This counts as one of the most inventive vintage menu art images we have found. From 1940s Chicago, it’s an entire menu laid out in pictures. From the oyster with his top hat, cane and cigar, the baby shark steak in its highchair and the rather sinister-looking catfish – every illustration shows the creative mastery of the artist.

The menu was for a birthday party for the owner of fish & chips - Robert Ingersoll Winter, known as Bob - and all the dishes on this menu were actually served, according to a family member.

The term Trebor Dinner was in honor of Bob’s full name of Robert (spelled backwards) and the artist was his girlfriend Regina Gallagher, known as Gal. Bob was born in 1887 in St Louis, Missouri.

Located at 72 E. Randolph Street in downtown Chicago and billed as ‘Chicago's Most Unique Fish & Sea Food Restaurant,’ its motto was FOR HEALTH'S SAKE - EAT FISH.

Fresh fish was brought in by train every day and at its busiest, the high-end restaurant employed 35 staff, mostly waitresses and fish butchers, who worked in the basement.

The restaurant was on the ground floor where customers could pick out fresh fish from a tank.

The three dining rooms were capable of handling 300 diners. There was also an open kitchen, an innovation at the time, so that people could see the food being cooked.

The head chef was a Norwegian called Carl Andersen and Bob and Gal ran the restaurant from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Bob, who had been gassed during WW1 and who had suffered shrapnel wounds serving with the 168^th infantry at Argonne, France, died in 1953 after years of ill health.

He left the restaurant to Gal, and she continued to run the place. fish n chips (note the use of the modern lower case) was popular with faculty members from nearby Chicago universities and also with members of veterans groups.

This marvelous restaurant closed in the 1950s and Gal died in 1990.

Thanks to family member Larry Winter Roeder for this information.

Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom printed with border for matting and framing.