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11/14/2004 Archived Entry: "Lunching Around"

Just a Reminder … I will be at the Lincoln Center Barnes and Noble tomorrow evening (Monday) at 7 p.m. I’ll be giving a short talk on the history of food in New York City, then signing books. On Tuesday, I’ll be signing at Book Ends in Ridgewood, New Jersey, also starting at 7 p.m.

When I was on the radio, I hardly ever had an opportunity to eat lunch in a restaurant. For most of my 13 years on the air, I was broadcasting until 1 p.m., then I always had a planning meeting or some other office work that kept me from going out. In the last few weeks, however, I have gone out a number of times – sometimes for fun, but also because I have started to take reporters and editors who want to interview me – in regard to “Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food,” – to historic restaurants for lunch. Here are two of those lunch experiences.

The Four Seasons, on 53rd Street and Park Ave, is one of only two officially landmarked restaurant interiors in the city of New York. The other is what was from 1874 until last February, Gage & Tollner. It is now a T.G.I. Fridays. Heaven help the original gas lights and repro flocked wallpaper. The Four Seasons is still an impressive example of what is called International Style. The building, built by the Seagram Company when old man Sam Bronfman, the founder of the company, at one time a Canadian bootlegger, was still alive, was designed by Ludwig Mies Vander Rohe, the acknowledged master of International architecture. He was the one who said “God is in the details” and “Less is more.” Phyllis Lambert, Bronfman’s daughter, was put in charge of the building project …

But you can read the gossipy history of the Four Seasons in “Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food.” This is about lunch last week. It was, in short, a big disappointment. And it was usuriously expensive. At a place like the Four Seasons, where lunch for two, including three courses each, tax and tip, cost me $260 – that is not a typo – I should not have gotten my tepid black bean soup with a ramekin of sour cream that looked like it had just been used by another table. I should not have had to ask for the wine list three times. I should not have had to wave down a server to get another pour from my bottle of wine. The salad my lunch date got was wilted. The crab cakes I ordered – admittedly very fine crab cakes made with big lumps of sweet crab – came with a fennel salad that could have been made a week before – it was so tired and tasteless. How they cut the famous chocolate velvet cake so thin is an amazement. It was not a good lunch.

Let me add, I have friends who have always felt that eating at the Four Seasons is like eating in a dentist’s waiting room. It’s cold. It’s severe. I, on the other hand, who used to belong to a club that met monthly at the Four Seasons, had warm feelings for the place, so I didn’t see that. Now I see it. Although the greeting I got from co-owner Alex Von Bidder was friendly – he was at the reception desk when I arrived – the experience of lunching in the Pool Room, the main room, could not have felt more anonymous and frigid. Forget about eating in the Grill Room at lunch. That’s the “power” room. Apparently, you have to be Donald Trump to reserve a table there.

Keen’s, on 36th St. near Sixth Ave., was a big surprise. The only time I ever get to Keen’s these days is when I am going to an event at Madison Square Garden. It’s by far the best closest restaurant to the Garden. Sometimes I eat in the historic tavern room, where they don’t accept reservations but do serve one of the city’s best hamburgers, with some of the city’s best fries, and a truly great club sandwich with freshly roasted chicken. No more than once a year do I get to eat in the main dining room, which like the tavern room, has a ceiling hung with 18th-19th century clay pipes. Keen’s is the last of the English-style chophouses that dominated New York City during the English colony period of the 18th century, and well into the 19th century.

I must say I love the old bar room, too. It has what I call a classic “saloon nude” hanging over the bar, and the city’s best selection of single malt Scotch whiskies.

But who knew the main dining room was such a bustling scene at lunch. The place was jammed, and not only with old-timers who appreciate such places (like me), but a young business crowd. I suppose many of them are on Atkins – there were many tables that ordered the wedge of iceberg lettuce dripping with blue cheese dressing, then followed that up with a major steak or Keen’s signature item, the mammoth mutton chop. It’s not really mutton – old sheep – just older than the delicate lamb (I might say tasteless lamb) that is sold these days.

I really wanted that mutton chop, but since my female companion was trying to eat daintier than that – she ordered the Cobb Salad, the classic, except that it comes with some diced steak – I got the steak sandwich. If you want a small, perfect steak, this is it. If you must, leave the bread on your plate. The steak, for $21, comes with those fabulous fried potatoes and horseradish sauce. Mine was cooked rare as ordered. With a pint of Murphy’s stout, I was a very happy guy. My lunch date loved her Cobb, and my book, so that made me even happier. Lunch for two – with two drinks, but with dessert – was $75 with tax and tip.

By the way: Amazon is discounting my new book to $27, from its cover price of $45.