Thousands flock to American Girl theme restaurant

By Julia Moskin
The New York Times

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"Do you think the waiters like to wear pink?" Devona, 9, asked her sister, Amanda, 6.

Pink is inescapable at the American Girl Cafe, a 140-seat restaurant that has become a destination of choice for 4- to 12-year-old girls from across the United States. There are pink flowers on the tables, pink aprons on the waiters and carpets crisscrossed with pink. Eating at the cafe, on Fifth Avenue at 49th Street, is the culmination of a visit to American Girl Place, a giddy combination retail store and theme park devoted to the enormously popular American Girl line of dolls.

Before opening in November, the cafe had taken 30,000 reservations. Last week, callers looking for a Saturday-night table — prime time is 5:30 — were told that they would have to wait until August.

Those who made their dinner reservations in December finally were admitted to the pink-striped sanctum last weekend.

Marisa Araujo, 8, fed her doll crumbled cinnamon buns, while her plate of spaghetti, topped with real Parmesan shavings, went untouched.

"We don't usually go to restaurants in the city, but we got my daughter the Josefina doll," said Marisa's mother, Maricel Araujo of Newark, N.J., referring to an American Girl called Josefina Montoya, who according to her bio is of Hispanic descent and lives in 1824 New Mexico.

"And she wanted to come here to see the other girls and their dolls."

American Girl's line also includes dolls of black and American Indian descent. The dolls' ethnic diversity is reflected on the menu, and the recent experiments of Eric Kelly, the chef, with Thai-glazed salmon and ginger chicken salad are likely tip-offs that an Asian-American character is in the works.

Families eating at the American Girl Cafe also are diverse. In a city where restaurants often are filled with white customers, this may be the most integrated dining room in New York.

The American Girl Cafe is unmistakably kid-friendly — the chocolate mousse is sprinkled with crushed Oreo cookies, and the napkin rings can be used as hair scrunchies — but it is more reminiscent of the high-class Chanterelle restaurant than Chuck E. Cheese's. Embraced by banquettes, plied with smoked salmon and shortbread, and served tea from china pots, girls learn the ways of ladies who lunch.
 
"American Girl is for kids, but nothing we do is dumbed down," said Kamille Adamany, the cafe's manager, who was hired away from the prestigious L'Etoile restaurant in Madison, Wis.

Maddie Leonard of Pelham Manor, N.Y., recently observed her eighth birthday in one corner of the cafe with 11 friends and 12 dolls, some sporting crowns of braids fresh from the hair salon on the second floor (the salon specializes in returning frazzled dolls to factory condition).

Nearby, Mariah Ballesteros celebrated turning 10 with her cousins Nilysha, 11, and Xandria, 6. The girls sat wide-eyed on velvet chairs, each with a doll at her right hand. Nilysha, who did not have a doll with her, was allowed to choose from the cafe's stash of dolls so as not to dine alone.

American Girl dolls are treated as VIPs, sitting in booster seats especially designed for them, and drinking from striped china teacups.

Michelle Ballesteros, Mariah's mother, said that the experience was worth the $23-per-person price tag. "It's good for the girls to learn about real restaurants, with the different courses," she said.

Like a handful of New York's most elegant restaurants, the American Girl Cafe does not serve soda. The iced tea is unsweetened, and for dessert, there is, among other things, vanilla custard pierced with shards of candied lemon peel and served in a teacup made of dark chocolate.

Michael Lomonaco, formerly the chef of Windows on the World at the World Trade Center, was called in to help design the menu, and it includes decidedly adult ingredients, such as fresh mint and watercress in the tea sandwiches and blue cheese in the chicken salad.

"You know, they could have made this like the Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood," said Gretchen Strub of Fairfax, Va., whose two daughters own seven American Girl dolls between them. "But it isn't."

The creator of the dolls, Pleasant Rowland, conceived them as anti-Barbies. She sold her first doll in 1986. Twelve years later, Rowland sold American Girl to Mattel — the house that Barbie built — for about $700 million.

The eight dolls are supposed to be about 10 years old. Each represents a different character from the past, such as Kirsten Larson, the daughter of Swedish immigrants, who illustrates life in Minnesota in 1854, and Kit Kittredge, who is soldiering through the Great Depression.

American Girl recently branched out from the core characters and now offers custom-made dolls in a variety of skin tones, eye colors and hair textures.

"There are two Asian dolls that are supposed to look like us," said Megan Yee, 14, of Scarsdale, N.Y., gesturing at herself and her sister, Erin, 12. "But they don't."

American Girl does not advertise, and the dolls are sold only through the mail-order catalog and at American Girl Place, which opened in Chicago in 1998 and in New York in November.

The company focuses on "tweens," girls who are too old for Cabbage Patch but too young for Bratz.

The dolls cost about $100 each. That's just for starters. There is a shelf load of books devoted to the dolls' wholesome exploits, wardrobe options and a staggering range of accessories.

Karen Willey, of Stockton, Calif., acknowledged the expense of the enterprise, as she sat at the cafe with her granddaughter, Leslie, and her daughter, Cheryl.

"It's a grandma thing," she said.