What's On the Menu?
Menus not only let you know what's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they can also be works of art, shining examples of a great design aesthetic, or just plain fun. Some of the best places to find images from old menus are in online university and library collections like the Alice Statler Collection and the University of Washinton.
One of the best collections I've come across is the Los Angeles Public Library, which has a searchable index. Here are a couple of nice menus I dug up:
Trader Vic's
Kelbo's The Hawaiian Spare Rib
Damon's
Kona Inn
Beachbum Burt's
Samoan Village
Comments
Fantastic! Thanks so much for linking these -- I've come across online menu collections before, but nothing as nice as those LAPL links. I've sent the Library an inquiry about representing their collection in Critiki -- cross your fingers for me!
I think the cocktail menu from the Kona Inn is my favorite.
Posted by: Humuhumu | January 18, 2006 8:44 PM
Good luck! It would be great to have those menus linked to your Critiki pages. Maybe that would prompt them to scan a few more of their tiki-themed menus and fix the broken image links, like the ones for the Bahooka.
I really like the Kona Inn design too; those psychedelic Tongaroan tikis just scream 1971.
I'm also quite fond of the Kelbo's menu, mostly because I like pictures of regrettable foodstuffs.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 18, 2006 9:06 PM
Also look for the Zamboanga menu on that lapl database. Home of the tailless monkeys!
Posted by: Chris Oliver | January 23, 2006 6:08 PM
And who wouldn't want a tailless monkey for only $0.60?
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 23, 2006 10:03 PM