Luchow's
Encyclopedia
Lüchow's was a restaurant located at 110 East 14th Street
at Irving Place near Union Square
in Manhattan
, New York City
, with the property running clear through the block to 13th Street. It was established in 1882 – at a time when the surrounding neighborhood was primarily residential – when a German immigrant, August Lüchow, purchased the cafe where he worked as a bartender and waiter. Lüchow's remained in operation at this location for a full century, becoming a favorite establishment for people in the entertainment world, helped by its proximity to the Academy of Music, the city's opera house, as well as Steinway Hall
and Tammany Hall
, where other entertainment was offered.
Although in the 1930s columnist O. O. McIntyre
had written "In a changing world, nothing changes at Lüchow's", eventually even the long-running establishment came to an end, closing after an attempt to stimulate business in 1982 by moving to the Theater District. This new effort failed and ended in 1984, leaving behind satellite locations which closed permanently in May 1986. The 14th Street building was finally demolished in 1995 after being gutted by a fire the year before.
, Germany
, arrived in the United States in 1879 at the age of 23. After working as waiter for a cafe on Duane Street, he became a bartender and waiter at a cafe and beer garden belonging to Baron von Mehlbach. Just a few years later, at the age of 26, he was able to purchase the business with the help of a $1500 loan from William Steinway
, the piano magnate, who had his concert-hall-and-showrooms venue Steinway Hall
across the street at Union Square
, and was a regular customer at the von Mehlbach establishment. The property was only about an eighth in size of what would become Lüchow's, and did not yet reach 13th Street on the downtown side.
At that time the stretch of 14th Street extending crosstown on either side of Union Square was at the heart of the most prestigious part of the city, and August Lüchow's new establishment quickly became known as "the capital of 14th Street".
Steinway and his circle of touring and transplanted European musicians comprised Lüchow's core clientele during the early years. A pre-sailing farewell engagement at Lüchow's in honor of the pianist Ignaz Paderewski – which lasted six hours – is noted by the New York Times in 1906. James Huneker
, writing for the Times in 1919, describes how he was called upon in the 1890's to introduce Antonín Dvořák
– who is referred to as "Old Borax" – to New York society by founder of the National Conservatory
Jeanette Myers Thurber, who had engaged the composer to lead her nascent musical institution: "Later we went down to Gus Lüchow's. For a musician not to be seen at Lüchow's argued that he was unknown in the social world of tone." Huneker aslso relates several anecdotes about Oscar Hammerstein
, another Lüchow's habitué.
By 1885 Lüchow had become the American agent for Würzburger Beer
and shortly thereafter for Pilsner, another famous brand, made with soft water. Space was at a premium, and so the beer garden located behind the original restaurant on the east was made to provide access to a newly purchased lot extending back to 13th Street, on which stables were built to enable delivery of beer throughout the city. In 1902 further construction was undertaken, converting the stables, beer garden, and another large space behind the bar on the west into three ornate dark-panelled rooms, two of which had 30' ceilings – with frosted skylights with etched stained glass. These became known as the "Heidelberg
Room" – still being called "the New Room" eighty years later, "Garden" – because it occupied the location of the original beer garden – and "Cafe", respectively. With the purchase in 1910 of the Huber Museum property at 106 East 14th Street the restaurant's physical layout took its final form, allowing the addition of two more public rooms: Hunting, and Nibelungen
.
The Heidelberg Room featured the enormous 7'x10' painting of The Potato Gatherers by Swedish artist August Hagborg
, that Lüchow had purchased at the St. Louis World's Fair
in 1904, when he was there to run the food concession for the Tyrolean Alps Exhibit. The painting was still to be found in its place at the back of the New Room in 1980 – near the 13th Street entrance. Also prominent in the Heidelberg Room was an extremely large model of the four masted clipper ship Great Republic
which was visible from the majority of tables in the six main rooms, in addition to numerous "small masterpieces of the Dutch, Austrian and Flemish schools". Multitudes of mounted animal heads and colorful beer steins having German and Austrian geographical significance – of varied and sometimes extreme size – were displayed throughout the room. The Hunting (or Hunt) Room – where, as latter-day owner Jan Mitchell once observed "twenty-one mounted deer heads gaze in blank nonchalance upon the pleasant spectacle of their descendants being eaten with considerable satisfaction" – was especially prolific in regard to taxidermy, and provided a few big tables to accommodate the larger parties of guests within the public rooms.
The art nouveau
"Diamond Jim Brady Room" was fitted out with matching cabinetry appointments and Tiffany glass
, with arched mirrors of beveled glass and cut flowers across an expanse of marble and dark carved mahogany: "At one end stands the knightly figure of Lohengrin
, and at the other, on the wall, broods a shaggy buffalo head obtained at the St. Louis World's Fair. An oil painting of Bacchus
appropriately surveys this scene from the opposite wall." The room was named after Diamond Jim Brady, a voracious eater who was referred to by one New York restaurateur as "the best twenty-five customers I ever had". Brady was not a gangster, as some assumed, but a successful executive and founder of an automobile and railroad rolling stock manufacturer, the Standard Steel Car Company
– later merged with Pullman
– who had a passion for fancy jewelry. He said, "Each must have a good time in his own way." Brady's long-time eating companion was the noted actress Lillian Russell
, for whom another room at Lüchow's was named.
wrote to honor August and his restaurant, "Down Where the Würzburger Flows". "The song traveled from Fourteenth Street to the beer gardens of Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, and far beyond, and attained such popularity that August declared in some bewilderment: 'I feel like a kind of beer Columbus!'"
Victor Herbert
was a noted concert cellist, conductor and composer of forty-three operetta
s and numerous other choral and instrumental works. He brought an eight piece orchestra back from Vienna to perform at Lüchow's after one of his tours, and presided as its leader for nearly four years, thus starting a musical tradition that carried through to the 1980's. A corner table with a commemorative plaque was remembered at Lüchow's as the "Victor Herbert Corner" and the place where Herbert and his associates founded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914. Songwriter Gus Kahn
was another regular at the restaurant; he wrote the lyrics for "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby" there.
Other works and composers which were featured at Luchow's include the art songs
of Richard Strauss
or Johannes Brahms
, "In a Persian Market" by Albert Ketèlbey
, Franz Schubert
's "Moments Musicaux
" or Schwanengesang
, Richard Wagner
's "Wesendonck Songs
", or Tannhäuser
. For comic relief, there was a strolling Oompah Band, the Royal Bavarians, which played songs such as "Lili Marleen
", "The Beer Barrel Polka" and Sigmund Romberg
's "Heidelberger Trinklied" drinking song from The Student Prince
Herbert's and Romberg's Viennese counterpart Franz Lehar
and his music, including "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz
" and the "Merry Widow Waltz" represent the gemütlicher
(comfortable and cozy) side of the restaurant's personality. Other musical fare from this branch – The Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach
and Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck
, along with the Strauss Waltzes such as "Blue Danube
" – made up a good part of the basic Lüchow's repertoire performed by the piano and string ensemble first known as the Vienna Art Strings, or Quartet, and later as the Victor Herbert Quartet, or Trio. Add to that some of the numbers from Herbert's Babes in Toyland
, such as "Toyland" and "March of the Toys" for instance, plus a few from The Nutcracker
, and a great many of the well known Christmas carols and songs, and you get something like what was played during the Christmas
season at Lüchow's down through the years.
oriented throughout its existence, with dishes including Wienerschnitzel
and various wild game. "Knackwurst
and Sauerkraut
", Bratwurst
, red cabbage and beets, Sauerbraten
and pumpernickel
bread were perennial staples. Pfannkuchen mit Preisselbeeren, (flambéed thin pancakes with lingonberry sauce) and Sachertorte
, a recipe borrowed from the famous Sacher Hotel in Vienna
, were favorites of the dessert selection. Apparently the German orientation was relaxed somewhat in the years after 1923 when August Lüchow died, putting the restaurant under control of his sister's husband Victor Eckstein. Even during Lüchow's lifetime it was necessary to make compromises: during the First World War anti-German sentiment ran so high that by 1917 he thought it prudent to remove the umlaut over the "u" of Lüchow's in all public occurrences of the name.
had begun in 1921, and the restaurant had to survive on the strength of its cooking and traditions. After the first few years, Luchow's stopped celebrating New Year's Day
, as the customers who brought their own flasks of alcohol were too rowdy. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Luchow's was the recipient of the first café liquor license in New York City.
The umlaut in "Lüchow's" was restored in 1950, when Jan Mitchell, an entrepreneur who rescued several New York restaurants - including the Longchamps
chain – bought the restaurant from Eckstein after five years of persuasion. Mitchell restored the tradition of holding week-long galas such as the annual Venison
Festival, Bock Beer
Festival, a goose fest, and so on, but one of the biggest attractions at Lüchow's, and a tremendous customer draw, was the nightly lighting of the Christmas tree, which began around Thanksgiving
and lasted till New Year's
.
By the time Lüchow's reached its final iteration on 14th Street, it was owned by one of the two big restaurant conglomerates in New York City at the time, Restaurant Associates, having passed from the hands of the other, Riese Brothers, a couple of years before. Riese Brothers is a restaurant management company, with such names as Schrafft's, Longchamps
, Chock Full o' Nuts and Childs
figuring prominently in their real estate-oriented business formula. Over time the quality of Lüchow's food and service had taken a turn for the worse, with stemware abandoned in favor of short glasses, and no tablecloths at lunch, according to employees of the period.
With completion in 1979 of the final round of refurbishments at 14th Street by Restaurant Associates, whose principal, Peter Aschkenasy, was friends with Mayor Ed Koch
, providing much needed publicity, the place was seemingly resurrected, and there were a few years of capacity Christmas season business. Architecture students made their weekly visits to view the eclectic bric-a-brac and statuary, stained glass skylights and art nouveau appointments; and it was said that the frequently mentioned "1500 couverts" in one day occurred multiple times.
By the 1980s the area around 14th Street at Union Square had deteriorated considerably. The park itself was rundown and in serious need of refurbishment, the Academy of Music opera house and Tammany Hall had been torn down long before to build the headquarters of Consolidated Edison, the discount S. Klein
's department store across the street was closed and abandoned, and the movie theatre next to the restaurant had become a rock concert venue, initially also dubbed the "Academy of Music", but later changed to the "Palladium". There was little left in the neighborhood to attract the type of clientele that Luchow's was intended to appeal to, and in 1982-83 the 14th Street location was abandoned, dealing a serious blow to efforts to revitalize the neighborhood. The saleable contents were auctioned off, and the business was moved to a spot below street level at
51st Street
and Broadway
, with the aim of attracting Theater District crowds, and the umlaut was dropped once again.
The Theatre District restaurant lasted only a few years longer, but Luchow's lived on at other locations, notably Penn Station, Restaurant Associates having decided to branch out and make use of the famous name.
After Lüchow's moved out, the 14th Street location was briefly "The Palace", a restaurant-discothèque, and later a gay bar. An attempt was made to have the building demolished in 1985, and it stood vacant for several years, never achieving protected landmark status despite local efforts. The fire on December 9, 1992 that finally consumed a good part of the interior is said to have been started by homeless people living in the building. The remains were demolished in 1995 and replaced by University Hall, a New York University
dormitory and multi-use complex having retail frontage on 14th Street. Before the dorm was built, NYU announced plans to "revive" Luchow's by including a street-level "Gay 90's" themed restaurant in the building, which they intended to call "Luchow's" if permission could be obtained to do so, but these plans never came to fruition.
14th Street (Manhattan)
14th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street rivals the size of some of the well-known avenues of the city and is an important business location....
at Irving Place near Union Square
Union Square (New York City)
Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, with the property running clear through the block to 13th Street. It was established in 1882 – at a time when the surrounding neighborhood was primarily residential – when a German immigrant, August Lüchow, purchased the cafe where he worked as a bartender and waiter. Lüchow's remained in operation at this location for a full century, becoming a favorite establishment for people in the entertainment world, helped by its proximity to the Academy of Music, the city's opera house, as well as Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in world cities such as New York City, London, Hamburg, Berlin,...
and Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
, where other entertainment was offered.
Although in the 1930s columnist O. O. McIntyre
O. O. McIntyre
Oscar Odd McIntyre was a famed New York newspaper columnist of the 1920s and 1930s who cleverly combined a small town point of view with urban sophistication...
had written "In a changing world, nothing changes at Lüchow's", eventually even the long-running establishment came to an end, closing after an attempt to stimulate business in 1982 by moving to the Theater District. This new effort failed and ended in 1984, leaving behind satellite locations which closed permanently in May 1986. The 14th Street building was finally demolished in 1995 after being gutted by a fire the year before.
History
August Guido Lüchow, an immigrant from the city of HanoverHanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, arrived in the United States in 1879 at the age of 23. After working as waiter for a cafe on Duane Street, he became a bartender and waiter at a cafe and beer garden belonging to Baron von Mehlbach. Just a few years later, at the age of 26, he was able to purchase the business with the help of a $1500 loan from William Steinway
William Steinway
William Steinway, also Wilhelm Steinway, born Wilhelm Steinweg , son of Steinway & Sons founder Henry E. Steinway, was a businessman and civic leader who was influential in the development of Astoria, New York....
, the piano magnate, who had his concert-hall-and-showrooms venue Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in world cities such as New York City, London, Hamburg, Berlin,...
across the street at Union Square
Union Square (New York City)
Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...
, and was a regular customer at the von Mehlbach establishment. The property was only about an eighth in size of what would become Lüchow's, and did not yet reach 13th Street on the downtown side.
At that time the stretch of 14th Street extending crosstown on either side of Union Square was at the heart of the most prestigious part of the city, and August Lüchow's new establishment quickly became known as "the capital of 14th Street".
Steinway and his circle of touring and transplanted European musicians comprised Lüchow's core clientele during the early years. A pre-sailing farewell engagement at Lüchow's in honor of the pianist Ignaz Paderewski – which lasted six hours – is noted by the New York Times in 1906. James Huneker
James Huneker
James Gibbons Huneker was an American music writer and critic.Huneker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano in Europe under Leopold Doutreleau and audited the Paris piano class of Frédéric Chopin's pupil Georges Mathias. He came to New York City in 1885 and remained there...
, writing for the Times in 1919, describes how he was called upon in the 1890's to introduce Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
– who is referred to as "Old Borax" – to New York society by founder of the National Conservatory
National Conservatory of Music of America
The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber...
Jeanette Myers Thurber, who had engaged the composer to lead her nascent musical institution: "Later we went down to Gus Lüchow's. For a musician not to be seen at Lüchow's argued that he was unknown in the social world of tone." Huneker aslso relates several anecdotes about Oscar Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
, another Lüchow's habitué.
By 1885 Lüchow had become the American agent for Würzburger Beer
Würzburger Hofbräu
The Würzburg Hofbräu is the only brewery in Würzburg, Germany.-History:The brewery was founded in 1643 by the Franconian Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn and is deeply rooted in the region of Lower Franconia....
and shortly thereafter for Pilsner, another famous brand, made with soft water. Space was at a premium, and so the beer garden located behind the original restaurant on the east was made to provide access to a newly purchased lot extending back to 13th Street, on which stables were built to enable delivery of beer throughout the city. In 1902 further construction was undertaken, converting the stables, beer garden, and another large space behind the bar on the west into three ornate dark-panelled rooms, two of which had 30' ceilings – with frosted skylights with etched stained glass. These became known as the "Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
Room" – still being called "the New Room" eighty years later, "Garden" – because it occupied the location of the original beer garden – and "Cafe", respectively. With the purchase in 1910 of the Huber Museum property at 106 East 14th Street the restaurant's physical layout took its final form, allowing the addition of two more public rooms: Hunting, and Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
.
The Heidelberg Room featured the enormous 7'x10' painting of The Potato Gatherers by Swedish artist August Hagborg
August Hagborg
August Hagborg was a Swedish painter.-Biography:After initial training received at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, August Hagborg came to Paris in 1875 to complete his training...
, that Lüchow had purchased at the St. Louis World's Fair
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
in 1904, when he was there to run the food concession for the Tyrolean Alps Exhibit. The painting was still to be found in its place at the back of the New Room in 1980 – near the 13th Street entrance. Also prominent in the Heidelberg Room was an extremely large model of the four masted clipper ship Great Republic
Great Republic
Launched on October 4, 1853 the Great Republic is noteworthy as the largest wooden clipper ship ever constructed.-Construction of the largest wooden clipper ship:...
which was visible from the majority of tables in the six main rooms, in addition to numerous "small masterpieces of the Dutch, Austrian and Flemish schools". Multitudes of mounted animal heads and colorful beer steins having German and Austrian geographical significance – of varied and sometimes extreme size – were displayed throughout the room. The Hunting (or Hunt) Room – where, as latter-day owner Jan Mitchell once observed "twenty-one mounted deer heads gaze in blank nonchalance upon the pleasant spectacle of their descendants being eaten with considerable satisfaction" – was especially prolific in regard to taxidermy, and provided a few big tables to accommodate the larger parties of guests within the public rooms.
The art nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
"Diamond Jim Brady Room" was fitted out with matching cabinetry appointments and Tiffany glass
Tiffany glass
Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1933 at the Tiffany Studios, by Louis Comfort Tiffany....
, with arched mirrors of beveled glass and cut flowers across an expanse of marble and dark carved mahogany: "At one end stands the knightly figure of Lohengrin
Lohengrin
Lohengrin is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival , he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, is a version of the Knight of the...
, and at the other, on the wall, broods a shaggy buffalo head obtained at the St. Louis World's Fair. An oil painting of Bacchus
Bacchus
Bacchus is the Roman name for Dionysus, the god of wine and intoxication.Bacchus can also refer to:* Temple of Bacchus, a Roman temple at a large classical antiquity complex in Baalbek, Lebanon...
appropriately surveys this scene from the opposite wall." The room was named after Diamond Jim Brady, a voracious eater who was referred to by one New York restaurateur as "the best twenty-five customers I ever had". Brady was not a gangster, as some assumed, but a successful executive and founder of an automobile and railroad rolling stock manufacturer, the Standard Steel Car Company
Standard Steel Car Company
The Standard Steel Car Company was a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock in the United States that existed between 1902 and 1934....
– later merged with Pullman
Pullman Company
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s...
– who had a passion for fancy jewelry. He said, "Each must have a good time in his own way." Brady's long-time eating companion was the noted actress Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago...
, for whom another room at Lüchow's was named.
Music
At the turn of the twentieth century Lüchow's was prospering, and a good part of the bottom line came from beer sales. Although he was not the first man to serve these fine imported beers in America, he was first to make them popular, a fact attested to by the popular song Harry Von TilzerHarry Von Tilzer
Harry Von Tilzer was a very popular United States songwriter.-Biography:Von Tilzer was born in Goshen, Indiana under the name Aaron Gumbinsky which he shortened to Harry Gumm. He ran away and joined a traveling circus at age 14, where he took his new name by adding 'Von' to his mother's maiden...
wrote to honor August and his restaurant, "Down Where the Würzburger Flows". "The song traveled from Fourteenth Street to the beer gardens of Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, and far beyond, and attained such popularity that August declared in some bewilderment: 'I feel like a kind of beer Columbus!'"
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
was a noted concert cellist, conductor and composer of forty-three operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s and numerous other choral and instrumental works. He brought an eight piece orchestra back from Vienna to perform at Lüchow's after one of his tours, and presided as its leader for nearly four years, thus starting a musical tradition that carried through to the 1980's. A corner table with a commemorative plaque was remembered at Lüchow's as the "Victor Herbert Corner" and the place where Herbert and his associates founded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914. Songwriter Gus Kahn
Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...
was another regular at the restaurant; he wrote the lyrics for "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby" there.
Other works and composers which were featured at Luchow's include the art songs
Art song
An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
or Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, "In a Persian Market" by Albert Ketèlbey
Albert Ketèlbey
Albert William Ketèlbey , born Ketelbey, was an English composer, conductor and pianist.-Biography:...
, Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's "Moments Musicaux
Six Moments Musicaux (Schubert)
Six moments musicaux, D 780 is a collection of six short pieces for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert. The movements are as follows:*1. Moderato in C major*2. Andantino in A-flat major*3. Allegro moderato in F minor...
" or Schwanengesang
Schwanengesang
Schwanengesang is the title of a posthumous collection of songs by Franz Schubert.Unlike the earlier Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, it uses poems by three poets, Ludwig Rellstab , Heinrich Heine and Johann Gabriel Seidl . Schwanengesang has the number D 957 in the Deutsch catalogue...
, Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's "Wesendonck Songs
Wesendonck Lieder
The Wesendonck Lieder is a song cycle composed by Richard Wagner while he was working on Die Walküre. This, and the Siegfried Idyll, are his only two non-operatic works that are still regularly performed....
", or Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
. For comic relief, there was a strolling Oompah Band, the Royal Bavarians, which played songs such as "Lili Marleen
Lili Marleen
"Lili Marleen" is a German love song which became popular during World War II.Written in 1915 during World War I, the poem was published under the title "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" in 1937, and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 under the...
", "The Beer Barrel Polka" and Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
's "Heidelberger Trinklied" drinking song from The Student Prince
The Student Prince
The Student Prince is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works...
Herbert's and Romberg's Viennese counterpart Franz Lehar
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
and his music, including "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz
Dein ist mein ganzes Herz
"Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" is a song from the operetta Das Land des Lächelns with music by the Hungarian composer Franz Lehar and words by Fritz Löhner-Beda and Ludwig Herzer...
" and the "Merry Widow Waltz" represent the gemütlicher
Gemütlichkeit
Gemütlichkeit is a German abstract noun that has been adopted into English. Its closest equivalent is the word "coziness"; however, rather than merely describing a place that is compact, well-heated and nicely furnished , Gemütlichkeit connotes the notion of belonging, social acceptance,...
(comfortable and cozy) side of the restaurant's personality. Other musical fare from this branch – The Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
and Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
, along with the Strauss Waltzes such as "Blue Danube
The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
" – made up a good part of the basic Lüchow's repertoire performed by the piano and string ensemble first known as the Vienna Art Strings, or Quartet, and later as the Victor Herbert Quartet, or Trio. Add to that some of the numbers from Herbert's Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland may refer to:* Babes in Toyland , an American punk rock band* Babes in Toyland , a 1903 operetta by Victor Herbert* Babes in Toyland , a musical comedy starring Laurel and Hardy...
, such as "Toyland" and "March of the Toys" for instance, plus a few from The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, and a great many of the well known Christmas carols and songs, and you get something like what was played during the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
season at Lüchow's down through the years.
Cuisine
Lüchow's menu was GermanGerman cuisine
German cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of Germany. It has evolved as a national cuisine through centuries of social and political change with variations from region to region. The southern regions of Germany, including Bavaria and neighbouring Swabia, share many dishes....
oriented throughout its existence, with dishes including Wienerschnitzel
Wienerschnitzel
Wienerschnitzel is an American fast food chain founded in 1961 that specializes in hot dogs, but is currently expanding to other items. Wienerschnitzel locations are found almost exclusively in California and Texas, though others are located in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico,...
and various wild game. "Knackwurst
Knackwurst
Knackwurst may refer to a variety of different sausage types, depending on the geographical region.In America, Knackwurst may refer to a short, plump sausage originating from the Holstein region in Germany. They contain ground veal, ground pork, and fresh garlic stuffed into hog casings. The...
and Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut , directly translated from German: "sour cabbage", is finely shredded cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria, including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. It has a long shelf-life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid...
", Bratwurst
Bratwurst
A bratwurst is a sausage usually composed of veal, pork or beef. The plural in German is Bratwürste....
, red cabbage and beets, Sauerbraten
Sauerbraten
Sauerbraten is a German pot roast, usually of beef , marinated before cooking in a mixture of vinegar, water, spices and seasonings.Sauerbraten is traditionally served with red cabbage, potato dumplings , Spätzle,...
and pumpernickel
Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel is a type of very heavy, slightly sweet rye bread traditionally made with coarsely ground rye. It is often made with a combination of rye flour and whole rye berries. It has been long associated with the Westphalia region of Germany. The first written mention of the black bread of...
bread were perennial staples. Pfannkuchen mit Preisselbeeren, (flambéed thin pancakes with lingonberry sauce) and Sachertorte
Sachertorte
Sachertorte is a chocolate cake. It was invented by chance by Austrian Jewish Franz Sacher in 1832 for Klemens Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. The Original Sachertorte is only made in Vienna and Salzburg, and it is shipped from...
, a recipe borrowed from the famous Sacher Hotel in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, were favorites of the dessert selection. Apparently the German orientation was relaxed somewhat in the years after 1923 when August Lüchow died, putting the restaurant under control of his sister's husband Victor Eckstein. Even during Lüchow's lifetime it was necessary to make compromises: during the First World War anti-German sentiment ran so high that by 1917 he thought it prudent to remove the umlaut over the "u" of Lüchow's in all public occurrences of the name.
Latter years and demise
August Lüchow died in 1923, and ownership of the business passed to Victor Eckstein, who was his nephew-in-law. ProhibitionProhibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
had begun in 1921, and the restaurant had to survive on the strength of its cooking and traditions. After the first few years, Luchow's stopped celebrating New Year's Day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
, as the customers who brought their own flasks of alcohol were too rowdy. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Luchow's was the recipient of the first café liquor license in New York City.
The umlaut in "Lüchow's" was restored in 1950, when Jan Mitchell, an entrepreneur who rescued several New York restaurants - including the Longchamps
Longchamps (chain of restaurants)
Longchamps was a chain of several upscale restaurants centered in Manhattan that consisted of twenty or more locations at its peak, including the Showboat Restaurant located in the Empire State Building. The chain's first location was opened in 1919...
chain – bought the restaurant from Eckstein after five years of persuasion. Mitchell restored the tradition of holding week-long galas such as the annual Venison
Venison
Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...
Festival, Bock Beer
Bock
Bock is a strong lager of German origin. Several substyles exist, including maibock or helles bock, a paler, more hopped version generally made for consumption at spring festivals; doppelbock, a stronger and maltier version; and eisbock, a much stronger version made by partially freezing the beer...
Festival, a goose fest, and so on, but one of the biggest attractions at Lüchow's, and a tremendous customer draw, was the nightly lighting of the Christmas tree, which began around Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
and lasted till New Year's
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
.
By the time Lüchow's reached its final iteration on 14th Street, it was owned by one of the two big restaurant conglomerates in New York City at the time, Restaurant Associates, having passed from the hands of the other, Riese Brothers, a couple of years before. Riese Brothers is a restaurant management company, with such names as Schrafft's, Longchamps
Longchamps (chain of restaurants)
Longchamps was a chain of several upscale restaurants centered in Manhattan that consisted of twenty or more locations at its peak, including the Showboat Restaurant located in the Empire State Building. The chain's first location was opened in 1919...
, Chock Full o' Nuts and Childs
Childs Restaurants
Childs Restaurants was one of the first national dining chains in the United States and Canada, having peaked in the 1920s and 1930s with about 125 locations in dozens of markets, serving over 50,000,000 meals a year, with over $37 million in assets at the time. Childs was a pioneer in a number of...
figuring prominently in their real estate-oriented business formula. Over time the quality of Lüchow's food and service had taken a turn for the worse, with stemware abandoned in favor of short glasses, and no tablecloths at lunch, according to employees of the period.
With completion in 1979 of the final round of refurbishments at 14th Street by Restaurant Associates, whose principal, Peter Aschkenasy, was friends with Mayor Ed Koch
Ed Koch
Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...
, providing much needed publicity, the place was seemingly resurrected, and there were a few years of capacity Christmas season business. Architecture students made their weekly visits to view the eclectic bric-a-brac and statuary, stained glass skylights and art nouveau appointments; and it was said that the frequently mentioned "1500 couverts" in one day occurred multiple times.
By the 1980s the area around 14th Street at Union Square had deteriorated considerably. The park itself was rundown and in serious need of refurbishment, the Academy of Music opera house and Tammany Hall had been torn down long before to build the headquarters of Consolidated Edison, the discount S. Klein
S. Klein
S. Klein On The Square, or simply, S. Klein, was a popular priced department store chain based in New York City that is now defunct. The flagship stores were located along Union Square in Manhattan; this location would combine with the 1920s idiomatic catch phrase "on the square" to provide the...
's department store across the street was closed and abandoned, and the movie theatre next to the restaurant had become a rock concert venue, initially also dubbed the "Academy of Music", but later changed to the "Palladium". There was little left in the neighborhood to attract the type of clientele that Luchow's was intended to appeal to, and in 1982-83 the 14th Street location was abandoned, dealing a serious blow to efforts to revitalize the neighborhood. The saleable contents were auctioned off, and the business was moved to a spot below street level at
51st Street
51st Street (Manhattan)
51st Street is a long one-way street traveling east to west across Midtown Manhattan.-East 51st Street:*The route officially begins at Beekman Place which is on a hill overlooking FDR Drive...
and Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
, with the aim of attracting Theater District crowds, and the umlaut was dropped once again.
The Theatre District restaurant lasted only a few years longer, but Luchow's lived on at other locations, notably Penn Station, Restaurant Associates having decided to branch out and make use of the famous name.
After Lüchow's moved out, the 14th Street location was briefly "The Palace", a restaurant-discothèque, and later a gay bar. An attempt was made to have the building demolished in 1985, and it stood vacant for several years, never achieving protected landmark status despite local efforts. The fire on December 9, 1992 that finally consumed a good part of the interior is said to have been started by homeless people living in the building. The remains were demolished in 1995 and replaced by University Hall, a New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
dormitory and multi-use complex having retail frontage on 14th Street. Before the dorm was built, NYU announced plans to "revive" Luchow's by including a street-level "Gay 90's" themed restaurant in the building, which they intended to call "Luchow's" if permission could be obtained to do so, but these plans never came to fruition.
Pronunciation
The German name Lüchow is pronounced lü'-kōv, with the "v" almost silent. The restaurant's name has generally been pronounced lū'-chauz, just as an English speaking person would expect on seeing it. The umlaut was left out between 1917 and 1950, which is said to have caused difficulties: "The absence of the umlaut had led many new customers to believe that the place was a Chinese restaurant," according to the New York Times.Noted guests
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