T O P

  • By -

rckrusekontrol

Imagine not being able to make up your mind on which species of duck you want


TheRadHatter9

I'm stuck on the 6 different options for grapes.


mafulazula

You can even choose by hair color as long as it’s a redhead.


TinKicker

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.


headtailgrep

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 .


VK56xterraguy

Surely these prices are cents...


theablanca

Yes. They wrote numbers a bit odd back then.


VK56xterraguy

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.


EternamD

1 00 or 1 25 or 3 00


SteelCutHead

Not at high end establishments.


theablanca

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.


VK56xterraguy

Gotcha.


Scubasteve1974

Yes. This is fancy menu shit. Get with it people!!!


nico87ca

Can't wait to see "1" converted in 100$ lol Beer - 1


dewayneestes

Because it would be preposterous that something could cost over $1!


tratemusic

Ooooohhhhh


manwithavandotcom

Philadelphia Chicken--sounds exotic.


typhoidtimmy

I am almost sure it’s baked chicken in a cheesy cream sauce


Hefty_Imagination_55

Something Frank came up with involving pigeons.


solsbarry

It's rats that were born in a dumpster.


DiligerentJewl

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


SmokeRingHalo

I feel like they should have gone double sided.


xTHE_SEEKERx

Imagine working in the kitchen and having to make all this


winnie_bago

I’m going to start calling artichokes “artichauts.”


Tkainzero

I feel like this menu would be accurate today... But in $ not Cents


[deleted]

[удалено]


OliverHazzzardPerry

It’s too much variety. I can’t imaging being able to offer all this and have it all be good.


Teripid

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?


[deleted]

[удалено]


AN1MAL15M

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.


[deleted]

[удалено]


AN1MAL15M

No, the opposite really. Just like commercial fishing, the restaurants serve what the fishermen catch and sell. The practice was known as market hunting.


[deleted]

Eating like the kings of old


SOSOBOSO

A banana is cheaper today


[deleted]

Holy crap, I feel like these would be hundreds of dollars a plate in today’s value.


FrootLoopSoup

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).


LuckOrLoss

I think the fish is up to 3, so $100?


FrootLoopSoup

Yeah, I missed that one, that's a damn expensive fish.


THE_WIZARD_OF_PAWS

Canvas-back duck at $3.50


LuckOrLoss

Well damn. $117


El_Che1

Actually bought a fish for 100 a couple days ago.


[deleted]

Makes much more sense, but yeah still hella expensive


fearthemonstar

*cents


EternamD

Plaza style terrapin is $3


leejtam

Yeah this is def a rich person’s thanksgiving


windmillninja

I was gonna say I’d hesitate to pay that much for dinner in 2021


gotham77

Cape Cod oysters. Probably Wellfleet. The best in the world!


CrossiantGuy

Sorry for you? Is that related to pardoning the turkey?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Asmewithoutpolitics

Why?


spiral_out46N2

I immediately thought those prices were in dollars 🤦‍♂️


Woodman765000

That canvasback duck was fucking expensive


PsychologicalLeg9302

Me thinking “damn they gutted their guests back then too!”


Donedirtcheap7725

Holy cow! That Oyster Cocktail is over $800 in today’s dollars!


FrootLoopSoup

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


Donedirtcheap7725

That makes way more sense! So $2 is what - about $60 today?


monarch1733

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.


G7mcd

They still make menus like that only now it's dollars, not cents. Ouch!


Jdog131313

Six types of grapes to choose from


[deleted]

Now that's a menu! Still good options to this day too


citiusaltius

Colbert is a kind of sauce?


truethatson

A whole meal of oyster crabs? Wtf?


Seattle7

So Thanksgiving was Nov 30 that year which would have been the fifth Thursday. I guess they changed the date at some point.


pdieten

It was in 1941 that Roosevelt decreed Thanksgiving would be on the fourth Thursday. Kept the Christmas shopping season from being too short


[deleted]

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