Delmonico's: The New York Restaurant That Invented American Fine Dining

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In 1827, Swiss Italian brothers Giovanni and Pietro Delmonico ran a modest pastry shop at 23 William Street in New York. This episode follows the 200 year life of what it became. Their nephew Lorenzo arrived in 1831 and transformed the business, scouring the markets at four in the morning and building a serious wine list. After the Great Fire of 1835 wiped out the family's properties, they opened a grand building on Beaver Street in 1837, complete with columns they claimed came from the ruins of Pompeii.

Chef Charles Ranhofer, hired in 1862, made the kitchen a laboratory for dishes that still define restaurant menus: the Delmonico steak that became the New York strip, Delmonico potatoes, Lobster Newberg, and the dessert now called Baked Alaska. The restaurant grew into a national symbol of wealth, powerful enough to damage a presidential campaign, before Prohibition closed the family's last location in 1923. Then came a speakeasy, a second golden age under Oscar Tucci, and a string of closings and revivals.

• For an 1860 supper honoring the Prince of Wales, Delmonico's built sculptures of spun sugar, pastry, and marzipan depicting Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and the ship Great Eastern.
• Ranhofer called his ice cream and meringue dessert the Alaska Florida. The air bubbles in the meringue insulate the ice cream while the outside browns in a hot oven.
• Days before the 1884 election, James G. Blaine dined at Delmonico's with millionaire backers. Democrats circulated the all French menu, and he lost New York to Grover Cleveland by fewer than 1,000 votes.
• Oscar Tucci bought the Beaver Street property in 1926, ran a speakeasy in the basement, and secured the third liquor license issued in New York City after repeal in 1933.
• Shuttered for three years after the 2020 pandemic amid legal disputes, the restaurant reopened at 56 Beaver Street on September 18, 2023.