charge of a grey-haired -English lady. There were several young Chinamen -whom I mentally put down as students. An older -Chinese gentleman had brought his wife out to lunch; -and before I left, a party of Chinese gentlemen came -in, whom, from the respect shown to them by the -manager, I judged to be secretaries of the Chinese -Embassy—the Chinese Ambassador, whom I know -by sight, was not amongst them.</p> - -<p>Nowadays when Chinese gentlemen and ladies -wear European clothes, and the men have their hair -short, one has to look at their faces to detect the -difference between them and Europeans.</p> - -<p>There were some Londoners lunching in the -restaurant. A party of ladies in furs were enjoying -the novelty of the Chinese dishes; two youngsters, -whom I took to be medical students, were ordering -various dishes from the <i>carte du jour</i>, and were cross-examining -the waiter keenly as to the cooking -arrangements and how the delicacies were imported -from China; and two schoolgirls, one of the flapper -age and one younger, came into the restaurant -giggling and looking round as though they expected -a pantomime Chinaman to spring up before them or -to jump round a corner.</p> - -<p>The menu of the day at the Cathay is on a large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> -folding mauve card, and the dishes are both in -Chinese characters and in English letters with an -explanation in English below each name. The first -division is for chop sueys and noodles. A chop -suey is to the Chinese what Irish stew is to the -English and a <i>ragoût</i> is to the French. Pork is its -foundation, and chicken livers and chicken gizzards, -celery, mushrooms, peas, onion, garlic, peppers, oil -and salt all go into it. Noodle is any paste dish, and -macaroni or vermicelli would be described on a -Chinese menu as a noodle.</p> - -<p>Of the dishes on the card, Loo min is noodle in -Pekinese style. Lat chew chop suey is chop suey with -green chutney. Chop suey min is chop suey with -noodle, and so on. There is a little list of dishes -which are ready, and a longer list of dishes which will -take some minutes to prepare, such as fried crab and -Chinese omelet; fried rice, with meat, mushroom, -egg and vegetables; sliced jelly-fish with pickle; -and soyed pork. Some especial dishes are on the -menu for which a day's notice must be given, one -of these being birds'-nests with minced chicken and -another shark's fin with sliced chicken, ham, bamboo -shoots, etc. At the end of the list comes the -catalogue of teas, pastries and sweets, pickled onions -being included in this category.</p> - -<p>After looking down the <i>carte du jour</i>, I turned my -attention to the set luncheon, and first of all took -up the card on which it was written in Chinese. In -case you may be able to read Chinese fluently I -reproduce this card on the next page.</p> - -<p>The first word on this only means menu. The -first dish is a soup of chicken, ham, bamboo shoots -and mushrooms. The second dish is fried chicken -liver and vegetables, and the last dish is simply -roast pork.</p> - -<p>I opted for this half-crown meal, and as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> -preliminary, the waiter put a tiny cup of soy and a -Chinese porcelain spoon by the side of the European -knives and forks and spoons which were already on -the table. A wine list was offered me, but I preferred, -as I was going to eat Chinese meats, to drink -Chinese tea with them, and ordered a cup of Loong -Cheng. The plates used at the Chinese restaurant -are, like the cutlery, of European pattern, but the -dishes in which the soups and the meats are brought -to table are Chinese ones of all kinds of shapes and -ornamented with Chinese paintings. My soup, with -tiny strips of bamboo in it and morsels of chicken -flesh, tasted very much like the chicken broth that -one is given when one is ill and on a low diet. The -fried chicken and vegetables were quite good eating, -and the taste of the bamboo shoots in it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> -particularly pleasant to the palate. The roast pork -I shied at, and asked instead to be given a plate -of chow chow, an admirable sweet which I have -known ever since boyhood, for one of my uncles, -who was Consul at Foo Chow, used to send home -to all his small nephews presents of this delicacy. -The tea was excellent, and doing as the Chinese do, -I did not spoil its taste by adding either sugar or -milk to it.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 229px;"> -<img src="images/chinesemenu.jpg" width="229" height="375" alt="Chinese menu" /> -</div> - -<p>Altogether my luncheon at the Chinese Restaurant -was quite a pleasant experiment, and I can advise any -gourmets who would like to test the cookery of the -Far East in comfortable surroundings to follow my -lead.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LV" id="LV">LV</a></h3> - -<h3>THE WHITE HORSE CELLARS</h3> - - -<p>A little glass canopy with a clock above it juts out -into Piccadilly, and a tall commissionaire stands at an -entrance where some stairs dive down, apparently -into the bowels of the earth. Where the stairs make -their first plunge there is above them on the wall the -device of a white horse—a fine prancing animal, -somewhat resembling the White Horse of Kent.</p> - -<p>The stairs, with oak panelling on either side of -them, give a twist before they reach the bottom, -where is the modern restaurant that occupies the site -of what were originally known as the New White -Horse Cellars, but which are now called the Old White -Horse Cellars, probably on the <i>lucus a non lucendo</i> -principle, for they have been modernised out of all -recognition since the days when Charles Dickens -recorded the departure of Mr Pickwick from these -Cellars on his coach journey down to Bath.</p> - -<p>The Old White Horse Cellars were originally on -the Green Park side of Piccadilly, and their number -was 156, as some way-bills to be seen at the present -White Horse Cellars testify. This ground is now -occupied by the Ritz Hotel. Strype mentions the -original cellar as being in existence in 1720.</p> - -<p>On the staircase walls of the New White Horse -Cellars is a little collection of prints and way-bills, -caricatures, etchings, old bills of Hatchett's Hotel, -posters and advertisements from <i>The Times</i> and other -papers of the hours at which the coaches for the west<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> -started. In this curious little gallery of odds and -ends are some documents relating to the old cellar on -the other side of the road. But the White Horse -Cellars were under Hatchett's in the great coaching -days, from the year of the battle of Waterloo to 1840. -It was from Hatchett's that Jerry, in Pierce Egan's -book, took his departure when going back to -Hawthorn Hall, and said farewell to Tom and Logic, -and it was in the travellers' room of the White Horse -Cellars, a title that was used alternatively with -"Hatchett's," that Mr Pickwick and his friends -sheltered from the rain, waiting for the Bath coach.</p> - -<p>Hatchett's in Dickens's time was not the comfortable -house that I knew in the eighties, when the revival -of stage-coaching was at its height. Indeed, there -could not be a picture of greater discomfort than -Dickens sketched in a few words when he wrote: -"The travellers' room at 'The White Horse Cellar' -is, of course, uncomfortable; it would be no -travellers' room if it were not. It is the right-hand -parlour, into which an aspiring kitchen fireplace -appears to have walked, accompanied by a rebellious -poker, tongs, and shovel. It is divided into boxes -for the solitary confinement of travellers, and is -furnished with a clock, a looking-glass, and a live -waiter, which latter article is kept in a small kennel -for washing glasses, in a corner of the apartment." -Dickens's word picture of the scene at the start of the -coach at half-past seven on a damp, muggy and -drizzly day is a fine pen-and-ink sketch, and -Cruikshank, in one of his caricatures, "The Piccadilly -Nuisance," shows very much the scene as Dickens -described it, with the orange-women and the sellers -of all kinds of useless trifles on the kerb; the coaches -jostling each other, passengers falling off from them, -and the pavement an absolute hustle of humanity.</p> - -<p>Cruikshank's various drawings and caricatures preserve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> -the appearance of Hatchett's of the old days in -the memory better than any word pictures could do. -The bow-windows of the old hotel with many panes -of glass in them; the stiff pillared portico, with on it -the name "Hatchett's," and a little lamp before it, -and above it the board with the inscription, "The -New White Horse Cellar. Coaches and waggons to -all parts of the kingdom." Above this board again -was a painting of an old white horse. I fancy that -the title of the Cellars, when they were on the other -side of the way, must have been taken from some -celebrated old horse—though Williams, who was the -first landlord of the original cellars, is said to have -given them their name as a compliment to the House -of Hanover, and that it was the white horse, not the -cellar, that was old.</p> - -<p>There are various other legends with respect to -the horse that gave Hatchett's its title, one of them -being that Abraham Hatchett, a proprietor of the -tavern, had an old white horse with a turn of speed -which had won him many a wager against more showy -animals.</p> - -<p>The entrance to the Cellars below Hatchett's, in the -old days, was down some very steep stairs just in -front of one of the bow-windows, and an oval notice, -hanging from a little arch of iron, directed people -down into the depths to the booking-office.</p> - -<p>My reminiscences of Hatchett's are of the later -revivals of road coaches; the days of old "Jim" -Selby, the famous coachman who, though everybody -called him "old," died a comparatively young man. -His grey hair and his jolly, fat, rosy face gave him an -appearance of being older than he really was. Those -were the days when the late Lord Londesborough and -Captain Hargreaves, Mr Walter Shoolbred, Captain -Beckett, Baron Oppenheim and Mr Edwin Fownes -were well-known whips, and when "Hughie"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> -Drummond, and the host of other good fellows and -lively customers in whose veins the red blood flowed -in a lively current, who drank old port and despised -early hours, were the men about town. "Hughie" -Drummond taking old "Jim" Selby out to dinner -after the arrival of the "Old Times" from Brighton -and changing hats with him, which generally took -place early in the evening, is one of my remembrances -of Hatchett's. And many a time have I split a pint -with "Dickie-the-Driver," the oldest in standing -amongst my friends, then not the least lively of the -young fellows, before climbing up on to the coach -at Hatchett's to go down to the Derby. For many -years eight of us, always the same men, went down -by coach from Hatchett's on Derby Day, always with -"Dickie" driving out of London and the last stage -on to the downs, and our gallop down and up the hill -on the course was a really breakneck performance.</p> - -<p>It was from Hatchett's that "Jim" Selby started -on his celebrated drive with the Brighton coach, -"Old Times," to Brighton and back, for a wager of a -thousand pounds to five hundred against his accomplishing -the journey in eight hours. On the coach -were: Selby himself, driving; Captain Beckett, -whom we all called "Partner"; Mr Carleton Blyth, -who still sends yearly from Bude his greeting of -"Cheero" to his old friends; Mr "Swish" Broadwood, -Mr "Bob" Cosier, Mr A. F. M'Adam, and -the guard. Harrington Bird's picture of the coach -during the galloping stage, with the horses going at -racing pace, gives an idea of how Selby drove on that -day when he had a clear road. The coach reached -the "Old Sip" at Brighton, having done the first -half of the journey in just under four hours; stayed -there only long enough to turn the coach round and -to read a telegram from the old Duke of Beaufort, -who was most keenly interested in the revival of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> -coaching, and who was a very good man himself on -the box seat—and then started again for London, -reaching the White Horse Cellars ten minutes under -the stipulated time and forty minutes within the -record. I was one of the men amongst the crowd -that gathered to see the return of the coach and to -cheer old "Jim" Selby, who brought his last team in -no more distressed than they would have been doing -their journey under ordinary circumstances. How -highly respected Selby was by all coaching men was -shown by the long string of stage-coaches, every coach -on the road having suspended its usual journey, which -followed his body to the grave.</p> - -<p>In those days the bill of fare at Hatchett's was roast -beef or boiled mutton and trimmings; duck and green -peas, or fowl and bath-chap. There was an inner -sanctuary then called "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which -was the bar parlour, into which only the most favoured -patrons of the house were admitted, and Miss Wills, -the manageress, used to keep any unruly spirits very -much in order.</p> - -<p>When Hatchett's was rebuilt and changed its name -it changed hands very frequently, though the White -Horse Cellars always remained a restaurant. The -Cercle de Luxe, a dining club, at one time occupied -the upper floors of the building, and then it became the -Avondale Hotel, with M. Garin as manager and M. -Dutruz as chef. Since then the rooms have been put -to many uses, and are now, I see, once again in the -market.</p> - -<p>It is the memory of what Hatchett's and the White -Horse Cellars have been in their old days—memories -that haunt me like the sound of a horn afar off on one -of the great roads—that makes me disinclined nowadays -to eat a French dinner in what was a home of -good English fare; and whenever I lunch or dine in -the White Horse Cellars to-day I always, for the sake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> -of old times, order a plate of soup, a mixed grill and -a scoop from the cheese. The three-and-sixpenny -dinner of to-day is, I have no doubt, a good one, and -Mr Stump, the present manager, is most courteous -and anxious to oblige. I look at the menu when -I am in the restaurant, but for the old sake's sake -I keep as close to the meals of old days as the -resources of the establishment allow me to do.</p> - -<p>The White Horse Cellars of to-day is a modern, up-to-date -restaurant, below the level of the ground, -though the ventilation is so excellent and the lighting -arrangements so good that one never has the sensation -of being in a cellar. Half-way down the staircase, -just where the little picture gallery commences, a door -leads into a buffet. One's great-coat and hat are -taken at the bottom of the stairs, and then one enters -quite a lofty room with a groined roof, and with cosy -nooks and various extensions of the bigger room, -which, I fancy, have been thrown out under the side-walk -above. The walls of the restaurant are of -cream colour; the ornamentation is in the style of -Adams, and there is deep rose colour in the arches -of the roof. Many mirrors reflect the vistas and give -the rooms the appearance of being more extensive -than they really are: a string band is perched up in a -little gallery; there are palms here and there, and -a bronze galloping horse in a recess does something -to recall the old horsy days of Hatchett's.</p> - -<p>There are many little tables, each with its pink-shaded -lamp, in this restaurant, and it has a chic -clientele, the "Nuts" of to-day appearing to patronise -it just as much as the bucks and the bloods, the swells, -and the "whips" of the last two generations used to. -I see pretty actresses sometimes dining at Hatchett's, -and it is a very cheerful restaurant in which to take a -meal. It is, I believe, always crowded at supper-time, -and the Glorias, the two excellent dancers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> -who appear earlier in the evening on the Empire stage, -dance the Tango, at midnight, in and out of the -little tables.</p> - -<p>But to me the charm of the White Horse Cellars is -that I can live again in memory, when lunching or -dining there, those joyous days of youth and fresh air, -when a jolly coach-load used to start from before -its door for a day of delight in sitting behind good -horses driven by a good whip, listening to the music -of the shod hooves and the guard's horn, receiving -a greeting from everyone along the road, and feeling -that no king on a throne is happier than a man riding -behind a picked team on a good coach. Motor cars -have their uses and their pleasures, but they seem to -have killed the fuller-blooded joys that came with -coaching.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LVI" id="LVI">LVI</a></h3> - -<h3>THE MONICO</h3> - - -<p>The Monico, in Piccadilly Circus, which is both café -and restaurant, is an establishment which has been -brought to its present prosperity by Swiss industry -and Swiss thrift. The original M. Monico, the father -of the present proprietors of the restaurant, came -from the same village in the Val Blegno, in the Italian -provinces of Switzerland, as did the Gattis. M. -Monico was with that Gatti, the great-uncle of the -present Messrs Gatti, who sold <i>gaufres</i> and penny -ices in Villiers Street, and who when Hungerford -Market was swept away and Charing Cross Station -built established the Gatti's restaurant under the -arches.</p> - -<p>About fifty years ago, just at the time that MM. -A. and S. Gatti were establishing themselves in the -Adelaide Gallery, young M. Monico, who died only -three years ago, was also making an independent start -on the road to fortune. Looking about for a site on -which to build a café he had found, off Tichborne -Street, a large yard where coaches and waggons stood, -and round which was stabling for horses. This yard -he leased, and built on its site the Grand Café with -the present International Hall above it. M. Monico -had intended to put up a tall building, but the neighbours -objected to this; he was obliged to alter his -plans, and in consequence, whereas the café is a very -high room, the International Hall above it is rather -squat in its proportions. Those were the days in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> -which billiards was a game much in favour, and in -the International Hall above the café M. Monico -established a number of billiard-tables. When the -craze for billiards died away the long upper room, with -its arched ceiling, became a banqueting hall. Fifty -years ago the licensing magistrates looked with just -as much suspicion on any new enterprises in restaurants -as they do at the present day, and the Monico could -not at first obtain a licence to sell wines and spirits. -This, however, was later on granted to M. Monico.</p> - -<p>I fancy that there must have been a good deal of -the Italian combative spirit in old M. Monico, for he -seems to have been at loggerheads with more than one -of his neighbours. To-day, when you have gone in -under the glass canopy with two gables which protects -the Piccadilly Circus entrance, when you have -passed the little stall for the sale of foreign newspapers -and have come into the café which acts as -an ante-room to the great gilded saloon, you will -notice that part of this café has a solid ceiling -and that the other half is glazed over. The -glazed-over portion was, in old M. Monico's time, an -open space, and into this open space a neighbour, a -perfumer, had the right to bring carts and horses -in the course of his business. This right the perfumer -exercised on occasion, to the great annoyance of -M. Monico, and the present Messrs Monico recall with -a smile how the perfumer would often bring in a -great van with two horses to deliver a couple of -small packages that any messenger boy could have -carried.</p> - -<p>The clearing away of a block of houses when -Piccadilly Circus was given its present proportions -gave the Monico its entrance on to that centre, and -when Shaftesbury Avenue was driven through the -network of small streets in Soho, M. Monico and his -sons obtained a second frontage for their restaurant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> -and built the block which contains the grill-room, -the buffet and banqueting-rooms, now topped by -the new masonic temple, the latest addition to the -Monico.</p> - -<p>The Monico of to-day is one of those great bee-hives -of dining-rooms that cater for every class of -diner. It has its little café and its big <i>à la carte</i> -dining-saloon, its grill-room, its banqueting-rooms -and its German beer cellar down in the basement. It -has two marble staircases, one leading down to -Piccadilly Circus and one to Shaftesbury Avenue, and -its big saloon, the original café, is as gorgeous a hall -as gilding can make it. Its walls are of gold and -mirrors and raised ornamentation, with the windows -high up, and with a golden balcony for the musicians. -It has a gilded ceiling and its pilasters are also golden. -An orchestra plays in this room, whereas in the grill-room -those who like their meals without orchestral -accompaniment can eat them in peace. Up and down -the great gilded room walk four <i>maîtres d'hôtel</i> in -frock-coats and black ties, and a battalion of waiters -are busy running from tables to kitchen. The bill of -fare in the gilded chamber is a most comprehensive -one, and any man of any nationality can find some of -the dishes of his country on it. It is a beer restaurant -as well as a wine restaurant, and the simplest possible -meal, very well cooked, can be eaten there as well as -elaborate feasts.</p> - -<p>The grill-room is less gorgeous in its decorations, -though its buff marble pillars and walls are handsome -enough. It is in this room that the <i>table d'hôte</i> dinners -at half-a-crown and three-and-six are served, and it is -here that many men of business feed, and feed excellently -well. Not many days ago I lunched in the -grill-room, my host being a gourmet who knew all the -resources of the establishment, and I enjoyed the -<i>sole Monico</i>, a sole with an excellent white sauce; a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> -woodcock <i>flambé</i> and a salad of tender lettuce which, -like the beautiful peaches with which we finished our -repast, must have been grown in some Southern, sunshiny -clime. I also enjoyed the cheese <i>fondue</i>, made, I -think, from the <i>recette</i> that Brillat Savarin set down in -his "Physiologie du Goût."</p> - -<p>The Monico has gained special celebrity for its -banquets, and the requests for dates for such feasts -made to the Messrs Monico have been so overwhelming -that they have turned the Renaissance -Saloon, which used to be devoted to a <i>table d'hôte</i> -dinner, into a banqueting-room, and have redecorated -it for its new uses.</p> - -<p>It remains in my memory that men who were -present at the banquet given to Lord Milner in the -International Hall of the Monico before he left -England to take up his duties as Pro-Consul in South -Africa, and who talked to me afterwards of the feast, -told me that it was the best public dinner, best -served and best cooked, that they had ever eaten, -and last year, when I dined at the Poincaré dinner of -the Ligue des Gourmands, which was held in the -Renaissance Room (the occasion on which M. -Escoffier's "creation" of the <i>poulet Poincaré</i> was -first disclosed to a discriminating gathering), I thought -then that M. Sieffert's (the <i>chef</i>) handiwork was -worthy of all the praise lavished on it, and that -M. G. Ramoni, the manager, had arranged most -admirably all the details of the banquet. The Renaissance -Room now quite justifies its title, for its -decoration of peacock blue panels and frames of -gilded briar, with strange birds perched on the sprays, -somewhat suggests Burne-Jones and the colouring of -his school.</p> - -<p>As a specimen of a Monico banquet I cannot do -better than give you one eaten by that famous Kentish -cricketing club, the Band of Brothers, the menu of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> -whose dinner bears their badge in dark and light blue, -and has also a bow of their ribbon:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Huîtres de Whitstable<br /> -Fantaisie Epicurienne.<br /> -Tortue verte en Tasse.<br /> -Turbotin poché, Sauce Mousseline.<br /> -Julienne de Sole Parisienne.<br /> -Mousse de Volaille Régence.<br /> -Côtelettes d'Agneau Rothschild.<br /> -Pommes Anna.<br /> -Punch Romaine.<br /> -Bécassine sur Canapé.<br /> -Salade de Laitue.<br /> -Escalope de Homard Pompadour.<br /> -Pêche Flambé au Kirsch.<br /> -Paillettes au Parmesan.<br /> -Fruits.<br /> -Corbeille de Friandises<br /> -Café.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Vins.</span><br /> -Amontillado.<br /> -Marcobrunner, 1904.<br /> -Bollinger and Co., 1904.<br /> -Lanson, 1906.<br /> -Martinez Port, 1896.<br /> -Grand Fine Champagne, 1875.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Many of the banquets given at the Monico are -masonic ones, and the new temple at the top of the -house on the Shaftesbury Avenue side is a very -splendid shrine, with walls of marble and a dome -round which the signs of the zodiac circle, and with -doors and furniture of great beauty.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LVII" id="LVII">LVII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE ITALIAN INVASION</h3> - - -<p>The plains of Lombardy, the pleasant mountain land -of Emilia and the champaign that surrounds Turin, -are studded with comfortable villas, the property of -successful Italian restaurateurs who have made a -comfortable little fortune in London and who go -to their own much-loved country to spend the -autumn of their days. Every young North Italian -waiter who comes to England believes that in the -folds of his napkin he holds one of these pleasant -villas, just as every French conscript in Napoleonic -days thought that he, amongst all his fellows, alone -felt the extra weight of the field-marshal's baton in -his knapsack. No race in the world is more thrifty -and more industrious than are these North Italians, and -they rival the Swiss in their aptitude for making considerable -sums of money by charging very small prices.</p> - -<p>Spain and Great Britain are usually classed together -as the two countries in which the natives know least -of economy in housekeeping and cookery, and the -Italians, spying the wastefulness of the land, have -descended on England as a friendly invading force, -whereas the Swiss have taken Spain in hand. There -is no Spanish town in which there is not a café -Suizio, and there are very few English towns in -which an Italian name is not found over a restaurant, -which is often a pastry-cook's shop as well.</p> - -<p>I have in preceding chapters written of some of -the restaurants owned by Italians in London, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> -were I to deal at length with all the well-managed -restaurants, large and small, controlled by Italians in -London, I should have to extend the size of my book -to very swollen proportions, so I propose to mention -briefly those Italian restaurants at which at one time -or another I have lunched or dined with satisfaction.</p> - -<p>One of the largest Italian restaurants is the -Florence, in Rupert Street, which the late M. Azario, -a gentleman of much importance in the London -Italian colony, made one of the most successful -moderate-priced restaurants in London. He was -decorated with an Italian order, and when he died, -not long ago, he was much mourned by his countrymen. -Madame Azario (who is now Madame Mainardi -and who has appointed her husband, whom I remember -at the Savoy, to the supreme command of the establishment), -to whom he left the restaurant, has made some -changes in it, bringing it up to date. It now has a -lounge where hosts can wait for their guests, and it -has fallen a victim to the prevailing craze for Tango -dancing at supper-time. Its three-shilling dinner is -a most satisfying one at the price. The Florence is -not too whole-heartedly Italian to please diners of -other nationalities, but when an Italian gives a lunch -or a dinner to his fellow-countrymen or to those who -love the cookery of Italy, it can be as patriotic in -the matter of dishes as any restaurant in Italy. This -is the menu of a lunch given to one of the most -Italian of Englishmen. It is a capital example of an -Italian meal, and there is a little joke tucked away -in it, for the "Neapolitan Vanilla" is another way of -writing garlic:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Antipasto Assortito.<br /> -Ravioli alla Fiorentina.<br /> -Trotta à l'Italiana.<br /> -Scalloppine di Vitello alla Milanese.<br /> -Asparagi alla Sant'Ambrogio.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>Pollo alla Spiedo.<br /> -Insalata Rosa alla Vaniglia di Napoli.<br /> -Zabaglione al Marsala.<br /> -Formaggio.<br /> -Frutta.<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">* * * * *</span><br /> -<br /> -Chianti.<br /> -Barolo vecchio.<br /> -Asti naturale.<br /> -Caffe.<br /> -Liquori.<br /> -</p> - -<p>One of the first established and one of the best of -the Italian restaurants is Previtali's, in Arundel Street, -that little thoroughfare that runs up into a cul-de-sac -square, off Coventry Street. It was said a while ago -that this little square and its approach were to be -eaten up by a new great variety theatre, but I see -that the ground is now advertised as being for sale. -Below the great board which announces this is a -smaller one, which tells that Previtali's is to remain -where it is till September 1915, when it will find -other quarters. Its <i>table d'hôte</i> luncheon costs half-a-crown, -and its <i>table d'hôte</i> dinners are priced at three-and-six -and five shillings, the latter giving such a -choice of food that not even a starving man would -ask for more when he had gone through the menu. -Previtali's has an excellent cellar of Italian wines.</p> - -<p>Many of the restaurants owned by Italians in -London have a clientele that suits the size of the -house, and they do not cry aloud by bold advertisements -for fresh guests. Such a quiet, unassuming -restaurant is the Quadrant, in Regent Street, the -windows of which keep their eyes half closed by -pink blinds which shut off the view of the interior -from passers-by. Messrs Formaggia and Galiardi -cater there for very faithful customers, and I always -look with interest as I pass at the menu of the half-crown -dinner which is written in a bold hand and -shown in a small frame by the window. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> -always a well-chosen meal, and on the occasions that -I have eaten at the Quadrant, I have been well -satisfied with its fare. It was at the Quadrant that -a gourmet with a taste for strange foods gave me -a lunch of land-crabs which had been imported with -much difficulty from either Barbadoes or the West -Indies, and which Mr Formaggia's chef had cooked -strictly in accordance with the recipe that came with -them. They had, I remember, rather a bitter taste, -but perhaps land-crabs, like snails, are not to everybody's -taste.</p> - -<p>In Soho, the Italian restaurants jostle the French -restaurants in every street. Perhaps the best known -of the Soho restaurants owned by Italians is -the Ristorante d'Italia, whereof Signor Baglioni is -the proprietor, which thrusts out an illuminated -arum amidst the electric globes and glittering -signs of Old Compton Street. My memories of the -half-crown <i>table d'hôte</i> dinner there is of food -excellently cooked under the superintendence of an -erstwhile <i>chef de cuisine</i> of the Prince of Monaco, -of the noise of much talking in vehement Italian, of -rather close quarters at little tables laid for four, and -of a menu of rather portentous provender.</p> - -<p>The most Italian of any restaurant that I have -discovered in my explorations in Soho is the Treviglio -in Church Street, a little restaurant that might have -been lifted bodily from a canal-side in Venice or a -small street in Florence. It is whole-heartedly -Italian, and puts to the forefront of its window a -list of the specialities of Italian cookery on which it -prides itself. It is a favoured haunt of the Italian -journalists in London, and that, I think, can be taken -as a certificate that its cookery is not only thoroughly -Italian but is also good Italian. Signori Pozzi and -Valdoni are its proprietors.</p> - -<p>Pinoli's is a restaurant in Lower Wardour Street<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> -that offers almost as much at its two-shilling <i>table d'hôte</i> -dinner as some other restaurants do at twice or more -that price.</p> - -<p>A quiet, flourishing restaurant owned by an Italian, -Signor Antonio Audagna, who began life as a waiter -at Romano's, is the Comedy Restaurant, in Panton -Street, Haymarket. It is a comfortable restaurant, -with cream walls and oval mirrors and pink-shaded -lamps, and its back rooms are on a higher level than -those of its Panton Street front. Its customers are -very faithful to it, and, as its proprietor once told me, -"when the fathers die the sons take their places as -customers." There was some time ago a proposal -to extend it so as to give it a front to the Haymarket, -but that plan came to naught, and the Comedy goes -on just as before in its old premises. This is a menu -of the Comedy <i>table d'hôte</i> dinner, and its proprietor -apparently took a hint from Philippe of the Cavour -for the menu bears the legend, "No beer served -with this dinner":</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Hors d'œuvre Variés.<br /> -Queue de Bœuf Printanière<br /> -Crème Chasseur.<br /> -Sole à la Bourguignonne.<br /> -Noisette de Pré-Salé Volnay.<br /> -Spaghetti al Sugo.<br /> -Poulet en Casserole.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Glacé Comedy.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Another quiet restaurant with a faithful clientele is -Signor Pratti's, the Ship, in Whitehall. His <i>table -d'hôte</i> dinners are half-a-crown and three-and-six, and -his eighteenpenny lunch, I fancy, brings to the -restaurant many of the hard-worked gentlemen from -Cox's Bank, just across the way, and from the -Admiralty, which is suitably just behind the Ship.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> -Signor Pratti, if I remember rightly, fines teetotalers -by charging them sixpence extra.</p> - -<p>From Hampstead to Surbiton, from Richmond to -Epping, the little Italian restaurants flourish. One -gourmet whom I know, with a delicate taste in -Italian wines, makes pilgrimages regularly to -Reggiori's, opposite King's Cross Station, because he -gets there a particular wine which this restaurateur -imports; while I take an almost paternal interest in -Canuto's Restaurant in Baker Street. The rise of -that restaurant from a very humble place, that put out -two boards with great sheets of paper on them, giving -the dishes ready and the dinner of the day, to a rather -haughty little restaurant with a very beautiful window -and the <i>carte du jour</i> and the menus of <i>table d'hôte</i> -dinners behind the glass in frames of restrained -gorgeousness, typifies the gradual advance in social -splendour of the long street that leads to Regent's -Park.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LVIII" id="LVIII">LVIII</a></h3> - -<h3>THE HYDE PARK HOTEL</h3> - - -<p>Newly engaged couples are rather kittle cattle to -entertain at any meal. There was once a pretty -young widow who was about to marry a charming -young man, and I asked the pair to lunch with me -one day at the Savoy and was very particular to -secure a table in the balcony, for I thought that the -view over the Gardens and up the Thames to the -House of Lords and Westminster Abbey would -harmonise very well with love's young dream. And -it did harmonise only too well with it, for the pretty -widow sat with her face in her two hands gazing up -the river with far-away eyes while the grilled lamb -cutlets grew cold and the <i>bomb praliné</i> grew warm, -and the charming young man, sat opposite to her with -hands tightly clasped, gazing into her face and thinking -poetry hard the while. Conversation there was -none on that occasion. I do not believe that the -couple knew in the least whether they were eating -sole or cream cheese, and I still have such remnants -of good manners that were instilled into me in the -days of the nursery that I felt that I was doing an -impolite thing to eat heartily while my guests were -neglecting their food. I often subsequently wondered -whether in the days when I fell desperately in love -at least once in every six months, I behaved in public -as much like a patient suffering from softening of the -brain as did that nice young man on the day he -lunched with me at the Savoy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p> - -<p>One of my nephews, a young soldier doctor, is -going to do a very sensible thing in marrying an -exceedingly nice girl early in his career, and as he -is on leave in London it seemed to me that it would -be a pleasant thing to ask him and the young lady -to lunch or dine with me. Though I did not for -a moment believe that the presence of his intended -would cause him to neglect his food, I was not -prepared, after my previous experience, to put the -young lady to the tremendous trial of the view of the -Thames from the Savoy balcony, and I decided that -dinner, not lunch, should be the meal.</p> - -<p>As I was curious to see whether a little dinner at -the Hyde Park Hotel was as well cooked as the -great banquets are in that flourishing establishment, -I asked them to dine there with me one Sunday -evening, and gave Mr Kerpen, the manager of the -hotel, warning of our coming, asking him to suggest -to M. Müller, the <i>chef de cuisine</i>, that I should like -one or two specialities of his kitchen included in a -very short menu.</p> - -<p>If lunch had been the meal to which I invited the -young couple the Hyde Park Hotel dining-room -would have been a spot as inducive to day dreams -as are the balconies at the Savoy and the Cecil, for -the view the Hyde Park Hotel commands over the -Park is one of the most beautiful and most varied -in London. A strip of garden lies between the -Hotel and the Ladies' Mile, and beyond that is the -branch of Rotten Row that runs up past the -Knightsbridge Barracks. Beyond that again are -green lawns and clumps of rhododendrons and other -flowering shrubs, and the grassy rise up to the -banks of the Serpentine, the glitter of the water of -which and the big trees about it closing in the -landscape. The carriages go rumbling past; there -are generally some riders in the Row and there is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> -always movement on the footpath, and it seems to -be one of the duties of the regiment of Household -Cavalry at Knightsbridge to supply as a figure in the -immediate foreground either a young orderly officer -in his blue frock-coat setting out or returning from -his rounds on a big black charger, or a rough-riding -corporal in scarlet jacket teaching a young horse -manners. The view up the river to Westminster -may have a dreamy beauty on a sunshiny day, the -vista of the long walk in the Green Park, down which -the windows of the Ritz dining-room look, may have -more sylvan beauty, but the outlook of the Hyde -Park Hotel has more colour and more variety than -those of the other big hotels I have mentioned.</p> - -<p>The Hyde Park Hotel was one of Jabez -Balfour's speculations, and for a time it was a great -pile of flats before it became technically an hotel. -It had a fire, and I fancy that it was after the fire -that M. Ritz was consulted as to its redecoration—for -he had a great talent and indisputable taste -in suggesting the ornamentation of large rooms—and -that the Hyde Park Hotel became the exceedingly -comfortable, quiet, luxurious house it is -to-day.</p> - -<p>In the big hall, with its dark-coloured marbles and -handsome fireplace, I found the young couple waiting -for me. They were before their time and were in -holiday spirits, which reassured me, for no laughing -girl is likely to slip suddenly into day dreams. After -I had given my hat and coat to the dark-complexioned -servitor in blue and gold Oriental dress, who looks like -a very good-natured Othello, we waited for a while -in the big cream and green drawing-room—a room so -fresh in colour that it does not suggest an environment -of London atmosphere, though it looks out on -to Knightsbridge. At the quarter past eight we -went into the big dining-room, and M. Binder, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> -<i>maître d'hôtel</i>, showed us to the table in a corner by -a window which had been set for us.</p> - -<p>The Hyde Park Hotel dining-room is an exceedingly -handsome hall of mahogany, with panels of gold -and deep crimson brocade; its pillars are of deep -red wood with gilt Corinthian capitals; a band plays -in a gallery above the crystal service doors and the -colours of the panels are echoed in carpet and curtains -and upholstery. In its comfortable colouring the -Hyde Park Hotel dining-room reminds me very much -of what the Savoy dining-room used to be before -its beautiful mahogany panelling was taken down and -the colour of the walls and ceiling changed to -cream.</p> - -<p>I soon found that I was not either to be silent or -to have the conversation all to myself, for the young -people laughed and chatted away, and I found myself -comparing descriptions of the Curragh as it was in -the seventies, when we used to lie in bed in the huts -and watch the marking at the butts through the -cracks in the walls, with the Curragh of to-day when -the last of the Crimean wooden huts are about to -disappear. The reading of the menu, however, was -gone through with due solemnity, and the young -lady knew that an important moment in her life was -about to approach, for she was going to taste caviare -for the first time. This was the menu of our dinner:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Caviar Blinis.<br /> -Crème d'Asperges.<br /> -Sole à la H.P.H.<br /> -Selle d'Agneau de lait poëlée.<br /> -Haricots verts aux fines herbes.<br /> -Bécassines Chasseur.<br /> -Salade.<br /> -Pêches Petit Duc.<br /> -Comtesse Marie.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p> - -<p>The young soldier doctor watched his bride-that-is-to-be -eat her first mouthful of caviare and little -angle of the Russian pancake with interest and -some curiosity. If she did not like the delicacy -there would be no caviare for him in the days of their -honeymoon, while if she took a violent fancy to them -it might strain the resources of a very young -establishment to provide caviare at two meals a day. -She took her first mouthful, considered, and said that -she liked it; but did not express any overwhelming -attachment to it, so I think that so far as caviare is -concerned it will be eaten with appreciation in the -household-that-is-to-be but will not appear every day -at table. The soup was an excellent thick cream; -the sole was one of the specialities of the kitchen -put by the <i>chef de cuisine</i> into the menu, and a most -admirable sole it is. It is a <i>mousse</i> of chicken -sandwiched between fillets of sole, and lobster and -oysters and, I fancy, mushrooms also, have their part -in this very noble dish. The tiny saddle of lamb -was the plain dish of the dinner; the snipe were -given a baptism of fire before they were brought -to table. The peaches were another dish that is -a speciality of the house. With the <i>Bar-le-Duc</i> -currant jelly about the peaches there was mingled -some old Fine Champagne, while the ice and the -vanilla cream that went with it were served -separately, as is the modern fashion, which is a great -improvement on sending up the ice in a messy state -with the fruit. The wine we drank was Clicquot -1904. I was charged half-a-guinea a head for our -dinner, which was excellent value for the money: -altogether an admirable dinner, admirably cooked, -and I sent my compliments to the chef.</p> - -<p>The other people who had dined had gradually -melted away; the band had left its gallery and we -could hear its strains coming from some distant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> -room. The young people chattered away about -theatres and dances and we might have sat at table -until midnight had not the <i>maître d'hôtel</i> suggested -that we might like to look at the other rooms on the -ground floor before going into the smoking lounge, -where the band was playing and where a lady was -presently to sing. We walked through a charming -little ante-room with golden furniture, into the great -pink banqueting-room which is used for dances and -balls as well as for great feasts. It is the part of the -Hyde Park Hotel with which I am most familiar, and -I told the young people, who were more anxious -to know which way the boards ran and whether it -was a good floor for dancing than they were for -descriptions of banquets, how at one of the dinners -of the Gastronomes in this fine room the table -decorations were so arranged as to be high above the -diners' heads and that the air seemed full of flowers -and how M. Müller had invented for that feast the -beau-ideal of a vegetable <i>sorbet—tomates givrées</i>. -I had thoughts of giving them details of a wonderful -banquet given at the hotel by the Society of -Merchants, but I am sure they would not have had -patience to listen, so what I abstained from telling -them then, lest they might think me a gluttonous old -bore, I here set down for your consideration, for you -can skip it if you will, whereas the two young people -would, I am sure, have been kind enough to listen -and to pretend to appreciate its beauties:</p> - -<p style="text-align:center"> -Cantaloup Grande Fine Champagne.<br /> -Caviar.<br /> -Consommé Florentine.<br /> -Crème de Pois frais.<br /> -Filets de Truite Saumonée au Coulis d'Ecrevisses.<br /> -Volaille de la Bresse Châtelaine.<br /> -Selle de Béhague à la Provençale.<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>Aubergines au Beurre Noisette.<br /> -Cailles Royales à l'Ananas.<br /> -Pommes Colerette.<br /> -Dodines de Canard à la Gelée.<br /> -Cœurs de Laitues aux œufs.<br /> -<br /> -Pêches Framboisées.<br /> -Friandises.<br /> -Dessert.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">Vins.</span><br /> -Sandringham Sherry.<br /> -Schloss Volkrads, 1904.<br /> -Pommery and Greno, 1900.<br /> -Château Brane Cantenac, 1899.<br /> -Sandeman's, 1884.<br /> -Marett Gautier, 1830.<br /> -Liqueurs.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Then we went into the big room, a room of -mahogany, and views of lake and river and sea painted -on the panels, which is the room most used by the -people who live in the hotel, where the papers and -great arm-chairs are and where a man can smoke -comfortably, and we listened to the little orchestra -and to a young lady who sang us songs sentimental -and songs cheerful until it was time for my nephew -to do escort duty in taking the young lady back -to the northern heights where she lives.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LIX" id="LIX">LIX</a></h3> - -<h3>YE OLDE GAMBRINUS</h3> - - -<p>The one thing in the world that the friends of -Germany do not tell us poor Englishmen is to be -obtained better in the Fatherland than on this side -of the Channel is things to eat, though of course -Munich beer has been held up to our brewers for -generations as an example of what they should brew. -Perhaps it is for this reason that there are fewer -German restaurants in London in comparison with -the size of the German colony than there are French -and Italian restaurants in comparison with the colonies -of those countries.</p> - -<p>Yet good, simple German cookery is quite excellent -of its kind. A German housewife knows how to -make a goose into many delectable dishes which an -English housewife knows nothing of, and the German -tarts are excellent things amongst dishes of pastry.</p> - -<p>There are one or two German restaurants in Soho, -and Mr Appenrodt in his restaurants considers the tastes -of his fellow-countrymen, but the best known London -restaurant devoted entirely to German and Austrian -cookery is the Olde Gambrinus, in Regent Street, and -it was an Italian, little Oddenino, who appreciated -the long-felt want of the Germans in London and who -gave them a restaurant in which they can imagine that -they are once again back in their own country, eating -German foods and drinking German drinks.</p> - -<p>The Gambrinus has entrances both in Glasshouse -Street and in Regent Street. The Regent Street<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> -entrance echoes the decoration of that of its big -brother, the Imperial Restaurant, a few paces farther -along the street, and its marble pillars and revolving -door do not suggest the entirely German surroundings -we are in as soon as we have crossed the threshold. -A comparatively narrow room, panelled half-way up -its height with dark wood and with two rows of -tables, is the first portion of the restaurant we see -on entering from Regent Street, and it is here that -those good Germans sit who do not want to eat a -meal but wish to drink their "steins" of beer. Above -the panelling on the walls are the heads of many deer -and wild beasts from all parts of the world, and the first -impression that this gives to anyone who does not -know the Gambrinus is that it is a Valhalla for the -denizens of some Wonder Zoo. In the midst of these -heads of the wild things of the woods and the plains -is that of a fine dog. No doubt he was the chosen -companion of some mighty hunter, and one hopes that -he was not like the rest, a spoil of the chase.</p> - -<p>After this first narrow room there comes a wider -one with an arched roof, glazed with bottle-glass, and -then the main restaurant itself, which has the appearance -of a baronial hall. Its floor is of wooden blocks; -there are many little tables in it, and chairs with backs -of dark leather, and it is panelled like the entrance, -with dark wood. Any chair not occupied is at our -disposal, and we have found seats, and a waiter has -put in front of us the big sheet with the menu of the -day on it and a picture in blue of a crowned gentleman -with a long white beard astride on a beer cask and -drinking from a foaming tankard. We will order our -dinner first and then look at our surroundings.</p> - -<p>For every day in the week there are special dishes: -four soups, one of which is generally <i>bouillon mit ei</i>; -three meat dishes and a fruit dish. There is a list of -<i>hors d'œuvre</i>, amongst them <i>Berliner rollmops</i> and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> -<i>Brabant sardellen, Nürnberger ochsenmaul salat</i> and -Bismarck herring. There is a column in print of cold -dishes in which various German sausages are given -the place of honour, and then, written in violet ink, -many ready dishes beyond those sacred to the day, and -another list of dishes which can be had to order.</p> - -<p>As the most typical German dishes amongst those -of the day let us order goose soup with dumplings, -roast veal and peas, and pear tart, and we cannot -do better than wash this down with two large glasses -of light-coloured Munich beer.</p> - -<p>The waiter takes our orders, and from a pile of -rounds of wadding put down by us two with some -blue printing on them, which shows that we are going -to drink Munich beer, whereas had we elected for the -beer of Pilsen we should have been given rounds of -wadding with red on them.</p> - -<p>On all the seats at all the tables are Germans of all -types. Dark-haired Germans from the south, looking -almost like Italians, and the typical fair-haired -Teutons of the north with fat necks and hair cropped -to a stubble. Anyone who thinks that the German -fraus and frauleins resemble at all the unkind -caricatures the French make of them should see the -pretty ladies who accompany the worthy Germans -who eat their dinners at the Gambrinus. They are -as fresh and charming, as well dressed and as daintily -mannered as the ladies who go to any restaurant of -any other nationality.</p> - -<p>The windows that give on to Glasshouse Street are -of the glass that looks as though the bottoms of wine -bottles had been used, and in the centre of each -window is an escutcheon with armorial bearings. At -one side of the room is a gallery of dark wood, and on -the front of this is also a wealth of heraldry. The -heads of animals of all kinds, which seemed a little -strange in the <i>brasserie</i> by the entrance, seem quite in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> -place in the big hall which has all the appearance of the -dining-room of some old baronial castle converted into -a German inn. On the side opposite to the gallery is -a long counter under two arches of dark wood. On -this counter are many beer mugs, and fruit in baskets, -and on a series of shelves all the <i>delicatessen</i> which are -recorded on the <i>spiese karte</i>. On the wall at the back -of the two arches hang the beer mugs which belong -to the customers, rows upon rows of them forming a -background of coloured earthenware and glass. By -the side of this long counter is another, where a pretty -girl sits and hands out to the waiters the liqueur -bottles and keeps the necessary accounts.</p> - -<p>If the trophies of the chase in the <i>brasserie</i> are -various they are infinitely more various in the big hall, -for the Herr Baron must have hunted on all the -continents and did not disdain to add monsters of the -deep to his trophies, for a spiky fish, looking like a -marine hedgehog, dangles from the ceiling, and below -it is one of those curious things which sailors call -mermaids and the right name of which is, I believe, -manati. He was a collector of curios also, this -imaginary baron, for a curious lamp in the shape of an -eight-pointed star hangs above the gallery, there is a -carved owl immediately below it and various other -wood carvings in different parts of the restaurant, and -on the broad shelf above the panelling are a wonderful -variety of earthenware and china and pewter mugs -and dishes and jugs and candlesticks in quantities -that would set up half-a-dozen antique shops.</p> - -<p>The heads of animals on the wall would supply -material for an exhaustive lesson in zoology. There -is the skull of an elephant, the head of a rhino, a bear -grins sardonically on one side, and opposite to him a -zebra appears to have thrust his head and neck -through the wall. There are several boars' heads, an -eagle with his wings spread dangles from the balcony,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> -and a black cock appears to be rising from a forest of -liqueur bottles. There are horns or heads of half-a-hundred -varieties of deer, from the wapiti and elk to -those tiny little fellows with horns a couple of inches -long who run about like rabbits in the German -forests. There are antlers of red deer and fallow -deer, and heads of wildebeeste and hartebeeste, and -black buck and buffalo, and of many more that are -beyond my knowledge of horned beasts.</p> - -<p>There are in the room glass screens to keep off all -draughts; there are bent-wood stands on which to -hang coats and hats, and a staircase with a luxurious -carpet on it and a brass rail leads down into the grill-room -of the Imperial Restaurant next door.</p> - -<p>But the waiter, who had already put down by our -places two long sloping glasses of the clear cold beer, -now brings us the plates of smoking goose soup, and -excellent soup it is, with the suet dumplings, as light -as possible, in it, and pieces of the breast of the goose. -Why we English neglect the goose as a soup-maker I -do not know, as indeed I do not know why we -neglect the goose at all and consign him to the kitchen -as a meal for the servants while the turkey is being -eaten upstairs. The veal, which, I should imagine, is -imported from Germany, is excellent, and the huge -chop of it that is given to each of us must, I think, be -an extra attention on the part of the management, for -M. Oddenino has just come in and has taken a seat -at a table in a recess, where he dines frugally every -night so as to be within call of his restaurant next -door, and he has called the attention of the little -manager to our presence. So perhaps we are being -given what in Club life is known as the "Committee-man's -chop."</p> - -<p>Our third venture is just as satisfactory as the -two previous ones, for the great angle of open pear -tart is in every way excellent. The bill presented at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> -the close of our meal is as moderate as the food was -good. We have each in our meal consumed three -shillings and three pence worth of well-cooked food -and cold beer.</p> - -<p>So again I ask, Why should the German <i>cuisine</i> in -London be the Cinderella of the daughters of -Gastronomy?</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h3><a name="LX" id="LX">LX</a></h3> - -<h3>MY SINS OF OMISSION</h3> - - -<p>No one can be more aware than I am of the things I -have left undone in writing of the restaurants of -London, of the many interesting dining-places of -which I have made no mention, of the eating-houses -with historical associations that I have overlooked.</p> - -<p>I have done no more than touch the hem of the -garment of the City. As I write I recall that the -Ship and Turtle, the Palmerston and other notable -restaurants I have passed by without even a word, -and that I have given only a line to Pim's and -Simpson's, and the George and Vulture, each of -which is worthy of a chapter.</p> - -<p>The Liverpool Street Hotel, which I have singled -out, is not by any means the only great railway hotel -in London where the catering is excellent. I used -at one time to dine every Derby night with the late -Mr George Dobell at the St Pancras Hotel, and a -better cooked dinner no one could have given me. -The Euston Hotel had, and I have no doubt has, an -admirable cellar of wines.</p> - -<p>There is a chapter waiting to be written concerning -the changes that have taken place in railway -refreshment-room catering, with, as examples, the -dining-rooms at the two Victoria stations and the -<i>table d'hôte</i> dinner that is provided for playgoers at -Waterloo.</p> - -<p>The luncheons provided for golfers in the club-houses -of the golf courses near London was another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> -subject to which I intended to devote a chapter, and -yet another to the excellent luncheons that the -racing clubs, following Sandown's example, provide -for their members.</p> - -<p>There are roadside and riverside inns that deserve -mention besides those of which I have written.</p> - -<p>Many of the large hotels that I have not mentioned -deserve attention, but there is a certain similarity in -the <i>table d'hôte</i> meals at all big hotels nowadays and -the difference between the rank and file of them lies -more in their situation and decoration than in their -<i>cuisine</i>.</p> - -<p>My excuse for paying a vague compliment to the -big hotels in bulk will not hold good with respect -to the many small hotels that I have not mentioned -where the cookery is excellent. They at least have, -each one, its distinct individuality. I can only plead -that I have been frightened by their number. -Almond's in Clifford Street, Brown's in Albemarle -Street, where M. Peròs is the chef, are two which -occur to me as I write in which I have dined admirably, -and I have no doubt that "Sunny Jim" will -make the restaurant of the St James's Palace Hotel a -favourite dining-place.</p> - -<p>I feel that I have slighted Oxford Street and -Holborn in having merely nodded as I passed by to -some of the many restaurants, some of them important -ones, that are to be found on the road from Prince -Albert's Statue to the Marble Arch. My hope of -making amends to them for this neglect lies in a -hope that my book may run into more than one -edition.</p> - -<p>In the streets that branch off from Shaftesbury -Avenue there are several restaurants for which I -should have found room in this book. The Coventry -is one, and the by-ways of Soho teem with little -eating-houses waiting to be discovered and to become<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> -prosperous and to possess globes of electric light and -rows of Noah's ark trees in green tubs. I am not -such a hardy explorer as I used to be, but I have -gone through some terrible times in experimenting -on some of the little restaurants in Soho—the ones -that had better remain undiscovered.</p> - -<p>Some of my correspondents have asked me why -I only write of places that I can conscientiously -praise, and why I do not describe my failures. My -answer to this is that it is not fair to condemn any -restaurant, however humble it may be, on one trial, -and that, when I have been given an indifferent meal -anywhere, I never go back again to see whether I -shall be as badly treated on a second occasion. I -prefer to consign to oblivion the stories I could tell -of bad eggs and rank butter and cold potatoes, -stringy meat and skeleton fowls.</p> - -<p>It is so much better for one's digestion to think of -pleasant things than to brood over horrors.</p> - -<p>Adieu, or rather, I trust, au revoir.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p><i>P. S.</i>—That changes have taken place in the -personnel of the restaurants even in the space of time -that it takes to pass the proofs of this book shows -how difficult it is to keep such a publication right -up to date. Most of the changes I have been able -to note in their proper position, but the sale of -Rule's by Mr and Mrs O'Brien to one of their old -servants and the appointment of M. Mambrino to -the managership of the Berkeley Hotel I must record -here.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gourmet's Guide to London, by -Nathaniel Newnham-Davis - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO LONDON *** - -***** This file should be named 53304-h.htm or 53304-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/3/0/53304/ - -Produced by Clare Graham and Marc D'Hooghe at Free -Literature (online soon in an extended version, also linking -to free sources for education worldwide ... MOOC's, -educational materials,...) 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