The Colony (restaurant)

For the restaurant in London, see Colony (restaurant)

The Colony was a restaurant in New York City known as a meeting place of café society. It opened in 1923[1] and closed in 1971.[2] It was located on Sixty-first Street, off Madison Avenue.

“ Nowhere in New York will you find such a coterie of cosmopolites, such a consistently smart and impressive collection of people of 'breeding' as gathers daily for luncheon at the Colony. ”
— George Ross, 1934[3]

History

The Colony was founded by Ernest Cerutti, Alfred Hartmann, and Gene Cavallero, who bought an earlier Colony restaurant from their former employer. At first, it was known for its upstairs gambling club where men could meet their mistresses. But after Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt discovered it, it became the fashionable haunt of New York high society.[2]

Mayor Jimmy Walker's victory celebration was held at the Colony in 1925. The Colony served liquor during prohibition, serving it in cups rather than glasses, and keeping its liquor in a service elevator where it could easily be moved, though Mayor Walker protected the restaurant from raids.[2]

The Colony installed air conditioning in the late 1920s, the first restaurant in New York to have it; it was also the first in the U.S. to serve Dom Pérignon champagne.[2]

“ The Colony had great American chic, in the sense of Cole Porter. And it was full of stylish people. So I got the idea of sending a photographer—usually Tony Palmieri—to stand outside the restaurant at lunchtime, to find out what was going on and to see what they were wearing. ”
— John Fairchild, editor of Women's Wear Daily, 1960s[2]

Among its famous customers were Reginald Vanderbilt, Gloria Vanderbilt, Russell Ryder, Preston Sturges, Mike Todd, Fulco di Verdura, Hattie Carnegie, Carmel Snow, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Cordelia Biddle Robertson, Mr. and Mrs. Rhinelander Stewart, Elsie de Wolfe, Groucho Marx, Mrs. Irving Berlin, Millicent Rogers, Barbara Hutton, Doris Duke, Betsey Whitney, George Vanderbilt, Lulu Vanderbilt, Samuel Newhouse, Marlene Dietrich, Lulu Balcom, Lucius Beebe, Rosalind Russell, Gary Cooper, Carol Channing, Richard Nixon, C.Z. Guest, Ernest Hemingway, Luis Miguel Dominguin, Walter Wanger, John Ringling North, Wooly Donahue, Frank Sinatra, Aristotle Onassis, the Duke of Windsor, the Duchess of Windsor, Merle Oberon, Vincent Astor, Elsa Maxwell, Rex Harrison, Richard Widmark, Errol Flynn, Babe Paley, Frank Shields, Frank Costello, J. Edgar Hoover, Orson Welles, Gilbert Miller, Joan Crawford, Mia Farrow, Serge Obolensky, Charles Revson, Leona Helmsley, John Wayne, Oleg Cassini, Grace Kelly, Martha Slater, Jean Howard, Charlie Feldman, Clarence Brown, Walter Wanger, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lee Radziwill, Gloria Guinness, Betsy Bloomingdale, Amanda Burden, Kitty Miller, Jean Shrimpton, Jill St. John, Truman Capote, and Billy Baldwin.[2]

When it closed on December 4, 1971, many of its faithful patrons came: Truman Capote, Diana Vreeland, ....[2] The building it was in has since been demolished.[2]

Sirio Maccioni was the bar captain at the Colony from 1960 to 1970.[2]

Competitors of the Colony included the 21 Club, Le Pavillon, and later the Four Seasons.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ James Trager, The New York Chronology: The Ultimate Compendium of Events, People, and Anecdotes from the Dutch to the Present , HarperCollins 2010, p. 398
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Amy Fine Collins, "The Colony Elite", Vanity Fair, December 2000 full text
  3. ↑ George Ross, Tips on Tables (restaurant guide), 1934, as quoted in William Grimes, Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York, 2009, ISBN 0865476926
  4. ↑ William Grimes, Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York Hardcover, 2009, p. 153

Bibliography

Coordinates: 40°45′54″N 73°58′14″W / 40.76489°N 73.97057°W / 40.76489; -73.97057

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