This week, another try at finding H.P. Lovecraft’s New York City cafes and eateries. Today Bickford’s, tomorrow… John’s.

H.P. Lovecraft mentions that a favoured eatery in Brooklyn was “Bickford’s” near Borough Hall. The place was found early during his New York City sojourn. He had abandoned the Tiffany, whose wood-panelled decor he favoured, after he discovered that the clients just could not be ignored in favour of the decor…

the clientele was past enduring … young toughs and gangsters … I got all my stomach could stand after three or four months and thereafter switched to Bickford’s – near Borough Hall.” (Selected Letters II, page 259).

The early switch is confirmed by his 1925 Diary, which notes “Bickford’s”.

In the early 1920s Bickford’s was part of a small but growing chain, with the owner Samuel L. Bickford known for his work with and fund-raising for the Boys Club in Brooklyn. He had also run the New England Waldorf’s Lunch chain in the 1910s, and since these were one of Lovecraft’s favourites he could have been familiar with Bickford’s name in that way. In New York Mr. Bickford offered the unbeatable combination of good cheap food, fast service, and long hours. His chain was a success and in the 1920s branched out into even faster service with self-service automats, it seems, if the New York City branches listed in directories as ‘Bickford’s Lunch System’ are anything to go by. He ended up with a large successful chain.

The Chain Store Age trade magazine tells us that a Bickford’s branch wasn’t located at 425 Fulton Street until 1927. Thus the 58 Court Street branch must have been Lovecraft’s haunt in the Red Hook years, and it is indeed very “near Borough Hall” being just a few steps away down Court St. He calls this branch of Bickford’s a “one-arm”, meaning both cheap and that it had ‘side-arm’ tables just wide enough to hold your plate of food.

In its better days 58 Court Street had been the home to Mr. Edward Greaf, first-class dealer and importer of wines and also the Curator of Entomology at the Brooklyn Institute. But by the 1940s it was the Concord Cafeteria, with a Chop Suey hall above…

As can be seen here in the late 1930s. The former Bickford’s is now the Concord cafeteria and is partly seen on the left. The 25-cent Chop Suey restaurant is above…

Today Street View shows the site as a seedy “Dunkin’ Donuts” hole-in-the-wall next to a failed “General Nutrition” health-food store. However, most of the pleasing stonework and a classic Brooklyn metal fire-escape remain above, evoking a touch of the past.

The above 1940s picture is the nearest in time and place to the 1920s I can get. Not quite as Lovecraft would have known it some 15 years earlier, but I note that since 1917 Bickford’s branches all had the same classy architect and designer, one F. Russell Stuckert. Thus the Court Street branch would probably not be too different from the following frontage in design and logo and perhaps also the use of stained glass. Here we see his design work in the post-1927 frontage for the nearby 425 Fulton Street branch, located a little to the west of Borough Hall…

“Hot Turkey” on the menu. The frontage is deceptive as to the size, since inside it was vast and went back and back and back again — as I’ll explain in another post. The smartness of this 1927 branch, seen here in the late 1930s, may not quite reflect that of the earlier and more worn Court Street branch circa 1925.

David W. Dunlap wrote about the cultural aura of the Bickford’s chain in 2000 in The New York Times, then a reputable newspaper of record. He noted that in the 1950s Ginsberg’s Howl beat generation… “sank all night in submarine light of Bickford’s” (Howl, Ginsberg), and that the great Woody Allen later revered the chain… “I got no money. I’ll go sit in Bickford’s.” (Getting Even, 1971, his breakthrough book collection). Other New York creatives also mentioned it over the years. But Dunlap didn’t pick up on the fact that one H.P. Lovecraft had, as usual, got there first.