Creator
Louis Sherry
Title
Private Event
Coverage
New York City
Date
January 27, 1884
Description
This fine, gilt-edge menu card comes from an unidentified social event catered by Louis Sherry (1855–1926) a few months after he opened his confectionery and catering business at 662 Sixth Avenue in 1883. Sherry served the highest levels of New York society; this menu was saved by William Russell Grace (1832–1904), Irish-American politician, two-term mayor of New York City, and founder of W. R. Grace and Co. Sherry’s aesthetic sensibility and careful attention to the rituals of formal dining brought early success, prompting Delmonico’s to become more open to working in the homes of the moneyed classes. Backed by his wealthy patrons, Sherry opened his first restaurant in a refurbished mansion on Fifth Avenue and 37th Street in 1889. Nine years later, he relocated to a Stanford White-designed building on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, across from rival Delmonico’s newest uptown location.