Thursday, January 16, 2025

Hang Me Up

1937


The history of takeout food dates back to ancient times, when street vendors sold ready-to-eat meals. Archaeological evidence reveals early examples, such as cook shops uncovered in the ruins of Pompeii and tamale stands in Aztec markets. By the 1920s, restaurants in the United States began to promote takeout. The earliest takeout menus emerged in the late 1930s, sometimes with a hole at the top, allowing them to be hung on a wall near the phone. Two menus illustrate this 
largely forgotten design feature.

Leon’s Delicatessen
Washington, D.C. 
Menus such as the one below are scarce, as they were printed for a short-term use and were not preserved as keepsakes or souvenirs. 


Chicken Coop 
Portland, Oregon 
The purpose of the hole is made clear by the phrase Hang Me Up” on this menu from 1937. Established the same year, the Chicken Coop operated in an old streetcar of the Hawthorne Line. 


The practice of taking prepared food home gained widespread popularity after the Second World War. By the late 1950s, menus often included notices like, “Any Item …May Be Ordered to Take Out,” making restaurant food more accessible to the American middle class. Today, over 6% of the U.S. population consumes at least one takeout meal daily.

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