ISSUE 45, LUNCH, Part 3: Ann Poppleton, the Woman who launched Lunch
ANN POPPLETON (1770?-1840?)
Mrs. Poppleton introduced the luncheon as an institution of women’s refreshment and sociability into the United States in 1816. A wit, a fashionable matron, and a London trained pastry chef and confectioner, she became a culinary celebrity in New York’s beau monde, catering the annual Bachelor’s Ball in the city, and collaborating with the famous African-American cook and master of ceremonies Simon in many civic celebrations. The public generally conceded that she stood foremost about the creators of cake in the city—her dark, most plum cake enjoying particular mystique. Yet her training had been thorough, and she won patronage upon first opening her shop in 1815, for her nutritive soups and roast game as well as her pastry. “Mrs. Poppleton” was the spouse of Thomas Holdsworth Poppleton (1765-1837), New York City’s surveyor and map maker. Both Thomas and Ann Poppleton remained a New York Institutions for two decades.
The first advertisement appeared on October 19, 1815 in the New York Evening Post: “Mrs. Poppleton, Restaurateur, Pastry Cook and Confectioner, next door to Washington Hall, respectfully begs leave to inform the public, she has opened a store for general accommodation, where families may be supplied with all kinds of Soups, savory Patties, single and double dressed Entre[e]s, Chicken, Eel, and Game Pies, Puff Pastry in variety, sweet and savory, Jellies plain and ornamented, Omelettes, Creams, Blanc manges, almond, caramel and gum Paste Ornaments, Italian Sallads, potted and collared Meats, Fish Sauces, cold ornamented Hams, Tongues, Fowls and savory Cakes with every article in the Kitchen and Pastry business.” She indicated that those expecting a European standard of luxury would find satisfaction with her work. She highlighted her cleanliness. And finally she highlighted her suitability for Christenings, Weddings, and Ladies’ parties.
She began serving hot English Cheese Cakes at 11:00 a.m. daily, and maintaining a ‘refreshment room’ where customers might have “mock Turtle and other Soups, savory Patties, anchovy Toasts, and other relishes. The service ceased at 3:00 p.m.
Mrs. Poppleton’s second season as a restaurateur and confectioner began in late autumn 1816. The primacy of soup in her luncheon offerings was acknowledged by designating in her ads the dining room as the “Soup Room.” Yet in addition to Soup a la Reine and Almond Soup (white gazpacho?], she recommended Lobster Pudding, Lemon Cocoa Nut, Marrow, and her Italian salads [antipasti?]. Her statements made particular acknowledgment “to those ladies whose patronage” had supported her the previous season, and as a particular reward for their support, was making English Macaroons and Maids of Honor (a jam filled tartlet with a cap of almond paste created at Richmond Palace in the 16th century). Poppleton was clearly exploring the wishes of women when it came to her food. In May 17, 1817, Mrs. Poppleton moved her refectory to 8 Wall Street and expanded her service, setting a dinner table for 8 regular male boarders. She also indicated the married couples will be accommodated with a handsome private chamber, if so desired.
In Spring 1819, Fitz Greene Halleck, New York’s poet of the bon ton, penned an ode to caterer Simon in which Mrs. Poppleton figures as provider of one of the accouterments of fashionable life—candy kisses.
Taught by thy art, we closely follow
And ape the English lords and misses—
For music, we’ve the Black Apollo,
And Mrs. Poppleton—for kisses;
We borrow all the rest, you know;
Our glass from Christie, for the time,
Plate from our friends, to make a show,
And cash, to pay small bills, from P[ine].
Configured in the shape that Hershey’s imitated and built into a source of fortune, kisses in New York were famous for dispensing a printed motto on the wrapper. Irked at the banality of these sentiments, Mrs. Poppleton announced a contest to the citizens of poetic temper. The notice would be reprinted in a dozen papers.
In August of 1821 the papers announced that “A lady residing in New-York, writing under the signature of Aspasia has been the lucky laureate” who won the cake and the contest.
In autumn of 1819 Mrs. Poppleton migrated to 206 Broadway, relocating to the new locus of fashionable commerce opposite St. Paul’s Church. Realizing that continued success lay in making her pastry a topic of city conversation, she fashioned a 300 lb. plum cake for New Years 1820. It went on display on December 29 in her Broadway window, and was cut for carry out on the holiday. The brick, two story pastry shop and restaurant caught fire on Monday, March 5, 1821, but speedy action by the fire brigade limited the damage. In gratitude she fed the fire fighters from her stock, provoking a city critic who disliked the notion of giving volunteers food as a tip because it led to an expectation of receiving something, and thus stimulated looting, observed, “Mrs. Poppleton’s confectionary must have suffered prodigiously in the efforts made to save it, for all the boys that could obtain admission, carried off as much preserves as they could eat. A confectionary store on fire, may be considered as a dead loss—a druggist shop, on the contrary, is not in danger.” She reopened for business on March 8th. Wittily she suggested that old clients come by to “perceive her pastry, pure, perfect, pleasant and palatable, rising, phoenix like, from the flames, delightful to the eye, and delicious to the taste.”
In Spring of 1823 Mrs. Poppleton moved her business to 142 Broadway above Cedar Street. There she reigned over the fashionable world of women’s food for a decade. Yet the woman-centered business did not neglect the desires of the male population. In 1824 the city bachelor’s instituted a ball on St. Valentine’s Day. A success, they sought to improve the second version to an event irresistible to any fashionable woman in New York, so they hired “the triumvirates of good cheer, Simon, Mrs. Poppleton, and Abby Jones” to run the entertainment in 1825. Success gave rise to a paradox: the ranks of the bachelors were decimated in the wake of the celebration.
The last chapter of Mrs. Poppleton’s career took place in Maryland. Baltimore had been Ann Poppleton’s first home in America, when she and husband Thomas emigrated from Great Britain in 1810. Thomas during the early 1810s surveyed Baltimore, producing the most famous early map of the city in 1822. In 1814-5 he took concurrent employment in New York City. Thomas and Ann relocated to Manhattan in late 1814. In 1830 the couple returned to Baltimore, and Thomas appeared before the U. S. magistrate to become a U. S. Citizen. Ann Poppleton opened a confectionary, but this shop burned in the great Baltimore fire of 1833. She relocated to a large brick store on South Calvert Street, but the property was sold out from under her a year later. At this juncture she apparently retired. Thomas Poppleton died in 1837. Ann lived in widowed retirement several years. Because she did not appear in the 1842 Baltimore Directory, we must presume she died in 1840 or early 1841. Their presence in the monument city was memorialized by the naming of Poppleton Street.
In 1822 at the request of newspaper correspondents, Ann Poppleton added rum jelly to her stock of standard vendibles. Here is a recipe that was published at that time:
Rum Jelly—Among the novelties of the Parisian circles, rum jelly has become an universal favorite. It is made in the following manner. To a quart bottle of common white wine take a pound of sugar, which is to be reduced to a sirup and clarified. Then take an ounce of isinglass, which put on the fire till it is thoroughly melted, pass it through a cloth, and mix it with the sirup half warm. When this misture is nearly cold, pour it into the white wine, and stir it well, so as to mix it completely. Then add a spoonful or a spoonful and a half (according to the strength which you desire to give to the jelly) of Old Jamaica rum. Stir again this mixture, and pour it into the mould that it may take the shape in cooling which you design to give it, if intended as a plat for the table, or into glasses if designed to be handed round at an evening party.
SOURCES: “Notice,” New York Evening Post (October 19, 1815), 3. “Notice. Mrs. Poppleton,” New York Evening Post (December 7, 1816), 3. “Notice—Mrs. Poppleton,” New York Evening Post (May 17, 1817), 2. “Mrs. Poppleton has Removed,” New York Daily Advertiser (May 19, 1817), 3. Croaker & Co. “To Simon,” New York Evening Post (April 20, 1819), 2. Notice. New York Evening Post (November 9, 1819), 3. “Another Mammoth Cake,” National Advocate (December 29, 1819), 3. “Fire,” National Advocate (March 7, 1821), 2. “Mrs. Poppleton,” New York Evening Post (May 9, 1821), 3. “To Poets,” National Advocate (June 18, 1821), 3. “Mrs. Poppleton,” National Advocate (August 17, 1821), 2. Notice of removal. National Advocate May 21, 1823), 1. “Bachelor’s Ball,” Boston Daily American Statesman (February 15, 1826), 2. Baltimore Fire, Philadelphia Inquirer (February 18, 1833), 2. “Positive Sale,” Baltimore Patriot (May 24, 1834), 3. “Thomas Poppleton (1765-1837), MSA SC 3520-2757. Archives of Maryland, Biographical Series. 10/2012: http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/002700/002757/html/02757bio.html
A version of this profile appeared in my book, The Culinarians.