Lunch counter

“ This seems a long interlude to the Penny Lunch chapter, but you can see the lunch counter where five cents can buy beans, bread and coffee, saves many a man from feeling that he takes charity. The bread line was instituted to fortify a man's stomach against needing to go to the saloon in the morning for the free lunch, also to give strength to a poor fellow so he could search for work.
87The bread line food given each morning will not of itself sustain life, as we found out to our sorrow. ”

“ One can always see a few men perched on high stools at the all-night lunch counters. They are for the most part members of the night-working force, telegraph operators, night clerks, railroad men, messenger boys, streetcar conductors, reporters, cab drivers, printers and watchmen, who drop in to drink a cup of coffee or eat a sandwich. ”

“ Meals of many courses are neither practical nor popular with the modern hostess. For a company luncheon or supper it is not necessary to serve more than a hot dish, a salad, a biscuit or sandwich, a dessert and a beverage. A first course and a relish may be provided if desired.
SUNDAY NIGHT SUPPERS
The following menus were arranged especially as Sunday night suppers, but they are equally suitable for midday luncheons or high teas. Many of the dishes will be found desirable for afternoon teas or evening spreads, and for use in tea and lunch rooms, and for automobile picnics. ”

“ Plates of sandwiches or filled rolls (not too far from the table edge) olives and relishes should also be arranged on the table, though cakes, candies and salted nuts may be passed by the maids. The rolls go with the hot course, the sandwiches with the salad. When a “buffet” lunch is served at a big reception, with any number of guests coming and going, all the buffet refreshments should appear on the table at the same time.
The following dishes cover the essentials of a “buffet” luncheon. Beverages: punch, coffee, chocolate (poured from urn, or filled cups brought from pantry on tray) ”

“ After mess at night, to be sure, we have no lack of assistance. The boys swarm into the little kitchen in droves, eager to help stir the chocolate, or cut the bread for the sandwiches. If only ten out of every dozen would be content to stay the other side of the counter, it would simplify matters, but much as they may be underfoot one hasn’t the heart to turn them out. Those who can’t get into the kitchen hang about the doors, looking in, teasing for a “hand-out” of bread and jam. ”

“ Mrs Lewis lays it down that three dishes are the right number at any lunch, for she, like all other really great authorities on gastronomy, is opposed to a long menu; but she, as great authorities sometimes do, broke her own rule in giving us, after the quail pie, a dish of chicken wings in bread-crumbs and kidneys before the pears and pancakes, an admirable combination, with which our lunch ended. ”

“ Where supper differs from the usual lunch table is that in front of the hostess is a big silver tea-tray with full silver service for tea or cocoa or chocolate or breakfast coffee, most often chocolate or cocoa and either tea or coffee. At the host's end of the table there is perhaps a chafing dish—that is, if the host fancies himself a cook!
A number of people whose establishments are not very large, have very informal Sunday night suppers on their servants' Sundays out, and forage for themselves. The table is left set, a cold dish of something and salad are left in the icebox ”

“ But French—French of the second empire—Verrey's is, particularly at dinner-time. At lunch-time the restaurant is always quite full of ladies who shop in Regent Street, and of their escorts, and the rooms on the first floor are also given over to lunchers—and even then, sometimes, would-be customers have to wait a little while to obtain tables. Therefore the luncheon menu is adapted to the wants of ladies who are probably in a hurry, for though there is a very full list at lunch-time of delicacies that can be ordered, there are also several entrées and several joints always ready. ”

“ The room of the fourpence-halfpenny banquet had, like the lower room, a counter in it, on which were ranged a great number of cold portions ready for distribution. Behind this counter, the fragrant soup was steaming in deep cans, and the best-cooked of potatoes were fished out of similar receptacles. Nothing to eat was touched with his hand. Every waitress had her own tables to attend to. ”

“ A luncheon served for only one or two may be just as dainty as the most formal function, and far more satisfactory. A napkin or a carving cloth, spread on the bare table, is all sufficient when time is of great value. A poached egg on a bit of buttered toast, a tomato, made more savory by a spoonful of mayonnaise, a cup of tea, and some simple dessert, is a wise luncheon, if time be taken to serve and eat it properly. A glass of milk and a piece of cake, taken standing by the refrigerator, is a foolish luncheon, no matter who does it. ”

“ The tables were packed with over- [129] worked and underpaid men, to whom lunch was merely a means of keeping themselves from feeling inconveniently empty—a state to which the leadlike viands of the Florida Lunch Room were a certain prevention.
Carl was gulping down salty beef stew and bitter coffee served in handleless cups half an inch thick. Beside him, elbow jogging elbow, was a surly-faced man in overalls. The old German waiters shuffled about and bawled, "Zwei bif stew, ein cheese-cake." Dishes clattered incessantly. ”

“ No hard-and-fast rules can be laid down for the disposal of the cruets, butter, toast, eggs, marmalade, etc., but they all appear on a properly appointed table, arranged according to the space available, and, of course, some symmetrical order must be maintained. As a rule, one end of the table is occupied by the breakfast ware, sugar, hot and cold milk, tea and coffee pots, and when only one hot dish is provided, it is nearly always placed at the opposite end of the table. ”

“ A light salad, prepared with a regard for harmony with the rest of the menu, is always acceptable at the luncheon. Desserts may be the same as those served for dinner,—jellies, frozen puddings, ice-cream, tarts, nuts, etc. It is not customary to retire to the drawing-room for coffee; it is good form to have it served at the table. If the weather is tempting, and if the hostess is so inclined, coffee may be served on the porch. ”

“ Table mats are no longer used in stylish houses, either at luncheon or at dinner. The waiter should have a coarse towel in the butler's pantry, and wipe each dish before he puts it on the table.
Menu-cards are never used at luncheon. Salt-cellars and small water carafes may be placed up and down the luncheon-table.
In our country, where servants run away and leave their mistress when she is expecting guests, it is well to be able to improvise a dish from such materials as may be at hand. Nothing is better than a cod mayonnaise. A cod boiled in the morning is a friend in the afternoon. ”

“ As a rule these articles are highly ornamental, and are meant to be used on the table or sideboard; they are usually brought into requisition at breakfast, luncheon and supper, and are undoubtedly most serviceable in households where only a few servants are kept, as by their aid dainty little dishes such as fried or scrambled eggs, omelettes, stewed kidneys, broiled tomatoes, welch rarebit or cheese fondu, and similar preparations can be speedily prepared at the early morning meal, or at a late supper "after the theatre." For dwellers in flats the chafing dish is almost indispensable. ”

“ In some homes luncheon is a quite elaborate affair, and comprises several courses, including, perhaps, a soup or bouillon, a meat course, a salad, and fruit or sweets. In the majority of establishments owned by people of moderate means, however, the meal is simpler, but need be no less delightful. Many people can eat muffins, griddle-cakes, and [Pg 95] other hot breads at noon with less after-discomfort than at any other season, and dishes of this sort are usually acceptable on the luncheon-table. With their help the meal can hardly fail to be appetizing. ”

“ This last half-hour is a busy one for the ladies behind the counter in the outer hall. Long queues of men stand waiting to be served. Dripping cups and sticky buns are passed to them with inconceivable rapidity. ”

“ To the right is a counter running across an angle of the Lobby, at which ices, sandwiches, a glass of sherry, a glass of port, or a glass of brandy—all of a good quality, can be obtained by those of the members who do not wish to spoil a dinner by a hearty luncheon, or who do not wish to spend the time in going down stairs into a cosy suite of rooms, which I almost fancied were carved out of the beautiful oak paneling, and where a dinner nearly as good as may be found in England can be obtained at the prices and at the hours which I give in the Bill of Fare: One o'clock—Soups: Jardiniere, 1s. ”

“ FUNCTIONS THE rules that apply to a dinner hold good at a luncheon, to which function ladies only are usually invited, although when served at twelve o’clock, and called “breakfast,” men are also bidden.
At a luncheon the women leave their coats in the dressing-room, wearing their hats and gloves to the table. The gloves are drawn off as soon as all are seated. Just why women elect to sit through an entire meal in a private house with their hats on is not readily explained and some independent hostesses request that hats be removed. ”

“ The only extra plates ever permitted are the bread and butter plates which are put on at breakfast and lunch and supper above and to the left of the forks, but never at dinner. ”

“ Nearly everything that is to compose the ordinary luncheon for the family may be put upon the table at one time. Of course there must be an exception to this rule when the first course consists of soup or bouillon; but even then all the cold dishes may be in place when the guests are seated. The waiting need be only of the simplest, unless formality is desired. Those about the table may help themselves and one another, while the duties of the waitress may be confined to passing the dishes that are on the sideboard, changing the plates, bringing in hot dishes, etc. ”

“ You have already interviewed one breakfast, and are expecting soon to be coquetting with a tempting luncheon. If one had as many stomachs as a ruminant, he would not mind three or four serious meals a day, not counting the tea as one of them. The luncheon is a very convenient affair: it does not require special dress; it is informal; it is soon over, and may be made light or heavy, as one chooses. The afternoon tea is almost a necessity in London life. ”

“ The employees' lunchroom—conducted on the cafeteria plan—serves four thousand men and women each working day. It provides tasty and wholesome food at a cost that makes it entirely possible to eat to repletion for twenty cents or less. Soups, for instance, are three cents a portion, and meat dishes six, while other items, such as sandwiches, vegetables, desserts and the like are correspondingly low.
Nor is this luncheon the sole restaurant resource of the employees within this institution. In the men's club nearly a thousand more of the Macy family eat their midday meal each day ”

“ If coffee is made at the table assign this task to one guest and appoint two or three waiters to [Pg 14] see that the sandwiches, coffee, salad and the chafing dish product are handed about. Dill pickles are popular for chafing dish suppers, and so are wienerwursts, rye bread and Swiss cheese. The main idea of such a supper is to keep everyone busy helping and seeing that the supper does not lag. ”

“ I don’t know whether any of you, gentlemen, ever partook of a real substantial hospitable Scotch breakfast, and then went out to a slight lunch of a bushel of oysters, a dozen or so of bottled ale, and a noggin or two of whiskey to close up with. If you ever did, you will agree with me that it requires a pretty strong head to go out to dinner and supper afterwards. ”

“ If a man habitually sate down to luncheon, and ate it through, he was contemned as unversed in the science of feeding. "Luncheon is a reflection on Breakfast and an insult to Dinner;" and moreover it stamped the eater as an idler. No one who had anything to do could find time for a square meal in the middle of the day. When Mr. Gladstone was at the Board of Trade, his only luncheon consisted of an Abernethy biscuit which Mrs. ”

“ The next course in a luncheon of this size need not be an entrée, although one may be introduced here. Sweetbreads, chicken cutlets, timbales of some sort, a vol-au-vent—any one of these will answer, but there is no violation of rules if it is omitted altogether at a small luncheon. ”

“ Our table was a large piece of freshly peeled birch bark, laid wrong side up, and our breakfast consisted of hard-bread, fried pork, and strong coffee well sweetened, in which we did not miss the milk. ”

“ In lecturing on cookery, as on housebuilding, I divide the subject into, not four, but five grand elements: first, Bread; second, Butter; third, Meat; fourth, Vegetables; and fifth, Tea,—by which I mean, generically, all sorts of warm, comfortable drinks served out in teacups, whether they be called tea, coffee, chocolate, broma, or what not.
I affirm that, if these five departments are all perfect, the great ends of domestic cookery are answered, so far as the comfort and well-being of life are concerned. ”

“ From a humorous point of view this lunch is rather good.” ”

“ The hours of the morning between breakfast and lunch were the time which the inhabitants of Riseholme chiefly devoted to spying on each other. ”

“ The dinner was in the best style of women's-magazine art, whereby the salad was served in hollowed apples, and everything but the invincible fried chicken resembled something else. ”