How did turn of the century American Restaurants, such as Delmonico's, obtain and manage their inventory? AskHistorians

I have been thumbing through The Epicurean by Delmonico's head chef Charles Ranhofer and have otherwise been through a free fall of reading about it. Even by today's standards the menu is quite large and diverse.

How did they manage to get the material needed for Dinner service to downtown New York and keep it fresh? I can't seem to find what kind of refrigerator was used or if it was available for non-industrial uses at this time frame.

That was my biggest question but I'd be happy to read more material on how Delmonico's operated in this time frame.

Submitted December 20, 2017 at 10:43PM by funkbus http://ift.tt/2kPJumR AskHistorians