Manager Henri Pruger, hired from the Hotel Savoy in London at the princely salary of $50,000 a year, oversaw a staff of 750. The restaurant’s dining rooms occupied four floors with its main kitchen located above them. The “lurid and gorgeous” restaurant was so overwhelming it could “overcome at once the more sober judgment of the critic,” claimed The Architects’ and Builders’ Magazine.

They hid their distaste in a haze of apparent flattery, producing choked praise in which adjectives like magnificent served as insults. But the architectural community was rather scandalized. The electrical industry was thrilled with the restaurant’s flair for showcasing what miracles modern lighting could perform. The interior was a startling demonstration of the transformative power of life-size statuary, concealed lighting, mirrored walls, and a million or so sheets of gold leaf. The gleaming black marble covering interior surfaces and pillars on the ground floor and balconies was artificial. As for many of the imported ancient treasures, they were replicas cast from Middle Eastern artifacts housed in British and French museums. However another source claimed the painting was a copy, which is probably true. The silver service alone cost a quarter of a million 1910 dollars, while a huge painting by Georges Rochegrosse cost something like $50,000. The bill for interior renovations and decor, under Erkins’ direction with Stern Brothers department store acting as general contractor, came to $1,250,000, a sum that borders on $30 million in today’s dollars. The team sunk millions into gutting the old Saranac Hotel and turning it into a fantasy Babylonian stage set worthy of the Hippodrome. It was financed by a consortium of investors that included architect/decorator Henry Erkins and John Murray, impressario of the almost-as-splendiferous Murray’s Roman Gardens, also designed by Erkins. The after-theater eatery was designed to be the showplace of Times Square.

Given its fate, how perfect was it that the crowning jewel of the interior decor was a billboard-sized painting of the fall of Babylon installed prominently on a landing of the 22-ft wide staircase? Could anyone have guessed that in a mere four months this splendid “lobster palace” would fail? Its enormous cost and the stunning, over-the-top lavishness of its interior set a new standard for opulence on the glittering White Way. In 1910 the media was abuzz with the new Café de l’Opera on Broadway between 41st and 42nd streets in NYC.

La opera cafe