The Primeburger

It's been a hard few months for a couple of classic midtown institutions. First Bill's Gay Nineties closed. Now Primeburger is shutting its doors after 74 years in business.

Stepping into Primeburger is like stepping back in time: waiters wear white coats, the menu has half a grapefruit and individual tins of sardines on offer, and Prime's single-diner seating alone is probably enough to grant the restaurant landmark status.

I stopped in on Tuesday for a lunch of grilled swiss on rye with tomato. According to the gentleman I spoke with, Prime's last day in business is Saturday which means there is still just enough time to head to 51st Street to order a burger, orange sherbert, rice pudding, or cinnamon toast.

To keep the memories alive, Eater.com has compiled reminiscences from Primeburger servers, This Must Be the Place has a wonderful short film on Prime, and, last but not least, the menu collection at the New York Public Library now has a Primeburger bill of fare in its archive.

God Serve the Queen

Queen Elizabeth II's first state visit to the United States took place in October, 1957. After a few days in Canada, she and Prince Philip met with President Eisenhower in Washington, D.C., watched a football game in Maryland (with a brief detour to a grocery store), and then wrapped up their trip in New York City, where the royal couple stayed for a mere fifteen hours: "A teaser" remarked the Queen. (Indeed!)

The dinner given to the Queen and Prince on their final night took place -- as lunch also did -- at the Waldorf-Astoria. The menus from both meals are included in the Library's holdings.  The dinner menu is especially intriguing, but not because the food offerings are unusual ("American simplicity" is what the New York Times called it), but because of the memo found inside.

Type-written on thin white paper and folded in half, General Instructions for Waiters (below) provides a rare glimpse from the other side of the swinging door.  And while the instructions don't reveal anything juicy or even anything terribly interesting (politeness and courtesy are emphasized, cigarettes will be at the tables, candles stay on all night), finding a menu from a worker's point-of-view is unusual, especially for such a high-profile dinner.  I also like to imagine how these instructions came to the Library. Did a waiter keep a menu as a souvenir, tucking the memo inside? Who thought to preserve such an ephemeral document? Whoever it was, I'm glad he/she did; these are the very types of items libraries treasure, as they offer evidence of an event largely, if not completely, undocumented elsewhere. These instructions provide us with more of a complete story of the event -- not just that the Queen ate green turtle soup, but that it was a served in plates with fines herbes -- and it reminds us of those who shuttle in and out of the dining room all night, carrying  filet of beef Perigourdine, savarin au rhum, and butter -- but only on request, of course.

I'd Like to Sell the World a Coke

Browsing through the menu collection's boxes of 1970s material, I came across some wonderful menus largely from restaurants outside New York. Among them was this bill of fare from Pub Renault on the Champs-Élysées, dated March 10, 1977. 

Pub Renault, which was the café located next door to the Renault showroom, opened in 1963 and was popular with tourists wandering the Champs-Élysées until it closed in 1999. As the New York Times reported upon the Pub's opening:

The amusing décor, well worth a visit, is based on photographic blow-ups and models of cars. The open car tables are lit by headlights and there are rear view mirrors on table stands for repairing make-up after snacks.  The fare is of cross-vintage, part American drugstore, part tearoom, with a few French fillips. In keeping with the automobile theme are the "chauffeur's hamburger" and an overwhelming sundae called "granddaddy's car."

I love the wonderful way advertisements are woven throughout the menu, and I'm especially loving the Coca-Cola ad below. I just want to run my fingers through the beautiful shag rug and eat Cheez Doodles. Very French, n'est-ce pas?

(click to enlarge)

On the Menu: Red Sox World Champions (1912)

"BOSTON NOW SUPREME IN BASEBALL WORLD" read the front page of the Boston Globe on Thursday, October 17, 1912 after the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Giants in an eight game (one was a tie) World Series:

 Words were never invented that could fully describe the outburst of insane enthusiasm that went thundering around Fenway Park yesterday afternoon as Steve Yerkes crossed the rubber with the winning run in the 10th inning. 

Men hugged each other, women became hysterical, youths threw their caps in the air, one man in the bleachers fell in a dead faint, strong hearts lost a beat and started off again in double time.

In honor of this momentous occasion, F.H. Putnam, a Worcester-based silversmith or possibly a Boston-based druggist, hosted a dinner for the Members of the Boston American Baseball Club. This is the menu.

 (click to enlarge)

Among the dishes served that evening: Blue Points Stahl Style, after Sox Manager Jake Stahl; Fried Native Smelts, Speaker Sauce after Tris Speaker — whose homer in the 10th inning of the second and (ultimately tied) game saved the day; Fresh Putnam Farm Chicken, à la Wagner after shortstop Charles "Heinie" Wagner; and Frozen Pudding, Cady Style, after catcher Forrest Leroy Hick Cady (whom the Globe called "a farmer's son with a strong heart and a mighty punch").

To read more about this fascinating, white-knuckle series, check out the Library's collection of digitized historical newspapers including the Boston Globe, whose illustrations, statistics, and detailed play-by-plays are a dream for any baseball historian or enthusiast.

The Joseph Baum Archives

(Newarker Menu. Rare Book Division)

Last week, the Joseph Baum papers were made available to researchers at the New York Public Library's Manuscript and Archives Reading Room.

Joe Baum was the executive and president of Restaurant Associates, and the man behind such iconic New York restaurants as the Four Seasons, La Fonda del Sol, Forum of the Twelve Caesars, and Windows on the World, bringing an over-the-top theatricality to a quality dining experience. As William Grimes wrote in Baum's obituary in 1999, "More than any other restaurateur, [Baum] operated in the conceptual territory where food and theater overlapped."

Born in 1920 in Saratoga Springs, NY, Baum graduated from high school in New Jersey and worked at various hotels in New York and Florida before attending Cornell University's Hotel Administration School.

In 1949, after working in accounting firms for hotels and restaurants, he was hired by Restaurants Associates to help open the Newarker, a restaurant located in the Newark Airport. Despite its rough start and less than appealing location, the Newarker was a great success. Baum invested money in what he knew could make or break the restaurant, including a well-designed menu (indeed, it's one of my favorites in the collection) and delicious food prepared by Swiss chef Albert Stockli.

(La Fonda del Sol. Rare Book Division)

More restaurants followed, including La Fonda del Sol (1960). Baum's papers include later menus from La Fonda (the gorgeous sun example above is from the Rare Book collection), and wonderful black and white photographs of the interior.

(Photographs of La Fonda del Sol. Manuscript and Archives Division)

But according to Grimes, the Four Seasons was the Baum restaurant that really represented his lasting legacy. The restaurant cost $4.5 million to open, featuring art work by Picasso and Miro and was one of the first restaurants to place seasonality at center stage, changing its menu and color scheme with each season.

(Four Seasons Menu. Rare Book Division)

Valerie Wingfield, the archivist who had the enviable job of processing the Baum papers told me she was struck by the how much she was both moved by the Window on the World menus (which Baum opened in the 1976) and how much she enjoyed the fun and whimsy of the Rainbow & Stars files. Rainbow & Stars was a caberet club which opened in 1989, and was part of the Rainbow Room complex. Included in those files are wonderful photographs of the many celebrities (and some song lists) of those who performed at Rainbow & Stars, such as Cybill Shephard, Tony Danza, Rosemary Clooney, and Leslie Uggams. Who can deny that this is material worth saving and consulting? I'm thrilled to have these papers at the Library, and I can't wait to look through all 158 (!) boxes.

To make an appointment to see the Joe Baum papers, please email the Manuscripts Division directly.

On the Menu: Restaurant Florent

"For the same reasons we have to preserve architecture, we have to preserve graphics." -- Tibor Kalman, The New York Times, February 11, 1988


Restaurant Florent opened its doors at 69 Gansevoort Street in 1985 (Bryan Miller, in his 1986 New York Times review, called it "an Edward Hopper painting come to life"), and the restaurant remained a constant landmark in the Meatpacking District for nearly a quarter century, until it closed in 2008. While much has been written about Florent, the restaurant, and Florent Morellet, the restaurateur, the menu itself is one of the most potent reminders of the beloved eatery.

The menu was designed by the great graphic design firm M&Co., which was headed by Tibor Kalman (July 6, 1949 - May 2, 1999). Kalman was also the creative force behind the China Grill logo, the Talking Heads albums Remain in Light and Naked, Colors Magazine and much more. Kalman left the inside of the menu simple -- a playful retro design (in keeping with the diner atmosphere inside the restaurant) -- while displaying colorful maps of world cities in front, a different city for each menu. The result is a wonderfully clean design with a sense of humor and a clearly recognized brand.

When Florent closed, the Library was generously given a few menus for the collection -- all undated -- plus a 1985 menu from the restaurant's first year in business. I'm thrilled to have them included in the Library's archive.

Kitchen Cabinet of Curiosities

The Shorthand Club of New York Dinner Menu:







I found this wonderful little menu for a dinner sponsored by the Shorthand Club of New York celebrating their third anniversary. According to the New York Times, the Shorthand Club was created for male stenographers "all thoroughly imbued with the one ambition -- to better themselves by becoming more efficient in their chosen field of endeavor and to help others similarly inclined." The dinner was held on February 10, 1912 at the West End Restaurant, just a few doors down from the Club's home base on 125th Street.

While the menu itself is rather unassuming, it's the wonderful shorthand on the back of the menu, presumably written by one of the Club's members (perhaps mocking the MC?), which makes this item colorful and unique -- that along with the wine glass stain on the front cover.

La Fonda del Sol

La Fonda del Sol (The Inn of the Sun) originally opened in 1960, and was the creation of Joseph Baum and his Restaurant Associates group. Located in the Time-Life Building on 50th Street and Sixth Avenue, Craig Claiborne called La Fonda del Sol "one of the most lavish Latin-American restaurants north of the border." He continued, "Should this restaurant become a Manhattan attraction to vie with the Empire State Building and the lions at the Public Library [that's us!], it will be well-deserved."

In 1960, four-course dinners at La Fonda cost $5.50, $6.50, or $7.50, depending on the food offerings chosen, and coffee was made table-side. Claiborne's review makes special note of the restaurant's cocktail options, including sangria -- apparently a relatively new libation to NYC restaurants at the time. He writes, "[...T]he management recommends a drink known as Sangria, which is really a wine punch made with citrus juices, Chilean wine, and soda. It is undoubtedly authentic but it would be more suited to warmer climates."

Beyond its culinary offerings, La Fonda was known for its creative and colorful design. The entire restaurant -- from its linens and dishes, to its menus and matchbooks -- was designed by Alexander Girard. Displays of Latin-American folk art, masks, and pottery wheels attracted Spanish-language school groups who apparently arrived en-masse for the $2.50 lunches. The restaurant closed in the early 1970s.

Just a few months ago, La Fonda del Sol re-opened in the Met-Life Building off Park Avenue with Josh DeChellis as head chef. From the photos online it displays nothing of the kitchy aesthetic that marked the restaurant's first incarnation, and while I haven't seen DeChellis' new bill of fare, I thought I'd present the 1960's La Fonda del Sol menu in its full glory.

Julia et Jim

With so many menus in the New York Public Library collection, it's not uncommon for me to stumble upon a gem I've never seen before. The menu featured here is one such example. Had a patron not requested this 1975 dinner menu honoring James Beard and Julia Child a few months ago, it would still be sitting in its box downstairs. But thankfully the request was made, and I was introduced to this charming item.

The dinner, which was sponsored by the Wine & Food Society of New York, was held on Halloween night at the Pierre Hotel. And in addition to a traditional menu of food offerings, the organizers wrote creative "recipes" for both Julia and Jim, wherein the ingredients and techniques that make up these two unique personalities are written out in a recognizable recipe format. The result is clever, sassy, and fun.

Paris/New York Exhibit

Paris/New York: Design Fashion Culture 1925-1940, a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, focuses on the French influence on New York throughout the second quarter of the 20th century, and includes some wonderful food-related content and imagery.

While much of the Parisian influence is acutely demonstrated in fashion and design, French haute cuisine came to the fore at that time as well. In an essay from the accompanying exhibition book, NYPL's own Amy Azzarito argues that the French chefs leaving Le Havre, France on the S.S. Normandie for the French pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in Queens, acted as harbingers of the cuisine to come.

The French pavilion restaurant was one of the biggest attractions at the World's Fair, and the menu alone -- which is on display at MCNY -- is a stunning piece of art. When the Fair ended in 1940, Europe was in turmoil and many of the chefs had no choice but to stay in the States. Henri Soulé, the manager and ringleader of the World's Fair pavilion, was in the same predicament. With a nod to the success of the French pavilion, Soulé opened Le Pavillon in 1941 on East 55th Street, with many of the original French chefs in his new kitchen.

Le Pavillon became one of the most celebrated and talked about restaurants of the 20th century, as much for the food as for Soulé's infamous personality. Soulé ran the show sternly, and those he didn't like were simply not welcome. The patrician families of New York, however, frequented Le Pavillon as much as their own kitchens -- the Kennedy family being one of the most visible. But when Joe Kennedy and Soulé had a much-publicised feud, the Kennedy's took to eating at Le Caravelle instead.

The two most famous chefs to emerge from Le Pavillon -- not totally unscathed -- were Pierre Franey (who was also at the World's Fair) and Jacques Pepin, both of whom left the restaurant because of what they felt were unfair practices put in place by Soulé.

A menu from Le Pavillon (NYPL's own copy) is also on display at the Paris/New York exhibit. In addition, an abridged version of Azzarito's article is available online through Interior Design Magazine.

Planes, Trains, and Edibles

A few weeks ago, William Woys Weaver wrote a short article in the New York Times on his fascination with transportation menus. The piece included some reproductions from his own collection of vintage airline menus that vividly show how far we've plunged in terms of mid-air victuals. While I'm not old enough to remember ever receiving a cheese plate on a flight, much less one referred to as Plateau de Fromages, I do remember some hot sustenance coming my way. Now I'm just happy if a flight attendant throws me some Terra Blues and a tomato juice.

Ocean liners, however, are still considered by many to be legitimate floating restaurants. They clearly have not sunk to the depths that airlines have. In fact, a colleague of mine recently returned from a Mediterranean cruise on the Queen Elizabeth II with some mouth-watering menus. The Library already has quite an extensive collection of historic ocean liner, airline and train menus -- including the train menus from President McKinley's funeral procession -- but it's always valuable to receive contemporary documents.

The most recent airline menu we have was donated by Yours Truly. I flew Song right before their swan song and I asked the flight attendant if I might be allowed to secure a menu. She seemed totally shocked (more so, I believe, than anyone I've asked before or since) but despite her hesitancy, she let me take one home.

While airlines are notoriously stingy with the goods, airline terminals seem to be getting back in the sixties swing of things. Jet Blue's new terminal five at JFK will offer its customers a selection of high-end restaurants in which to pass the time. The restaurants, and the entire style of the terminal design, reminds me of Restaurant Associates' old Newarker restaurant at the Newark Airport, which is one of my favorite menus in the collection.

But possibly my all-time favorite transportation menu is the one above. It's an Air India menu from Jacqueline Kennedy's trip to Delhi from Rome. It's a very simple breakfast menu, and while I have no documentation that she actually ate anything on that flight, it's nice to imagine her nibbling on a croissant and daintily sipping her tea.

Speaking of trips, I'm off to Nova Scotia after Labor Day. If anyone has any particular recommendations -- food-wise -- please leave a comment to steer me in the right direction. To make room for the right meal, I'll restrain myself from eating too much on the plane. I can't imagine that will be too difficult.

The Kitchen Cabinet of Curiosities

A menu from McDonnell's Drive-In from the NYPL Menu Collection. McDonnell's was a popular drive-in restaurant in Los Angeles throughout the 1930's and '40s.






The card below is a listing for McDonnell's Chicken in the Rough: half a fried chicken (unjointed), shoestring potatoes, a jug of honey, and hot buttered rolls. Total cost: 50 cents.

They had me at "jug honey."

Florent

The Dining section of the Times today has a surprisingly moving audio slide show about the history of Restaurant Florent, the last bastion of cool to hit the Meatpacking District, narrated by owner Florent Morellet.

Ever since I moved to New York eleven years ago, Florent has been a mainstay in my late night dining rotation. While I was never one to hit the clubs, much less Hogs and Heifers, Florent would beckon when those 3AM cravings took hold even if I was no where near the Far West Side. I remember seeing Q-Tip there one very early morning many years ago, eating dinner with a beautiful woman. To this day, it remains one of my favorite celebrity sightings.

More recently my forays to Florent have been during somewhat respectable hours for dinner with friends or a glass of Lillet at the bar. The vibe and style of Florent is in a class by itself, and while I relish old-school restaurants that hark back to the 20s or 30s, I also really love (especially being a child of the 80s) the unattainably cool New York of say, Unique Boutique, Desperately Seeking Susan, and yes, Restaurant Florent.

When I heard that Florent was closing, I asked Monsieur Morellet if he would be so kind as to donate some menus to the Library. He most graciously obliged and now, I'm pleased to say, the Library's menu collection has a nice range of his quirky menus (designed by Tibor Kalman's M&Co) including one from 1985, the year Desperately Seeking Susan was released and opened my eyes to a new world, and the year Florent opened its doors and changed the Meatpacking District forever.

I can't image any future NYC historian researching the Meatpacking District without referring to Florent, and I'm hoping that these menus will allow for a richer and more detailed look at this uniquely New York neighborhood.

Friendly's

I'm fascinated by fast food. I don't eat much of it, except for the occasional McDonald's meal on I95, but I'm still really interested in the history of fast food: the "where, who and why" of it all. From the Harvey Girls who made waiting tables into a real career on the railroad lines, to Duncan Hines and his drives across the country discovering hole-in-the-wall restaurants, to Burger King, Wendy's and Fat Burger -- behind every fast food joint there is usually a great American story.

Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age is a wonderfully readable book on the history of roadside restaurants, and it offers quite a bit of background on fast food culture, including one of my all-time favorite restaurants: Friendly's.

For those of us who grew up in suburban New York or anywhere in New England, Friendly's is an important landmark. It's where you went with your friends after a movie, or where your parents took you after a school play or concert. Friendly's is where I experienced my first real stomach ache (Jim Dandy? I don't think so...) and where I learned that I do indeed have a delicate constitution. Regardless of all that, I can't get over the feeling of nostalgia that warms over me when I walk into a Friendly's restaurant.

According to the book, Friendly's originated in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1935 as a dairy and soda shop. They shut down during the war due to gasoline rationing which cut automobile traveling, but opened up again afterwards, serving ice cream throughout Massachusetts. In the 1950s Friendly's expanded to upstate New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C and even to parts of Indiana and Ohio, but still remained an ice cream-only destination. It was only in the 1980s that Friendly's began to serve food.

And speaking of food, while my love for Friendly's is vast, my heart belongs to the Fishamajig.

A little background before you think I'm crazy. I grew up in a kosher home. We didn't eat out much, and when we did it was to a deli or Moshe Peking or Pizza Hut. However, we did love a good Friendly's meal. Besides ice cream though, the only thing we were allowed to order was a Fishamajig. The Fishamajig is essentially a grilled cheese sandwich with fried fish and tarter sauce in the middle. A bit like the Filet-O-Fish, yet probably less healthy (if that's even possible) and I'm guessing just as non-kosher. I had one this past weekend, and while I did feel a tad sickly afterwards, it was worth the pain. It was a sublime Fishamajig.

For those of you who haven't tried a Fishamajig yet, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It's kind of an acquired taste. But should you desire to peruse a menu to see your other options, we have one in the Library's Menu Collection. I should know - I put it there myself.

Apollo 11 Menu

I've spoken often about the Library's Buttolph restaurant menu collection, but it's worth mentioning that we have menus in other collections as well.

The other day a reader requested mementos from an official state dinner honoring the astronauts of the Apollo 11 voyage. The menu, seating plan, invitation, and some related correspondence from that dinner are part of the Rare Books Division (but not the Buttolph Collection), and I highly doubt I would've come across it had a reader not requested it.

The dinner was held on August 13, 1969 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and was called by the Los Angeles Times, "the dinner party of the decade, perhaps of the century."

According to articles in both the New York and L.A Times, the dinner was one of the most coveted invites in town, with the White House fielding phone calls all week from those asking to be included on the guest list ("[The White House secretaries] have been surprised by the blunt language some of the callers have used.")

Some of the invites included Charles Lindbergh and Howard Hughes (both turned it down), Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire, and former President Johnson (also turned it down).

Those that did come were treated to a menu that included the following:

Supreme of Salmon Commodore

Filet of Beef Perigourdine

Artichauds Columbia

Carottes des Indes

Limestone lettuce (all veggies were California grown)

Fromages de Brie, Bel Paese and Roquefort

and for the finale...

Clair de Lune - marzipan, meringue, blackberry sauce and of course - an American flag.

What's also fascinating about this folder of mementos is the correspondence that's attached to it. These items - given to the Library in the fall of 1969 - tracks the request from the New York Public Library to the Century Plaza Hotel, who sent the request to NASA , who passed it along to the Social Secretary of the White House, who honored the Library's request and sent the menu and invite to the Rare Books Division.

And now I'm passing it along to you.


Does anyone know the email address of Bush's social secretary?

Au Revoir, Chez Laurence

A few weeks ago on Friday March 21st, Chez Laurence, a little restaurant on Madison Avenue favored by many librarians, closed its doors for the last time. Even to me, a relative newbie at NYPL, it was a rather upsetting day and to the older librarians who had been going for years, it was heartbreaking. While its prices were in keeping with the times, some of Chez Laurence's menu offerings were remarkably atypical of current Manhattan restaurants. With sandwiches like Mackerel and Grated Carrot or Sardine with Cream Cheese, eating at Chez Laurence felt like going back in time so that at any moment Kay Leiland Strong (Vassar class of '33) might walk in for a cup of coffee.

On its second to last day, I stopped in for breakfast, a take-out breakfast of coffee and a croissant. People were lining up for their morning fix saddened that in a few days they'd be forced to join the masses at Starbucks and Pret a Manger. When I went back that Friday - their last day - and secured the Chez Laurence menu for the Library's menu collection, regulars were on line for pastries stunned that the restaurant wouldn't be open for dinner that night.

With its French decor, Polish waitresses, and tinned fish sandwiches - is there any restaurant in New York that serves a mackerel sandwich? - Chez Laurence will be a greatly missed midtown destination, especially to those of us working at this great New York cultural institution.

And while I don't have the recipe for Chez Laurence's sardine sandwich, I will subject myself to potential ridicule (in case I haven't already...) by posting a family-favorite sardine recipe. Some may call it a spread, others might appreciate the term pâté, but at home we've always just called it Sardine Dip.

Sardine Dip
(courtesy of Claire Federman. All measurements are approximate and to taste)

1 tin of sardines, reserve liquid
Philadelphia cream cheese, about 1-2 tablespoons
French's yellow mustard (or Dijon if you must), 1 to 2 teaspoons
lemon juice, about 1 teaspoon
salt and pepper

Pulse in a food processor or "mini prep". Spread on bread or crackers.

Cocktails for Stormy Weather

If I wasn't at work today I'd be at home reading, cooking, or perhaps, possibly, drinking.

Mind you, I'm no lush. Far from it, in fact. I've even been called, yes, a teetotaler. But something about nasty weather, be it cold and rainy or hot and stifling, brings out the bartender in me.

At home I might just have a shot of horseradish vodka, but this most delicious libation deserves a writeup of its own - perhaps in April when we celebrate this bitter herb.

In the meantime I'll just have to be satisfied with something made up, or knowing me, from a book. On my desk I have the Savoy Cocktail Book and there are more than a few recipes in here that strike my fancy. How about the De Rigueur Cocktail with whisky and grapefruit, or the Devil's Cocktail with port and vermouth, or even the Orange Bloom cocktail?

And there is always the well-appointed new bar that recently opened in my neck of the woods called, appropriately enough, Weather Up. It's on Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights and although the prices might keep my visits to a minimum, their Brooklyn cocktail - served ice cold and packing a punch - is sure to pull me back in again. That is, of course, when the weather improves.

De Rigueur Cocktail (adapted from the Savoy Cocktail Book by Henry Craddock)
1/2 Whisky
1/4 Grapefruit juice
1/4 Honey
Cracked Ice.

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Devil's Cocktail
1/2 Port
1/2 French (Dry) Vermouth
2 dashes Lemon Juice (or perhaps orange or grapefruit bitters?)

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Orange Bloom Cocktail
1/4 Italian (Sweet) Vermouth
1/4 Cointreau
1/2 Dry Gin

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass and add a cherry.

Happy Valentine's Day

For all those readers who will be enjoying a nice night out for V-day tonight, I would deeply appreciate any menus you can gather that will document this holiday. I'm always on the lookout for good Valentine menus.

Beefsteak Dinners

The New York Times today has a wonderful article on beefsteak dinners. While the article focuses on present-day dinners held in New Jersey, it does note that the dinners were immensely popular in New York in the early part of the 20th century, especially among political and commercial organizations.

The most famous depiction of a beefsteak dinner is in Joseph Mitchell's "All you can hold for five bucks" which, of course, is available to read here at the Library.

The Library also has a number of official beefsteak dinner menus. The menu above, one of my favorite menus in the collection, is from the Piano Club from 1910. If only today's menus were so simple.

The menu below is from a dinner held in Brooklyn to honor the Brotherhood of Commerical Travelers in 1899. It's interesting to note the similarities between the two menus, not just in their edible offerings, but in their entire design. They're both very masculine and industrial compared to many menus of that time period. While the Times article does mention the lack of silverware at these events, I had also heard that plates were generally optional as well. Perhaps the paper choice for these menus is to connote the paper tableclothes that the meat would've be eaten on. Just a thought....

Graphic Recipes

Pineapple Upside Down Cake by Sally Moffat

Plums by Barbara Miller

I was filing away some menus in the menu collection archive when I came across a folder filled with these beautiful, graphic broadside recipes. In addition to the recipes shown here, there are also recipes for Apple Pie, Pear Cheese Salad, Baked Cherry Pudding, and Coconut Zonk, among others.

The recipes were apparently part of a book project by the students at the Typography Workshop at the Cooper Union Art School in the Spring of 1966, and were printed by the students at the Ram Press in April of that same year. Only twenty-five copies of the book were made and we seem to have most of the individual, loose recipes. These recipes are either proofs or extra printed sheets from the book, but unfortunately, we don't have the published book in our collection. I also looked in WorldCat (a union catalog of libraries throughout the country), but I wasn't able to find any Library that has the published book. Now I'm not only on the lookout for this book, but for other interesting typographical cookbooks. I'll keep you posted with what I find in the Library's collection, and please share your own findings as well.


Avocado Supreme by Brenda Hardin