Book Review: Menu Design in America

One of the Christmas gifts I received, from my husband, was a book, titled Menu Design in America: A Visual and Culinary History of Graphic Styles and Design 1850-1985, which showcases hundreds of menus from all over the United States. The book is, essentially, a very large, coffee table art book. It has menus from well known establishments, hole-in-the-wall joints, diners, cocktail menus, wine lists, children’s menus, and even menus for special events.

Menu Design in America: 1850-1985
by Steven Heller, John Mariani, and Jim Heimann

Once upon a time, the menu used to be rare. We take for granted that there are restaurants everywhere, but this was not the case until after the 1800s when the restaurant moved from being uncommon to gaining in popularity throughout the country. Menus are not only used as a means of conveying restaurant offerings but they are also used as a marketing tool for companies. Beer companies, such as Sam Adams and Budweiser, have been using menus as a marketing tool since their companies began.

The variety of styles, designs, and overall visual appeal of menus is amazing. Some restaurants used photographs, others art, some were simple with only several dishes to order, while other menus were so overcrowded with items that you’d go cross-eyed just trying to figure out what to order. There are menus in the shape of a coconut, totem pole, a tamale, or burger. The 1920s and 1930s menus have distinctive Art Deco elements while the menus from the 1960s display the psychedelic art styles of the period.

The prices also reflect the time. I would just love to be able to go out and order 2 eggs, toast, and a coffee for 35 cents, or less, wouldn’t you? You can also see, by the items on the menu, how food offerings have changed not only for what types of food are being served but also for how they are categorized. For example, many of the menus, from the early 1900s, have pastries and cakes in a separate category from the dessert menu (dessert was considered fruits and nuts and, quite often, cigars). One of the stranger things I noticed, in many menus, was that restaurants charged you if you didn’t get a drink with your meal.

Some of my favorites, in Menu Design in America, include the menu for a dinner in honor of Abraham Lincoln, all of the menus from the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, in New York (they’re just beautiful works of art), and a reception and dinner menu, from 1936, for the captain and crew of the Hindenburg, one year before the disaster. There is even a menu for a vegetarian restaurant, from the early 1900s, which was a rare restaurant indeed, for the time period.

Who knew that something that is so commonplace today, like the menu, could be so darn interesting?