Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia Caterer Thomas J. Dorsey

American Visions, August, 2000 by Sharron Wilkins Conrad

The data found in The Philadelphia City Directory may be viewed in several ways. It is entirely possible (though not likely) that Dorsey was a caterer well before 1860 but that he chose not to use that title. There is reason to believe that the term "caterer" did not come into vogue until the 1860s: Before that period, even African Americans known to have performed "catering" duties--the most famous of whom was Robert Bogle, who died in 1837--accepted the title of waiter or cook. Indeed, even the Augustin family, whose catered meals were celebrated as far away as New York City, did not refer to their establishment as a catering house until 1865 (see American Visions, October 1990). Thus it is important to acknowledge that titles that we use and accept today, such as waiter or caterer, may not have always had their present connotations or significance.

Dorsey and other 19th-century blacks in the North aspired to take advantage of their economic situation by opening small businesses that specialized in service. Not only did these endeavors provide African-American entrepreneurs with a monopoly over industries into which few whites would enter, but it also granted them an independence that "skilled" occupations could not offer. Historian Emma Lapsansky, in a 1984 article on community values among 19th-century Philadelphia African Americans published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, explains that "self-employment ... in addition to allowing the ambitious person to maximize his income ... offered the greatest possible insulation against the perils of white hostility. The food trades--ranging from the high-status caterer to the lowly street vendor--were among the most dependable sources of work."

Undoubtedly it was Dorsey's political awareness and his unyielding demand for respect that caused contemporaries to consider him the most prominent of Philadelphia's "high-status caterers," but he also knew his craft. He earned a reputation as a first-rate caterer who was the embodiment of class, honesty and style. At a dinner service served at his establishment at 1231 Locust St. on December 27, 1860, the bill of fare included such delectables as oysters on the half shell, filet de boeuf-pique, canvasback duck, charlotte russe, ladyfingers, and champagne jelly.

On the occasion of Dorsey's death, in 1875, one writer for the Philadelphia Press referred to him as "the negro feast furnisher ... who spread the tables for the marriage supper, or the ball, or the reception; he ... gave character to any entertainment, and [his] presence was more essential than the honored guests."

In The Philadelphia Negro, Du Bois referred to Dorsey as "the most unique character, with little education but great refinement of manner." Another writer, in the Philadelphia Times (1896), concluded that Dorsey was among "the triumvirate of colored caterers who ... rul[ed] the social world of Philadelphia through its stomach."

Dorsey's social reputation in Philadelphia was matched only by his economic success. His obituaries attest to the popular belief that Dorsey was one of the richest black men in the country. Newspapers from as far away as San Francisco, such as the San Francisco Pacific Appeal noted in 1875 that Dorsey was "one of the wealthiest colored men of Philadelphia" and surmised that "after he took up the business of catering, [he] died worth a quarter of a million dollars."