Dinners and diners : where and how to dine in London / by Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis.

  • Newnham-Davis, Lieut.-Col. (Nathaniel), 1854-1917.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dinners and diners : where and how to dine in London / by Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    to pommes IWirelle, but I could hardly have known that when ordering dinner. The Venetian salad, a little tower of many-coloured vegetables, looking like poker chips, Mrs. Wash- ington said, peas, beans, truffles, potatoes, beet- root, flavoured by a slice of saucisson and dressed with whipped white of eggs, was one of the triumphs of the dinner, and so was the salade de fruits. For Mrs. Washington to praise a fruit salad is a high honour, for she is one of the favoured people for whom Francois, late of the Grand Hotel, Monte Carlo and now of the Hotel Cecil, deigns to mix one with his own hands. The gourmets of Europe say that as a salad maker no man can approach Francois. I personally uphold the fruit salads that Frederic, of the Tour d’Argent, makes as being perfection, but Europe and America vote for Francois. I was told that the pouding Saxon was an unnecessary item, and I was rather glad, for I had shied at it when ordering dinner. I reminded Mrs. Washington, who was sipping her Perrier Jouet lazily, that the Empire ballet begins comparatively early, and to be in time for it, which she insisted on, we had to hurry over our coffee (which is always admirable at Verrey’s) and liqueurs, and the cigarette, which is a neces- sary of life to the lady. Then, while Mrs. Washington drew on the long white gloves again, I paid the bill:—hors-d’oeuvre, is.; potage, is. 6d. ; poisson, 3s. ; entrees, 2s. 6d. and 3s. ; pommes, 6d.; legumes, is. ; roti, 10s. 6d.; salade, is.; entremets, 3s.; cafe, is.; liqueur, 2s.;