5k Restaurant Menus, Years 1880-1920

Anyone interested in this might also like the tidbit that in Germany, they used to, and still count beer consumed as pencil strikes on the beer paper mat. Altering the number by the guest is legally considered forgery and the disappearance of the beer mat is also punishable by law.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bierdeckel#Urkundencharakter (in German, English wiki doesn't have this info)

Not loading for me, empty page (Brave/Windows)

As a foodie, I love this. In many respects, menus don’t seem to have drastically changed over the past 175ish years but it looks like a “Boiled” category was common early on, which I assume was because boiled foods were popular and/or easy for restaurants to make in bulk.

If you’re ever in NYC, many of the hole-in-the-wall takeout Chinese restaurants have awesome 2000s era menu aesthetics.

Word art, clip art Lamborghinis next to the takeout number, all kinds of coloring. I love them.

Tapping doesn't work on a macbook with tap to click. To see a menu I have to do a full click instead of a tap. In the several years I've had tap to click set I don't think I've ever run across a web page where tapping doesn't work like a click.

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...

Many of these, from the mid 1800’s, would have been printed on a press with metal letters.

A modern open font that might match the style is Old Standard TT.

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Old%2BStandard%2BTT

I was curious how these were made back then and what modern fonts might look best.

Interesting how little some things have changed.

The prices, on the other hand, seem quite cheap--even after converting to 2026 dollars.

Interesting, these really old menus would not look too out of place at a restaurant today.

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.

This is such an interesting site. And is exactly the kind of curious content which I love seeing.

I am curious which of these places still exist today, as some menus depict the building. It would've be nice to have additional historical information.

would be nice to be able to link to an individual menu.

cool collection, just harder to share some specific ones with friends.

Interesting that many of them lead with clams or oysters. (Perhaps this is still a thing at high-end restaurants, but to have them listed so frequently and prominently is completely foreign to me.)

Very cool site, but I had to leave when my mac laptop started burning my thighs...

I'd be curious to know what software they are using to display the graph.

It was very slow; I struggled with it.

dupe (kinda), Yesterday, 9 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48674244

The ice cream flavors are more meaningful those days. Nowadays they have every possible combinations like the weird "green chilly ice creams"

I see everything is CENTS! I was like what on earth who is paying $250 for a ham sandwich???

Did you have to submit the title changing 5000 to “5k” ? Saving two characters is that important?

If you’re ever in NYC, many of the hole-in-the-wall takeout Chinese restaurants have awesome 2000s era menu aesthetics.

Word art, clip art Lamborghinis next to the takeout number, all kinds of coloring. I love them.

Many of these, from the mid 1800’s, would have been printed on a press with metal letters.

A modern open font that might match the style is Old Standard TT.

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Old%2BStandard%2BTT

I was curious how these were made back then and what modern fonts might look best.

Interesting how little some things have changed.

The prices, on the other hand, seem quite cheap--even after converting to 2026 dollars.

This is such an interesting site. And is exactly the kind of curious content which I love seeing.

would be nice to be able to link to an individual menu.

cool collection, just harder to share some specific ones with friends.

Very cool site, but I had to leave when my mac laptop started burning my thighs...

It was very slow; I struggled with it.

The ice cream flavors are more meaningful those days. Nowadays they have every possible combinations like the weird "green chilly ice creams"

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bierdeckel#Urkundencharakter (in German, English wiki doesn't have this info)

Beer mat = "coaster" for the curious. I was originally thinking a paper tablecloth. It was pretty straightforward to understand via browser translation of the wikipedia article, thanks!

> In some breweries and countries, the beer mat placed on the glass signals to the waiter that the guest does not want to drink any more beer.

Interesting. I’ve always seen this as a signal that a person was stepping away, but coming back. The person would cover it while going to the bathroom, in part so it isn’t as trivial for someone to slip something in their drink. Implying that they intend to keep drinking it once they return.

I’d be interested to know where it means that the guest doesn’t want any more beer.

In the Netherlands that person would be considered an eetpiraat (food pirate) or flessentrekker (bottle puller). Those are terms used in court.

https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/resultaat?zoekterm=Flessen...

https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/resultaat?zoekterm=Eetpira...

One massive change is that there is almost no ethnic food on these menus (unless you include French). I looked at some of the LA menus and there were zero Asian, Mexican, or Italian dishes. It's impossible to imagine today that you could look at a bunch of hotel restaurant menus in LA and not find at least some dishes that were inspired by those cultures.

Interesting, these really old menus would not look too out of place at a restaurant today.

And the other way around too - it sounds like you could have had a very similar dining experience as today. It always amazes me how very little difference there is between past people's lifestyles and ours. I know this on a factual level, but being presented with a tiny peek into the past like this is always very humbling to me.

The first menu I opened had tongue sandwiches and hot beef tea.

So some things have definitely changed!

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 am curious which of these places still exist today, as some menus depict the building. It would've be nice to have additional historical information.

...or are even in the hands of the same family?

Interesting that many of them lead with clams or oysters. (Perhaps this is still a thing at high-end restaurants, but to have them listed so frequently and prominently is completely foreign to me.)

The other interesting one is celery. I read an article a bit ago about how salted celery stalks were popular around the early 1900's with all kinds of heirloom varieties being served. Quite a few of the menus I have clicked on have celery listed as an appetizer...

Still pretty common at least in places near where oysters are grown, I think. My guess would be also that tastes changed over time as oyster fisheries were overfished and/or polluted by growing cities. There have been numerous waves of oyster collapse on the US east coast over hundreds of years, and places that once had them in incredible abundance now have none (though efforts to restore them have emerged).

There are a variety of parallels in the history of overfishing where a given seafood that was once abundant was then seen as undesirable and served to servants or prisoners (lobster, salmon), but today is somewhat of an expensive delicacy.

dupe (kinda), Yesterday, 9 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48674244

I see everything is CENTS! I was like what on earth who is paying $250 for a ham sandwich???

> In some breweries and countries, the beer mat placed on the glass signals to the waiter that the guest does not want to drink any more beer.

I’d be interested to know where it means that the guest doesn’t want any more beer.

In the Netherlands that person would be considered an eetpiraat (food pirate) or flessentrekker (bottle puller). Those are terms used in court.

https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/resultaat?zoekterm=Flessen...

https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/resultaat?zoekterm=Eetpira...

...or are even in the hands of the same family?

I would have guessed nutrition, we live an in age of vitamins and fortified foods. You can get a lot of zinc and other metals from clams and oysters.

Beer mat = "coaster" for the curious. I was originally thinking a paper tablecloth. It was pretty straightforward to understand via browser translation of the wikipedia article, thanks!

In Brazil they have a little pad they leave on the table next to the napkins

The first menu I opened had tongue sandwiches and hot beef tea.

So some things have definitely changed!

A tongue sandwich is still pretty popular in some cultures. My parents and some of their friends served it sometimes when I was growing up.

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.

You apparently go to a different type of restaurant than I do. The typical Roman pizza joint or Florentine trattoria or Berlin beer hall rarely had leather-clad menus. And I haven’t seen that many QR codes.

But QR codes are not awesome, I agree. They are more hygienic, less wasteful of paper, and easier to update. But I don’t want to use my phone when I am out with others.

Quite the sweeping statement that contradicts my recent time across a few European countries.

If the primary purpose is a bar that also serves food, yes.

If it's proper dining. No

I'm in Europe and never seen a "just has a QR code" menu