Edna Lewis - Early Career at Cafe Nicholson

Early Career At Cafe Nicholson

In 1949 Cafe Nicholson was located at ground level of a narrow brownstone building on the downtown side of 52nd Street between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue. One entered on the right, directly into a passageway separated from the kitchen by a screenwall of dark wood with openings above shoulder height that gave a view of the narrow kitchen, roughly 12 feet by 16 feet, having two windows facing 52nd street, and not much wall space to arrange cooking facilities. Most frequently Edna Lewis would be there to look up with greetings, dressed in something dark, and often with an Indian Paisley wrapped round her shoulders.

At the end of the short passageway was the Dining Room, roughly 18 feet by 35 feet. On the right was a dark wood buffet topped with white marble, stacked high with white china plates, glassware, flatware and nappery interspersed with wire baskets loaded with lemons and other comestibles and a tub or two of highstanding palms. To the left were the small bare marble-topped cafe tables and bentwood or wire-framed chairs. A fine meal might begin with Mussels and herbed rice presented in their blue-blackshells on a white plate; then a perfectly roasted chicken, a simple salad of Boston Lettuce with a coating of lemon garlic dressing, and completed with a dark brown puff of chocolate soufflé, containers of whipped cream and molten chocolate offered at the side.

At the back of the dining room was a door leading out to the garden, a space of about 20 feet by 50 feet, furnished with more small tables and chairs similar to those seen inside. A famous photograph by Karl Bissinger shows the back of the brownstone with a group of young New Yorkers becoming world famous in their separate careers. The photograph includes Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Buffie Johnson and Tanaquil LeClercq.

Subsequently Cafe Nicholson moved to the studio located to the right of the on-ramp of the Queensboro Bridge on East 58th Street. For a time it was later located on the uptown side of 57th Street between Lexington Avenue and 3rd Avenue.