…in your mind’s eye. Even back in the 1920s, one New York restaurant critic waxed nostalgic for what he called the “Golden Age” of dining in Manhattan. The blog for New York’s Freebird Books and Goods posted an entry in March about historic restaurant guides, including The Restaurants of New York, a 1925 guide by architect and New Yorker contributor George Chappell. Chappell laments Delmonico’s move from lower Manhattan to its uptown quarters on 44th Street. (You can find a complete history of that restaurant on SteakPerfection.com.) He relates wistful memories of Keen’s, Browne’s and dozens of ethnic restaurants in a section on “the foreign feeding grounds.”

As a guidebook, Chappell’s work probably doesn’t meet the minimum standards the average tourist might expect, blogger Michael Dashkin writes. But as an historical document, it gives us a unique look at the sights, sounds and smells of a time and place we’ll likely not see again. And the snippets Dashkin provides hint at a piece of literary nonfiction with a distinct voice and personality most guidebooks don’t even try to achieve, or probably shouldn’t.