The History of Living and Dining in L.A., as Told Through 22 Menus
Reading menus isn't just about figuring out how to get the grub you want into your belly as quickly as possible (okay, it's sort of about that). Menus are time capsules, veritable historical artifacts that are linked to specific moments in time: you, at that restaurant, right there and then. And nobody knows this better than Josh Kun, a professor at the University of Southern California, whose new book To Live and Dine in L.A. traces the social, economic, and cultural history of Los Angeles over the last century through restaurant menus archived at the Los Angeles Public Library. From kooky tiki-themed menus to Spago's menu from 1983, here are 22 menus that show the way people lived—and ate—in Los Angeles, and in America more generally, over the last century-and-a-half.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections1/22The Broadway: It's For the Kids!
At The Broadway, located on Broadway and Fourth Streets in Los Angeles, and likely affiliated with the popular department store of the same name that was founded in the first two decades of the 1900s, the menu was catered to accomodate the under-12 set, a.k.a. the pickiest eaters around.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections2/22The Broadway: This One's Juuust Right
Fashioned into the shape of a cuddly teddy bear, the menu at The Broadway touted imagery from Goldilocks and the Three Bears (or four bears in this case) to sell kid-friendly, though now dated, fare like PB&J sandwiches and French fried shrimp, along with Pepsi-Cold and Slim Jim potatoes. Maybe these were ploys to keep children well-behaved during extended shopping trips, maybe not.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections3/22Mixed in Outstanding Style
Willard's opened its doors in 1928 but peaked in the 1930s as a place that mixed drinks "in outstanding style," according to the menu's outside. A diner could expect dinner to include soup, salad, potatoes and gravy, biscuits, corn pone, apple butter, honey, dessert, and coffee all for just a few dollars. Still, the main attractions were the drinks, and the place was most popular for its martinis, Bacardi's (Bacardi rum, grenadine, and lemon or lime juice), and Manhattans.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections4/22Dine, Dance, Romance
At the Paris Inn, the self-proclaimed "incomparable European cafe of America" located "in the Latin quarter near City Hall," it was all things European (even the menu colors, a tribute to the country's flag) all the time.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections5/22Eat Like You're Not in America
Back in the 1930s, when this Paris Inn menu debuted, L.A. was celebrated as a "Mecca of 'foreign-eating'" and restaurants benefitted from specializing in a certain international cuisine. At the Paris Inn, French-Italian was the word, and decadent dishes like an Oyster Loaf (bread toasted, oysters, egg, bacon, tartar sauce) were served alongside Fondue a la Piemontese (Welsh rarebit with truffles)... for no more than $2 a piece.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections6/22Meet the Mini-Menu
The Phillip's Whiz Inn menu, from 1943, was the smallest in size that Kun found. "Souvenir menus were a national trend that L.A. restaurants glommed onto with glee," he wrote, adding, "The goal was to squeeze the regular full-size menu—often as many as 150 different dishes—down to fit a small index card."
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections7/22Get Your Magnifying Glass Out
The font was so small on the 1943 menu that, as Kun wrote, "the Chicken in the Basket and Dude Ranchburger were...laid out with tweezers on the backsides of two folded, cut out chickens."
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections8/22Welcome to Chinatown
Chinatown restaurants in Los Angeles had the dual challenge of introducing patrons to foreign cuisine and competing with neighborhing restaurants trying to do the same. To stand out, Golden Pagoda went loud and bright with its collaged 1943 menu, which played to Western stereotypes of Asian culture and depicted a giant, glowing pagoda on its cover.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections9/22Keeping It Simple
The strategy at Golden Pagoda was to keep it family-style, and keep the number of dishes on the menu limited, so that patrons new to Chinese food could dip their toes in before swimming. The same can't be said of the liquor menu, which is colossal, and no doubt eased diners into the whole experience.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections10/22Inside Jokes
A 1948 menu for the exclusive Beverly Hills restaurant Romanoff's "perpetuated the myth" that Hershel Gerguzin, the Lithuanian owner, was actually Prince Mike Romanoff of Russia.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections11/22The Art of Storytelling
Myth aside, the menu's inside flap was home to a story of Romanoff's greatness, which was "reprinted thru the courtesy of PM, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and twenty other newspapers." If that's not confusing enough, let's just say it was about the air of the place, which reserved walk-in tables for celebrities who wished to attend its status-y luncheons on a moment's notice.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections12/22Where Form Meets Function
Throughout the 1940s in L.A., form mimicked function, both in architecture and menu design. As in, a restaurant called Redwood House had to have a menu that looked like rings from a tree stump, and a restaurant called The Keg displayed what it had to offer on a keg-shaped menu.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections13/22The Greatest Show on Earth
What better way to market a hot dog shop in Hollywood in 1949 than with the glitz and glamour of the city's banner blockbusters? Designed to look like a movie theater, The Hot Dog Show assures "We present only quality productions." Which is code for hot dogs with fresh hot buns, and we definitely do not object.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections14/22The World, According to the Brown Derby
The menu at Brown Derby literally illustrated the world of its diners. From NBC Radio Studios to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and the L.A. Tennis Club, learn the geography of L.A.'s diners, and tunderstand the people who flocked to Hollywood's The Brown Derby in 1953.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections15/22One-Way Ticket to Polynesia
At the "sexually shady" yet "honest" Kelbo's in West Los Angeles, patrons could order Hawaiian Style Spareribs, yams, and tropical fruit punches demarcated on the menu by tiki-style bamboo reeds. It's about a whole, transporting experience, from menu to food and ambiance.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections16/22"Velkommen Tilbords"
When notable food critic Caroline Bates of Gourmet began writing a column about California fine dining the same way she covered New York and Paris food, it became clear that California food was worth paying attention to. Scandia was one of the restaurants Bates approved of most, dubbing it more good food than gimmicky.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections17/22"It Is Composed"—Caroline Bates, of Scandia in Gourmet Magazine
Bates thought the food at Scandia, under the leadership of accoladed chef Kenneth Hansen, refined. She enjoyed the Kalv-filet Oskar, which garnered tons of attention for the restaurant at the time, and praised the menu's seasonally available Baltic salmon and Norwegian snow grouse.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections18/22It's All in the Details
By the time the 1970s and 1980s rolled around, restaurants were designing and writing menus that snuck in political statements about sustainability, economics, and sourcing local at their restaurants. At Ships Coffee Shop in Culver City, that meant including statements such as "We don't use substitutes or resort to any tricks in food preparation, such as meat tenderizer or strong condiments" on the back of its 1971 menu.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections19/22Peek into Little Tokyo in the 1980s at Atomic Café
Atomic Cafe in Little Tokyo first opened its doors in 1946 and never expected that it'd become the "L.A. punk scene's after-hours headquarters," with a jukebox as famous as the food.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections20/22Turn the Music Loud
By the 1980s, Little Tokyo's Atomic Café was so well-known as the spot to hear new music and rub elbows with music industry darlings that the Japanese restaurant, which served everything from teriyaki to chow mein and grilled ham and cheeses, printed its offerings atop faded images of the B-52s' records.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections21/22Say Hello to California Cuisine
According to Kun, by the time Wolfgang Puck, now a household name, opened his doors to Spago, what we now know as "California cuisine" had just settled into its home in L.A. (with an outpost at Chez Panisse in Berkeley to the north). The approach to cooking, based on locally-sourced ingredients, traded sauté pans for lighter cooking methods like grilling, and the menu got an update along with the food.
Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections22/22Peek Inside Spago's Menu from 1983
Welcome to Los Angeles in 1983, when Wolfgang Puck was a young upstart on the culinary scene and a section dedicated to dishes like a cooked in a wood-burning pizza oven was almost totally unheard of. Relaxed dining was fueled by ingredients labeled by their location (e.g., "Baby lamb from Sonoma County") and praised for being site-specific.
