Table Of Content
Perhaps the most luxurious event the brand catered was Alva Vanderbilt's famous masquerade ball, held in 1883. Thrown at her new house on Fifth Avenue, the ball welcomed 1,200 guests, each in costume. Delmonico's served an impressive menu that included favorites of the day such as terrapin, fried oysters, and sandwiches.
It was the first restaurant reviewed by the New York Times
Instead, the dining room is a tableau of Fidi bankers, tourists, and, if you eat here after 9pm, a few May-December arrangements. If you go into this Fidi institution—which reopened in 2023 after a three-year hiatus—completely unaware of its past, you’ll still have a solid steakhouse meal. (Even as you wonder why someone is serving you baked Alaska in the 21st century.) But you’ll appreciate Delmonico’s a lot more if you buy into the lore. Access to exclusive tables at prime times at coveted restaurants around the world. Delmonico's Steakhouse features Prime Steaks, Fresh Seafood and Italian Classics.
Delmonico’s Original Baked Alaska
This multipage document offers a rare insight into dishes offered by America's first steakhouse. Unsurprisingly, beef plays a central role with various types of boiled beef, beef steak, tenderloin, and tongue being listed. Other familiar items include fried chicken, lamb chops, and breaded veal cutlets. Of course, this early menu also lists some dishes that contemporary Americans regularly eschew, such as fried calf's brains and stewed hare. Aside from the grandness of the dining room, the restaurant's team of trained waiters, and the food itself, the most surprising aspect of Delmonico's was the menu. Up until this point, those in New York were used to having only a single option when eating out; most taverns served the one dish the owner decided to prepare that day.
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The only universal feature of these variations is that they are at least 2 inches thick. The Delmonico steak served at Delmonico's, an impressive 18-ounce cut of boneless ribeye, is easily that thick. It is priced at $75 and is still deemed the restaurant's specialty.
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During this event, various dishes were served, including salmon à la Rothschild, pigeon, and duck. This decadent feast supposedly cost Peto $20,000 — that's over $380,000 in today's money. It does very well with marinades and makes a great cut for tacos, whether you treat it as a slow-cooked meat or grill it. There's one steak cut, though, that's more recent — way more recent — to the point where it's barely older than the iPod. This is the flat iron steak, which isn't just one of the best cuts of steak for a dinner party, but also a triumph of meat science. Incredibly, those intrepid meat researchers succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
The Menu
Thankfully, plenty of sources survive from this time, allowing us to paint a picture of what eating in America's first steakhouse was like. Ranhofer was a French chef who had learnt his trade in Paris. After moving to the United States, he soon found himself working at Delmonico's where he gained a reputation as America's first superstar chef. Ranhofer's excellent cooking was one of the main reasons he attained such fame.
Restaurant Royalty Max Tucci Shares the Secrets of Delmonico's - Moffly Media
Restaurant Royalty Max Tucci Shares the Secrets of Delmonico's.
Posted: Tue, 03 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Another was his willingness to create dishes that catered to the tastes and whims of his regular patrons. The chef's creations included the now famous chicken à la king and lobster Newburg. Some people even suggest Ranhofer created the popular dessert, baked Alaska. As we've seen, dining at Delmonico's was an expensive business with patrons being charged over $1,750 when splashing out. Those wishing to hire out Delmonico's had to be prepared to spend even more. This was highlighted by a banquet held by Sir Samuel Morton Peto in 1865 at the steakhouse.
The balls often involved a nine course Delmonico's supper that was served on gold plates. One of the Patriarch Balls, held in 1882, featured exquisite dishes such as truffled turkey, foie gras pâté, and truffled capons. Due to Ranhofer's creativity, patrons at Delmonico's were treated to a menu rich in innovation. This proved to be as great an allure as the promise of exceptional steaks. Indeed, Delmonico's was famed for its ability to serve hundreds of guests with distinctly elaborate dishes, making it the foremost establishment when one aimed to impress.
Even if you don’t care about Albert Einstein’s smoking pipe, you’ll have a great meal here. A huge painting depicting the haute monde overlooks a refurbished dining room. It’s a scene from sometime vaguely in the past, when people could still smoke inside. Another, newer, portrait on the opposite wall mirrors the Delmonico’s of today. It’s notably more diverse, and there’s even a smartphone on the table, but no cigarettes—or vapes—in sight. These days, you’re unlikely to find Taylor Swift sitting under the high ceilings and brand new bubble chandeliers, spooning Lobster Newburg into her mouth.
In The New York Times' 1859 review, it's suggested that the restaurant located in Broadway demanded an annual rent of $10,000, over $375,000 today. The most popular of all Delmonico's vegetable dishes spotlights the humble potato. Delmonico's potatoes, as the dish was known, was a simple dish of mashed potatoes covered in breadcrumbs and melted cheese. It was beloved by many patrons, most notably President Abraham Lincoln. Prior to Delmonico's, most Americans ate a cold, packed lunch — usually sandwiches they'd prepared in the morning. However, the restaurant's location in New York's commercial district soon saw locals exchanging their sandwiches for sit down, hot lunches consisting of French classics.
Soon after it opened in 1827, the café became a valued part of New York's nascent dining scene. Delmonico’s is frequently billed as America’s first restaurant. Before Delmonico’s it was all lunch-pails and cold sandwiches at lunch, and perhaps an oyster refectory or two. And Delmonico’s is still there, still in downtown Manhattan, down where the city grid goes cockamamie and mountains of money are made, where steaks are cut thick and the lobster comes coddled in a puff pastry. In 1860, the restaurant held an event for some 3,000 people, one of which was Albert Edwards, Prince of Wales. Famously, the evening began with part of the building's dance floor collapsing.
It seems unlikely that today’s Hudsons, Grants, and Taylors will frequent Delmonico’s. For one, that pied à terre apartment has been turned, like the rest of the building, into luxury condos. For another, the Continental cuisine offered by Delmonico’s is no longer the preferred cuisine of the famous and semi-famous, having been replaced by a sort of hyperbolic social media-friendly maximalism. (We see you, Bad Roman.) It’s all neon lights and monstera now. Max Tucci is the modern proselytizer for what he calls “the Delmonico way.” He’s an author who loves spinning tales of Delmonico’s in its glory years.
The New York Times' first restaurant review was published in 1859 and featured a round-up of the city's leading institutions, including Delmonico's. One of the unnamed reporter's first comments revolves around the steakhouse's reputation as a fine-dining destination. They note that such a reputation makes for intimidating dining; Delmonico's waiters were known to sneer if patrons asked for a low quality wine or did not order their dishes in the "correct" sequence. That being said, once patrons had ordered, they could expect the best service imaginable.
Delmonico’s claims to have invented this legendary lobster dish, but there are apparently a few ships and one salty sea captain who’d say otherwise. The seafood dish is thickened with egg yolks and cream, then spiked with cognac, and gets its bright red color from lobster coral. Delmonico’s was founded in 1827 as a bakery by a pair of Italian-Swiss brothers, Giovanni and Pietro Delmonico. The original location was razed, another, more grandiose, built, with columns supposedly imported from Pompeii. For a spell, the institution fled north, to 14th and then 44th Streets, then returned south. Conveniently located minutes from the crossroads of I-480 & I-77 on the busting hub of Rockside Road, it is the perfect location for business lunches and group meetings.
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