EPITAUX'S
(THE HAYMARKET)
In one matter Epitaux’s is deficient—there is no entrance
lounge or waiting-room. A very smart little buffet, with ornamental
glass windows, faces the Street, and alongside this a narrow entrance
passage, gorgeous in white and gold, leads to a short flight of steps
and the glass doors which shield the restaurant. . . I had chosen
Epitaux’s for our dining-place because it is comparatively
small. The pretty lady, looking round the dainty/ bonbonnière/ of a
restaurant - with its walls of the lightest cream colour, its pilasters
and cornices picked out with gold, its panels of deep blue-green stamped
velvet, its musicians’ gallery filled with palms, under which in a
glass-enclosed room a young lady in black serves out the wines and
liqueurs, its blaze of electric lights on the walls and its shaded
lights on the tables—approved thoroughly of my choice. She thought
Epitaux’s, which was new to her, very snug and nice.
Messrs. Costa and Rizzi, the two proprietors - one tall,
with a moustache that a cavalryman might envy; the other short, with a
grizzled beard - had been hovering by the table, and the head waiter,
with the carte de jour in one hand, and the menu of the/ table-d’hôte/
dinner in the other, was waiting for orders.
I chose the/ table-d’hôte/ dinner :
Hors-d’oeuvre variés.
Croûte au pot. Crème Dubarry.
Filets de sole Portugaise. Whitebait.
Côtelettes d’agneau aux pointes d’asperges.
Canard sauvage. Salade.
Céleri à la moëlle.
Biscuit glacé au chocolat.
Canapé de laitances à la Diable.
Dessert.
- and ordered a bottle of G. H. Mumm, 1889.
We had a table at the far end of the room from the kitchen, which
accounted for the whitebait, excellently cooked as it was, not being as
hot as whitebait should be.
... I told her something of the history of Epitaux’s; how the site was
originally that of Foote’s Theatre in the Haymarket ... and how at a
later period it became the Café de l’Europe.
The cutlets were excellent, and the asparagus the best I have tasted
this winter, while the duck was cooked to an absolute nicety. The
biscuit glacé au chocolat was as delightful and evanescent as a good
dream. Altogether it was a very good dinner, though the cook did have a
little accident with the salt-cellar in preparing the/ croûte au pot/ .
I asked for my bill.
Two dinners, 15s. ; two cafés, 1s.; champagne, 14s. ; liqueurs, 2s. ;
total £1:12s., was what I paid.
From "Dinners and Diners" by Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis
(1899) |
[ABOVE] A description of a meal enjoyed
at the Epitaux' Restaurant in London's Haymarket, written in 1899
by Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis. The Epitaux' Restaurant was
co-owned by Lucian Anton Rizzi (1854-1914), a Swiss immigrant.
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[ABOVE] Advertisement for B. Dellagana & Co. Ltd.
Electrotypers and Stereotypers (1893). Giacomo (James)
Dellagana and Bartolomeo Dellagana were important figures in
the business of stereotype printing. Bartolomeo Dellagana
established printing works in London, Liverpool and Manchester |
[ABOVE] One of the continental pastry
shops owned by the Semadeni family. This photograph shows the Semadeni
pastry shop at No. 5 Montague Street, Worthing.
Guilio Semadeni (born
c1851, Switzerland) owned pastry shops in Brighton, Hastings and
Worthing. In
the 1881 census, thirty year old Guilio Semadeni is recorded as "Swiss
Confectioner" at 8 George Street, Hastings. Another member of the Semadeni
family, Hans Semadeni is listed as a confectioner at 48 Preston Street,
Brighton. The Semadeni shop in Montague Street, Worthing,
was mentioned in local newspapers in 1886 when twenty-five year old Swiss pastry cook Giacomo Semadeni, died
from injuries sustained during the Anti- Salvation Army Riots in Worthing. |
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Lucian Anton
Rizzi (1854-1914) |
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A Swiss immigrant who
arrived in England during the 1870s |
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| Lucian Anton Rizzi
was born in Switzerland in 1854. Sometime during the 1870s
Lucian Rizzi arrived in England to take up employment in a
restaurant. In 1879, Lucian Rizzi married Fanny Medhurst
(born 1860, Reigate, Surrey), the youngest daughter of Harriet
and William Medhurst, a dairyman who had been born in
Greenwich, Kent, around 1814.
When the census was taken on 3rd April 1881, Lucian Rizzi was
living with his twenty year old wife Fanny at 8 Denman
Street, Westminster. On the census return, twenty-six year
old Lucian Rizzi is described as a "Restaurant Employee".
When the next census was taken in
1891, Lucian Rizzi was living at 42 Langham Street,
Marylebone, London. Living at the same address was Mrs Fanny
Rizzi, Lucian's wife, and their 7 year old daughter, Violet
Emily Rizzi (born 1883, St Pancras, London). By this date,
Lucian Rizzi was working as a "Restaurant Superintendent".
By 1895, Lucian Rizzi was letting out apartments at 42
Langham Street, London.
By 1897, Lucian Rizzi had
entered into a business partnership with a restaurant keeper named
Francesco Costa. The partnership of Costa & Rizzi ran the
Epitaux Restaurant at 9 & 10 Haymarket, London between
1897 and 1899.
In 1907, Violet Emily Rizzi,
Lucian Rizzi's daughter, married Rudolf Schneider (born
c1880, Switzerland) a restaurant manager.
Around 1900, Lucian Rizzi
became the landlord of The Admiral Duncan public house
at 54 Old Compton Street, in the Soho district of
London. At the time of the 1901 census, Lucian Rizzi was
recorded as a "Hotel Manager" at 54 Old Compton Street,
Soho, London. The 1911 census records fifty-seven year old Lucian A. Rizzi
as a "Publican" at The Admiral Duncan, 54
Old Compton Street, London. A fellow Swiss, twenty-six
year old Bernard von Kanel was employed as a waiter in the
pub.
When Lucian Rizzi died in 1914
at the age of 60, his widow, Mrs Fanny Rizzi, took over the
running of The Admiral Duncan. In 1922, Mrs Fanny
Rizzi married John C. Gebhard, but she within two years
she died at the age of 64. [The death of Mrs Fanny Gebhard was
registered in Wandsworth in 1924] |
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| [ABOVE] A
portrait of Lucian Anton Rizzi (1854-1914), a Swiss
immigrant. This cabinet portrait was produced by John
Wesley Thomas of 45 George Street, Hastings. The
original portrait was taken around 1879, the year of Lucian
Rizzi's marriage to Fanny Medhurst (born 1860, Reigate,
Surrey). During the 35
years he spent in England, Lucian Anton Rizzi worked in
several restaurants, let out apartments, co-owned the Epitaux
Restaurant in London's Haymarket and managed a busy London
pub. |
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Photograph: Courtesy of Donat Rischatsch |
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Giacomo (James)
Dellagana (1828-1887). |
The photograph below was submitted
by David Dellagana, the great, great grandson of the Swiss
printer Giacomo (James) Dellagana
(1828-1887). This photograph is a carte-de-visite group photograph
taken at the studio of John Wesley Thomas at 45 George
Street, Hastings around 1869. The man seated on the left is
believed to be Giacomo Dellagana, who arrived in England
with his younger brothers in 1852.
The eldest son of Tommaso
Bartolomeo Dellagana (1800-1876) of
Aurigeno, Switzerland, Giacomo Dellagana emigrated
to England with his 3 brothers in 1852. Travelling to England with
Giacomo Dellagana were Bartolomeo Dellagana
(1833-1882), Enrico Alberico Dellagana (1836-1920) and
Antonio Dellagana (1848-1918).
In England, all four Dellagana
brothers worked in the printing trade. Enrico Alberico
Dellagana and Antonio Dellagana eventually returned to
Switzerland, but Giacomo Dellagana and Bartolomeo
Dellagana settled in London and became naturalized
British citizens on 7th January 1867.
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| [ABOVE]. A group
photograph of four men taken at the studio of the Hastings
photographer John Wesley Thomas (c1869). The man seated on
the left is believed to be Giacomo (James) Dellagana,
a printer from Switzerland. The other three men in the photograph
have been identified as Giacomo's brothers - Enrico Alberico
Dellagana (1836-1920), Antonio Dellagana (1848-1918)
and Bartolomeo Dellegana (1833-1882). Giacomo
Dellagana (1828-1887) anglicized his first name to 'James'
and became a naturalized British citizen in January 1867. |
[ABOVE]. The
reverse of John Wesley Thomas's group photograph shown on the
left. A handwritten inscription identifies the men in the
photograph as members of the Dellagana family from Switzerland,
namely Giacomo (James) Dellagana [seated left];
Bartolomeo Dellegana [seated right]; Alberico Enrico
Dellagana [standing left] and Antonio Dellagana
[standing right]. The group portrait was taken around 1869 at John
Wesley Thomas's studio at 45 George Street, Hastings.
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Photograph: Courtesy of David Dellagana |
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Acknowledgements |
| I am grateful to Dennis W. Morelli
the author of the Morelli & Vanoni Genealogy website which
includes references to the four Dellagana brothers. Thanks also
to David Dellagana and Donat Rischatsch for
providing the photographs of Swiss immigrants taken at John Wesley
Thomas's studio in Hastings. |
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