I lived in Brooklyn for years, but never went to Gage and Tollner, an old-fashioned steakhouse that was an institution there for over 100 years until it closed in 2004. They’re working on reopening soon, and in the process, came across some amazing artifacts. From an article in the New York Times:

For an individual, it’s almost a cliché of personal discovery: while poking around in Grandma’s attic, you stumble upon a trunk stuffed with long-lost family artifacts. But for a venerable old restaurant — particularly a defunct one carved up over the past 15 years by a costume jewelry store, a tattoo parlor and an Arby’s — such a find is markedly more surprising.

Nonetheless, that’s essentially what happened to the new owners of Gage & Tollner, the Brooklyn landmark that dished out steak and seafood in an evocative, gaslight-era atmosphere on Fulton Street from the late 19th century until 2004, and that will reopen March 15.

In December, Ben Schneider, a co-owner, pulled a milk crate full of antique brass hat hooks from a dusty crawl space beneath the roof and spotted behind it several decaying cardboard boxes that appeared to have been languishing there for decades….

The newly unearthed historic materials cover a considerable span of time and subject matter: cryptic handwritten notes about turn-of-the-20th-century cash transactions; menus; price quotes from a butcher; notes on celebrity customers and the prodigious speed of an oyster shucker; correspondence about a restaurant display at the 1939-40 World’s Fair; fliers from a 1948 strike; a 1965 WQXR radio advertisement recording; and a bill from a dinner for retired Brooklyn Dodgers players. These artifacts supplement the information previously provided by seven linear feet of Gage & Tollner records donated to the Brooklyn Historical Society by a longtime owner’s daughter in 2016.

The article isn’t clear on exactly what was in these day books, but it talks about various notes that owners kept over the years about the restaurant’s practices, patrons and staff. I’d love to take a look inside those notebooks!

Read the full article at the New York times: Found in the Attic at Gage & Tollner: Historic Treasure

Other posts about notebooks related to restaurants and chefs.