Chapter 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Gourmet's Guide to Europe This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: The Gourmet's Guide to Europe Author: Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis Algernon Bastard Release date: July 17, 2006 [eBook #18854] Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18854 Credits: Produced by Stacy Brown, Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO EUROPE *** Produced by Stacy Brown, Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO EUROPE Publisher's Announcement DINNERS AND DINERS: Where and how to Dine in London By Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis _New and Revised Edition Small Crown 8vo. Cloth._ 3/6 WHERE AND HOW TO DINE IN PARIS By Rowland Strong _Fcap. 8vo. Cover designed cloth._ 2/6 * * * * * London: GRANT RICHARDS The Gourmet's Guide To Europe BY LIEUT.-COL. NEWNHAM-DAVIS AND ALGERNON BASTARD EDITED BY THE FORMER [Illustration] London GRANT RICHARDS 48 LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C. 1903 The pleasures of the table are common to all ages and ranks, to all countries and times; they not only harmonise with all the other pleasures, but remain to console us for their loss. Brillat Savarin. PREFACE Often enough, staying in a hotel in a foreign town, I have wished to sally forth and to dine or breakfast at the typical restaurant of the place, should there be one. Almost invariably I have found great difficulty in obtaining any information regarding any such restaurant. The proprietor of the caravanserai at which one is staying may admit vaguely that there are eating-houses in the town, but asks why one should be anxious to seek for second-class establishments when the best restaurant in the country is to be found under his roof. The hall-porter has even less scruples, and stigmatises every feeding-place outside the hotel as a den of thieves, where the stranger foolishly venturing is certain to be poisoned and then robbed. This book is an attempt to help the man who finds himself in such a position. His guide-book may possibly give him the names of the restaurants, but it does no more. My co-author and myself attempt to give him some details--what his surroundings will be, what dishes are the specialities of the house, what wine a wise man will order, and what bill he is likely to be asked to pay. Our ambition was to deal fully with the capitals of all the countries of Europe, the great seaports, the pleasure resorts, and the "show places." The most acute critic will not be more fully aware how far we have fallen short of our ideal than we are, and no critic can have any idea of the difficulty of making such a book as we hope this will some day be when complete. At all events we have always gone to the best authorities where we had not the knowledge ourselves. Our publisher, Mr. Grant Richards, quite entered into the idea that no advertisements of any kind from hotels or restaurants should be allowed within the covers of the book; and though we have asked for information from all classes of gourmets--from ambassadors to the simple globe-trotter--we have not listened to any man interested directly or indirectly in any hotel or restaurant. Hotels as places to live in we have not considered critically, and have only mentioned them when the restaurants attached to them are the dining-places patronised by the _bon-vivants_ of the town. Over England we have not thrown our net, for _Dinners and Diners_ leaves me nothing new to write of London restaurants. In conclusion I beg, on behalf of my co-author and myself, to return thanks to all the good fellows who have given us information; and I would earnestly beg any travelling gourmet, who finds any change in the restaurants we have mentioned, or who comes on treasure-trove in the shape of some delightful dining-place we know nothing of, to take pen and ink and write word of it to me, his humble servant, to the care of Mr. Grant Richards, Leicester Square. So shall he benefit, in future editions, all his own kind. We hear much of the kindness of the poor to the poor. This is an opportunity, if not for the rich to be kind to the rich, at least for those who deserve to be rich to benefit their fellows. N. Newnham-Davis. CONTENTS