Lüchow’s

“Through the doors of Luchow’s pass all the famous people of the world.”

Lüchow’s
1882–1984
German

Alternate Names:

Luchow’s (1917–1950; 1983–1984)

Ownership:

Peter Aschkenasy & Jack Levine (1979–1984)

Riese Organization (Murray and Irving Riese, 1971–1979)

Longchamps (Owned by Jan Mitchell, with controlling share by the Riese Organization, 1969–1971)

Leonard Jan Mitchell (1950–1969)

Victor Eckstein (1923–1950)

August Guido Lüchow (1882–1923)

Executive Chef:

Oscar Hofman (?–1947)

Location:

Satellite locations, including Penn Station [upper level; known as Luchow’s Oyster Bar] (c. 1980–1986)*

1633 Broadway at 51st Street, Basement (1982–1984)

110-112 East 14th Street (1882–June 1982) [106 East 14th Street annexed in 1910.]

Literature:

Jennifer 8. Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food (2008). [Quoted in Blaisdell, Bob, ed. New York: The Big Apple Quote Book. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2011: 179]:

“Chinese restaurants became so common in New York that in 1952 a prominent German restaurant finally caved in and restored to its name the umlaut that had been removed during World War I. Lüchow’s owner had gotten tired of tourists coming in and ordering chop suey and egg rolls.”

Barbara Bemelman, “A Bemelmans Christmas Memory.” In Ludwig Bemelmans and John Bemelmans Marciano, Madeline in America and Other Holiday Tales (1999):

“At Luchow’s, a restaurant [Ludwig Bemelmans] had gone to since first coming to America, he ate wiener schnitzel and drank beer and chatted in German with the waiters. Listening to the waltzes of Strauss and Schubert, he would grow lonesome for his grandfather’s brewery in Regensburg and for the landscape of his childhood Christmases” (Arthur A. Levine, 1999: 64; p. 65 features an illustration by Bemelmans of the waiters at Lüchow’s trimming the Christmas tree).

Lewis Mumford, The Sidewalk Critic (1998):

“Except for dazzle in some place where only dazzle is required, I can’t see the use of mirrors as outdoor decoration. But indoors, mirrors are far more serviceable than the kinds of murals cafeterias affect. That large, crazy mirror in Lüchow’s main dining room is one of the things that give the old place character” (Princeton Architectural Press, 1998: 174).

H.L. Mencken, My Life As Author and Editor (1993):

“Nathan and I saw him [James Huneker] for the last time at lunch at Lüchow’s in June 1920. He looked somewhat thin and pasty, but we ascribed his appearance, not to illness, but to the fact that he was drinking tea. Tea in Lüchow’s, the citadel of Pilsner!”

Elia Kazan, The Anatolian (1982):

“‘I’d better go pick up the tickets,’ Freddie said, ‘or we’ll have to rush our lunch. Althea!’ His fiancée had found a magazine and didn’t look up. ‘Althea, pay attention! We’ll go to Lüchow’s and have an apple pancake.’
‘I will most certainly not go to Lüchow’s,’ Mrs. Perry said. ‘I hate that heavy German meat with all the fat left on. And you will certainly not go and pick up the tickets, Freddie. You are not an errand boy. Why are you so damned humble?'”

John Cheever, “The Children” in The Stories of John Cheever (1978):

“Mr. Hatherly had many old-fashioned tastes. He wore high yellow boots, dined at Lüchow’s in order to hear the music, and slept in a woolen nightshirt.”

Judith Rossner, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1975):

“She would not under any circumstances let him see that she was disappointed in his failure to react to her improved appearance. The closest she could come to admitting it to herself was to say that somewhere in the mixture of largely negative feelings she had about going to straight Lüchow’s with straight James Morrissey on a straight Saturday night date was a tiny desire to have someone tell her she looked pretty” (Simon & Schuster, 2014: 170).

“In Lüchow’s they were finally led to seats which James refused because they were so close to the band that you had to shout to be heard. Another table farther back was found and they ordered drinks, Scotch and soda for him, a martini for her. It wasn’t very cool to drink any more, but at least a martini was the most sophisticated drink” (ibid.: 174).

Ludwig Bemelmans, “To Be a Gourmet” in La Bonne Table (1964) [originally published in Holiday, February 1953]:

“The best German food is served by Luchow’s, whose proprietor tries to keep the specialties of the house as authentically indigestible as they must be… If a prize were given for the treatment of beer, then it would go to this place. The pipes are kept clean, it’s not too cold and there is enough of it drawn so that it is always fresh” (David R. Godine, 2016: 197).

Ludwig Bemelmans, “Luchow’s” in La Bonne Table (1964) [originally published as the introduction to Luchow’s German Cookbook by Leonard Jan Mitchell (1952)].

Ludwig Bemelmans, “Dinner Out” in La Bonne Table (1964) [originally published in Life Class (1938) and later Hotel Bemelmans (1946)]:

“Only once did I go to dine with Mr. Sigsag, and I never would again. One night we had no party at the hotel, and he said, ‘Come on, I’ll take you to Luchow’s. You’ll like it there.’
The restaurant was in the center of a block on Fourteenth Street, close to the German theater on Irving Place. It was bathed in cigar smoke and beer smells, as such a restaurant should be and always is in Hamburg or Bremen. Antlers hung on its walls, and on its upper level, behind a mahogany banister, an orchestra—a piano, two violins and a cello—played German restaurant pieces.
A red-faced captain, who had been in this restaurant for thirty years, leaned up against the banister with his hands folded over his stomach. He was very kind but beautifully ugly, and had a mouth and throat like an old toad…” (David R. Godine, 2016: 59-64; also features illustrations of the restaurant by Bemelmans).

Publications:

Harskamp, Jaap. “When Manhattan Spoke German: Lüchow’s, Würzburger & Little Germany.” New York Almanack. Blog, November 2, 2022 (illustrated).

Blake, Quentin, and Laurie Britton Newell. Ludwig Bemelmans. London: Thames & Hudson, 2019: 60-61 (illustrated). [Illustration for Town and Country Magazine (1941) by Ludwig Bemelmans, entitled Lüchow’s Restaurant on a Sunday Evening.]

Gillman, Gary. “Where the Wurzburger Flows…” Beer et seq. Blog, July 21, 2018.

Miller, Tom. “A Landmark Lost – Luchow’s German Restaurant, No. 110 E 14th Street.” Daytonian in Manhattan. Blog, August 15, 2016 (illustrated).

Schulz, Dana. “Then and Now: From Luchow’s German Restaurant to NYU Dorm.” 6sqft, February 3, 2015.

Simonson, Robert. “A Tour of NYC’s Historic Barroom Diaspora.” Punch, July 15, 2014.

Bloom, Ken. Broadway: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2012: 32, 33.

Miller, Anistatia, and Jared Brown. The Deans of Drink. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Mixellany Limited, 2013: 18-20 (illustrated).

Maurer, Daniel. “We’ve Discovered the Bar from Lüchow’s in a Latin Nightclub in Bay Ridge.” Grub Street (New York), February 21, 2011.

Grimes, William. “Jan Mitchell, Who Put the ü Back in Lüchow’s, Dies at 96.” New York Times, November 30, 2009.

Grimes, William. Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York. New York: North Point Press, 2009: 81, 89-91 (illustrated), 295.

Stern, Robert A. M., David Fishman, and Jacob Tilove. New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millennium. New York: Monacelli Press, 2006: 378.

“N.Y.U. Plans a Revival of Luchow’s.” New York Times, January 23, 1997: B8.

Carter, Sylvia. “The Fare at Penn Station.” Newsday, April 20, 1983: A11. [Includes a negative review of the Luchow’s Oyster Bar located in Penn Station.]

Britchky, Seymour. “Stage-Door Canteens.” New York (December 13, 1982): 45, 48-50 (illustrated).

“Two Little Dots.” New York Times, August 3, 1982: A20. [Regarding the removal of Lüchow’s umlaut upon moving uptown.]

Johnston, Laurie, and Clyde Haberman. “New York Day by Day: Auf Wiedersehen on 14th Street.” New York Times, July 12, 1982: B2.

Haberman, Clyde. “Panel Considers Citing Luchow’s as a Landmark.” New York Times, March 30, 1982: B9.

Prial, Frank J. “Luchow’s Symbol of the Good Old Days.” New York Times, March 24, 1982.

Fowler, Glenn. “Luchow’s Moving to Theater District.” New York Times, March 23, 1982: B3.

Britchky, Seymour. “Rare and Well Done.” New York 13, 5 (February 4, 1980): 44-45.

Riback, Arthur. “Blowing My Own Horn.” New York 11, 46 (November 13, 1978): 6.

Hammer, Alexander R. “Longchamps to Sell Luchow’s and 4 Others for $8-Million.” New York Times, September 29, 1971: 45.

Sissman, L.E. “Luchow’s and After.” New Yorker, November 2, 1968: 64.

Cannon, Poppy. “Restaurants.” Town & Country 118, 4505 (December 1964): 50-51. [Cannon pays homage to New York restaurants that observe the changing seasons, including La Caravelle and The Colony.]

Cannon, Poppy. “Always on Sunday.” Town & Country 116, 4470 (January 1962): 74-75. [Cannon discusses the best NYC restaurants for a Sunday meal, including Forum of the Twelve Caesars and Voisin.]

“Eating in New York Is an Adventure.” Ladies’ Home Journal 79, 1 (January 1962): 42 (illustrated). [Includes a recipe for Lüchow’s German Pancake.]

“Dining In/Out with Esquire.” Esquire, January 1955: 34. [Includes a recipe for Lüchow’s Christmas Stollen.]

Mitchell, Jan. Lüchow’s German Cookbook: The Story and the Favorite Dishes of America’s Most Famous German Restaurant. Illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1952. [A sample recipe: Lüchow’s Sauerbraten. Jacket illustration created for Town and Country Magazine (1941), entitled Lüchow’s Restaurant on a Sunday Evening.]

Klaw, Spencer and Brendan Gill. “The Talk of the Town: Where the Wurzburger Flows.” New Yorker, May 13, 1950: 19-20.

Worden, Helen. The Real New York: A Guide for the Adventurous Shopper, The Exploratory Eater, and the Know-It-All Sightseer Who Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet. Indianapolis, Indiana: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1932: 184-185, 188.

James, Rian. Dining in New York. New York: John Day Company, 1930: 71, 148, 150-151.

“From all sections of the city, epicures still flock to Luchow’s. Sitting in friendly circles in the dim, mirrored, paneled room that was once the Rector’s of the neighborhood, they drink beer that is only as good as Mr. Volstead’s Amendment will permit; eat heavy, Teutonic foods which have no counterpart in all the town; and think pensively back to the days when Luchow’s, sole reminder of the cla, was the haven of the foremost wits and scribes, of every renowned German musician, artist, and jocund, rotund, genial soul, south of Ninety-sixth Street.”

Bercovici, Konrad. Around the World in New York. New York: The Century Co., 1924: 333.

“How easy it is to forget there the noise and hubbub of the city! How easy it is to forget one is not in München, with the foaming big schooners brought by smiling and adept waiters, while the music plays dances and songs that have long since been forgotten elsewhere.”

Where and How to Dine in New York. New York: Lewis, Scribner & Co., 1903: 210-212.

Notable Guests:

Jules Bache (Banker & Art Collector)

John Barrymore (Actor)

Ludwig Bemelmans (Writer & Illustrator): “Of the remaining few New York places that can call themselves restaurants, Lüchow’s triumphs in Gemütlichkeit. This quality, strong as the handshake of an old friend and a slap on the shoulder, is nowhere more honest. It enfolds you as you enter into the agreeable paneled halls.” (1)

Jack Benny (Entertainer)

Irving Berlin (Composer & Lyricist)

Leonard Bernstein (Conductor & Composer)

Diamond Jim Brady (Businessman): Brady once sent his personal cook to the restaurant to request the recipe for one of his favorite dishes. Upon issuing the recipe, the Lüchow’s chef noted that it made fifty servings, to which Brady’s cook responded, “Then I won’t have to change it for Mr. Brady.” (2)

Hugh Carey (New York Governor)

Andrew Carnegie (Industrialist & Philanthropist)

Enrico Caruso (Opera Singer)

Feodor Chaliapin (Opera Singer)

Bob Considine (Journalist)

Thomas B. Costain (Journalist)

Vladimir de Pachmann (Pianist)

Jean de Reszke and Édouard de Reszke (Opera Singers)

Theodore Dreiser (Writer)

Antonín Dvořák (Composer)

James Montgomery Flagg (Artist & Illustrator): “Through the doors of Lüchow’s pass all the famous people of the world.” (3)

Henry Ford II (Businessman)

Oscar Hammerstein II (Lyricist & Theater Producer & Director)

Helen Hayes (Actress)

Anna Held (Actress)

Victor Herbert (Composer)

O. Henry (Short Story Writer)

Sir Edmund Hillary (Mountaineer & Explorer)

James Huneker (Music Critic): “I took a walk and got as far as Lüchow’s.” (4)

Ted Husing (Sports Commentator)

Rafael Joseffy (Pianist & Composer): In “what may have been the only unpleasant incident in the history of the place,” pianist Vladimir de Pachmann insulted Joseffy, compelling music critic James Huneker to throw a beer in de Pachmann’s face. Later, when all disputes were worked out, “Joseffy remarked reproachfully to Huneker, ‘And you, of all men, wasting such a lot of good beer!'” (5)

Gus Kahn (Lyricist): Drafted the lyrics to “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” on a Lüchow’s tablecloth. (6)

Beatrice Kaufman (Editor & Writer)

Ed Koch (Former Mayor of New York City)

Dudley Field Malone (Attorney, Politician, & Actor)

John P. Marquand (Writer)

H.L. Mencken (Journalist)

J. P. Morgan (Financier)

Charles F. “Silent Charlie” Murphy (Politician)

George Jean Nathan (Drama Critic & Magazine Editor)

Ignacy Jan Paderewski (Composer & Former Prime Minister of Poland)

Kenneth Roberts (Writer)

Richard Rodgers (Composer)

Theodore Roosevelt (26th President of the United States)

Billy Rose (Impresario)

Arthur Rubinstein (Pianist)

Lillian Russell (Actress & Singer)

Mack Sennett (Film Producer & Director): Known as the “King of Comedy,” Sennett came up with the name for his film studio, Keystone Studios, while enjoying lunch at Lüchow’s in 1912. (7)

Fritzi Scheff (Actress & Singer)

Al Smith (Former Governor of New York)

Sigmund Spaeth (Musicologist)

William Steinway (Businessman & Piano Magnate): Steinway helped Lüchow with the $2,000 required to purchase the small saloon on 14th Street where he worked as a bartender and waiter for a certain Baron von Mehlbach. He was thenceforward a “regular patron and was partial to mounds of caviar, served in enormous glass bowls and washed down with aqua vitae, followed by venison steak.” (8)

Richard Strauss (Composer & Conductor)

Barbra Streisand (Singer & Actress)

Elizabeth Taylor (Actress)

Arturo Toscanini (Conductor)

Helen Traubel (Opera Singer)

Carl Van Vechten (Writer & Photographer): “Newspaper strike still on. Strange odds and ends of paper come out, dramatic supplement of one, library supplement of another. Lunch at home…Dinner at Luchow’s & home to bed.” (9)

Harry Von Tilzer (Composer & Songwriter): Wrote “Down Where the Würzburger Flows” in honor of Lüchow’s, which popularized imported beers and “became the American agent for Würzburger beer in 1885.” (10)

Jerome Weidman (Writer)

Thomas Wolfe (Writer)

Eugène Ysaÿe (Violinist & Composer)

Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. (Impresario)

Efrem Zimbalist (Violinist & Composer)

Notes:

Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Lüchow’s was the first restaurant in the city to receive a liquor license due to its “excellent record.” (11)

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In Lüchow’s German Cookbook (1952), Mitchell relates the story of one of Lüchow’s expansions, when the new kitchens were built into the former premises of the Hubert Museum, home to wax figures and several live animals. According to Mitchell, as the museum was clearing out, a lion escaped into the Lüchow’s dining room:

“Instantly the room was in a state of panic. Hoop skirts, which were the fashion of the day, did not deter the ladies from mounting the table nearest them. The sound of screams, accompanied by the crashing of china and glassware, and the sight of the flying hoop skirts so startled the lion that he turned, tail between his legs, and ran back into the museum. Some of the terror of the patrons could have been averted had they only known that the lion was so aged he had no teeth and had been fed for so many years on scraps from the Lüchow kitchen that a meal of human flesh was of no interest to him.” (12)

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After the closure of the restaurant’s original 14th Street location, Lüchow’s back bar was purchased by the owner of Bay Ridge bar T.J. Bentley’s. Today the space is the Latin nightclub Café Remy, where the back bar retains its prominence – owner Eddie Batiz designed the club interior to match the woodwork of the old Lüchow’s bar. Other salvaged bits and pieces made their way to Asheville, North Carolina’s Capital Club 16, where they were incorporated into the restaurant’s bar and back bar. (13)

Related Restaurants:

The Lobster (Captain of Waiters Max Fuchs went on to open The Lobster in 1919.)

Menu:

Wednesday, November 17, 1976 (New York Public Library)

*By 1983, the Penn Station location, known as Luchow’s Oyster Bar, was owned by Leo Lindy’s, which also operated the Leo Lindy’s Oyster Bar elsewhere in the station. (14) Leo Lindy’s in turn, was operated by the Riese Organization, which had owned the original Lüchow’s in the 1970s and purchased the Lindy’s name in 1979. (15) While 1986 is the last date that has been located for the Penn Station oyster bar, it is possible Riese continued to operate the location beyond that date, and well beyond the closing date of Lüchow’s proper. Menus and food quality, as indicated by a 1983 review and the site’s focus on oysters and clams, bore little resemblance to the original restaurant. (16)

(1) Introduction to Mitchell, 1952: 12.
(2) Mitchell, 1952: 33.
(3) ibid.: 21.
(4) ibid.: 25.
(5) ibid.: 26.
(6) ibid.
(7) ibid.
(8) Klaw and Gill, 1950: 20.
(9) September 23, 1923 journal entry in Teresa Carpenter, ed., New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009. New York: Modern Library, 2012: 307.
(10) Mitchell, 1952: 27-28.
(11) Mitchell, 1952: 30.
(12) ibid.: 24.
(13) Maurer, 2011.
(14) Carter, 1983.
(15) Fickenscher, Laura. “Historic NYC Eatery Lindy’s Prepares to Close Up Shop.” New York Post, December 14, 2017.
(16) Carter, 1983.

Cover photo: “Luchow’s c. 1902.” Postcard. Wikipedia. Uploaded November 6, 2011. Accessed May 5, 2017.