A Few Favorite Restaurants
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What a surprise to open this 1958 issue of Gourmet and find ads for all my parents' favorite restaurants! My father's office was right above The Dubonnet, and my parents ate there a few times a week. Now I see why: a 7-course dinner was $3, and given my mother's cooking it was probably the safest, most economical option. (Besides, Mom would never have eaten seven courses, so she probably reduced her cost to about a buck.) How lucky for me: our favorite waiter, Max, used to take me into the kitchen and introduce me to exotic spices. I remember mostly French food, but now I see that it was French-Hungarian and its appeal to my German father becomes clearer.
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We ate at the late, lamented Luchow's at least once a week. My father usually had Kassler Ripchen with a side order of chanterelles. Mom always ordered the apple pancake (the size of a large pizza, it was flambeed at the table). I think I ordered something different every time I went; the menu was huge and there was so much to explore.
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Charming. Old. And the place where my parents were married. (After a hitch; when the management discovered that the minister marrying them was African-American, they tried to wriggle out of the contract. My indomitable grandmother wouldn't have it.) Sadly, after an eighty year run the restaurant closed last month.
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Another Mom favorite. Also charming and old. (This too had a long run; it just closed last year.)