Small birds, brain sauce, and everything else on the ladies’ menu at the Astor House hotel

When the business titans and power brokers of mid-19th century New York wanted to wheel and deal over lunch or dinner, they headed to the all-male dining room at Astor House—Gotham’s first luxury hotel, located steps from City Hall. But what about their wives, mothers, and sisters—where could they share a table if they wanted to catch up over a meal? Not only did the 360-room Astor House have innovative features like private bathrooms and an in-house gas plant. This hostelry, built by multi-millionaire John Jacob Astor, also had a ladies’ dining room—or a “ladies’ ordinary,” as it was called when the hotel opened in 1836. Sure it was smaller than the main restaurant and situated on the south side of the hotel, which stood on Broadway between Vesey and Barclay Streets, rather than in the center. But in a sex-segregated era when women and men spent much of their time in separate spaces, the Astor House Ladies’ Ordinary provided the rare place where a sit-down meal could be had for a…