The Men’s Cafe (the Edwardian Room)

Located on the prime northeast corner of the property, the Men’s Cafe offered prized views of both Central Park and Fifth Avenue in a Spanish Renaissance setting, complete with a beamed ceiling, tile floors, wood paneling, and sturdy furniture. Exclusively a male domain, it was home to an early version of what was later called the “power breakfast,” although the typical menu—pig knuckles and mutton chops—and the players—Mark Twain and Diamond Jim Brady—have changed over the years. As none of the hotel’s restaurants had been given formal names, the room was offhandedly referred to as “the Cafe.”

It did not remain a male domain for long. In 1920, following a shuffling of restaurant space brought about by Prohibition and an expansion of the property, the Cafe admitted ladies and became the hotel’s principal dining room. Still without a name, it was finally dubbed the Plaza Restaurant in the early forties, and remained so until 1955, when it was named the Edwardian Room in honor of the age that it personifies. In 1971, a disastrous experiment transformed it into a trendy boîte called the Green Tulip, featuring hanging plants and faux Tiffany lamps. This incarnation proved mercifully short-lived, and the room resumed its former name and atmosphere in 1974. It has been used as a space for private functions since 1998.