An astounding 20,000 people waited for the doors to open at the new Siegel-Cooper department store in September 1896.
This was the emporium New York City consumers were waiting for: 80 departments featured everything from the latest fashions to pets to pianos to bicycles. Merchandise was spread out over 15 acres of selling space in a massive building on Sixth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets.
(Oddly, the above illustration of the store doesn’t show the Sixth Avenue El, which had a special exit at 18th Street that led directly inside the building.)
But shopping can be exhausting, and even with the 20th century on the horizon, there were still few restaurants within the Ladies’ Mile shopping district where it was socially acceptable for a woman or group of women to grab a bite. (This is the Gilded Age, after all, and unescorted ladies weren’t supposed to dine on their own.)
Luckily, Siegel-Cooper had its customers covered. Among the many restaurants at the store was a “lunch room” for “quick light luncheons” geared for the female palate.
So what, exactly, constituted a light lunch? Based on the 1901 menu, that meant coffee, tea, “pure Jersey milk,” and buttermilk, for starters. And a “dairy dishes” category with very un-fancy offerings like oatmeal and (boiled) rice.
Scroll the menu more, and the items become more appealing. Stewed prunes don’t necessarily sound very appetizing, but tea biscuits and Parker House rolls make the cut.
And Fleischmann’s Hot Rolls! Fleischmann’s Vienna Bakery was on Broadway and 10th Street at the time, on the other side of Ladies’ Mile. Not only was it a fashionable place to buy baked goods, but the bakery was the first to come up with the idea of a “breadline” where hungry New Yorkers could queue up at night for free bread and coffee.
Pastry and pies? This is the good stuff. The variety of pies is quite impressive. The sandwiches, too, look appetizing. Except for the lettuce sandwich—doesn’t seem very filling.
The rest of the menu features soups, stews, cheese, and ice cream. Columbian ice cream—this I’ve never heard of. Tortoni, on the other hand, is rum-flavored.
[Menu: NYPL]
Ephemeral New York 