Hamburger Steak ("Hamburgers") and NYC's Beefsteak John (1887) (long article)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

FYI, there is a National Hamburger Festival this weekend in Akron, Ohio.
Akron wants to be known as the "Hamburger Capital of the World." Here we go
again!
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23 April 1887, Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate, pg. 3, col. 7:
_BEEFSTEAK JOHN._
...
_ONE OF THE ODDEST PLACES TO BE_
_FOUND IN NEW YORK._
...
_An Eating House Where Good Fare is Given_
_to Hungry Folks at Remarkably Cheap_
_Rates. But it Requires Curious Expe-_
_dients to Manage the Business._
...
NEW YORK, April 20. -- "Walk right in, old man, we've got something for
you!" It was a tottering chap of seventy or so who was thus hailed, and the
speaker stood in the open doorway of a Bowery restaurant. A considerable share  of
the traffic in this famous street, good and bad, is done by portal
solicitation, from the clothing store to the dime museum; but this time the  place was a
cheap eating house, and I wondered at it. The old man entered, and I
followed him in.
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"What you want," said the waiter who had half-seriously and half jocosely
enticed the customer in, "is a Hamburger steak."
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"Can I eat it?" was the nervous query.
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"Can a kitten lap milk?" was the vociferous response.
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We were in a locally noted establishment--one worth description. In war
times, a keen and thrifty Switzer, whose first name was John, opened a little
place on the Bowery for the sale of pork and beans; and by giving more beans for
less money than anybody else he acquired reputation, money and the nickname
of  "Pork-and-beans-John." Two or three years after the war, the demand for
beans  having subsided, John changed his location and his bill of fare; and
public  opinion, or whatever it may be called, change his nickname. He moved a few
blocks up the Bowery and devoted his entire attention to broiling beefsteaks
at  low rated for hungry folks. John thought a steady diet of beefsteak was
good  enough for anybody, and he didn't pretend to cook anything else, except
the few  vegetables that went with the meat. Therefore, forgeting (sic) and
putting  altogether aside the bean period and its accompaniments, the Bowery
fastened  upon the steak broiler the name of Beefsteak John, and by that name has
the  Swiss been known ever since.
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In the lapse of years Beefsteak John has increased his capital and enlarged
his dining-room, and, in deference to the clamorous appetites of his patrons,
he  has revised and improved his bill of fare, giving it some suggestion of
variety,  and trying to suit all palates that are not pampered beyond the bounds
of  reason. Like all men of originality, he has many imitators, and one can
now find  half a score of cheap restaurants in New York displaying the sign
"Beefsteak  John's." The original shop is capable of seating about 200 persons.
Plain tables  are in rows along the sides, and a long one runs through the
centre. No  tablecloths are used, because the Bowery does not demand the luxuries
of life,  and it is much easier to keep the wood clean than to educate the
customers to  avoid spilling the soup. For equally obvious reasons John refrains
from  supplying his patrons with napkins, and he places no temptation in the
shape of  silver in the way of the Bowery. Coat sleeves and plain iron cutlery
are good  enough, and much cheaper. The fare is plan and not too variegated,
and it is the  same every day, as permanent painted signs on the walls
sufficiently attest. A  regular dinner of soup, meat, vegetables bread and coffee
costs twenty cents;  all meats specially ordered cost ten cents a plate, and
oysters from ten to  twenty cents, according to the style of cooking.
...
There is one inviolate beefsteak rule here. Every steak is cooked with
onions. Appeal and protest make no difference. The steak must and shall be fried
with onions, and a little wad of that odoriferous vegetable, hot and greasy,
has  to be served on the plate with the piece of meat. "Steak AND onions" is the
 chief article sold here, and it can't be varied to "steak, with an option of
 onions." Nevertheless, a modification very remarkable has been made by
Beefsteak  John in his business, and that was what the old man's attention was
called to by  the puller-in. A steak that can be sold at a profit for ten cents
has some  peculiarities of its own that distinguish it from a Delmonico
tenderloin, and as  John's patrons get along in years they are no longer able to chew
up the  leathery food. As an entire steak , of even the limited size known in
this  restaurant, cannot well be swallowed whole, the customers had to drop
off, one  after another, as they grew toothless. To supply a long-felt want
Beefsteak John  lately introduced the Hamburger steak. That is a formation of
chopped beef,  pressed into the shape of a steak, and fried brown. The dental
damage done in  days gone by or feared today may be estimated from John's
statement that he  sells and his guests devour 300 pounds of Hamburg steak daily, and
his old  original beefsteak trade has fallen off sadly. He feeds about 1,800
persons each  day, and he looks prosperous.
...
Although the place is run on a cheap plan and is frequented by people who
would not be too particular about little matters, it is reasonably clean and not
 at all noisy. The waiters, big fellows in white aprons with their sleeves
rolled  up to the elbows, do not bawl the orders down the hall, like elevated
brakemen  calling stations, and none of the unique slang current in most cheap
eating  houses is used in designating the dishes. An order is taken quietly and
served  expeditiously, but without any slap-dash style, and the waiters treat
the  raggedest patron as well as they do the rest. Such places as this and
many that  are even cheaper make it possible for a poor man to exist in New York
more  economically than he can in smaller cities. THe laborer who earns but a
dollar a  day can get food and lodging and have something for tobacco, and
the poor devil  who picks up a precarious living by selling knick-knacks on the
street finds  such a place as Beefsteak John's little less than a blessing.
And, after all,  many a man pays more money for worse food than even Hamburg
steaks.
...
But the management will permit no carping criticism against its new Hamburg
steaks. One of the waiters was a prisoner in the Tombs police court, the other
 day. The officer who arrested him testified as follows: "Your honor, I was
a-patrollin' my beat, a-past Beefsteak John's, when a man come a rollin' out.
THis prisoner had bounced him."
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"What have you to say this?" asked the magistrate.
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"Well, the fellow was eatin' a Hamburger steak into our place," was the
reply, as of a man who knew that his cause was just, "an' he was givin' us some
funny business what we couldn't stand. He was a ventriloquist from the museum
next door, and he had a friend gettin' right across the table. Both took
Hamburgers. When the friend cut into his'n the ventriloquist gave an imitation  of
a cat's me-a-ow that sounded as if it come out of it; an' he said: 'Ah! yours
 is cat. Wonder what mine is?' Then he stuck his fork into his own steak and
there was a dog's whine and bark. Now, yer honor, we can't have the
confidence  of our customers shook like that, and so I bounced him."
...
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
_BEEFSTEAK JOHN BURNED OUT.; FIRE CREATES GREAT CONFUSION IN  A BOWERY..._
(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0D1FFC3B5C15738DDDAF0994D8415B
8484F0D3)
$4.95 - New York  Times - Oct 16, 1884     BEEFSTEAK JOHN BURNED OUT. FIRE
CREATES  GREAT CONFUSION IN A BOWERY RESTAURANT. A big pot of fat caught FIRE IN
 the kitchen of BEEFSTEAK John's RESTAURANT, ...
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
_TRADES FOR JEWISH BOYS; Commencement Exercises to be Held at  the..._
(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0A1EFE3B5911738DDDAC0894DE405B8585
F0D3)
$4.95 - New York  Times - Jun 5, 1895     he was not the original "BEEFSTEAK
JOHN,"  but His direct successor. the name of the original "BEEFSTEAK JOHN"
was Rudolph Haefier. ...
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
_The Daily Northwestern (Newspaper) - April 12, 1902,  Oshkosh,..._
(http://www.newspaperarchive.com/newspapers1/na0014/1369714/8985761.html)
Subscription -  Daily Northwestern - NewspaperArchive - Apr 12,  1902
Thoy have been giving dinners at nn Egyptian  restaurant IN one of New York's
hemlan quarters and t-vn a now  "Beefsteak John" w hich hns The scene of action
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
_Post-Standard, The (Newspaper) - March 18, 1911, Syracuse, New  York_
(http://www.newspaperarchive.com/newspapers1/na0020/6791337/44626876.html)
Subscription -  Post-Standard - NewspaperArchive - Mar 18,  1911
"BEEFSTEAK John" Dies FRIEND of HUNGRY poor New  York, March Ehrlcr, known
FOR Ilfty years to The Uowery as "BEEFSTEAK died  here to-day of old age, ...
Pg. 15, col. 7:
_"BEEFSTEAK JOHN" DIES_
_FRIEND OF HUNGRY POOR_
NEW YORK, March 17.--Anton Ehrler, known for  fifty years to the Bowery as
"Beefsteak John," died here to-day of old  age, and his restaurant is closed
to-night for the first time since the  death of a relative thirty-five years ago.
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It was "Beefsteak John's" boast that an honest  man without money never left
his place hungry and that a panhandler never  got the second meal there.

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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
_The Coshocton Tribune (Newspaper) - February 2, 1925, Coshocton,  Ohio_
(http://www.newspaperarchive.com/newspapers1/na0015/1570428/9818076.html)
Subscription - Coshocton  Tribune - NewspaperArchive - Feb 2, 1925      The
vriginal Beefsteak John has gone The  way OF all flesh. he said to HAVE amassed
a sizable fortune his stand.  There are Quite a number OF small lunch ...



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