“Nothing goes further with dainty people than dainty decorations.”
Sherry’s
c.1880–May 17, 1919; November 1921–1952
Continental
Alternate Names:
Louis Sherry
Ownership:
Sherry Catering, Inc. (1926–1952)
Louis Sherry (c.1880–1926)
Location:
300 Park Avenue (November 1921–1952)
44th Street and 5th Avenue (1898–May 17, 1919)
Goelet Mansion, West 37th Street and 5th Avenue (1890–c.1898)
662 6th Avenue at 28th/38th Street (c.1880–1889)
Literature:
F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (1920)
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (1905):
“‘Shall we go over to Sherry’s for a cup of tea?’
She smiled assentingly, and then made a slight grimace.
‘So many people come up to town on a Monday–one is sure to meet a lot of bores. I’m as old as the hills, of course, and it ought not to make any difference; but if I’m old enough, you’re not,’ she objected gaily. ‘I’m dying for tea–but isn’t there a quieter place?'” (Penguin Books, 1993: 5).
“When Lawrence Selden heard I was coming, he insisted on fetching me himself and driving me to the station, and when we go back this evening I am to dine with him at Sherry’s. I really feel as excited as if I were getting married myself!” (ibid.: 89).
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900): Chapter 32, “The Feast of Belshazzar: A Seer to Translate,” takes place at Sherry’s. The titular character, Carrie, is invited to a glutinous dinner at the restaurant, and has her first glimpse of extreme wealth. Selected quotes:
“Once seated, there began that exhibition of showy, wasteful, and unwholesome gastronomy as practised by wealthy Americans, which is the wonder and astonishment of true culture and dignity the world over. The large bill of fare held an array of dishes sufficient to feed an army, sidelined with prices which made reasonable expenditure a ridiculous impossibility—an order of soup at fifty cents or a dollar, with a dozen kinds to choose from; oysters in forty styles and at sixty cents the half dozen; entrées, fish, and meats at prices which would house one over night in an average hotel” (Oxford University Press, 1998: 294-295).
“On the walls were designs in colour, square spots of robin’s-egg blue, set in ornate frames of gilt, whose corners were elaborate mouldings of fruit and flowers, with fat cupids hovering in angelic comfort. On the ceilings were coloured traceries with more gilt, leading to a centre where spread a cluster of lights—incandescent globes mingled with glittering prisms and stucco tendrils of gilt. The floor was of a reddish hue, waxed and polished, and in every direction were mirrors—tall, brilliant, bevel-edged mirrors—reflecting and re-reflecting forms, faces, and candelabra a score and a hundred times…
Each waiter added an air of exclusiveness and elegance by the manner in which he bowed, scraped, touched, and trifled with things. The exclusively personal attention which he devoted to each one, standing half bent, ear to one side, elbows akimbo, saying: ‘Soup—green turtle, yes. One portion, yes. Oysters—certainly—half-dozen—yes. Asparagus. Olives—yes'” (ibid.: 295).
Publications:
“Louis Sherry Restaurant, New York.” Half Pudding Half Sauce. Blog, November 20, 2013 (illustrated).
Whitaker, Jan. “Banqueting at $herry’s.” Restaurant-ing through History. Blog, May 11, 2013 (illustrated).
Chapman, Gary. “Sherry’s Restaurant, New York.” Jazz Age Club. Blog, January 8, 2013 (illustrated).
Ryan, Pat. “For Edith Wharton’s Birthday, Hail Ultimate Social Climbers.” New York Times, January 19, 2012. [Article appeared in the January 20, 2012 print edition, C25.]
Roman, James. Chronicles of Old New York: Exploring Manhattan’s Landmark Neighborhoods. New York: Museyon, 2010.
“A Black-Tie Dinner on Horseback.” Ephemeral New York. Blog, September 5, 2009 (illustrated).
Grimes, William. Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York. New York: North Point Press, 2009: 113-114, 134, 149-150 (illustrated), 156, 159, 163, 170, 172, 175, 183, 200, 223, 229, 255.
Pollak, Michael. “F.Y.I.” New York Times, August 15, 2004.
Mariani, John, with Alex Von Bidder. The Four Seasons: A History of America’s Premier Restaurant. New York: Smithmark, 1999: 10.
“Sherry’s Closes Noted Restaurant; Park Ave. Building Will Be Razed.” New York Times, August 1, 1952: 19.
Wendt, Lloyd, and Herman Kogan. Bet a Million! The Story of John W. Gates. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1948: 220, 221, 225.
Hungerford, Edward. The Story of Louis Sherry and the Business He Built. New York: W.E. Rudge, 1929. [Reissued in 2013 by Literary Licensing, LLC, Whitefish, Montana.]
Twain, Mark. “Disappearance of Literature (November 20, 1900).” In Mark Twain’s Speeches. Altenmünster, Germany: Jazzybee Verlag, 1929: 68-70. [Speech given at the Dinner of the Nineteenth Century Club at Sherry’s.]
“Famed Cafe Owner Louis Sherry Dies.” Boston Daily Globe, June 10, 1926: 10.
“Sherry’s Becomes Only a Memory: Famous Restaurant Closes Its Doors for Last Time.” Hartford Courant, May 19, 1919: 15.
Notable Guests:
C. K. G. Billings (Industrialist Tycoon)
Richard Croker (Former New York City Fire Commissioner): A dinner in his honor features in the cover photo.
Maurice de Féraudy (Songwriter & Actor)
Marion Graves Anthon Fish, aka Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish (Socialite)
Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain (Writer)
Notes:
Sherry’s started out as a small ice cream and confectionery shop. (1)
In 1895, Consuelo Vanderbilt held her wedding reception at Sherry’s. Wedding receptions were traditionally held at home at the time, but the house of her recently divorced mother wasn’t large enough for the reception. (2)
Sherry’s joined in the trend of fellow theater district restaurants by adding a roof garden, to provide guests with cool relief on hot nights. (3)
Mark Twain issued a speech on the “Disappearance of Literature” at the Dinner of the Nineteenth Century Club, at Sherry’s on November 20, 1900.
Photograph of the kitchen at Sherry’s, 1902.
In 1903, gas company heir Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings celebrated the completion of his 25,000 square foot stable in what is now Fort Tryon Park with a dinner on horseback at Sherry’s. The 36 horses arrived to the fourth-floor ballroom via freight elevator, and “diners ate from trays attached to their saddles and sipped Champagne through rubber tubes from iced bottles in their saddlebags.” (4)
Following the closure of the restaurant due to Prohibition in 1919, Louis Sherry opened a tea room and confectionery shop at 5th Avenue and 58th Street. Another tea room was located at 5th Avenue and 35th Street, and another opened in 1928 at Madison and East 66th Street, now the site of a Hermés store. (5) Separate from the original restaurant and repeated in multiple locations in New York and Paris, Louis Sherry tea rooms continued in existence beyond the restaurant’s second closure in 1952.
Some sources indicate the existence of a Louis Sherry restaurant at the Hotel New Netherland, at 59th Street and 5th Avenue, between 1919 and 1927, but it is unclear how this restaurant related to the original. When the Hotel New Netherland was torn down in 1927, it was replaced with the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, named for Louis Sherry who had died the previous year. It is in fact unclear whether a Louis Sherry restaurant existed in the hotel at all, or whether the idea of its existence stems from confusion relating to the subsequent naming of the new hotel. Sherry himself appears to have been away from New York, traveling in Europe, between the closure of his restaurant in 1919 and his death in 1926, (6) and newspaper articles do not indicate the existence of a Sherry’s Restaurant during this time.
Menu:
Thursday, July 6, 1950 (New York Public Library)
Christmas Dinner, Sunday, December 25, 1949 (New York Public Library)
Wednesday, April 16, 1930 (New York Public Library)
Luncheon in honor of Maurice de Féraudy, Sunday, March 16, 1924 (New York Public Library)
Monday, November 5, 1917 (New York Public Library)
Wednesday, May 3, 1899 (New York Public Library)
Sunday, March 1, 1891 (New York Public Library)
(1) Chapman, 2013.
(2) Ryan, 2012.
(3) Grimes, 2009.
(4) Pollak, 2004.
(5) Half Pudding Half Sauce, 2013.
(6) Boston Daily Globe, 1926.
Cover photo: Friedman, Andrew. (1908). “Dinner tendered, Mr. Richard Croker by Andrew Friedman, Sherry’s, New York City, Nov. 30, ’08.” Gelatin silver print. New York: Geo R. Lawrence Co. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Accessed December 20, 2021.
The New York City Restaurant Archive 