The Merchant’s House Museum hosted a Gala 19th Century Dinner “A Different Affair …” at the historic India House in lower Manhattan. The multi-course dinner featured haute cuisine that evoked the era of the Astors and the Vanderbilts when people sat down to dine on several courses over a period of a two or three hours.

Table setting by Rusty Thomas Entertainment Design

The evening was inspired by a passage from Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence in which she wrote:

… But a big dinner, with a hired chef and two borrowed footmen, with Roman punch, roses from Henderson's, and menus on gilt-edged cards, was a different affair, and not to be lightly undertaken.  As Mrs. Archer remarked, the Roman punch made all the difference, not in itself but by its manifold implications--since it signified either canvas-backs or terrapin, two soups, a hot and a cold sweet, full décolletage with short sleeves, and guests of a proportionate importance.

The setting for the dinner was the magnificent 1924 ballroom at historic India House on Hanover Square, with its oval skylight designed by Delano & Aldrich. Eberhard Müller, renowned chef at Bayard’s, and former top toque at Lutèce, created the historically correct and elegant multi-course menu for the occasion … complete with Roman punch. Guests were encouraged to attend the event in 19th-century dress.

Built in 1832, the Merchant’s House is New York City’s only family home preserved intact, inside and out, from the 19th century, and is the City's prime example of a Greek Revival townhouse. Home to a prosperous merchant family for almost 100 years -- and complete with its original furniture, decorative arts, and personal memorabilia -- the Merchant’s House, located on 29 East Fourth Street, offers an intimate and authentic glimpse of domestic life of a wealthy family during the period when New York was transforming from a colonial seaport to a thriving metropolis.

It is one of only 2,000 sites designated as a National Historic Landmark and has been given landmark status in New York City for its late-Federal brick exterior as well as for its Greek Revival interiors. The House is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kitty Carlisle Hart, Mr. and Mrs. Schuyler Chapin, and Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Hardy were Honorary Co-Chairs of the evening. Proceeds from “A Different Affair …” will benefit the Merchant House Museum’s Restoration, Collections Conservation, and Public Education Programs.

Mayda Cisneros, Miami’s chicest boutique, hosted a luncheon featuring an unusual trunk show of the Elsie Katz Vintage collection where guests were invited to come play dress up for the day.

The invitation set the tone by featuring a paper doll surrounded by accessories. A buffet lunch was prepared by a private chef and the ladies drank champagne and browsed through the racks and picked from designers Matthew Williamson, The Wrights,  Normandy Monroe, Y & Kei and the boutique’s signature Mayda Cisneros Collection.  

Guests included Kristen Munroe, Dana Shear, Lydia Prio Touzet, Coco Torre - Palenque, Vivian Kurzweil, Colleen Schiff, and Charlotte Hicks.

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