Tag Archives: restaurateurs
“Hot Cha” and the Kapok Tree
What kind of career might the son of a junk dealer father and a mother who owned a restaurant end up with? If he was Richard Baumgardner he would run restaurants raucously decorated with gilded and spray-painted objets d’art — … Continue reading
Filed under food, history, restaurants
Restaurant-ing with “royalty”
Perhaps he wasn’t the only “sociopath” ever to become a restaurateur, but Michael Romanoff was very likely the most flamboyant. He was clever, spoke with a British accent, and dressed impeccably. His sense of style never left him. Imprisoned in … Continue reading
Filed under history, restaurants
Anatomy of a restaurateur: Dario Toffenetti
Who would predict that a boy growing up in the Austrian Tyrol in the 1890s would make his fortune by selling Idaho baked potatoes? But that’s exactly what Dario Louis Toffenetti did. Born in 1889, he came to the U.S. … Continue reading
Filed under food, history, restaurants
Catering to the rich and famous
What a pain the rich can be. That’s the message you’ll take away if perchance you pick up The Colony Cookbook by Gene Cavallero Jr. and Ted James, published in 1972. The dedication page is plaintively inscribed by Gene, “To … Continue reading
Filed under food, history, restaurants
We eat in restaurants several times a week and yet know very little about their history. I plan to dip into my archive of research and images every so often to present a little tidbit that highlights aspects of our American restaurant culture. Let me know your thoughts.
