Marquis Lunch

Manufacturer: Shenango China
User: Marquis Lunch
Date: 1920s - 1940s
Notes: References to Marquis Lunch locations in Chicago, Illinois date back to the late 1930s, with Chicago Tribune newspaper references continuing through at least 1962.

The following advertisement was published in the Chicago Federation of Labor ~ Official Labor Union Directory & Buyer's Guide dating to 1939:

By 1944, according to the Chicago History Museum (formerly the Chicago Historical Society), there were at least twelve Marquis Lunch locations in Chicago. All of the locations listed in the 1939 advertisement above were cited, excluding the 4539 Broadway location.

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In addition to the Chicago venues, other Marquis Lunch references were found dating to 1929-1930, about an office building that the Marquis Lunch Company, Inc. intended to build on Lexington Avenue in New York City and to lease in part to The Childs Company. At that time, Morris Goldman was listed as the business president.

However, according to a Sept. 15, 1929 New York Times article that referenced the leasing of the future Lexington Avenue to Childs, the Marquis Lunch seems to have relinquished its plans to Childs:

“The Childs Company bought a 21-year lease, with renewal rights, on the property for the erection of a three-story building for its first restaurant on Lexington Avenue in the easterly part of the Grand Central zone. The site had been obtained by the Marquis Lunch Company, Inc., which intended to open a branch there, but the Childs Company made an offer which gave the Marquis company a profit well worth taking, the broker states.”

But a Times story two weeks later (Oct. 1, 1929) seems to contradict that:
“The Manhattan Bureau of Buildings has approved plans of a three-story marble and terra cotta building for 423-25 Lexington Avenue and 132 East 44th Street, according to Morris Whinston, architect, who designed the structure. The building, to cost about $200,000, is to be erected for the Marquis Lunch Company, Inc., Morris Goldman, president, by the H.L. Fischer Company, Inc. The Childs Company is to have a restaurant on the ground floor, the plan for which is made by Pruitt & Brown, architects."

And on May 10, 1930, the Times says that the property at 423 and 425 Lexington Avenue, worth $1 million, has been leased to the Marquis Lunch Company, Inc. “The lessee agrees to demolish the present buildings within six months and erect a new building at its expense to cost not less than $75,000 …”

A May 19, 1932 article in the times reports that a Ruth Goldman filed suit against Goldman and other defendants and charged “misappropriation of more then $1,250,000 of the assets of the company …”

To sum up, from reading the Times archives in this date range, it looks as if Goldman was involved in family businesses -- mainly the garment industry -- and his entrepreneurial efforts in real estate and restaurants might have been short-lived.

As a final point of interest, the site at 423 Lexington Avenue is now listed as Opus Dei’s New York headquarters, referenced in "The Da Vinci Code."

White body with black and white "Marquis Lunch" topmark. One variation has an Art Deco border design, the other has no border as shown below.