News

Our Small But Perfectly Formed New Vintage Chinese Menu Collection

American Chinese Food Chinese Restaurants David R Chan Forbidden Palace Los Angeles New York Port Arthur Rice Bowl

Heading into the first days of 2013, we’d like to introduce you to our small but perfectly formed vintage Chinese menu collection. It’s a colorful and fascinating set of menus, characterized by great illustrations and striking graphics. We have selected three to whet your appetite - with more to come. Chinese immigrants came to the United States in 1840s and they were merely regarded as cheap labor. Thousands worked in the mines during The Gold Rush, helped build railroads and toiled in the agricultural industry. They suffered harrowing racial discrimination and opposition to the “yellow peril” became so strong that...

Read more →


Why A Bottle Of Coke Cost 5 Cents for 70 Years

5 cents Coca Cola Eisenhower Lawyers Soda Prices Vending Machines

One of the ways Cool Culinaria dates a vintage menu is by looking at the prices of the food and drink on offer and comparing them to other years. We could never work out why the cost of a Coke remained at five cents through several decades until we heard a fascinating piece on NPR by David Kestenbaum. He reported that the price remained at a nickel throughout three wars, the Great Depression and against the onslaught of competitors because two lawyers bought the bottling rights in 1889. Two Emory University Economists, Daniel Levy and Andrew Young, investigated the fascinating story...

Read more →


Drought Vs Sweet Corn

Bruce Springsteen Drought sweet corn

An arresting image from Weather.com: Drought affected corn

Read more →


Marketing the benefits of coffee... in the 1650s

1650 Coffee Shops London

 From Boing Boing: London’s first coffeehouse (or rather, coffee stall) was opened by an eccentric Greek named Pasqua Roseé in 1652. By 1663 there were 82 coffeehouses within the old Roman walls of the City. For more see this excellent article from the Daily Telegraph: London cafes: the surprising history of London's lost coffeehouses  

Read more →


In Praise Of Lobsters

1942 Baltimore Lobsters Seafood

Friday June 15th is National Lobster Day. We love eating lobster and we adore our growing collection of menus that celebrate the king of crustaceans. We’ve just posted these two that hail from Miller Brothers, Baltimore in 1942 in our fine prints section. There are plenty more to come so keep checking in. Miller Bros. Baltimore,1942       Miller Bros. Bill of Excellent Fare, Baltimore, 1942 Brilliantly illustrated, none of the lobsters on our menus beats nature, however. So with National Lobster Day in mind – we loved this CNN story of the fisherman in Nova Scotia who found a...

Read more →