The subtitle of Appetite City is A Culinary History of New York but it really feels more ambitious, more like a social history of New York City as seen through the prism of its changing food scene. This isn’t a book that lectures you with facts and figures about what it was like back then and dry analysis of how things changed. Rather, it’s filled with descriptions, characters and anecdotes bringing to life how it was and what it was like to live through that change. All of it thoroughly illustrated with pictures of the people, the places and the menus. The result is a fun, fascinating look at the city that never sleeps, but has always known how to eat.

The author is a former New York Times restaurant critic and so can certainly be expected to know the modern restaurant scene. But he’s also really done his homework with the past, which is where most of the book is focused. It’s a kaleidoscope run from the horrors of boardinghouse meals, through oyster bars and hash houses, the first little French and Italian bistros, Bohemia, the automat, the birth of the Chinese restaurant, the Jewish delis, Delmonico’s, and on to today’s dueling celebrity chefs. There were kitschy theme restaurants, risqué restaurants, elegant restaurants, cheap restaurants, notorious restaurants, places no one had ever heard of, menus that went on forever, menus of few lines and fewer pennies, and everything in between. And all of it helping to create the New York of today where an incredible variety of restaurants, reflecting an incredible variety of styles, are embedded into the very fabric of life, part of the everyday experience. Paris is a moveable feast but New York is a constantly moving one.

Appetite City is proof that history can be a lot of fun. It reads like a cross between the gossip columns and People magazine while still teaching you a lot about New York City and its past. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy to savor.