Note 52 — SCENE I.—St. James's Park.
Reading edition
Pontack's was a French eating-house in Abchurch Lane, where the Royal Society held its annual dinners until 1746. Pontack was son of the President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and gave the name to a famous French claret. Evelyn refers to him in his diary, 13 July, 1683, and 30 Nov., 1694, and Swift, in his Journal, 16 Aug., 1711: "Pontack told us, although his wine was so good, he sold it cheaper than others; he took but seven shillings a flask. Are not these pretty rates?" See, too, the prologue to Love's Contrivances, 1703, by Mrs. Centlivre:—
"At Locket's, Brown's, and at Pontack's enquire, What modish kickshaws the nice beaus desire, What famed ragouts, what new-invented salad, Has best pretensions to regale the palate. If we present you with a medley here, A hodge-podge dish served up in china-ware, We hope 'twill please, 'cause like your bills of fare."
Pontack put up a picture of his father's head as a sign (Burn's Descriptive Catalogue of the London Traders' Tavern, and Coffee-House Tokens, 1855, p. 13). From a tract called The Metamorphoses of the Town, dated 1730, we learn that Pontack's was then the resort of extravagant epicures; in the bill of fare of a "guinea ordinary" are "a ragout of fatted snails," and "chickens not two hours from the shell."