Lüchow's
Lüchow's was a restaurant at 110
Although in the 1930s columnist O. O. McIntyre had written "In a changing world, nothing changes at Lüchow's", eventually even the long-running establishment came to an end,[4] closing after an attempt to stimulate business in 1982 by moving to the Theater District.[5] This new effort failed and ended in 1984,[2] leaving behind satellite locations which closed permanently in May 1986.[6] The 14th Street building was finally demolished in 1995[7] after being gutted by a fire the year before.[8]
Pronunciation
The German name Lüchow is pronounced
History
Through the doors of Luchow's pass all the famous people of the world.
—Legend seen on entering the main reception room,
originally said by James Montgomery Flagg[10]
Context
August Guido Lüchow, an immigrant from the city of Hanover, Germany, arrived in the United States in 1879 at the age of 23.[11] After working as waiter for a cafe on Duane Street, he became a bartender and waiter at a cafe and beer garden belonging to Baron von Mehlbach.[12] Three years later, aged 26, he was able to purchase the business with the help of a $1500 loan from William Steinway, the piano magnate,[3] who had his concert-hall-and-showrooms venue Steinway Hall across the street at Union Square, and was a regular customer at the von Mehlbach establishment.[12] The property was only about an eighth in size of what would become Lüchow's, and did not yet reach 13th Street on the downtown side.[12]
At that time the stretch of 14th Street extending crosstown on either side of Union Square was at the heart of the most prestigious part of the city, and August Lüchow's new establishment quickly became known as "the capital of 14th Street".[13]
Steinway and his circle of touring and transplanted European musicians comprised Lüchow's core clientele during the early years. A pre-sailing farewell engagement at Lüchow's in honor of the pianist
Early operation
By 1885 Lüchow had become the American agent for
The Heidelberg Room featured the enormous 7'x10' painting of The Potato Gatherers by Swedish artist
The
Latter years
August Lüchow died in 1923, and ownership of the business passed to Victor Eckstein, who was his nephew-in-law.[29] Prohibition had begun in 1921, and the restaurant had to survive on the strength of its cooking and traditions. After the first few years, Luchow's stopped celebrating New Year's Day, as the customers who brought their own flasks of alcohol were too rowdy. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Luchow's was the recipient of the first café liquor license in New York City.[30]
The umlaut in "Lüchow's" was restored in 1950, when Jan Mitchell, an entrepreneur who rescued several New York restaurants – including the
By the time Lüchow's reached its final iteration on 14th Street, it was owned by one of the two big restaurant conglomerates in New York City at the time,
With completion in 1979 of the final round of refurbishments at 14th Street by
providing much needed publicity, the place was seemingly resurrected, and there were a few years of capacity Christmas season business. Architecture students made their weekly visits to view the eclectic bric-a-brac and statuary, stained glass skylights and art nouveau appointments; and it was said that the frequently mentioned "1500 couverts" (pronounced "covers") in one day occurred multiple times.Demise
By the 1980s, the Union Square area had deteriorated considerably. The park itself was rundown and in serious need of refurbishment. The discount S. Klein's department store across the street was closed and abandoned; and the movie theatre next to the restaurant had become a rock concert venue, initially also dubbed the "Academy of Music", but later changed to the "Palladium". There was little left in the neighborhood to attract the type of clientele that Luchow's was intended to appeal to, and in 1982–83 the 14th Street location was abandoned,[37] dealing a serious blow to efforts to revitalize the neighborhood.[38] The saleable contents were auctioned off,[39][40] and the business was moved to a spot below street level at 51st Street and Broadway, with the aim of attracting Theater District crowds,[5] and the umlaut was dropped once again.[41]
The Theatre District restaurant lasted only a few years longer, but Luchow's lived on at other locations, notably
After Lüchow's moved out, the 14th Street location was briefly the "Palace", a nightclub-cabaret-restaurant [43] and later a gay bar.[44] An attempt was made to have the building demolished in 1985,[45] and it stood vacant for several years, never achieving protected landmark status despite local efforts.[7][46] It became the home of various squatters, drug addicts and prostitutes. In 1994, a mysterious fire destroyed any historic remnant of its vibrant past. The city ordered the building demolished.[47] The building was replaced by University Hall, a New York University dormitory and multi-use complex having retail frontage on 14th Street.[7] Before the dorm was built, NYU announced plans to "revive" Luchow's by including a street-level "Gay 90's" themed restaurant in the building, which they intended to call "Luchow's" if permission could be obtained to do so,[48] but these plans never came to fruition.
Music
At the turn of the twentieth century Lüchow's was prospering, and a good part of the bottom line came from beer sales.[17] Although he was not the first man to serve these fine imported beers in America, he was first to make them popular, a fact attested to by the popular song Harry Von Tilzer wrote to honor August and his restaurant, "Down Where the Würzburger Flows".[17] "The song traveled from Fourteenth Street to the beer gardens of Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, and far beyond, and attained such popularity that August declared in some bewilderment: 'I feel like a kind of beer Columbus!'"[49]
Victor Herbert was a concert cellist, conductor and composer of forty-three operettas and numerous other choral and instrumental works. He brought an eight-piece orchestra back from Vienna to perform at Lüchow's after one of his tours, and presided as its leader for nearly four years,[17] starting a musical tradition that carried through to the 1980s.[50] A corner table with a commemorative plaque was remembered at Lüchow's as the "Victor Herbert Corner" and the place where Herbert and his associates founded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914.[51][52] Songwriter Gus Kahn was another regular at the restaurant; he wrote the lyrics for "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby" there.[2]
Other works and composers which were featured at Luchow's include the
Herbert's and Romberg's Viennese counterpart
Cuisine
Lüchow's menu was
Noted guests
Literature
Lüchow's appears in many non-fiction and fiction books, including La Bonne Table (1964) by Ludwig Bemelmans, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1975) by Judith Rossner, The Anatolian (1982) by Elia Kazan, My Life as Author and Editor (1993, posthumous) by H. L. Mencken, Sidewalk Critic (1998, posthumous) by Lewis Mumford, and The Stories of John Cheever (2011) by John Cheever.
Mencken wrote, "Nathan and I saw him for the last time at lunch at Lüchow's in June 1920. He looked somewhat thin and pasty, but we ascribed his appearance, not to illness, but to the fact that he was drinking tea. Tea in Lüchow's, the citadel of Pilsner!"[75]
References
Notes
- ^ Grimes, William (December 3, 2009) "Jan Mitchell, Restaurateur, Dies" The New York Times
- ^ ISBN 0300055366., p.773
- ^ a b Mitchell, p. 25
- ^ Mitchell, p. 20
- ^ a b Fowler, Glenn (March 23, 1982) "Luchow's Moving to Theater District" The New York Times
- ^ Staff (December 8, 1986) "Foodies Anonymous" New York
- ^ a b c Lüchow's Archived October 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at the New York Preservation Archive
- ^ Staff (December 10, 1994) "Fire Guts Old Luchow's Building" (photograph) The New York Times
- ^ a b c d e Grimes, William (November 30, 2009) "Jan Mitchell, Who Put the "ü" Back in Lüchow's, Dies at 96" The New York Times
- ^ a b c Mitchell, p. 21
- ^ Staff (August 22, 1923) "August G. Lüchow, Restaurateur, Dies" The New York Times
- ^ a b c Mitchell, p. 24
- ^ Meyer, John H. (January 28, 2011) "Massapequa Getaway for Luchow Family" Archived April 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Massapequan Observer
- ^ a b Mitchell, p.26
- ^ Staff (April 18, 1906) "Farewell to Paderewski" The New York Times
- ^ a b c d Huneker, James Gibbons (August 24, 1919) "Musical Memories, Oscar Hammerstein and Dvorak" The New York Times
- ^ a b c d Mitchell, p. 27
- ^ a b c d Mitchell, p. 23
- ^ a b Dana, Robert W. (April 1957) "Luchow's Restaurant Celebrates 75th Anniversary" in Tips on Tables At the bottom of page is a photo of the view from front wall of Cafe (back wall of barroom) all the way to the back of Nebelungen.
- ^ Staff (July 16, 1910) "Huber's Museum Closes its Doors" The New York Times
- ^ "DAILY MENU [held by] LUCHOWS PAN-AMERICAN RESTAURANT CO. [at] "PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION, BUFFALO, NY GERMAN VILLAGE" (REST;)".
- ^ Landgraf, Greg (June 19, 2007) "A Centennial Blog: Meet Me at the Fair" Archived October 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine American Libraries
- ^ a b Mitchell, p. 22
- ^ Mitchell, p. 12
- ^ One room was lined with animal heads; another displayed a collection of beer steins.
- ^ Maeder, Jay (1998) "Plenty: The Fabulous Diamond Jim Brady, 1912" in Big Town Big Time, A New York Epic, 1898–1998, New York: Daily News Books. p.37
- ^ Staff (April 14, 1917) "Diamond Jim Brady Dies While Asleep" The New York Times
- ^ Jeffers, Harry Paul (2001) Diamond Jim Brady: Prince of the Gilded Age, New York: Wiley. p.4
- ^ a b Mitchell, p. 29
- ^ Mitchell, p. 30
- ^ a b Mitchell, p. 34
- ^ Staff (June 29, 1979) "Luchow's Restaurant is Sold to Aschkenasy" The New York Times
- ^ Hammer, Alexander R. (September 29, 1971) "Longchamps to Sell Luchow's and 4 Others for $8-Million" The New York Times
- ^ "The Riese Organization – Company History". Archived from the original on November 23, 2011.
- ^ a b Sheraton, Mimi (November 16, 1979) "Restaurants: Luchow's" The New York Times
- ^ Haberman, Clyde (March 30, 1982) "Panel Considers Citing Luchow's as a Landmark" The New York Times
- ^ Fowler, Glenn (March 23, 1982) "Luchow's Moving to Theater District" The New York Times
- ^ Staff (March 28, 1982) "14th St. Upgrading Dealt Blow by Luchow's Move" The New York Times
- ^ Krebs, Albin and Thomas, Richard G. Jr. (October 9, 1981) "Notes on People" The New York Times
- ^ Reif, Rita (October 23, 1981) "Auctions" The New York Times
- ^ Staff (August 3, 1982) "Topics: Pronouncements: Two Little Dots" (editorial) The New York Times
- ^ McFaddon, Robert (December 22, 1980) "Two Bombs Go Off in Penn Station..." The New York Times
- ^ Staff (September 20, 1982) "Nightclubs" New York
- ^ "Then & Now: From Luchow's German Restaurant to NYU Dorm". August 2, 2023.
- ^ Anderson, Susan Helen and Dunlap, David W. (August 28, 1985) "New York Day by Day: Demolition Request for Old Luchow's" The New York Times
- ^ Staff (September 19, 1982) "Owners of Luchow Building Fight Landmark Designation" The New York Times
- ^ "Lüchow's | The New York Preservation Archive Project". October 6, 2011. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
- ^ Staff (January 23, 1997) "N.Y.U. Plans a Revival of Luchow's" The New York Times
- ^ Mitchell, p. 28
- ^ Staff (December 31, 1981) "Dining and Dancing Through the Night" The New York Times
- ^ Mitchell, p.129
- ^ Staff (August 2, 1978) "A Restaurant Dress List" The New York Times
- ^ Mitchell, p. 136
- ^ Staff (December 31, 1981) "Dining and Dancing Through the Night" The New York Times
- ^ a b c d Staff (September 9, 1955) "Hugo Schemke, Waiter at Luchow's, Dies" The New York Times
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb Mitchell, passim
- ^ Staff (December 20, 1978) "Cardinal Finds an Ad Personally Indigestible" The New York Times
- ^ a b c d e f Haberman, Clyde and Krebs, Albin (November 23, 1978) "Notes on People" The New York Times
- ^ a b c Klemesrud, Judy (November 20, 1981) "The Evening Hours" The New York Times
- ^ a b c d e Staff (November 11, 1965) "Julius Richter, Violinist, Dead; Played for diners at Luchow's" The New York Times
- ^ a b c d Duka, John (November 16, 1980) "Notes on Fashion" The New York Times
- ^ Grimes, Ellen R. (November 11, 1977) "Now In New York" The New York Times
- ^ Du Bois, W. E. B. (1976) "The Correspondence of W. E. B. Du Bois Volume II: Selections, 1934–1944", Herbet Aptheker (ed.) Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press. p.134
- ^ Staff (December 16, 1956) "Ernst Seute, Luchow's Official, Is Dead" The New York Times
- ^ Phillips, McCandlish (October 15, 1956) "Javits Campaigns in Boyhood Area" The New York Times
- ^ Norwich, William (April 18, 2004) "Style: Gentlemen Prefer Maggie" The New York Times Magazine
- ^ a b Nemy, Enid (October 31, 1979) "It Was Not a Night Meant For Staying Home by the Fire" The New York Times
- ^ Fabricant, Florence (October 8, 2003) "Food Stuff: LeRoy Neiman Dined Here With Pen and Fork" The New York Times
- ^ Donavan, Robert J. (April 25, 1965) "Over Nominated, Under Elected, Still a Promising Candidate" The New York Times
- ISBN 0525154272. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
- ^ Price, Mary and Vincent (1965) A Treasury of Great Recipes, p.237
- ^ "Limelight Show" (June 26, 1965)
- ^ Capt. Turner dined in the Nibelungen Room on the eve of the RMS Lusitania's final voyage. Larson, Erik (2015). Dead Wake. p. Lusitania:Menagerie 9.
- ^ Associated Press (December 9, 1955) "World Concerts Honor Sibelius" The New York Times
- ^
ISBN 0679413154. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
Bibliography
- Mitchell, Jan, Lüchow's German Cookbook, Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1952, 1986
External links
- Media related to Luchow's Restaurant at Wikimedia Commons