On Christmas Day 1898, the Hotel Metropole printed an illustrated menu that captures the moment American hotel hospitality became theater. The menu’s front cover depicts a winter coaching scene; inside, the dinner runs nine courses and twenty pages of holiday extras. This is what a luxury Christmas dinner looked like at the turn of the twentieth century.
A Cunard Breakfast in 1896: What Did First-Class Eat at Sea?
On a February morning in 1896, the Cunard liner Pavonia was steaming east across the North Atlantic. In the first-class dining saloon, stewards were laying out a breakfast that would have impressed any London club. The printed menu survives — and it tells a remarkable story about how the Edwardian elite started their day at sea.