I stumbled upon an interesting site, featuring original reviews and menus of
old NYC restos and nightclubs. Featured a Algonquin, Biltmore, Black
Angus, Copacabana, Cotillion Room, Eden Roc, Embers,
Famous Kitchen, Gage and Tollner's, Glen Island Casino, Jack Delaney's, Jack
Dempsey's, Latin Quarter, Little Club, Luchow's, Major's Cabin, Marianne et
Fils, St. Regis Maisonette, Stork Club, Waldorf-Astoria,.
Zanzibar...loads of nostalgia!


"Welcome to Tips on Tables!

This site features vintage reviews of famous Nightclubs and Restaurants,
mostly from the New York area from Mr. Robert W. Dana, entertainment
columnist for the now-defunct New York World Telegram and Sun. Mr Dana also
hosted a television and radio show, interviewing restaurateurs, chefs and
nightclub personalities of the 1950's..." :

http://www.tipsontables.com/default.html


From the site, an article about WWII rationing and it's effects on the NYC
dining scene:

http://www.tipsontables.com/Rationing.html

New York Herald Tribune - Sunday, July 11, 1943

New York is Still a Paradise For Gourmet Despite Rationing

"Rationing has affected the menus of New York restaurants, just, as it has
affected the dining facilities of other cities. The restaurants here largely
have adopted the policy of setting Tuesday and Friday apart as meatless
days. Even then the number of points available does not permit the
consumption of more than a limited number of filet mignon and other choice
cuts. But with all these restrictions, nothing has been able to curtail the
variety and universality of our restaurants, which offer the opportunity of
going around the world on a menu.

When the gourmets get together they often discuss the merits of what they
choose to call the ten best restaurants in New York. The lists differ, of
course, just as do the lists of plays and films and football players. It is
likely that one has heard of such superior restaurants as the Colony,
Brussels, Passy, Voisin, Chamblord, Chateaubriand and La Belle Meuriere.

New York has several high-grade Swedish restaurants, among them the
Castleholm. Three Crowns. Gripsholm and Kungsholm. The list of small French
restaurants in the medium-price range,is almost unlimited, including" Le
Veau D'Or, Theodore's Henri, Cafe St. Denis and La Salle du Bois as a few
examples.

Ruby Foo's Den and Lum Fong's are the Chinese restaurants best known in the
city, at least by the majority.

Strangely enough, In thinking of restaurants in New York, one seldom
considers the Purely American ones, but there are many. Three of the most
popular are the White Turkey Inn., Hearthstone and Olney Inn.

There are the great New York landmarks like Ye Olde Chop House, Whyte's and
Massoletti's in the downtown section, Keen's English Chop House, Billy the
Oysterman King of the Sea, Cavanagh's, Luchow's, Hotel Lafayette, Gage and
Tollner's (Brooklyn) and the German-American Rathskeller.

Long established and convenient all over the city are the restaurants of
such chains as Longchamps, Savarin, Schrafft's, Childs' and Stouffer's, not
to forget the Automat, whose mechanical way of serving its customers is a
delight to many."

</>