A Circle of Friends

Flint, Michigan
1882-1887  

The American custom of having afternoon tea is often traced back to the late nineteenth century when the upper classes in New York began adopting their version of the British ritual. However, long before this, average women were using the term “five o’clock tea” to describe some of their get-togethers. This is evidenced by a surprising discovery of nine enigmatic menus from the mid-1880s—a rare find, as menus were seldom printed for meals in private homes. These mementos were apparently saved by a woman who belonged to a small circle of friends. Although the menus contained the names of the participants, the use of nicknames and initials made it difficult to determine where the social events had taken place. Nevertheless, through trial and error, it was eventually determined that the women lived in Flint, Michigan, then a town of about 9,000 people. The menus offer a glimpse into the everyday social life of middle-class Midwesterners, with one in particular highlighting the entrepreneurial spirit that would soon drive the nation forward.

Longing for the Past

San Francisco, 
1923 

When menus are printed for a small get-together, they often reflect the underlying values of an individual or group, such as this charming menu from a dinner in June 1923 hosted by Camille Mailhebuau, Jr., eldest son of the famed restaurateur. His father had recently returned to San Francisco, opening his eponymous eatery on Pine Street, shown in the previous essay “A Moment in Time.” Although Camille Jr. describes this event as the “first dinner given to my friends,” as if he were marking a rite of passage in his epicurean family, the party was probably organized by his parents to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. It appears that his father planned this bill of fare and arranged to have the menus printed; the illustration is surprisingly old-fashioned for a youthful gathering during the Jazz Age. The image suggests a longing for the past, harkening back to the joyful time before Prohibition, when Champagne could be legally served in American restaurants, or perhaps even sipped while flying your “aeroplane.”