Food Fight?

Eventually most New Yorkers tire of the peacock fripperies of the gaudy cafes. There is something irritating to the true trencher­ man, about people who come to a restaurant to be seen more than to express a zest for food. Like that professional society party thrower who bounces from table to table, halooing across the room and otherwise trying to be the whole show! The practised gourmet studiously avoids such places. When he dines out you will find him at rendezvous rarely mentioned in society chit-chat. Dark-timbered sherry and beef havens with old prints, and perhaps a collection of steins racked around the wall. Instead of shrieking jazz, the clatter of knives and forks and the tinkle of glass. No roster of the “small hour” blades, but diners who know the cut of a steak and when a goblet of rare port or a tankard of nut brown ale are a help and not a refuge. These ancient, sturdy places keep their hold in the midst of eternal change.

The above was penned by Manhattan-based columnist O.O. McIntyre (1884-1938) in 1937, in the Endicott Daily Bulletin. McIntyre was Missouri-born and had a unique take on the Big Apple, never fully part of it, which accounted for his singular and appealing perspective.

The cultural references he is making pertain to my ongoing theme, which is the staying power of a certain idea of British eating and drinking place in North American life.

Even though in our day the steak house aka chop house goes in and out of fashion, the fundaments of what he is saying have a certain resonance. Think of the potency of the English/Irish/Scottish pub concept in the last 30 years. (To us it’s all the same thing really).

The dark timbers are still there, in other words. The nut-brown ale, too – it helped spawn craft beer by god. Both are frequently mass-produced somewhere, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s the symbolism that counts.

Due to population changes the restaurant standbys of 2018 can include Chinese, Middle East, Thai, Italian, curry, diner. But apart from the culinary base expanding, does the true eater enjoy his/her “old reliables” more than the name chefs, the new trends, the hot addresses?

I’m not sure about the binary he puts forth. Demographic counts, for one thing. But even for his target reader, the big city “sophisticate”, is what he says true?  What do you think?

Obs. Note how McIntyre uses the compendious term “cafe” to describe the foreign and inauthentic in his eyes. As late as the 1940s the term still carried this connotation here.

Note re quotation: quotation above is drawn from the archived news sources identified and linked in the text (via New York State Historical newspapers). All intellectual property therein belongs solely to the lawful owner, as applicable. Used for educational and historical purposes, and fair comment. All feedback welcomed.