Named for its initial proprietors, Charles Gage and Eugene Tollner, the restaurant occupies the lowest two stories of a converted four-story brownstone residence.

The main dining room measures 90 by 25 feet (27.4 by 7.6 m) across and contains woodwork, arched mirrors, two bars, and a group of chandeliers with gas-powered and electric lights.

The restaurant initially specialized in seafood, meat chops, and steaks, and it served a large variety of oyster dishes during the 20th century, pivoting to Southern fare in the 1980s.

Gage & Tollner was also known for its waitstaff, who wore insignia on their uniforms to denote the length of their employment, and its clientele, which included Diamond Jim Brady, Truman Capote, Fanny Brice, Jimmy Durante, and Mae West.

[22] By 1900, according to the New York Herald Tribune, "ladies were not permitted to smoke, and arrived at the restaurant at 372-4 Fulton St. in horse-drawn carriages escorted by gentlemen in silk hats".

[94] To attract a wider range of clients, Aschkenasy pushed back the closing time and added common American fare such as lobster and steak.

[97] The Brooklyn Eagle retrospectively wrote that Aschkenasy's decision to hire Lewis, who was black, was "quite the statement for a restaurant where African-Americans once weren’t allowed".

[22][97] At the time, Gage and Tollner was competing with numerous cheaper fast-food restaurants on Fulton Mall; most of the major department stores on the street had closed; and the nearby MetroTech office development had not spurred as much economic activity as Aschkenasy had expected.

[22][97] Gage and Tollner's business was particularly impacted by the closure of the Abraham & Straus department store, whose executives regularly booked four tables at lunchtime.

[109] Chirico expected to reopen the restaurant by September 1995, but he found the space to be in "very bad condition",[110] and Gage and Tollner remained closed at the end of the year.

[120] Nonetheless, the restaurant struggled to attract customers because of the prevalence of fast food outlets on Fulton Mall, and because Gage and Tollner was the only non-fast-food eatery for several blocks.

[133] The New York City Marshal's office evicted Amy Ruth's operators in August 2008 due to non-payment of rent,[132] and Chirico began considering reopening Gage and Tollner within the space.

[72] Ladies & Gents Costume Jewelry moved into the building in July 2011[144][145] and renovated the interior without receiving the LPC's approval, prompting the agency to threaten to fine the store.

[147] Jemal considered leasing the space to an upscale restaurant in mid-2016, citing the revival of business in Downtown Brooklyn,[148][149] and evicted Ladies & Gents Costume Jewelry that November.

[154] The group planned to serve cuisine from Edna Lewis's tenure at the restaurant, as well as "traditional fare, with possible dishes including Welsh rarebit and clams casino".

[165][166] With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, the reopening was indefinitely postponed one day before it was to occur,[79] and Frizell had to furlough all staff members because of a ban on indoor dining.

[177] Gage and Tollner is housed in a four-story late Italianate style brownstone building at 372–374 Fulton Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City.

[178] Rather than emphasizing elegant design, the restaurant's original architect(s) wanted to make the space appear comfortable through the quality of the workmanship, such as mirrors and woodwork furnishings.

[162] The spandrels at the tops of the arched mirrors contain embossed gold-colored Lincrusta Walton coverings,[184][189] which The New York Times described as "the poor man's stamped leather".

[70] Gage and Tollner's early menu consisted of seafood, meat chops, and steaks;[79] the restaurant originally did not serve roasted or fried dishes.

Gage and Tollner was primarily a seafood restaurant in the 1980s;[192] by the end of that decade, it served dishes such as clam bellies; she-crab soup; coleslaw; chicken with mushrooms and vegetables; Smithfield ham; crab cakes; and pan-fried quails.

[210] In the early 2000s, dishes included an appetizer named "Oysters Diamond Jim Brady", as well as entrees like T-bone steak and rack of lamb.

[81] Some of the dishes, such as Charlestonian crab soup and fried chicken with hush puppies, were intended as throwbacks to the cuisine served at the restaurant in the late 1980s and early 1990s, under the tenure of Edna Lewis.

[173] In the early 20th century, Gage and Tollner attracted customers like businessmen Diamond Jim Brady, C. K. G. Billings, and Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt;[56] clergyman Henry Ward Beecher;[20] newspaper editor Theodore Tilton;[20] mayors Frederick A. Schroeder and William Jay Gaynor;[20] New York governor Al Smith;[23] author Truman Capote;[79] singer Nora Bayes;[56] and actors Fanny Brice, Jimmy Durante, Mae West,[52] Marie Dressler, and Lillian Russell.

[69] In 2000, a writer for The Boston Globe said Gage and Tollner "still looks as it did when Queen Victoria was on the throne, right down to the gaslight chandeliers and the beautifully restored, 100-foot-long mirrored dining room.

"[211] A Times critic praised the food and decor in 2001, saying Chirico's renovation had "given it real luster that is all the more surprising when you come upon it next to a Wiz store on the seedy Fulton Mall".

"[208] The Hartford Courant wrote in 1985 that "the menu is a nostalgic roster of long-forgotten dishes once popular in the luxurious eating establishments of the mid-Atlantic coast,[192] and a writer for the South China Morning Post said the same year: "It is the food that should be declared a historic landmark.

[101] After the restaurant's renovation in 1995, a writer for The Village Voice criticized the menu and said: "Even if the new Gage & Tollner looks a little bit like Eleanor Roosevelt in Speedos, I know my old classic is in there somewhere.

"[125] A reviewer for Grub Street stated of the reopened restaurant: "thanks to a series of diligent owners, the rituals of the place survived—oysters and clam-belly broil, beefsteaks with all the trimmings, ice cream for dessert—the way they do in an old church as the neighborhood changes around it.

"[81] A critic for The New Yorker wrote in 2022: "Now as then, the restaurant is a chophouse..."[212] The Michelin Guide wrote: "Seafood towers, big steaks, crab cakes and a superb platter of fried chicken with cornmeal fritters take their cues from the legendary Edna Lewis ... Dessert is essential and all of them, from the coconut layer cake to the baked Alaska, will make for a fond farewell.