1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Many Schools in One erous board. There, too, many of them first learned of the superb succulence of Virginia "vintage" ham. As a matter of fact, the exoteric could there give the "once– over" to delicacies they had never before seen-or even imagined. No menu in puzzling French to mystify or confuse. The uninitiate saw what he saw, and what he fancied he could sample at his leisure. And spread out for his delectation-for he was free to choose, and to wha~ever extent-were light and savory canapes, thirst– provoking anchovies in various-tinted guises, and other delicacies; and there were substantial slices of beef or ham, ordinary as well as Virginia, and a wonderful as– sortment of cheeses of robust 'odors; not forgetting the crisp radishes and sprightly, delicate spring onions, and olives stuffed and unstuffed. · The temporary addicts of the lunch table were never disturbed, or rarely. Their meal ticket depended merely upon good conduct-supported, of course, by a good front. The occasional investment of a quarter in a bottle of beer-not necessarily spent before an attack upon the lunch table-served to keep them in good standing. By such an outlay as little as three ,times a week, a man could eat daily from that hospitable offering a luncheon that, served in one of the hotel's restaurants, would have set him back a good two dollars-and get away with it. And many so did. The free lunch grew to be a part of every branch of the American School of Drinking. The table in the Wal– dorf Bar cost the hotel more than seventy-five hundred dollars a year. It proved excellent advertisement, for no inconsiderable slice of the hotel's profits came from the [ 19]