“I never eat in a restaurant that’s over a hundred feet off the ground and won’t stand still,” wrote The New Yorker contributor Calvin Trillin in his book, American Fried (1974). The book was the first of three Trillin books on food from 1974-1983 that have been called the “tummy trilogy.”
Trillin was referring to recommended restaurants on the tops of tall buildings. Often, these restaurants revolved. Trillin was more interested in the food.
Wikipedia: Calvin Trillin
Calvin (Bud) Marshall Trillin (born December 5, 1935 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.
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Much of Trillin’s nonfiction includes references to his life and family. He is also renowned as a writer on cuisine of all kinds; his three books American Fried, Alice, Let’s Eat, and Third Helpings are often referred to as the “tummy trilogy.”
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. American Fried: Adventures of a Happy Eater (1974)
. Alice, Let’s Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater (1978)
. Third Helpings (1983)
Bartleby.com
Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, compiled by James B. Simpson. 1988.
NUMBER: 6724
AUTHOR: Calvin Trillin
QUOTATION: I never eat in a restaurant that’s over a hundred feet off the ground and won’t stand still.
ATTRIBUTION: Interview 29 Dec 79
Google Books
Cooking, Eating, Thinking: transformative philosophies of food
Edited by Deane W. Curtin and Lisa Maree Heldke
Published by Indiana University Press
1992
Pg. 167:
CALVIN TRILLIN
from American Fried: Adventures of a Happy Eater
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Lately, a loyal chamber man in practically any city is likely to recommend one of those restaurants that have sprouted in the past several years on the tops of bank buildings, all of them encased in glass and some of them revolving—offering the diner not only Continental cuisine and a twenty-thousand word menu but a spectacular view of other restaurants spinning around on the top of other bank buildings. “No, thank you,” I finally said to the twelfth gracious host who invited me to one of those. “I never eat in a restaurant that’s over a hundred feet off the ground and won’t stand still.”
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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