Lobster Palace

The Lobster Palace was a large, expensive, lavishly designed and decorated dining establishment, popular with the affluent and famous in New York City and other major cities in the United States from the late 1890s to the 1910s. The restaurants, a nexus of high society for about 14 years, acquired their moniker from what was regarded as their most characteristic dish, the expensive and, then fashionable, lobster.

History

New York City

In the late nineteenth century, large, opulent dining establishments began to open in New York City near Broadway and 42nd Street in the city’s Theater District of Long Acre Square, the earlier name of today’s Times Square. The restaurants catered to affluent theater goers and celebrities alike, for both pre-performance dinners and after-performance suppers.

Exterior view of Murray’s Roman Gardens at 42nd street near Boradway, circa 1915.

The Peacock room at Murray's Roman Gardens, New York CIty, circa 1915.

Due to their late night gayeties and the frequently served lobster, the establishments acquired the "Lobster Palace" sobriquet. Open to everyone who had the means to pay, the palaces soon became the trendy destination for New York’s wealthy and well-to-do, whether celebrating business or theatrical success or sporting wins, or just to enjoy a night on the town. According to one account, lobster palace society in New York City counted among its denizens “Wall Street financiers, industrial magnates, gilded factions of the Four Hundred, gaudy playboys, journalists, celebrities from the Bohemia of the arts, the greatest stars of the theater, gamblers, jockeys, pugilists, professional beauties, chorus girls, kept women.”

The first palace to open was Rector’s, which opened it doors in 1899 on Broadway between 43rd and 44th streets.Others quickly followed, including Bustanoby’s, Churchill’s, Faust’s, Martin’s, Murray’s Roman Gardens, Reisenweber’s, and Shanley’s. To one extent or the other, each new establishment tried to top the others, whether in lavish decorations, themed interiors, entertainment, or in the purveying of unusual, exotic foreign fare often at exorbitant prices.

In New York City, the palaces possessed all-night liquor licenses, a valuable asset which allowed dining and alcohol consumption to continue until the early morning hours.This drew the consternation of reformers, who condemned what they saw as decadence. While lobster palace society was flourishing in the major cities, the movement toward Prohibition was also gaining serious traction in society.

Although lobster palace society manifested in other large American cities, it was in New York City that it reached its zenith in terms of opulence and extravagance. For about 14 years, until 1913, the establishments thrived and were at the center of high society nightlife. Around 1912, however, new venues that offered dancing and smaller scale nightclub-like entertainment began to appear. The palaces tried to adjust, and yet their efforts were not entirely successful as the public’s fickle taste had shifted. Also, temperance reformers were having some success in restricting how and when alcohol could be sold. Together, these factors hastened the closure of the lobster palaces, and one by one, they faded from the nightlife scene. Prohibition, enacted in 1919, ensured they would not return.

See also

• fine dining
• haute cuisine
• restaurant
• Gilded Age

Further reading

• Batterberry, Michael, and Ariane Batterberry. On the Town in New York: A History of Eating, Drinking and Entertainments from 1776 to the Present (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973)
• Bianco, Anthony. Ghosts of 42nd Street: A History of America's Most Infamous Block (New York: William Morrow, 2004)
• Erenberg, Lewis A. Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture, 1890–1930 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981)
• Grimes, William. Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York (New York: North Point, 2009)
• Smith, Andrew F. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City (Oxford University Press, 2015)