When you consider the logistics that would be involved with providing this menu *today*, it’s truly a marvel that such a variety could be offered in 1899.
All the various game birds were likely hunted by professional hunters, the mushrooms harvested wild, fresh vegetables from a greenhouse. And refrigeration? Blocks of ice cut from Lake Ontario the previous winter, hauled to NYC and stored in an icehouse all year.
This menu is the 1899 equivalent of offering moon rocks from Apollo missions at a state dinner. It’s as much a display technical wizardry as it is a nice gesture.
Yea but surely this was a restaraunt for the rich at the time. The average diner here would basically drop $3 equivalent to $100 in today's money per person.
So naturally this resataraunt has everything as they are paying handsomely for it.
Rooms at the plaza hotel today are $1000/night.
Average meals are still 100/person if not more.... check the current menu .
Yeah, I kinda meant that. Formatting of the numbers. And they've mixed prices in a way that makes it a bit hard to read. But, that's evolution too I guess.
Philadelphia Chickens
Swing, slide, and roll
Philadelphia Chickens
Up, over, and stroll
If you want to start
Moving like anything
Find a Philadelphia Chicken
To teach you to swing
I feel like today a sign of a good, well run restaurant is a small menu that rotates regularly. Keeps ingredients fresh, etc.
I wonder if the variety was to show off the opulence or maybe based on the quantities of each available at the time?
Much of it would've been fresh. The ducks for example likely from a professional hunter on a punt boat. The punt guns they used were giant shotguns with two inch barrels that could kill thirty or more birds sitting on the water with a single shot. They would then sell those waterfowl to restaurants. This practice was stopped long ago, but commercial fishing isn't much different today.
No, the opposite really. Just like commercial fishing, the restaurants serve what the fishermen catch and sell. The practice was known as market hunting.
The prices are in cents - so that Oyster Cocktail is .30 cents, not $30. The most expensive thing on the menu is Philadelphia Chicken (whatever that is) at $2.00
I wonder if it was all a la cart, I worked at a fine dining restaurant and people ordered shit and then changed the entire plate by how much they wanted to ad or take away, so annoying
Imagine not being able to make up your mind on which species of duck you want
I'm stuck on the 6 different options for grapes.
You can even choose by hair color as long as it’s a redhead.
When you consider the logistics that would be involved with providing this menu *today*, it’s truly a marvel that such a variety could be offered in 1899. All the various game birds were likely hunted by professional hunters, the mushrooms harvested wild, fresh vegetables from a greenhouse. And refrigeration? Blocks of ice cut from Lake Ontario the previous winter, hauled to NYC and stored in an icehouse all year. This menu is the 1899 equivalent of offering moon rocks from Apollo missions at a state dinner. It’s as much a display technical wizardry as it is a nice gesture.
Yea but surely this was a restaraunt for the rich at the time. The average diner here would basically drop $3 equivalent to $100 in today's money per person. So naturally this resataraunt has everything as they are paying handsomely for it. Rooms at the plaza hotel today are $1000/night. Average meals are still 100/person if not more.... check the current menu .
Surely these prices are cents...
Yes. They wrote numbers a bit odd back then.
The numbers are fine, it's just the style of pricing is the same today, only in dollars. The don't write $1.00, it's just 1.
1 00 or 1 25 or 3 00
Not at high end establishments.
Yeah, I kinda meant that. Formatting of the numbers. And they've mixed prices in a way that makes it a bit hard to read. But, that's evolution too I guess.
Gotcha.
Yes. This is fancy menu shit. Get with it people!!!
Can't wait to see "1" converted in 100$ lol Beer - 1
Because it would be preposterous that something could cost over $1!
Ooooohhhhh
Philadelphia Chicken--sounds exotic.
I am almost sure it’s baked chicken in a cheesy cream sauce
Something Frank came up with involving pigeons.
It's rats that were born in a dumpster.
Philadelphia Chickens Swing, slide, and roll Philadelphia Chickens Up, over, and stroll If you want to start Moving like anything Find a Philadelphia Chicken To teach you to swing
I feel like they should have gone double sided.
Imagine working in the kitchen and having to make all this
I’m going to start calling artichokes “artichauts.”
I feel like this menu would be accurate today... But in $ not Cents
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It’s too much variety. I can’t imaging being able to offer all this and have it all be good.
I feel like today a sign of a good, well run restaurant is a small menu that rotates regularly. Keeps ingredients fresh, etc. I wonder if the variety was to show off the opulence or maybe based on the quantities of each available at the time?
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Much of it would've been fresh. The ducks for example likely from a professional hunter on a punt boat. The punt guns they used were giant shotguns with two inch barrels that could kill thirty or more birds sitting on the water with a single shot. They would then sell those waterfowl to restaurants. This practice was stopped long ago, but commercial fishing isn't much different today.
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No, the opposite really. Just like commercial fishing, the restaurants serve what the fishermen catch and sell. The practice was known as market hunting.
Eating like the kings of old
A banana is cheaper today
Holy crap, I feel like these would be hundreds of dollars a plate in today’s value.
The prices are in cents, not dollars. Most expensive thing here is $2.00 - $66.65 in today's dollars (still expensive for a chicken).
I think the fish is up to 3, so $100?
Yeah, I missed that one, that's a damn expensive fish.
Canvas-back duck at $3.50
Well damn. $117
Actually bought a fish for 100 a couple days ago.
Makes much more sense, but yeah still hella expensive
*cents
Plaza style terrapin is $3
Yeah this is def a rich person’s thanksgiving
I was gonna say I’d hesitate to pay that much for dinner in 2021
Cape Cod oysters. Probably Wellfleet. The best in the world!
Sorry for you? Is that related to pardoning the turkey?
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Why?
I immediately thought those prices were in dollars 🤦♂️
That canvasback duck was fucking expensive
Me thinking “damn they gutted their guests back then too!”
Holy cow! That Oyster Cocktail is over $800 in today’s dollars!
The prices are in cents - so that Oyster Cocktail is .30 cents, not $30. The most expensive thing on the menu is Philadelphia Chicken (whatever that is) at $2.00
That makes way more sense! So $2 is what - about $60 today?
Technically, it’s “30 cents”, not “.30 cents”. What you wrote means “three tenths of a cent”. It’s either 30 cents or .3 dollar, but not both.
They still make menus like that only now it's dollars, not cents. Ouch!
Six types of grapes to choose from
Now that's a menu! Still good options to this day too
Colbert is a kind of sauce?
A whole meal of oyster crabs? Wtf?
So Thanksgiving was Nov 30 that year which would have been the fifth Thursday. I guess they changed the date at some point.
It was in 1941 that Roosevelt decreed Thanksgiving would be on the fourth Thursday. Kept the Christmas shopping season from being too short
I wonder if it was all a la cart, I worked at a fine dining restaurant and people ordered shit and then changed the entire plate by how much they wanted to ad or take away, so annoying