Tasty Tidbits: Delmonico's

Delmonico's History

Delmonico's, opened in 1837 as America's first fine dining restaurant, continues to serve the connoisseur of fine American food in its premier location at 56 Beaver Street, the heart of Manhattan's financial district. Birthplace of the Delmonico Steak, Delmonico Potatoes, Eggs Benedict, Lobster Newburg, and Baked Alaska, the original Delmonico's offered unheard of luxury - the availability of private dining rooms, an extensive wine cellar, innovative cuisine, and, above all, warm, personal service.

Today, we continue to honor our heritage with the same warm hospitality and fine cuisine. Our menu features many of the traditional dishes as well as a prime Delmonico steak, aged to perfection in our aging room. We hope you will join us as we celebrate culinary history!





Delmonico's Firsts

The history of Delmonico's Restaurant in New York includes many Firsts in the history of cuisine. This describes some of these "firsts".
Before Delmonico's opened, diners ate at cafes and boarding houses (inns), where the food was simply the food available that day from the farms. Diners had no choice of dishes but ate the food that was served. Delmonico's changed all that, including the following firsts:
The first diner called by the French name restaurant
The first diner where guests sat at their own tables
The first printed menu
The first tablecloths
The first debutante ball outside a private home
The first restaurant to offer a leisurely lunch and dinner
Oysters Rockefeller
Lobster Newberg, first called Lobster Wenberg
Baked Alaska
Eggs Benedict (according to FoodTV and Infoplease)
Delmonico potatoes
Delmonico steak
Hamburger (known then as the Hamburg Steak)
First use of the expression that something is "86'd", since the Delmonico Steak was item 86 on the menu and, when sold out, it was "86'd" (according to the Restaurant Report, Foodudes and Ask Dave)


Signature Dishes

The "Delmonico Steak" (boneless ribeye) is perhaps the best, rarest and most desirable steak on the market. It originated around 1830 as the house cut at Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City, and is now seen on menus in restaurants and supermarkets across the nation.

"Baked Alaska" - 1867 - Charles Ranhofer (1836-1899), the French chef at the famous Delmonico's restaurant in New York, created a new cake to celebrate the United States purchase of Alaska from the Russians. William H. Seward (1801-1872), a Senator from New York, negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia, and the bill was signed on October 18, 1867. This purchase was known as "Stewart's Folly" and/or "Stewart's Icebox." In Charles Ranhofer's 1893 cookbook, The Epicurean, he called it an Alaska, Florida, and makes it in individual portions.

"Eggs Benedict" - 1860s -Credit is given to Delmonico's Restaurant, the very first restaurant or public dining room ever opened in the United States. In the 1860's, a regular patron of the restaurant, Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, finding nothing to her liking and wanting something new to eat for lunch, discussed this with Delmonico's Chef Charles Ranhofer (1936-1899), Ranhofer came up with Eggs Benedict. He has a recipe called Eggs a' la Benedick (Eufa a' la Benedick) in his cookbook called The Epicurean published in 1894.:

Eggs a' la Benedick - Cut some muffins in halves crosswise, toast them without allowing to brown, then place a round of cooked ham an eighth of an inch thick and of the same diameter as the muffins one each half. Heat in a moderate oven and put a poached egg on each toast. Cover the whole with Hollandaise sauce.

"Lobster Newberg" - was originally named after Ben Wenberg, a wealthy sea captain engaged in the fruit trade between Cuba and New York. When on shore, he customarily ate at Delmonico's Restaurant. One day in 1876, home from a cruise, he entered the cafe and announced that he had brought back a new way to cook lobster (where he originally got the idea for this new dish has never been discovered). Calling for a chafing dish, he demonstrated his discovery by cooking the dish at the table and invited Charles Delmonico to taste it. Delmonico said, "Delicious" and forthwith entered the dish on the restaurant menu, naming it in honor of its creator Lobster a la Wenberg. The dish quickly became popular and much in demand, especially by the after-theatre clientele.

Many months after Ben Wenberg and Charles Delmonico fought or argued over an as-yet-undiscovered and probably trivial matter. The upshot was that Charles banished Wenberg from Delmonico's and ordered Lobster a la Wenberg struck from the menu. That did not stop patrons from asking for the dish. By typographical slight-of-hand, Delmonico changed the spelling from "Wenberg" to "Newberg," and Lobster Newberg was born. This dish has also been called Lobster Delmonico.

Delmonico's famous chef, Chef Charles Ranhofer (1936-1899), altered the original recipe to add his own touch. In 1876, Charles Ranhofer retired and returned to France. In 1879, three years after he left Delmonico's to retire in France, Charles Ranhofer returned to America and Delmonico's as chef de cuisine at the 26th Street (Madison Square) restaurant. He was the chef at Delmonico's from 1862 to 1896. In his book, The Epicurean, published in 1894, Ranhofer gives the following recipe for Lobster a la Newberg:

"Cook six lobsters each weighing about two pounds in boiling salted water for twenty-five minutes. Twelve pounds of live lobster when cooked yields from two to two and a half pounds of meat with three to four ounces of coral. When cold detach the bodies from the tails and cut the latter into slices, put them into a sautoir, each piece lying flat, and add hot clarified butter; season with salt and fry lightly on both sides without coloring; moisten to their height with good raw cream; reduce quickly to half; and then add two or three spoonfuls of Madeira wine; boil the liquid once more only, then remove and thicken with a thickening of egg yolks and raw cream. Cook without boiling, incorporating a little cayenne and butter; then arrange the pieces in a vegetable dish and pour the sauce over."








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