What’s the most New York thing about living in New York? The subway? Ridiculous rents? Suspicious street meat? There are so many aspects of life here that give the city its unique flavor, it’s easy to take them for granted. But we wondered — where did some of these things originate?
To find out, we chose 10 very New York hallmarks and tried to determine where they got their start. You’re on your own when it comes to street meat.
FIRST BRUNCH
Like Sunday roast and gross chicken-flavored potato chips, brunch is a culinary innovation whose credit goes to the English. The term for a midday meal combining breakfast and lunch was coined by writer Guy Beringer in an 1895 article “Brunch: A Plea.”
The practice took a few years to make its way to New York. It was apparently a popular meal in private homes for years before the local restaurants got in on the action. The Lombardy Hotel at 111 East 56th St. was the first to begin serving brunch in New York starting in the late 1930s, says food historian Andrew Smith, author of “New York City: A Food Biography.”
Favorite dishes at the time included fried fish, corned beef hash and codfish cakes with tomato sauce.
Brunch was served from 12 to 4, much like it is today. And it was often used as an excuse to continue drinking after a Saturday night out. Guests at the Lombardy didn’t often show until after 1, because that’s when restaurants were allowed to begin serving liquor on Sundays. Some things never change.
FIRST PIZZERIA
Few things define NYC more than a hot slice. And while locals have enjoyed pizza for more than 100 years, determining who came first might be lost to history.
Little Italy’s Lombardi’s claims to be the first. But Italian bakeries along Mott and Mulberry streets were serving “Pizze Cavuie,” as it was called, before Lombardi’s became a licensed pizzeria in 1905. A 1903 New York Tribune article describes a pie made of “dough and a combination of tomatoes, cheese, red peppers and bologna.”
Also, Lombardi’s was listed in the phone directories as a bakery, not a pizzeria, says Barry Popik, an etymologist and the man behind the online treasure trove of NYC history barrypopik.com. Popik says the first mention of a pizzeria in the phone book came in the 1911-1912 edition for a spot called Verra Pizzeria, at 146 Mulberry St. Lombardi’s, at 53½ Spring St., wasn’t listed in the category until 1920.
It’s unclear if any of these establishments sold slices. Those likely came into fashion after World War II, says Ed Levine, author of “Pizza: A Slice of Heaven.” Before then, most restaurants used coal-fired ovens, which were too hot and would burn individual slices.
FIRST DUANE READE
So where was the first? Turns out, the original Duane Reade appeared in 1960 on Broadway between Duane and Reade streets. Pharmacist brothers Eli, Abraham and Jack Cohen were aware the streets run parallel, but called their store that anyway.
FIRST BROADWAY MUSICAL
The consensus seems to be “The Black Crook” could be considered the first production to fit our modern definition of a Broadway musical. It premiered at Niblo’s Garden (formerly located on Broadway at Prince Street), Sept. 12, 1866.
The plot concerned an evil count making a deal with the devil to win over a woman. Opening night ran for six-plus hours, but the show turned into a massive hit, in part because the New York Herald condemned it for indecency due to skimpy costumes and suggestive dancing. The show ran for more than a year, spawned a touring company and was revived multiple times.
FIRST FOOD DELIVERY
In 1770, the Queen’s Head Tavern at 54 Pearl St. (later known as Fraunces Tavern, still open today) began offering delivery, says food historian Andrew Smith. (On the menu in 1783? Turtle.) The 1891 book “New York and Its Environs” by Gustav Kobbé notes that the Queen’s Head offered “suppers dressed to send out, for lodges and others, who live at a convenient distance.”
FIRST GRAFFITI
In the late ’60s, teenagers began scrawling on buildings — often writing their name and home street with a magic marker (later to be supplanted by spray paint). The first recognized writer was probably Julio 204, who tagged buildings in Inwood between 1967 and 1969, says Roger Gastman, co-author of “The History of American Graffiti.”
A couple years later, a tagger who went by Taki 183 became the first graffiti artist to go citywide. His name began to appear on buildings, subway trains and schools.
Taki, a Greek kid named Demetrius, had a job delivering cosmetics; as he walked around the city, he often stopped to write his name.“You’re walking around, you have nothing to do — what do you do when you’re sixteen?” Taki says in “The History of American Graffiti.” “You were hanging around, unless you were an altar boy, and we weren’t altar boys.”
FIRST TAXI
According to “Taxi! A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver” by Graham Russell Gao Hodges, the original yellow cab was the result of a grudge. Local businessman Harry Allen became so angry after being charged $5 for a three-quarter-mile trip home that he vowed to start his own company — one that would charge a specific amount per mile. Not satisfied with the American cars at the time, which were nicknamed “smoke-wagons,” Allen traveled to France to acquire his fleet. He returned with 65 gas-powered French Darracq cabs and paraded them down Fifth Avenue.
The cars were originally painted red, but Allen had them painted yellow to increase their visibility.
FIRST SKYSCRAPER
Completed in 1875 and standing 260 feet — a mere nine stories — high, the Tribune building was the tallest in the city at the time. It was also one of New York’s first elevator buildings. (Nine more floors were added by 1905.) Built to house newspaper operations, the tower was constructed of masonry, with brick-and-cement foundation walls more than six feet thick. It was demolished in 1966 and replaced with 1 Pace Plaza.
FIRST VELVET ROPE
If you’ve ever approached a nightspot only to find yourself judged unworthy and stuck behind a velvet rope, you’re in good company. The snobby crowd-control implement is hardly a modern invention, and has been in use for a lot longer than you might expect.
It’s difficult to say exactly where the use of the velvet rope began, but it’s pretty clear it was used by European royals at balls and public functions during the late 1800s. When a velvet rope appeared at the White House, a 1917 Harper’s Magazine article lamented it as something from “more effete civilizations.”
The ropes were definitely used in New York around the turn of the century, perhaps beginning in restaurants. They were strung across the opening of dining rooms, including the Knickerbocker Grill Room, Hotel Martinique and a Theater District spot called Rector’s, to let guests know all the tables were taken.
Ropes seem to have disappeared for a while, but made a comeback during the 1930s at NYC hot spots such as the Stork Club. As for bouncers, a 1938 Syracuse Journal article mentions that the club had hired a person to do nothing but man the rope and separate “the admissable and solvent sheep from the pariah goats.”
FIRST CHAIN STORE
These days, you can’t walk a block in the city without running across a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts. Appropriately, the first American chain store is believed to have originated in New York, says Marc Levinson, author of “The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America.” And no, it wasn’t Victorian Girdles ‘R’ Us. Brothers Jacob and Joseph Stiner came to the city in 1855 and opened a retail tea shop at 64 Catherine St., in what is now Chinatown. By 1857, they operated three outlets; a decade later, they were up to 10.