Gage and Tollner is an American cuisine restaurant on 372–374 Fulton Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Named for its initial proprietors, Charles Gage and Eugene Tollner, the restaurant occupies the lowest two stories of a converted four-story brownstone residence. The restaurant building, dating from the mid-1870s, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and its facade and interior are New York City designated landmarks. , St. John Frizell, Sohui Kim, and Ben Schneider operate the restaurant, with Kim as the head chef.
The restaurant opened in 1879, when Charles Gage opened a restaurant at 302 Fulton Street, and was named Gage & Tollner's in 1882. Gage & Tollner's moved to 372–374 Fulton Street around 1889 and soon became a popular restaurant for judges, politicians, and businessmen. A.H. Cunningham and Alexander Ingalls took over the restaurant's operation in 1911, and the Dewey family operated the restaurant for nearly seven decades starting in 1919. A partnership led by Peter Aschkenasy bought Gage and Tollner in 1988. Joseph Chirico operated the restaurant from 1995 until 2004, when the restaurant closed. The Gage and Tollner space was then occupied by various other stores during the 2000s and 2010s. Following a crowdfunding campaign in 2018, the restaurant reopened in April 2021.
Although the restaurant building's exterior was designed in an Italianate style, the interior retains its original Victorian design, with a main dining room, a waiting room, and a second-floor cocktail lounge. The main dining room measures across and contains woodwork, arched mirrors, two bars, and a group of chandeliers with gas-powered and electric lights. The restaurant initially specialized in seafood, meat chops, and steaks, and it served a large variety of oyster dishes during the 20th century, pivoting to Southern fare in the 1980s. Gage & Tollner was also known for its waitstaff, who wore insignia on their uniforms to denote the length of their employment, and its clientele, which included Diamond Jim Brady, Truman Capote, Fanny Brice, Jimmy Durante, and Mae West. Over the years, the restaurant has been the subject of much commentary, both for its architecture and for its cuisine and service.
History Early years The structure at 372–374 Fulton Street was built in the mid-1870s, likely in 1875, as a private residence. The Craft family had acquired the site from the Smith family in 1873 and owned the structure, known as the Craft Building, for fifty years. The residence housed a tailor's shop in the 1870s.
Charles Gage opened an "eating house" at 302 Fulton Street in November 1879. The original restaurant served ale and lager, as well as dishes like lobster Newberg which cost $0.75 (). Eugene Tollner joined him in 1880, and the restaurant became known as Gage & Tollner's in 1882. Tollner was the son of Charles Tollner, who founded a hardware store that subsequently became Hammacher Schlemmer under the ownership of Eugene Tollner's cousin William Schlemmer. The restaurant moved to 372–374 Fulton Street on February 18, 1889. Tollner recalled that the new location was further away from the then-independent city of Brooklyn's commercial center, which at the time was to the northwest, between Brooklyn City Hall (later Borough Hall) and Fulton Ferry. Gage and Tollner installed a storm door in 1890, and electric lights were installed during that decade to supplement the original gas lights. By then, young men frequently took their fiancées out to dinner at Gage & Tollner before proposing to them.
Gage & Tollner's became popular in its early years, in part because of its location along Fulton Street, one of the primary avenues running through Brooklyn. Tollner recalled that numerous department-store executives, judges, and politicians favored the restaurant. In its early years, Gage & Tollner's was known for its oysters and clam bellies. By 1900, according to the New York Herald Tribune, "ladies were not permitted to smoke, and arrived at the restaurant at 372–4 Fulton St. in horse-drawn carriages escorted by gentlemen in silk hats". At the time, a lobster dinner cost $1.25 (), and a drink cost $0.25 (). Gage & Tollner's also traditionally closed down between June 1 and September 1 of each year, as there were no oysters to serve during the summer. As such, the restaurant's annual reopening was often a major event. Gage and Tollner started allowing men to smoke at their restaurant in 1902, but women were still banned from smoking.
By the early 1910s, Gage and Tollner was one of the few "oyster houses" remaining in Brooklyn; at the time, oyster houses were considered separate from restaurants. Tollner and Gage decided to relinquish management of the restaurant on December 31, 1910, as both men had been operating the restaurant for 30 years. They sold the restaurant to A.H. Cunningham and Alexander Ingalls, with the provision that neither the interior nor the name be changed. Although Gage retired and lived for nine more years, Tollner decided to continue working at his namesake restaurant. In recognition of the partnership, Tollner named his only son after Gage. One of the restaurant's co-owners, Marcus J. Ingalls, died there of a heart attack in February 1911. Charles Gage's brother Edward, the longtime manager of the restaurant, died in 1917 after working there for nearly four decades. Ingalls offered to appoint Tollner as partner, but Tollner refused because he "would rather take orders than be responsible for the running of the restaurant".
Dewey ownership In May 1919, wine merchant Hiram Stapleford Dewey bought a controlling stake in Gage & Tollner's and formed a new corporation to take over the restaurant. The Dewey family agreed to retain the restaurant's original name and quality of service. Hiram, who operated a restaurant in Manhattan, placed his son Seth Bradford Dewey in charge of the restaurant. The sale was finalized in July 1919, and the Deweys announced plans to close the restaurant for a month-long renovation. Seth Dewey took over full ownership from his father that December and operated Gage & Tollner's with his business partner Alexander Graham.
1920s to 1940s After taking over the restaurant, Seth Dewey convinced Tollner to remain as the restaurant's general manager, and Eugene Tollner continued to work there until his death in 1935. The restaurant was the only chop house in New York City to remain open during Prohibition in the United States, and its ventilation system was upgraded during the 1921 off-season. Dewey and Graham formed the Dewham Company to buy the restaurant building in March 1923. The next year, Gage & Tollner began allowing dancing and music for the first time in its history, and women were allowed to smoke around the same time. Tollner attributed the restaurant's prosperity to the fact that oyster dishes were prioritized, as well as to his real-estate acumen. One employee claimed in 1929 that the restaurant had shelled 38 million oysters in nearly half a century, which equated to 50,000 oysters per month.
The restaurant celebrated its 50th anniversary in November 1929, at which point many employees had worked there for decades. In 1934, the Times Union reported that the twelve longest-tenured workers had worked there for a combined 183 years. Gage & Tollner's began serving food on Sundays in 1932, following an increase in the number of people who went to dinner on the Sabbath. With the repeal of Prohibition in 1935, oyster dishes began to increase in popularity, since many guests preferred alcoholic beverages with oysters. During the same decade, the restaurant suffered financially due to the Great Depression.
Seth Dewey died in 1938, and his son Edward took over that October. Before his death, Seth had told Ed, "You don't tamper with success", so the latter made few changes to Gage and Tollner after acquiring it. Ed and his wife Trudy lived on the top two floors of the restaurant building. An air-conditioning system was installed in the restaurant in 1940, and the facade and entrance were restored the next year. During World War II, the restaurant remained open; some employees quit to fight in the war, and there were shortages of items such as steak. The restaurant was renovated again in 1947. Some of the restaurant's employees went on strike in 1948, following months of negotiations over whether the restaurant should hire non-union workers.
1950s to 1980s
During the 1950s, the restaurant referred to the colder weather months as "turtle soup weather", and it would procure live turtles and prepare its own recipe. The restaurant also introduced new dishes, such as a whale steak. Ed Dewey and his brother Tom renovated the restaurant's exterior in 1953, and Gage and Tollner celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1954, turning on its gas lights for a week for the occasion; the gas lights were illuminated on Mondays and Tuesdays during that time. By then, the clientele included city officials, politicians, and lawyers. The restaurant refused to serve black customers until 1960, although all its waiters were black men. The restaurant began hiring white workers and women in the mid-20th century. In addition, people from outside Brooklyn began visiting the restaurant.
John B. Simmons began co-managing the restaurant in 1973. At the time, there were plans to convert the neighboring section of Fulton Street into a pedestrian mall, although Ed Dewey did not think it would negatively impact business. After the pedestrian mall was established in 1976, drivers could no longer drop passengers off in front of the restaurant. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated Gage and Tollner's exterior as a city landmark in November 1974. Although the owners did not plan to alter the restaurant, the designation was part of the LPC's initiative to preserve the city's architectural history. The interior was designated in March 1975, with the LPC citing the interior as having a Gay Nineties atmosphere. The New York City Board of Estimate approved the landmark status that May, making Gage and Tollner the city's third interior landmark, after the New York Public Library Main Branch and Grant's Tomb, and the city's first interior landmark within a commercial building.
Gage and Tollner marked its centennial in 1979. and the restaurant building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Meanwhile, patronage had declined after the Fulton Mall was completed. By the 1980s, the neighborhood was no longer considered safe after dark, and even residents of nearby Brooklyn Heights would not eat there. The restaurant was frequently deserted during peak hours, and it lost more than half of its business from 1981 to 1988, prompting the Deweys to reduce the staff from 50 to 30. Its signature dish, clam bellies, was often sold out. Ed and Trudy Dewey, who wished to retire, put the restaurant for sale in 1987 with an asking price of $1.8 million. Within a year, they had received several offers for the restaurant.
Aschkenasy ownership In November 1988, the restaurant was bought by a partnership led by Peter Aschkenasy, who promised to preserve the restaurant's character. In addition to Aschkenasy, the partnership included his wife Marcy Blum and retired city official James F. Capalino. The acquisition was in part a real-estate investment, as Aschkenasy wanted to attract the growing number of office workers in Downtown Brooklyn. He briefly considered moving the interior to Manhattan, but this was not possible because the building was a landmark. Aschkenasy instead renovated the restaurant, saying the landmark status made Gage and Tollner "a more desirable destination".