Remember the Ladies Who Lunch?

In 1930s Manhattan, a chain of long forgotten restaurants brought café society elegance to the middle class. It all began when wholesaler Henry Lustig opened his first restaurant in 1919 at Madison Avenue and 78th Street. As a race horse owner, Lustig decided to name his restaurant Longchamps, after the famous Parisian race course. As his restaurant multiplied into other locations around the city, each design was smart and ultra-sophisticated chic. Among the most glamorous restaurant interiors of the period, they boasted plenty of mirrors, murals, and distinctive glassware.

Longchamps specialized in a version of French style cuisine and dainty cocktails that were highly popular with the “Ladies Who Lunch” in 1950s New York. An advertisement informed “Madame or Mademoiselle” that at Longchamps they would find “soothing quiet, faultless service and a typically ‘Continental’ cuisine” that was above average “yet … not expensive.”