He loved fine clothes, good eating, and particularly the company and acquaintanceship of successful men.

When dining, it was a source of keen satisfaction to him to know that Joseph Jefferson was wont to come to this same place, or that Henry E.Dixie, a well-known performer of the day, was then only a few tables off.

At Rector's he could always obtain this satisfaction, for there one could encounter politicians, brokers, actors, some rich young "rounders" of the town, all eating and drinking amid a buzz of popular commonplace conversation.
"That's So-and-so over there," was a common remark of these gentlemen among themselves, particularly among those who had not yet reached, but hoped to do so, the dazzling height which money to dine here lavishly represented.
"You don't say so," would be the reply.
"Why, yes, didn't you know that?
Why, he's manager of the Grand Opera House." When these things would fall upon Drouet's ears, he would straighten himself a little more stiffly and eat with solid comfort.

If he had any vanity, this augmented it, and if he had any ambition, this stirred it.
He would be able to flash a roll of greenbacks too some day.

As it was, he could eat where THEY did.
His preference for Fitzgerald and Moy's Adams Street place was another yard off the same cloth.