New York in 1676 (it was still the New Netherland settlement) had six wine and four beer taverns. One, a low stone building near the present Pearl Street and Coenties Slip, was built in 1642 and was probably the town's first tavern, paid for by the West India Company which paid the tab for visitors to this port.

Inns and ordinaries were as important to their own communities as they were to travelers, since they provided shelter, refreshment, and relaxation for churchgoers who came many miles to attend the marathon sermons and half-day services of those times. Between morning and afternoon sessions, the men flocked to the local ordinary, to warm their toes by the fire in winter, to cool off in summer from the sun-baked meetinghouse. They drank beer, ale, and cider, and often something stronger.

The hotels and restaurants sought Broadway for the very reason that the churches shunned it. The hotels that have at various times occupied sites on Broadway have been legion; with the exception of the Astor House, all the first-class hotels have departed from below Union Square. We may mention a few of the older and best known.

Cafe Des Milles Colonnes

On July 9, 1842, Mr. Pinteaux, a Frenchman, opened the Cafe des Milles Colonnes at the corner of Duane Street, which soon became famous under the management of F. Palmo. The accommodations and appointments of this restaurant were far superior to anything of its kind yet seen in this country. In February, 1844, Palmo, who was an Italian and a great lover of the music of his native land, opened Palmo's Opera House at 39 and 41 Chambers Street. He was unsuccessful as an impresario, and the theatre passed out of his hands, and became Burton's Theatre, where that amusing comedian held forth for a number of years.

Taylor's

Another famous restaurant much frequented by the fashionable ladies and gentlemen of the thirties and forties was Taylor's, situated on the west side of Broadway at the northwest corner of Franklin Street, and figuring largely in the romance of the day.

Ainslee's- between Duane and Anthony Streets

Lovejoy's- at the corner of Worth Street.

Guerin's

Probably the ancestor of all the restaurants conducted in a foreign style was Guerin's at 120, which from 1815 onwards for several years sold confectionery, chocolate, pastry, liqueurs, etc.; this was below the Park, near Maiden Lane.

" Pfaff's" , A Popular Place of Resort For Journalists and Other Writers.

A popular place of resort for journalists and other writers for some years after 1858 was "Charley" Pfaff 's, an ill-ventilated and rather dingy place situated in a cellar on the east side of Broadway a few doors above Bleecker Street. It owed its vogue to Henry Clapp and his associates on the Saturday Press, a journal of ephemeral existence. When the paper suspended, there was pasted on the door of the publication rooms this notice: "This paper is obliged to discontinue publication for lack of funds; by a curious coincidence, the very reason for which it was started." "Pfaff 's" was the resort of the Bohemians of both sexes, but there was good beer and there must have been good cooking, as we find that the place was visited occasionally by people who were somebodies in literature; such men as Thomas Bailey Aldrich, William Winter, the dramatic scholar and critic, William Dean Howells, Bayard Taylor, Edmund Clarence Stedman, and Walt Whitman, among others. George Arnold, the poet, was a visitor, and one night he saddened the crowd by his story of the suicide at the Stevens House of a friend of his, a young Englishman named Henry W. Herbert, who wrote under the pseudonym of "Frank Forrester." Another friend of Arnold, who introduced him to the coterie at "Pfaff 's," was George Farrar Brown, better known to the reading public as "Artemus Ward." They were a jolly crowd, but journalism had fallen somewhat from its high estate of a generation before, when the "Bread and Cheese Club" held forth at Washington Hall.

Buck's Horn Tavern

At Twenty-second Street and Broadway was situated the Buck's Horn Tavern, which is spoken of in 1816 as "an old and well-known tavern." It was ornamented with the head and horns of a buck and was set back short distance from the street about ten feet higher than the present grade. It was a favorite road- house for those who drove out upon the Bloomingdale Road (Boston Post-road). Almost opposite the tavern, the Abingdon Road (Love Lane) followed approximately the line of the present Twenty-first Street as far west as the Fitzroy Road (Eighth Avenue). The drivers of that day used to come as far as the Buck's Horn, then turn through the quiet and shady Love Lane to Chelsea, and thence by the river road through Greenwich village back to the city across the Lispenard meadows. Three hotels still stand in this section between Union Square and Twenty-third Street; these are the Continental, at the northeast corner of Twentieth Street; the Bancroft, at the corner of Twenty-first Street, and the Bartholdi, at the southeast corner of Twenty-third Street.

The most luxurious restaurants in the city are Delmonico's at Forty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue, and Sherry's almost opposite. In the business district the Cafe' Savarin, in the Equitable Building is well known.

The Claremont Restaurant

Following the old road toward the river, we find that it is the eastern boundary of Riverside Park for some distance. Abreast of One Hundred and Twenty-third Street is the restaurant called Claremont, which commands a superb view of the river. It was erected a little over a century ago by Dr. Post and long remained in his family. Previous to 1812, it was occupied by Lord Courtenay, whose name appears in the list of owners above as having property below and contiguous to One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Street. Courtenay, who afterwards became Earl of Devon, came to this country, so it was supposed, on account of political or social troubles in England. One writer describes him as living as a recluse with one man servant; another, as being of a handsome and winning personality and dispensing a charming hospitality. However that may be, when the second war with England occurred, he went back to England and did not return to this country, his plate and furniture being sold at public auction. Another tenant of the mansion for some time was Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, who resided here after the downfall of his famous brother. For over fifty years the mansion has been a favorite road-house and restaurant.

The Crossed Keys Tavern

In colonial days a stone house and tavern, called the Crossed Keys from its sign, stood on the Kingsbridge Road at about One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Street. A notice of it appeared in the Historical Magazine for October, 1881, which describes it as still in use.

The Blue Bell Tavern

On the west side of the old Kingsbridge Road, on the lane leading to Fort Washington (One Hundred and Eighty-first Street) there stood in colonial days a popular tavern known as the Blue Bell. Cadwalader Colden, while on a journey to New York in October, 1753, stopped here and later wrote to his wife: "It was very well kept by a Dutchman named Vandewater, and our food and lodging were very comfortable." Tradition says it was the headquarters of General Heath who was in charge of the American defenses near Kingsbridge before the evacuation of the island by the patriots in 1776. The Hessian Colonel Rahl also occupied it after the attack on Fort Washington. One of his aides fell in love with the pretty daughter of the house and promised to remain in America if she would marry him. His commanding officer, as well as the girl's parents, favored the match, and so they were married. When the Hessians were captured at Trenton, the young husband refused to be exchanged, but took the oath of allegiance to the United States and, with his wife, settled in East Jersey. When the patriots were marching into the city at the time of the British evacuation, it is said that Washington stood in front of the house while the troops marched past in review. At he same time he gave into custody a young British deserter who had married a girl at the Blue Bell the day before and who did not want to accompany his comrades on their departure from this country. The tavern was still standing in 1848, as a contemporary writer makes note of the fact; and it is further shown by an advertisement in the same year in which Stephen Dolbeer notifies his friends and the public that "he has opened the Blue Bell tavern, at Fort Washington."

Hyatt's Tavern

The tavern became immensely popular on account of the diversion of traffic from the old bridge, but it did not pay, and in consequence Jacob Dyckman was obliged to make an assignment. His property of thirty acres was sold February 11, 1773, to Caleb Hyatt, who continued to conduct the tavern and who was succeeded by his son Jacob, so that it became known as Hyatt's Tavern, and is so spoken of by General Heath in his memoirs.

Ye Olde Chop House Tavern

These premises at 118 Cedar Street have been in use for restaurant purposes since 1800, when they were first known as Old Tom's. The First Olde Chop House stood on Duane Street, but then the proprietor moved to the present address, and brought the old name with him. The building is evidently very old; ancient rafters support its ceilings, and the lower rooms are filled with pews or benches and tables such as characterize old London chop houses, notably the Cheshire Cheese. A narrow staircase close to the front door, and within, leads to two rooms upstairs, also used for serving meals, and there is a grill room in the rear, where prominent business men of the city still meet for luncheon. At this hour, ladies are excluded from the grill, but are served upstairs.

Old Shakespeare Tavern

This tavern was located on the southwest corner of Fulton and Nassau Streets. There De Witt Clinton, later Governor of New York, Talked over grandiose plans for the Erie Canal. Fitz-Greene Halleck came there, as did James Fenimore Cooper, and a sprinkling of poets. The National Guard was organized at the Old Shakespeare in 1824.

Fraunces Tavern

Built in 1719 by Colonel Van Cortlandt, the mansion remained a private residence until about 1757 when the occupants, as New Yorkers have been doing ever since, moved "uptown." The sturdy old brick building became an inn in 1782, when "Black Sam" Fraunces came from the West Indies to supervise its operation. The proud hostelry at the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets was the scene of exciting happenings during the Revolution and the early years of the new nation. A group of businessmen met there on April 8, 1768, to organize the first Chamber of Commerce. The Fraunces was chosen by George Washington for his Farewell Dinner to his officers on December 4, 1783.

The Province Arms Tavern

In 1754, Edward Willett, one of the tavern keepers of the city, was attracted by the commanding position of the house and its fine view of the Hudson and rented it from Lieutenant-Governor James De Lancey, the inheritor from his father Etienne, and opened it as a tavern under the name of Province Arms. The New York Mercury of May 1, 1754, says: "Edward Willet, who lately kept the "Horse and Cart Inn" in this city, is removed into the house of the Honorable James De Lancey, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor, at the sign of the "Province Arms," in the Broadway, near Oswego Market." The first event to start it on its long and brilliant career was a public dinner given in 1755 to the new governor, Sir Charles Hardy. Hardy had been appointed successor to Sir Danvers Osborne, who had committed suicide in the garden of John Murray's house, a short distance away on Broadway. The next public dinner of importance was that given in 1756, when the lieutenant-governor of the province, the governors and students of the college, and many prominent merchants and others gathered here and marched to the laying of the corner-stone of King's College, the ancestor of Columbia University. At the conclusion of the ceremony, they all returned to the tavern where they
partook of "a very elegant dinner."

Burns Coffee House

In May, 1763, Mr. George Burns, another of the city's innkeepers, moved from the King's Head in Whitehall Street to the Province Arms, and the place became known as Burns's Coffee House, though still called the Province Arms and the City Arms. A month after Burns assumed control, a lottery was drawn in the tavern for the construction of a light-house on Sandy Hook. Being so close to the Mall in front of Trinity churchyard, the inn became the favorite resort of the English officers, and of the fashion of the city, sharing its honors, however, with another inn, also in a De Lancy house, the Queen's Head at Broad and Great Queen (Pearl) streets, better known as Fraunce's Tavern, and still in existence under the fostering care of the Sons of the Revolution. But it is as the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty that Burns's secures its historic interest and from the fact that notable meetings were held there marking the progress of revolutionary feeling.

The tavern was used for other purposes than for indignation or political meetings of the inhabitants. It was the meeting place of St. Andrew's and similar societies and of the governors of King's College, who probably found it more comfortable to transact business in its genial atmosphere with a bottle of good wine before them than in the cold halls of education. Musical concerts were also given within the walls of the tavern and in the extensive grounds attached. In 1777, these gardens saw a fatal duel between Captain Toll Mache of the Royal Navy and Captain Pennington of the Cold stream Guards. The duel was with swords; and a few days after the hostile meeting, Captain Toll Mache was buried in Trinity churchyard. Burns remained here as host until 1770, when he was succeeded by Bolton, who came from the Queen's Head (Fraunce's); later, Hull assumed charge and had the honor of entertaining John Adams and his colleagues, who were on their way to the first meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775.

Tontine Coffee House

The Tontine at Wall and Water Streets in New York City lasted from 1792 to 1816, and its assessed value of $7,000 was topped only by the $13,000 mansion of Peter Stuyvesant. Tontine was the name of a seventeenth-century Neapolitan banker who invented the idea of an annuity shared among a number of people; with the death of each beneficiary his share went to the survivors, the whole going to the last two or three. This New York Tontine was built by merchants, traders, and sailing masters who needed a place to eat, drink, and discuss business.

 Bank Coffee House

This was located at No. 11 Pine street between Nassau and Broadway. New Yorkers who lunched or dined at Bank's Coffee House in the 1830's and 40's doted on turtle soup and turtle steaks, a food fad that had begun fifty years earlier when groups of ladies and gentlemen would make excursions in pleasant weather to inns along the East River, where they held "turtle feasts, turkey shoots and the like." Shad, venison, and grouse were plentiful, and a favorite of that time and for many years to come was pickled oysters.