Walk past the Grand Saloon at 156 East 23rd Street in New York City and you can still see the ornate gold lettering of Klube’s Restaurant on the façade, even though it’s been gone since 1965.
Klube’s, it is said, was sometimes called “Little Luchow’s,” after the famous restaurant on East 14th Street, but certainly it held its own as a venerable mainstay of German cuisine in New York City.
It began as Klube’s Steak House in 1911, when Carl A. Klube and his brother-in-law, Henry Klinger, acquired the St. Blaise Hotel & Restaurant, an establishment known mostly as a brothel frequented by the likes of Diamond Jim Brady. Klube, who’d worked in Germany as a waiter, had immigrated to the United States in 1905, married Agnes Klinger in 1908, and become a naturalized citizen in 1911. Henry Klinger, a butcher by trade, presumably cut all the steaks at the restaurant; some years later he would go into business with Agnes’s brother and open a butcher shop at 1308 Second Avenue.
After the advent of Prohibition on January 16, 1920, Klube’s Restaurant became home to one of the city’s most popular speakeasies, which was no small feat, as it was estimated that by 1925 there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasies in New York City alone.
By 1950 the Klubes’s son, Carl H. Klube, was running the family restaurant, with chef Hans Nitzsche, whom his father had hired, still in charge of the kitchen. He kept running the restaurant into the 1960s but decided to close it after his mother died in January 1965 at the age of 77. Two months later the space was occupied by Walsh’s Steak House, which had been at First Avenue and 24th Street for the previous 24 years but was forced to move because of a redevelopment project.
From the day Klube’s opened at 156 East 23rd Street in New York City in 1911, potato pancakes were on the menu every Monday to accompany Boeuf à la Mode, one of the restaurant’s signatures dishes. Here’s the recipe, as provided by Carl H. Klube in 1950.
Potato Pancakes Klube
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Loading...From the day Klube’s Restaurant opened in 1911, potato pancakes were on the menu every Monday to accompany Boeuf à la Mode, one of the restaurant’s signatures dishes. Here’s the recipe, as provided by Carl H. Klube in 1950.
Ingredients
- 2 cups grated potatoes (raw)
- 1/2 small onion, grated
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- Dash of nutmeg
- Fat, for frying
Instructions
In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, onion, flour, and egg. Season with salt and nutmeg. Mix well.
Heat fat in a heavy skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium heat until shimmering.
Drop the potato mixture into the hot oil, about two tablespoons per pancake, and fry, flattening them with a spatula and turning once so the pancakes are a deep golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.
Notes
Klube's recipe (from 1950) specified fat for frying the potato pancakes, though of course canola or vegetable oil may be substituted.
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