Creator
Welsh's Eating House
Title
À la carte
Coverage
New York City
Date
February 12, 1847
Description
Welsh’s Eating House was located on Nassau Street, then the center of the Fourth Estate in New York. Restaurateur and temperance advocate Alexander “Sandy” Welsh (1793–1857) printed his daily menu within a four-page newspaper, reflecting a humorous and bombastic style seemingly inspired by showman P. T. Barnum, whose popular American Museum was situated around the corner on Broadway. At the time, New York had about 123 such eateries, not counting the oyster saloons. Fifteen of them were located on Nassau Street. What makes this particular restaurant noteworthy in the annals of history is an event that may have occurred there in the winter of 1844–1845, when Edgar Allan Poe was working as a critic and assistant editor at the nearby Evening Mirror. Years later, a story persisted among newspapermen in New York that Poe read “The Raven” stanza by stanza to fellow journalists, and accepted their assistance, at Welsh’s Eating House.