Show The passing of ot Delmonico's so soon after alter the closing of a number of ot other famous restaurants has given a new theme for lamentations to those mourners who trace every evil to the eighteenth amendment For generations New Yorkers had eaten at Its history covered a period of ot ninety-eight ninety years For it to fall a victim to prohibition seems to make the eighteenth amendment amendment amend amend- ment an affront not only to present-day present sufferers but even to the shades of ot the tho men of at past times who patronized In this there is a a. measure of ot truth Delmonico's had a Justly great repute But is the blame for its closing altogether due to prohibition There were other famous restaurants before Few lasted so long Many of ot them passed before the eighteenth amendment came into being What atthe of at the old Fifth A Avenue hotel and the Holland House and the long famous Astor House To go further back what of at the City hotel which like cos co's had been a famous restaurant for nearly 00 years beginning in the second half halt of at the eighteenth century y And what of Michael Littles Little's Porter House Hous at 56 66 Pine Pino street where the famous Brillat supreme Judge of ot gastronomy ate frequently during his two years' years stay In America and as tradition has it it once succeeded In overcoming two Englishmen English English- men In a drinking bout at a dinner of turkey and roast beef beet so that the two gentlemen were carried out feet foremost There were others besides praised in t their day the day the Merchants' Merchants Coffeo Coffee house the Tontine coffee house and end many a lesser leser tavern of which only one bearing the name of ot Samuel Fraunces survives or to be more accurate has been revived All AU of these went the way of Delmonico's and many for the same reason the reason the city had outgrown them The land tand on which they stood was too valuable valuable valuable able for other purposes They moved perhaps as did D Delmonico's but th the town once more overtook them and in the new surroundings their patrons felt th that t some of ot the old charm was gone In the end they fell before office buildings or lofts lotts or re retired retired retired re- re tired to some side aide street to be forgotten and die unknown unknown unknown un un- un- un known among the hurrying crowds who were ob oblivIous oblivious oblivious ob- ob livious of past glories Unlike the Knickerbocker grill and the famous Broadway palaces their custOn cus- cus tOn did not depend upon hectic stimulus Prohibition tion of ot course was a hard blow for the Great White i Way Vay But nut in the case of Delmonico's it was only a contributing cause This however in no way lessens lessens les les- les- les sens the regret that this old institution should have been forced out of ot existence Delmonico's had hada a place by Itself In the development of ot N New w York Tork While the small town grew Into a large town and the city into a metropolis Delmonico's maintained Its high cull culinary nary standards N. unchanged N. N Y Times |