LÜCHOW’S
14th Street and Irving Place
1882-1982

For 100 years, the German baroque interior of Lüchow’s was as stuffed as a sausage casing with oompah music, gemütlichkeit and the smell of sauerbraten. The distinguished but eclectic clientele included Diamond Jim Brady, H.L. Mencken and Enrico Caruso. Ascap, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, was formed in the restaurant in 1914, and Gus Kahn is said to have composed the lyrics to “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby” on a Lüchow’s tablecloth.

“A fragrance, delicate, but not weak, and slightly male, rides the air,” is how the artist Ludwig Bemelmans described the atmosphere in his introduction to “Lüchow’s German Cookbook” in 1952. “It composes itself of the aromas of solid cooking, of roast geese and ducks... Through it is wafted the bouquet of good wines, and above this hangs the blue cloud of the smoke of rare cigars. This obscures the stag and moose heads that are part of the décor, along with samples of the ironmonger’s art.”

After the restaurant vacated the building in 1982 for a short-lived stint near Times Square, preservationists fought to save the structure, but it was razed in 1995 after a fire.