The American Menu

San Francisco,  1918  This gathering in San Francisco in 1918 celebrated the 6oth birthday of Jean Baptiste Pon, one of the founders ...

San Francisco,  1881  The Occidental in San Francisco was “Heaven on the half shell,” according to Mark Twain who described the daily ...

New York City,  1882  The mislabeling of food was a conventional practice in the nineteenth century when imagination often trumped s...

San Francisco, 1862 Christmas in San Francisco in 1862 was “a most lovely day,” according to botanist William Brewer. 1 “The city see...

1883-1908 E xplorers like Lewis and Clark ventured into the vast Dakotas after the lands were obtained as part of the Louisiana Purch...

New York City,  1907-1909  This comic postcard from about 1912 promotes an Italian restaurant named The Carlos to New Jerseyites by cl...

New York City,  1899-1919   Rector’s holds a significant place in American social history. Established on Broadway at the dawn of the ...

Ketchikan,  2015  Our family had a wonderful time this summer traipsing through Southeast Alaska. In Ketchikan, we lunched at t...

Chinese- American Restaurants 1896-1926 Chinese restaurants first opened in the United States during the California Gold Rush. In the e...

San Francisco,  1908  Interfoliata is the technical term for items found between the pages of a book. These unexpected discoveries can...