#menu collection

[cincylibrary]

Cincinnati’s history with food and dining is rich and expansive. In the 1970s, Cincinnati had three 5-star restaurants, more than New York City at the time. Do you remember dining at any of these establishments? Check out more of our Library’s Menu Collection in our Digital Library!

[binsofchaos]

Menu Collection

[hclib]

Mock Turtle Soup and Minneapolis Menus

Craving some mock turtle soup? It was one of the soup selections in 1884 at the West Hotel restaurant. Explore the West Hotel menu and more from our Menu Collection in the Hennepin County Library Special Collections. A selection of menus dating 1882-2002 are now on display in our reading room and online. Included are menus from former Minneapolis staples like Charlie’s Café Exceptionale, as well as menus from restaurants still operating today like the Gay 90s and Stub and Herb’s.

Also on display are historic photos, newspaper clippings, and menus from the Nankin Café, a popular Chinese restaurant that operated in Downtown Minneapolis from 1919-1999.

[hclib]

Nankin Cafe and Orchestra

The Nankin Cafe was a fixture of Downtown Minneapolis dining for 80 years. The Chinese and American restaurant was founded by Walter James in 1919 at 14 S. 7th St. After it sold to the Golden and Chalfen families, it moved across the street to 15 S. 7th St. in the 1950s, then moved again in 1981 to City Center. The restaurant closed in 1999.

In its early years, the restaurant had a dance floor and the music of the Dick Long Orchestra. You can hear recordings of the Nankin Cafe Orchestra from 1924 online at the Library of Congress National Jukebox.

Remnants of the restaurant live on in menus from the Menu Collection in the Hennepin County Library Special Collections. There was a time when one could get Lobster Chop Suey for $1.50 or veal chops for $.65. Shrimp fried rice for $.50 or a tenderloin steak sandwich with potatoes for $.65. Cocktails were just $.25 and a chocolate sundae just $.15. If you really wanted to go all out, there was the blue ribbon club steak with fried mushroom caps for $2.50.

[hclib]

New French Cafe, 1977-2002

Recently, the Star Tribune reported on a number of formerly hopping Minneapolis restaurants that have since become vacant or underused buildings, many in prime locations. One of these was the New French Cafe in the Warehouse District. While the cafe no longer exists, menus from the past remain, preserved in the Minneapolis Collection Menu Collection.

Ghosts of Restaurants Past | Star Tribune | January 9, 2014