This 1930s menu cover for a Chicago hotel is striking in its simplicity- sometimes good fonts are all you need for great design and this menu art is all about the fonts.

The Stevens Hotel was opened in 1927 in the Windy City and boasted that it was the largest hotel in the world.

It was called a’ City Within a City’ for its impressive amenities, which included: 3,000 guestrooms,(yes, you read that correctly)  a 27 seat barber shop, 5 lane bowling alley, 18 hole rooftop golf course, hospital with full ward and two operating rooms, candy factory, children’s toy and clothing store, 1,200-seat theater with ‘talking motion picture equipment’, ice cream shop, flower shop,  jewelry store, lending library and a 24-hour drug store.

Supper cost a dollar and was served till 1am and the wine list would make any connoisseur of wines weep with pleasure.  A bottle of 1927 Chateau d’Yquem – the vineyard in Bordeaux, France, was established in 1593 – was $10 and a 1928 Chateau Lafite Rothschild was a mere $4. Today, both bottles – if you could find them – would cost upwards of $4,000 retail.

After falling on hard times, the hotel was eventually bought by Conrad Hilton in 1945 and renamed The Conrad Hilton Hotel in 1951.