Mary Elizabeth Evans, for whom the landmark tea room was named, began her career in 1900 at age 15 as a small grocer and candymaker in Syracuse. After one year in business she cleared the then-handsome sum of $1,000 which she contributed to the support of her family while supervising a growing crew of helpers which included her two younger sisters who served as clerks and her brother who made deliveries.
Her family, though in seriously reduced circumstances, had valuable social connections. Her late grandfather had been a judge, her uncle an actor, and her departed father a music professor. That may help explain how she achieved success so rapidly – and why her story garnered so much publicity. By 1904 several elite NYC clubs and hotels sold her candy and soon thereafter it was for sale at summer resorts such as Asbury Park and Newport and in stores as far away as Chicago and Grand Rapids. In 1913 the all-women Mary Elizabeth company, which included her mother and sisters Martha and Fanny, was prosperous enough to sign a 21-year lease totaling nearly $1 million for a prestigious Fifth Avenue address close to Altman’s, Best & Co., Lord & Taylor, and Franklin-Simon’s.
By the early teens the candy store had expanded into a charming tea room with branches in Newport and in Boston. Like other popular tea rooms of the era, Mary Elizabeth’s bucked the tide of chain stores and standardized products by emphasizing food preparation from scratch. Known for “real American food served with a deft feminine touch,” Fanny Evans said the tea rooms catered to women’s tastes in “fancy, unusual salads,” “delicious home-made cakes,” and dishes such as “creamed chicken, sweetbreads, croquettes, timbales and patties.” For many decades, the NYC Mary Elizabeth’s was known especially for its crullers (long twisted doughnuts).
Mary Elizabeth distinguished herself as a patriot during the First World War by producing a food-conservation cookbook of meatless, wheatless, and sugarless recipes, and by volunteering to help the Red Cross develop diet kitchens in France. After her marriage to a wealthy Rhode Island businessman in 1920 she apparently played a reduced management role in the business.
In its later years the NYC restaurant passed out of the family’s hands and began to decline, culminating in an ignominious Health Department citation in 1985.
© Jan Whitaker, 2008
We eat in restaurants several times a week and yet know very little about their history. I plan to dip into my archive of research and images every so often to present a little tidbit that highlights aspects of our American restaurant culture. Let me know your thoughts.
6 Comments
November 2, 2009 at 4:42 pm
So happy to see that others remember Mary Elizabeth’s too… Can anyone help me with the address? I’m working on a photo essay of the ghosts of places in NYC. Low 30s off Madison somwhere I think?
November 2, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Mary Elizabeth’s was at 6 East 37th Street (Fifth Ave & 37th).
October 25, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I don’t know what made me think of Mary Elizabeth’s today. I wondered if anyone else remembered the place and I’m glad to see it listed here. My memories of it are from the mid 70’s when I lived and worked in the area. The food was fine but it was the atmosphere of an era gone by that intrigued me. Rumplemeyer’s and the old Russian Tea Room are two other places I remember fondly for the same reason.
September 12, 2009 at 7:46 pm
We ate at Mary Elizabeth’s three times a week and under the direction of Edgar Tallman and Bob (Bubbles Manes) designed the beautiful windows at Lord and Taylor and the model rooms at W.J. Sloan. It was a great shock to see all these handsome Gay Young Men eating in this Tea Room among the lady shoppers who ate their lunch here.
The menu in the 1960’s was great and included a restaurant in the basement that served homemade soup and a sandwich. What great times to remember.
April 6, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Hello, I have been looking for that recipe as well….they were perfectly round and the oatmeal was not blended. they were the best cookies!
January 8, 2009 at 12:42 am
Mary Elizabeth’s Restaurant used to have a cookie made of oats, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and salt.
Do not know the recipe (all natural ingredients). Does anyone know any of her cookie recipes?
Thanks