Calico Kitchen, USA 1959

Dinner time at the Calico Kitchen restaurant started at 6pm prompt, according to this cheerful 1959 menu cover. The illustration shows a pocket watch against a backdrop of red checked calico, a textile made from unbleached cotton.

Hungry diners could choose from an extensive cooked-to-order menu of meat, seafood, salad and potato dishes and finish with Calico Sundaes.

Restaurateur Henry Dissin created Calico Kitchen which grew into a small chain of five restaurants operating in Philadelphia and South Jersey from 1950.

Mr Dissin sold the restaurants to a large hospitality group in the mid-1970s.

Thanks to his son Peter Dissin for this information.

Courtesy Private Collection.