By Bill Heaney
The menu here is remarkable. It puts that old request “beef or salmon?” from waiters in many hotels even today in the ha’penny place. How did they do it? Victoria Hecht told Facebook: “Other than kippers and lox, I can’t fathom seafood at breakfast.”
Gilbert Zoghlin wrote: “Brains and sweetbreads!” And Lenny Kircher: “Quite a selection!” Eve Pickman wrote: “Every time I see these vintage menus I’m struck by the variety of offerings compared to most modern ones.” Even in its heyday, the much missed Dumbuck Hotel in Dumbarton came nowhere close to this. Matteo Matteo wrote: “My favourite part is the footnote. In a city as big as NYC, they still had to specify that all water used for consumption was boiled first and filtered.” Tracy Langdon Brinklow wrote: “Can barely get this variety in a grocery store nowadays. ”
As always, they couldn’t please everybody – “Denise Valdivia wrote: “I would’ve starved. Absolutely nothing on this menu sounds good.”
Carol Toler Vowels asked: “I wonder how many chefs and cooks they had to have all this available at the ready! How did they keep things fresh? Some of this could not be cooked quickly as ordered!”
I enjoyed this anecdote from Christo Vandevert: “In the mid-1990’s I stayed at the St. Moritz on-the-Park Hotel in NYC after arriving from the West Coast on a red eye flight before my room was ready. Very Old School! It was 17 degrees outside. Was in complete shock.
“Breakfast in the formal dinning room was definitely an extra cost – served buffet style, at $36, which was very expensive back then. The menu was not unlike this one — kippers and other fish, lamb chops, kidneys, bacon, sausages, a variety of styles of eggs, potatoes, breads and muffins, fruit, and stewed prunes. Hot and cold cereals.
“Handsome waiters in bow ties served bottomless champagne and/or coffee. I remember sitting in that elegant dining room for 3-4 hours while reading the New York Times, sampling everything, and getting tipsy before my room was ready, and then passing out for the afternoon.
“Since then, I have grown accustomed to having fish, rice balls wrapped in seaweed, and green tea for breakfast while in Japan. In the UK, the elaborate “Full English” breakfast is served, which includes baked beans and blood pudding. I just can’t go it.”
She may have been pleased with this item about which Jim A Waits wrote: “Fried Oysters on a Breakfast menu is my kind of thing.”
Mine? Porridge or Crunchy Nut cornflakes, but they don’t appear to have them on the menu.