By hello
Passage: “In Monsieur Mouquin’s cellar people are rather Bohemian, not to say friendly; for it is the rendezvous of artists, literary men and journalists…” (gutenberg.org) Mouquin’s downtown restaurant occupied the Fulton–Nassau/Ann Street block and became a favorite haunt of writers, newspapermen, and politicians. Harold MacGrath does not need to build a bohemian atmosphere from scratch; the place supplies it. That is why Mouquin’s recurs so effectively in turn-of-the-century writing: it is already socially charged, a room where wit, flirtation, and literary chance encounters feel plausible before the plot has even begun. (mouquin.com)