For years I’ve researched restaurants in American history, going all the way back to the 1700s. On top of that I’ve collected menus, postcards, leaflets, business cards, etc. The BIG QUESTION now is: how do I put it all together into a book, a book that people will be interested in reading? I’m hopeful that this blog will help me figure it all out.
My fascination with restaurants goes back to my childhood. I always loved going to them, tasting new food, enjoying their “atmosphere,” and ordering kiddie cocktails. At one point a few years back I designed hooked rugs with restaurant themes.
As much as I love restaurants I have to admit I’m often disappointed by them. There’s a feeling of expectancy when you first sit down at the table that is rarely matched by an equal degree of satisfaction when you depart. Why is that?
Maybe that’s beside the point. Right now I want to make sense of everything I’ve collected. I think restaurants are very revealing of our culture’s humanity (and lack thereof). They are businesses, yes, but they can’t let business motives crowd out all sense of hospitality. That makes for a lot of interesting dilemmas. How do/did they justify turning away people with the wrong color of skin? What do they give away, what do they charge for? The way that restaurants handle food and market meals interests me tremendously. I love how they create a “show.” I laugh at how corny they can be. I like thinking about how they are divided into front stage and back stage, the latter so unforgetably illuminated by Anthony Bourdain.
Note: Because of the effort I’ve put into researching restaurant history and collecting images, I would be grateful if you would contact me for permission before quoting from my blog. Thanks!
We eat in restaurants several times a week and yet know very little about their history. I plan to dip into my archive of research and images every so often to present a little tidbit that highlights aspects of our American restaurant culture. Let me know your thoughts.
7 Comments
September 5, 2008 at 11:21 am
Dear Ms. Whitaker,
I admire what you’ve done with this fascinating site— congratulations. I’m particularly interested in restaurant menus of the mid-19th century and looking at what kind of food was featured at elegant restaurants particularly hotel restaurants. I have a post on gourmet.com on the oldest menu in the NY Public Library collection (funnily enough entitled by the web-editors “Ladies Who Lunched”) which is from the Ladies’ Ordinary at the hotel. I wonder if you know of collections or other resources that include or describe menus from the 1840s – 1860s? A private collector in Delaware, Mr. Henry Voigt, has a couple of menus from Southern hotel restaurants during the Civil War and its sobering to contrast their meager offerings with the opulence of NYC restaurants at the same time. Have you ever come across menus from such restaurants in the South from this period?
January 29, 2009 at 5:38 pm
HI! love this blog and happened upon it only because as a photo researcher I have come across a marvelous album belonging to the family who owned 9Owls tea room in Pembroke Mass. I have over 600 photos and many are of the people and inside of the restaurant. Your blog is facinating and as the mother of a young woman who opened her first restaurant in Mexico as a single mother and later catered Barbara Streisand and Donna Karan for a week in Cabo I am very proud to say that restaurants are “in our family” until last month when my daughters 3rd succesful restaurant was closed in Eugene Oregon due to the economy. I cannot wait to send her a link to your site. If interested in the 9 owls photos and you might like some, email me and I will send a link to you when they are posted.. all the best.. Marianne
February 17, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Hi There — i am looking for images of old, b&w fotos of italians eating in a large group. The foto(s) would be for personal use. Do you have any or know where I could find them? Many thanks.
February 17, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Kevin — Not offhand, but I would suggest looking on e-Bay. Good luck. — Jan
March 11, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I am searching for a menu from a restaurant in the Village in NYC that existed in the 1960’s. It was on the corner of 6th Avenue and west 10th street (just across from the library). It was called something like Arte Sandwiches and had the most wonderful, inventive sandwich menu. Would love to get a hold of one. It’s not in the NYC library collection of menus. Do you know anything about it?
Thanks. Love your site.
March 27, 2009 at 6:57 pm
I love your site, and have copied book titles/authors from it that may help me find information I need. I’m writing because I’m having difficulty finding info about Boston restaurant and cafeteria chains from the late ‘1920s to the ’50s. The reason? I interviewed a 97-year old man (who has since died), who was a Boston restauranteur in that period. I don’t have time frames for his stories; in his late nineties, his mind couldn’t accomplish that. That makes writing his life story for his nieces quite challenging. There are four major phases of his restaurant career: He started out in the kitchen of the Copley Plaza in 1923 and has wonderful stories of what he and the other employees did, some of what they served, what their standards were for food and glassware, how they bootlegged and more. He started his own restaurant in the late ’20s (prix fixe but cheap), opened more in the ’30s (late ’20s?) until he had nine, then took over the failing Walton restaurant/cafeteria chain. I THINK this takeover was in the mid- to late-’30s, but it could have been postwar, for all I know. He mentions that he, the Waldorf chain, the Hayes-Bickford and Albiani groups met every few weeks to fix prices! The last, and I think longest-lasting phase of his career, was (adding to the restaurants) huge food-service operations for clients like Boston University. I don’t feel comfortable mentioning this fellow’s name here because of confidentiality (and the spelling changed at some point, adding to my problem) but would love to get an e-mail from you if you can point me toward any more books, articles or Web sites. Maybe you’ve even heard of him! Thanks a lot, Ruth Elkin
May 3, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Dear Ms Whitaker, as the author of “America Eats Out” (1991), I have very much enjoyed your website and can appreciate the research you have done. As for turning it into a book, I wish I could be of more help. My own book, which at the time was the only one to chronicle American food service from the Pilgrims through the end of the 20th century, did not sell particularly well and never went to paperback–a situation in no way helped by the usual sluggish publisher, whose marketing department my friend Ellen Brown calls “The Dept. of Sales Prevention.” There have been some fast food histories, and “Fast Food Nation” sold very well indeed. But I just don’t know if there is a market for the kind of serious research you have done at a time when food history has gotten more serious but is usually confined to a single subject like “Salt.” But keep up the good work. You are a fount of info! John Mariani