The Specialty of the House

by Stanley Ellin

In a quaint old restaurant, a chef relies on a devilish secret ingredient
In Sbirro's restaurant, there is no electric lighting, no music, and no menu. The only sound is the contented sighs of the regulars, who come every night in hopes that Sbirro will treat them to his signature dish, the famed lamb Amirstan, which comes from a beast so rare, only Sbirro knows how to obtain it. Tonight, two diners at this spectacular relic of a forgotten age will find that lamb Amirstan costs more than they are willing to pay.
"The Specialty of the House" was the first story published by Stanley Ellin, who would go on to become one of the great short fiction authors of the twentieth century. From crime to horror to grim tragedy, every story in this collection is as delectable as a cut of meat prepared by Sbirro himself.

Genres: Short Stories

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Stanley Bernard Ellin was a mystery writer of short stories and novels. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award three times and the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere once, and in 1981 he was awarded with the Mystery Writers of America's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.

Reviews

[Star · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew what was coming halfway through the story but the slow build and seeing the realization of where the story was going was excellent.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology contains 35 of Stanley Ellin's stories from 1948 to 1978, including all the stories from Ellin's three previous collections. More than 600 pages! That's an extremely generous selection of stories by a writer hailed by Mystery Writers of America (MWA) as a Grand Master in 1981, a rare honor. I picked up the Kindle version on sale for only $1.99, an unbeatable deal. The first story in this collection and the title story, “The Specialty of the House,” is Ellin's famous debut about a gourmet restaurant that serves only one dish per night. The book also includes Ellin's two Edgar-award-winning stories, “The House Party” and “The Blessington Method.” Several of these stories were adapted for television for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Tales of the Unexpected.

Ellin was a famously meticulous writer who published roughly one story a year. He was also known to revise a single paragraph dozens of times until he was satisfied. It shows. These are well-polished, perfectly-structured stories. They have compelling characters and a rich sense of atmosphere, but what stands out for me is Ellin's perfect endings, which often rely on an ironic twist, conform to a predictable pattern, or simply leave the story open-ended because readers intuitively know exactly what happens next. Ellin, who died in 1986, truly was a master.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mmmm . . . Tasty!

🖋️ An exclusive gentlemen’s club serves outstanding meals every evening, sans menus. What really is in the lamb special that makes the club’s members drool???

📕Published – 1948.

જ⁀🔵 This short story can be found at Internet Archive.

📺 1959 “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” television episode version. (Sir Alfred Hitchcock, British film producer, film director, actor, and writer.)
༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻ ༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻









𝕄𝕪 𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕓𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕜𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟:
ℙ𝕝𝕠𝕥: ★★★★★
ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕥: ★★★★★
𝕎𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕥𝕪𝕝𝕖: ★★★★★
𝕃𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕦𝕒𝕘𝕖: ★★★★★
𝔾𝕣𝕒𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕣:★★★★★
𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘: ★★★★★
𝕄𝕪 𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: ★★★★★
(5.0)

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Непогано. Не люблю сам жанр оповідання, бо зазвичай кінець історії завжди розмитий і обірваний. Але тут, в принципі, додаткові пояснення не потрібні.

Вже з самого початку розумієш про що йде мова, проте хочеться побачити куди веде автор, як він все це подасть, можливо детальніше пояснить.
Вдалося відчути ту атмосферу приватності, "обраності".

Коли вияснився той факт, що вхід в ресторан жінкам заборонений це не сприйнялося як сексизм. Скоріше як данність, що жінкам не потрібні ці незрозумілі ігри "альфа-самців" з французьким піднебінням 😄
Я б точно не хотіла відвідати подібний ресторан 😅

[Aditi Ramaswamy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing itself was lovely, but I’m truly sick of Orientalist tropes in horror fiction. One does not need to make the sinister characters Asian caricatures in order to create a sufficiently creepy atmosphere.

[Sofi Lupiañez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relato corto y siniestro. Tiene un final que uno se ve venir y a la vez no, con las pistas que va dejando a lo largo del cuento.