ISSUE 8, CHARLESTON, Part 6: French Coffee House
Antebellum Charleston's bastion of French haute cuisine
The doors opened at first light each morning. French Coffee and Spanish Chocolate would flow unceasingly until midnight. Though named a coffee house to invite business trade, its advertisements insisted that the establishment should be regarded as a “RESTAURANT in the best French and English Style.” Managed by the experienced restaurateur, Louis Eude, the French Coffee House offered beverage service, work space, and a broad range of free reading material on the ground floor. One had to ascend to the second floor for dinner or supper service.
Eude built the reputation of his house on wine, not coffee. He imported the best Medoc, Margaux, Graves, Sauterne, Burgundy, and Champagne (Charleston Courier, December 6, 1830, 3). And heeding locale taste, he always supplied Madeira. Located in the heart of the mercantile district on East Bay Street (at first 141, later, in 1837, the more commodious 125) , it had a prime location for walk in trade. Half a year of running 125 East Bay killed Eude, and in March of 1838 broker A. Tomas advertised the lease (3 and ½ years) and furnishings of the Coffee House for sale. After noting that it had the most advantageous location of any public house in the city, Tomas described the space: “The House contains twenty rooms, with a large Kitchen, and extensive back Store; commodious Billiard Room, and four first rate Tables; all the buildings of brick, with an entrance into Lodge Alley.” (The building, located across Lodge Alley from Magnolia’s Restaurant, no longer stands.) It would be purchased by confectioner Remy Mignot, who had been running the rival United States Coffeehouse, two doors down on East Bay, until a partnership squabble with chef Louis Lefeve broke up the business in February of 1838.
Upon taking over the French Coffeehouse, Mignot institute a lunch service at 11:00, retained the 2 o’clock dinner Table d’Hote seating. His specialty was Caribbean Green Turtle Soup, available from May through August. Mignot made such a success of his management of the Coffee House that the widow Eude determined she would do anything to regain control. She courted and married the merchant Peter Ligniez, and with her husband’s money made a purchase offer so plush that Mignot could not refuse. With the profits Mignot set up with his wife Theonie Riviere Mignot the finest confectionery in the city at 160 King Street.
Liquiez’s first order of business when taking control of the French Coffee House: refurbishing the billiard room. He made the ground floor of the building a salesroom for commodities, particularly game shipped from the New York market. In winter 1849 Ligniez sold the lease to William Greer. During Greer’s management, the French Coffee House continued Ligniez’s policy of subordinating cuisine (except oysters) to beverages and service to commercial customers using the space for business.
Thomas A. Baker, one time proprietor of the Exchange Café, and well connected marketer of game, took control of the French Coffee House in early 1854, making it the foremost place in the city to secure Woodcock, Salmon, Capons, Canvasback Duck, Venison, Rail, Mutton Partridges, Grouse, Turkey, Geese, and Lobsters. Other people—Nat Fuller and W. J. Rising--had begun selling high quality game out of spaces whose lease coast was substantially cheaper than the $1,500 annual cost of occupying 125 East Bay. Baker lasted a year before his financial losses forced him to sell out to Jonathan S. Runken. In December of 1854 Runken hired the best black game cook in the city and took over the French Coffee House. A German, Runken had learned the hospitality trade presiding over the New York House on the corner of Queen and Philadelphia Streets in Charleston. It’s motto: “Oysters which are Oysters.” In 1854 Runken got control of the Eagle Coffee House on Unity and East Bay and perfected a bill of fare that could sustain a restaurant in the high rent district.
He transferred this to the French Coffee House when taking over in December of 1854. He would maintain the house, periodically introducing new delicacies to the menu, such as Cooper River Oysters, until Spring of 1858. He then became smitten with the idea of suburban pleasures and purchased Mount Pleasant House, across the Cooper River, to serve as an excursion destination, dance hall, and picnic headquarters. He turned the Coffee House over to P. J. Coogan who presided over the brief lustrous florescence of the kitchen that took place on the eve of the Civil War. (See Bill of Fare reproduced as headnote).
The Civil War did not prosper the French Coffee House. Located in a portion of the city vulnerable to artillery fire, it lost custom. It shuttered in early December of 1863. By the end of the month, a “branch” of the “Old French Coffee House” opened further inland at 444 King Street. Despite harbor blockades and general food shortages it promised “Vegetable Soup, Boiled Ham, Roast Turkey, Roasts Lamb, and Pork” (Charleston Mercury, January 4, 1864, 2). Managed by Nicholas Sherhammer, the restaurant, offered lager beer instead of wine. This branch off spring survived the Civil War; the parent institution did not, becoming the office of the News. The relocated French Coffee House did not long survive the war. It seemed a caricature one of the great culinary institutions of the pre-war city.