Reisenweber's Cafe, also known as Reisenweber's Restaurant or simply Reisenweber's, was a restaurant, nightclub, and hotel in Columbus Circle, Manhattan, on the intersection of Eighth Ave and 58th Street, from 1856/7 to 1922. Reisenweber's Cafe was known for introducing and/or popularizing jazz, cabaret, and Hawaiian dance in New York City, for introducing the modern cover charge, and for its high-profile Volstead Act lawsuit and shutdown decree during Prohibition. History Reisenweber's started as a roadside tavern in 1856 or 1857, by John Reisenweber, a Brooklyn resident of German descent, at a time when the Columbus Circle area was still encircled by farmland. The 1890s bicycle craze significantly increased demand for the tavern, and Reisenweber's began a process of expansion under John Reisenweber Jr. and his son-in-law Louis Fischer, who was named restaurant manager in 1901. The restaurant was further substantially expanded in 1910 and 1916, eventually becoming a seven-floor complex of two buildings, with four stories used for dining and entertainment, including a first-floor restaurant, a second-floor cabaret (the "400 Club"), a third-floor dance floor (the "Paradise Supper Club"), a "Hawaiian Room" on the fourth floor, and a rooftop garden for patrons. The Paradise Club, built in 1916, was designed by Joseph Urban and cost $250,000 to construct (about $6 million in 2020 dollars). The hotel within the complex had 50 rooms as of 1905. At its height, Reisenweber's covered nearly an entire city block and “housed a dozen dining rooms, employed more than 1,000 in help and seated 5,000 diners at one time", making it one of the largest restaurants in the city. In 1917, Reisenweber's celebrated its 60th anniversary with an entertainment program broadcast by "wireless telephone", a novelty at the time. That year, the establishment was grossing $3,600 per day (about $85,000 per day in 2020 dollars). Notable patrons The Pleiades Club would occasionally meet at Reisenweber's. The 1917 campaign to elect John F. Hylan mayor of New York City was first hatched at the Beefsteak Room of Reisenweber's first-floor restaurant, a popular gathering spot for the city's political scene. The wealthy wholesaler Sam Balcom was referred to as a "big butter-and-egg man" at Reisenweber's in reference to his lavish spending habits, which included inviting the entire chorus of popular musicals to the Reisenweber's cabaret, all expenses paid. This was likely the origin of the Prohibition-era slang phrase "big butter-and-egg man", that was later incorporated into the 1925