
Delmonico's is a series of restaurants that have operated in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, and
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich ( ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 63,518. It is the largest town on Gold Coast (Connecticut), Connectic ...
, with the present version located at
56 Beaver Street in the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
.
The original version was widely recognized as America's first fine dining restaurant. Beginning as a small cafe and pastry shop in 1827 at 23 William Street, Delmonico's eventually grew into a hospitality empire that encompassed several luxury restaurants catering to titans of industry, the political elite and cultural luminaries. In many respects, Delmonico's represented the genesis of American fine dining cuisine, pioneering numerous restaurant innovations, developing iconic American dishes, and setting a standard for dining excellence. Delmonico's (under the Delmonico family's ownership and management) shuttered all locations by 1923. In 1926, Delmonico's under new ownership by Italian immigrant Oscar Tucci reopened at 56 Beaver Street.
History
Origin
The original Delmonico's opened in 1827 in a rented pastry shop at 23
William Street, and appeared in a list of restaurants in 1830. It was opened by Italian-Swiss immigrants, the brothers Giovanni and Pietro Delmonico. In 1831, they were joined by their nephew, Lorenzo, who eventually became responsible for the restaurant's wine list and menu.
The brothers moved their restaurant several times before settling at 56 Beaver Street (also 2 South William Street). When the building was opened on a grand scale in August 1837 after the
Great Fire of New York, New Yorkers were told that the columns by the entrance had been imported from the ruins of
Pompeii
Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...
. It eventually became one of the most famous restaurants in New York, with its reputation eventually growing to international prominence.
Expansion and closure
Beginning in the 1850s, the restaurant hosted the annual gathering of the
New England Society of New York, which featured many important speakers of the day. In 1860, Delmonico's provided the supper at the Grand Ball welcoming the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
at the
Academy of Music on East 14th Street. Supper was set out in a specially constructed room; the menu was
French, and the ''
pièces montées'' represented
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
and
Prince Albert
Prince Albert most commonly refers to:
*Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria
*Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco
Prince Albert may also refer to:
Royalty
* Alb ...
, the ''
Great Eastern'' and
Flora's Vase. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' reported, "We may frankly say that we have never seen a public supper served in a more fashion, with greater discretion, or upon a more luxurious scale". In 1862, the restaurant hired
Charles Ranhofer, considered one of the greatest
chef
A chef is a professional Cook (profession), cook and tradesperson who is proficient in all aspects of outline of food preparation, food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term (), the di ...
s of his day.
The business was so successful that from 1865 to 1888, it expanded to four restaurants of the same name. At various times, there were Delmonico's at ten locations. By 1876, news of the prices at New York's restaurants, including Delmonico's, spread at least as far as Colorado where complaints about the cost of wine, eggs, bread and butter, potatoes, and coffee ("forty cents a cup"), appeared in the
Pueblo
Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...
''
Colorado Daily Chieftain''.
In 1884, Republican presidential nominee
James G. Blaine attended a dinner at Delmonico's with his wealthy backers. This was picked up by the press, and used against Blaine to show him as disconnected from poor and working-class Americans, particularly in a
political cartoon
A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically co ...
of the dinner on the front page of the
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...
. The menu from the dinner was also circulated by the Democrats for the same purpose. Blaine would go on to lose to
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...
in
an election that was ultimately decided by a less than one thousand vote difference in New York.
In 1899, Delmonico's vacated the six-story Delmonico Building at
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...
and 26th Street. (The edifice was sold to John B. Martin, owner of the Martin Hotel, in May 1901.)
In 1919, Edward L.C. Robins purchased Delmonico's. Its grand location at
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...
and 44th Street closed in 1923 as a result of changing dining habits due to
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
. That location was the final incarnation of Delmonico's with continuity to the original.
Later revivals
In 1926,
Oscar Tucci purchased the restaurant and reopened Delmonico's, first calling it Oscar's Delmonico, at
56 Beaver Street. Tucci ran a speakeasy in the lower level of the restaurant. In 1933, Tucci received the third liquor license in New York after the repeal of Prohibition. In later years, Oscar Tucci, dropped "Oscar's" from the name and continued naming it Delmonico's. During the Tucci incarnation it adopted the original menus and recipes, and became distinguished in its own right, continuing to attract prominent politicians and celebrities, such as
Lana Turner
Julia Jean "Lana" Turner ( ; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. ...
,
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...
,
Rock Hudson,
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre.
Horne joined the chorus of the C ...
,
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an English and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 19 ...
,
Elvis,
Etta James
Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songwriter. Starting her career in 1954, James frequently performed in Nashville's R&B clubs, collectively known as the Ch ...
,
JFK
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until Assassination of John F. Kennedy, his assassination in 1963. He was the first Catholic Chur ...
,
Jackie Kennedy Onassis and others. Tucci also instituted many of the professional standards in use today in American restaurants known as the Delmonico Way, a method that is explained in the book ''The Delmonico Way; Sublime Entertaining & Legendary Recipes from the Restaurant that Made New York!'' by Max Tucci published by
Rizzoli. By the 1940s, Tucci owned and operated the entire Delmonico building, operating 63,000s.f. of restaurant space. Making Delmonico's the largest restaurant in the world during its time. Oscar created lavish dining rooms on the upper floors of the building and created dining rooms for companies such as Lehman Brothers and universities such as Harvard, creating the Harvard Lunch Club. The Penthouse was the most lush of private rooms; it included a private dining room with fireplace and en suite bedroom, a private kitchen and roof top terrace. Other private rooms included, The Roman Room which was designed by Mario Tucci and
Valerian Rybar, The Baroque Room, The Hunt Room, The Bulls & Bears, The Python Room, and the main dining room known as The Palm Room. It was in the Palm Room that
Ralph Burns and his orchestra serenaded guests. During the height of the Tucci era, Delmonico's served over an outstanding, thousand lunches a day. In 1941, Oscar Tucci expanded the brand, opening Oscar's Delmonico uptown located at 146 E56th Street, according to Tips on Tables writer William Hawkins it opened "with a boom!" In 1948, Oscar expanded further opening Delmon's Restaurant at 75 William Street.
The Tucci era also produced four of the most prominent restaurateurs of the twentieth century:
Sirio Maccioni of
Le Cirque, Tony May of San Domenico and the
Rainbow Room
The Rainbow Room is a private event space on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Run by Tishman Speyer, it is among the highest venues in New York City. The Rainbow Room was design ...
,
Harry Poulakakos of Harry's located in
Hanover Square, and Lello Arpaia, father to restaurateur
Donatella Arpaia.
In 1981 the Tucci family penned a licensing deal with Edward Huber to operate "Delmonico's" at 56 Beaver Street and the restaurant reopened the following year,
lasting until 1993. In 1984, Tucci's son Mario Tucci, Gina (Mario's wife) and sister Mary Tucci opened a second "Delmonico's" in
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich ( ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 63,518. It is the largest town on Gold Coast (Connecticut), Connectic ...
; it closed three years later due to Mario's untimely death.

In 1997, under a new licensing agreement with the Tucci family, the BiCE Group took over operations of the restaurant. The group renovated the location and reopened Delmonico's with Gian Pietro Branchi as executive chef. The restaurant reopened in May 1998 after a renovation by Morris Nathanson. In 1999, the restaurant was leased to the Ocinomled partnership.
The restaurant closed temporarily in 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. In January 2023, Delmonico's reopened under new ownership, Dennis Turcinovic and Joseph Licul signed a new lease on the building. Turcinovic and Licul welcomed Max Tucci (Oscar Tucci's grandson) to join them as Third Generation Partner and Global Brand Officer.
The restaurant underwent interior renovation, and reopened September 15, 2023. New York City Mayor Adams attended the ceremonial ribbon cutting with Gina Tucci and the new Delmonico's team. Max Tucci welcomed "New York and the World back to Delmonico’s."
In 2024, the Delmonico’s team, including Dennis Turcinovic and Max Tucci opened Delmonico’s sister establishment TUCCI - New York, located at 643 Broadway, New York, New York. Steve Cuozzo stated in the New York Post "Move over, Carbone — this new NYC Italian hotspot has the best meatballs."
Signature dishes
Delmonico potatoes were invented at Delmonico's restaurant and possibly
Chicken à la King. However, the restaurant is most famous for the
Delmonico steak, which it now serves as a
rib eye steak but originally served as a
strip steak, hence the latter cut's nickname as the "New York strip" within the United States.
Eggs Benedict were also said to have originated at Delmonico's, although others claim that dish as well.
It is often said that the name "
Baked Alaska" was coined at Delmonico's as well, in 1867, by chef Charles Ranhofer. However, no contemporary account exists of this occurrence, and Ranhofer himself referred to the dish, in 1894, as "Alaska Florida", apparently referring to the contrast between extremes of heat and cold.
It is also said that
Lobster Newberg was invented at the restaurant.
[ In the 1930s Delmonico's owner Oscar Tucci created the Wedge Salad at Delmonico's.
]
Other Delmonico's restaurants
Delmonico's Italian Steakhouse is a chain of restaurants with six locations in Upstate New York and Florida. This chain has no connection to the Delmonico's Restaurant located at 56 Beaver Street.
Menus
See also
*List of New York City Landmarks
These are lists of New York City landmarks designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission:
* List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan:
** List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan below 14th Street
...
*
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
New York Architecture Images EDelmonico's
*
{{Restaurants in Manhattan
1827 establishments in New York (state)
History of New York City
Restaurants in Manhattan
Restaurants established in 1827
Fine dining restaurants in Manhattan
Upper class culture in New York City