Upper West Side

In Eating My Words, Mimi Sheraton writes that when she and her first husband were newlyweds in the mid-40s they drove up to the Claremont Inn, an elegant, expensive restaurant patronized by New York's old money society. Located on a bluff on upper Riverside Drive just north of Grant's Tomb, it had formal gardens. In warm weather you could dine on the veranda and gaze across the Hudson at the Palisades. It was built as a country home at the end of the 18th century and functioned as a fashionable resort at the time of the Civil War. Here is a photo of the place, which burned down in 1951. The Sheratons ordered the cheapest thing on menu, usually chopped steak or seafood crepes and wondered what the fuss was about. As Sheraton advises, ordering the cheapest thing on the menu of a renowned restaurant will never provide an answer to that question.

Another treat for them was a visit to the Tip Toe Inn on Broadway and 86th Street for turkey sandwiches with coleslaw and Russian dressing. It was a popular place for Upper West Side residents to get Jewish deli food or a soda fountain treat. It had a big dining room, tables with double-layered cloths and formally attired waiters, according to Doris Friedensohn in Eating As I Go. The Sheratons would take the subway uptown, order their sandwiches to go, then eat them on a cab ride home.