More About Klube’s Than You Need to Know

My favorite part of maintaining Lost City are the occasions when, while reaching out to New York’s past, New York’s past reaches out to me. After writing about their family’s long-gone businesses, I have been contacted by descendents of the founders of Krauser Hardware and Cafiero’s restaurant in Brooklyn and The Colony restaurant in Manhattan.

Recently, I posted something about the Grand Saloon on 23rd Street, a former brothel and speakeasy that spent a good deal of its existence (as an extant sign, above, attests) as Klube’s Restaurant. Soonafter, I received an e-mail from the great-grandchild of the Klube who founded the place! As I usually do in such situations, I pressed this person for information. After all, the information we have on Klube’s is sketchy at best.

The original Mr. Carl August Klube had worked in Germany as a waiter before he came to America and bought what would become Klube’s in 1911. In 1908, he married Agnes Klinger, who had also been born in Germany. Agnes’ brothers Henry and Joe had butcher shops on Third Avenue.

Klube’s was a restaurant and bar. It was actually originally called Klube & Klinger’s, which is, frankly, a mouthful. Since the Klube family owned it during Prohibition, it’s a pretty safe bet that they ran it as a speakeasy in the 1920s. In its day, it was known as the Little Luchow’s—a reference to the more famous German restaurant.

The family apparently did pretty well by the place. Old man Klube wore three-piece suits, a diamond stick pin and a pinky ring. His wife was an avid shopper with a driver and a personal maid. The couple had one son, Carl Henry Klube, who eventually assumed control of the place and ran it into the 1960s. Victor Borge was a regular guest. A 1950 Times account has a man named Hans Nitzsche as having been Klube’s chef for decades. The third-generation Klube worked there for a short time, but soon after it was sold.

I have also discovered some old recipes from Klube's, but I'll save them for a future day.

Recipes of the Lost City: Klube's Bavarian Potatoes

I have written quite a bit about Klube's, the "Little Luchow's" on 23rd Street, lately, so it seems appropriate to print one of their recipes.

The German eatery was well-known and respected enough in the 1950s to be mentioned a few times in the New York Times. That paper is where I found the below recipe, which I have tried and can vouch for as a simple and satisfying side dish.

Mother Klube’s Bavarian Potatoes

1 quart large potato cubes
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 T. butter
1 T. vinegar

Boil potatoes in salted water, drain and place in a covered vegetable dish. Saute onion in butter till well browned. Add vinegar and pour over potatoes.

In other Klube's news, the descendant of the restaurant's founder who contacted me recently was kind enough to send me a picture of Agnes Klinger Klube, the wife of founder Carl August Klube. There she is above. What can you say but "Wow." That was one smart-looking, self-assure lady. One can just see her strolling around Madison Square Park.

Previous Recipes of the Lost City

Where Diamond Jim Brady Got Laid

I write enough about the City's old taverns, you'd think I'd know every musty watering hole in town. I guess not. A reader wrote in recently and asked if I'd ever been to his favorite dive, the Grand Saloon on 23rd Street near Lex. What? Who? Neverhudduvit.

I have an out. Grand Saloon had been called a million things since it began life in the 1880s, so its history isn't as obvious as, say, McSorley's, which has been just one thing forever. It housed a brothel during the days of "Diamond" Jim Brady, who was a frequent patron. It was called the St. Blaize Hotel & Restaurant in those days.


In 1911 it became Klube's Steak House, as the lettering about the door still states. I like the pictures on either side of a lobster and a plate of fruit, showing just what sports like Brady ate, and how much. It was a speakeasy in the 1920s.



The new owners have done a nice restoration, even if the interior is scrubbed a tad too clean. The tile floor is obviously original. They say they removed the ceiling and found a tin ceiling underneath, which they restored. They also uncovered the brick fireplace. It's a nice place to get a drink. It needs to be lived in a bit more, though.

"Recipes of the Lost City" Columns

The followed are past edition of the "Recipes of the Lost City" column. As stated at the beginning of each edition, in this column "I rummage through my library of old New York restaurant histories and cookbooks and dig up the prime dishes the denizens of the five boroughs dined on in years gone by."

Gage & Tollner's Crabmeat a la Dewey
Hampshire House's Veal Steak Saute Provencale
Grotto Azzurra's Meatballs
Toast Colony
Baked Bean Rarebit
Longchamps Chicken Manhattan House
Trader Vic's Mai Tai
Recipes of the Lost City: Stork Club Punch
Luchow's Wiener Schnitzel
Eggs Colony
Tavern on the Green's Tavern Chestnut Dressing
Braised Striped Bass Pavillon
Klube's Bavarian Potatoes
Town and Country's Main Blueberry Griddle Cakes
Longchamp's Spaghetti
Luchow's Potato Dumplings
Ye Olde Chop House's Corned Beef and Cabbage
The Colony's Veloute of Whitebait Colony