101–110 of 111 posts
For those seeking another, historically oriented commentary I would recommend https://www.theamericanmenu.com/ . The author makes note of significant, famous restaurants like Delmonico's in NYC, current events of the time, and also culinary trends and menu images.
Whomever finds great enjoyment in reading this may also enjoy Jan Whitaker's blog 'Restaurant-ing through History'. [1] They are an old-school blogger with a particular interest in American restaurants, and enjoys email correspondence as well. [1] https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/
I see everything is CENTS! I was like what on earth who is paying $250 for a ham sandwich???
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately in Europe printed menus almost entirely disappeared after COVID. Before, leather-clad, elegant, printed menus were commonplace, but nowadays every place just has a QR code.
I'm in Europe and never seen a "just has a QR code" menu
Interesting, these really old menus would not look too out of place at a restaurant today.
The first menu I opened had tongue sandwiches and hot beef tea. So some things have definitely changed!
Really cool. I have A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price and it is similar. It has recipes from all the restaurants that they went to all over the world but every section has a menu from one of the restaurants that gave a recipe for that section, which is the real charm of the book. Interesting to see how little has changed except the prices...
Lots of classic restaurants. Many of which are no longer with us and, to be honest, many of which I wouldn't eat in today.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first menu I opened had tongue sandwiches and hot beef tea. So some things have definitely changed!
I'm not sure I've even been to a Mexican restaurant that didn't have lengua, and I'm in the Midwest.
And then they had a tongue sandwich!
Interesting how little some things have changed. The prices, on the other hand, seem quite cheap--even after converting to 2026 dollars.
I think it depends on which you look at. Some of them seemed cheep, others seemed pricey, which was likely correlated with other aspects (how posh/swank the restaurant, how "captured" the clientele, etc.)
Coming home from the Appalachian Trail I stayed at the Inn at St. John's in Portland ME, waiting for my flight home. The Inn had an antique framed menu from Delmonico's Restaurant in New York, from 1834. The price inversion was occasionally quite shocking- on that menu I noted roast chicken was twice as much as roast mutton, for example.
Let's see if I can dig up my old trail journal . . .
Delmonico's Restaurant
494 Pearl St
Cup of Tea or Coffee-.01
Bowl of Same- .02
Crullers-.11
Soup- .02
Fried or stewed Liver- .02
Hash- .03
Pies- .04
Beef or Mutton Stew- .04
Corned Beef & Cabbage- .04
Pig's Head & Cabbage- .04
Sausage & Cabbage -.04
Knuckle & Cabbage- .04
Fried Fish- .04
Beef Steak- .04
Pork Chops- .04
Pork & Beans -.04 (What the hell? I mean, pork and beans?)
Sausages- .04
Puddings- .04 (The pudding of this time was probably more like a rindless sausage than anything we think of as pudding, and could be made from blood, innards, brains, what-have-you)
Liver & Bacon - .05
Roast Beef or Veal- .05
Roast Mutton- .05
Veal Cutlet- .05
Chicken Stew- .05
Fried Eggs- .05 (I have no idea where this price comes from, although I think the lack of refrigeration in 1834 might have made eggs a bit more of a luxury then than now, and it's also probable that a fried egg in 1834 was more something like a Scotch Egg than sunnyside up)
Ham & Eggs- .10
Hamburger Steak- .10 (Big spender! Again, a hamburger must have been something different in 1834)
Roast Chicken- .10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it depends on which you look at. Some of them seemed cheep, others seemed pricey, which was likely correlated with other aspects (how posh/swank the restaurant, how "captured" the clientele, etc.)
Refrigeration and freezer cars completely inverted a lot of prices in the late 19th through the early 20th century. Coming home from the Appalachian Trail I stayed at the Inn at St. John's in Portland ME, waiting for my flight home. The Inn had an antique framed menu from Delmonico's Restaurant in New York, from 1834. The price inversion was occasionally quite shocking- on that menu I noted roast chicken was twice as…
Hamburger steak was steak, chopped seasoned and reformed, which added a labor step though it allowed for the use of trimmings. 10¢ in 1837 would be roughly $4 today, so that doesn't seem too out of line.
The big difference is that fish and seafood is cheap.