December 2011

TO READ THE MAY 13, 1900 dinner menu at Rector’s, the midtown-New York lobster house, is to engage in a little virtual hedonism: the fare includes 57 cuts of meat, 24 oyster dishes, 16 variations of lobster, and five kinds of duck. Some of the well-heeled diners on a weekend evening may have come from the Broadway Theatre’s hit production of Ben-Hur, which featured a live chariot race staged by actors driving eight galloping horses over two onstage treadmills. Rector’s patrons might have expected to encounter millionaire financer James Buchanan Brady (known as “Diamond Jim” after his habit of handing out diamonds to lady friends) at his usual table, gorging himself on a gallon of orange juice, multiple orders of Lynnhaven oysters, lobster, duck, steak, turtles, pies, and a two-pound box of candy. He reputedly would stop eating only after his massive belly had gained four inches and brushed the edge of the table.