Maine Eats-Menu


Menu, Preble House, Portland, 1914

Menu, Preble House, Portland, 1914
Item 18070   info
Maine Historical Society

The menu from Thanksgiving dinner at the Preble House in Portland in 1914

Green Acre menu, Eliot, 1890

Green Acre menu, Eliot, 1890
Item 6202   info
Eliot Baha'i Archives

This is a menu from the Green Acre Inn, August 15, 1890.

The menu includes consomme with macaroni, lamb and beef roasts, potatoes, corn and tomatoes and various desserts.

Menu, Poland Spring resort, 1884

Menu, Poland Spring resort, 1884
Item 25547   info
Poland Spring Preservation Society

The menu from the Poland Spring House at the Poland Spring resort features Poland Mineral Spring on the cover. Water from the spring was bottled beginning in 1845 and was one of the attractions of the resort.

The menu for Sunday, Sept. 21, 1884 featured two soups, fish, three boiled meats, five roasts, and four "cold dishes" of meat along with entrees of chicken pie, salmi of duck aux olives, baked macaroni and queen's fritters.

Also on the menu were numerous vegetables, relishes, pastry and desserts.

Dinner Menu, Islesboro, c. 1890

Dinner Menu, Islesboro, c. 1890
Item 27040   info
Islesboro Historical Society

This dinner menu was produced for use by The Islesborough, Islesboro's first summer resort hotel, built in 1868. It is a pre-printed card, with the daily specials written in, and is decorated with a pale pink ribbon tied at the top.

Menu of the Pekin Restaurant, Bangor, ca. 1924

Menu of the Pekin Restaurant, Bangor, ca. 1924
Item 10370   info
Maine Historical Society

Menu from the Pekin Restaurant in Bangor, incorporated in 1924 by Wong J. Jones, Chin Dong, Gong Yee, Gam Woo, Chin Aui, and Chin Hun. Chin Dong was president of the corporation and Wong J. Jones was treasurer.

Thursday Club meeting menu, Biddeford, 1897

Thursday Club meeting menu, Biddeford, 1897
Item 31630   info
Biddeford Historical Society

This is a hand-made menu for a meeting of the Thursday Club, Biddeford, in 1897. It is not indicated which meeting this menu was produced for; the most likely suspect was the December 16th meeting, at which there was a paper read debating the value of teaching domestic science. The bulk of the meeting, however, was devoted to Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson and the reactionary school of novelists, and Henry Fielding.

The front piece of the menu is a very thin, flat slice of wood with the menu of the day hand-written upon it in ink. A second page, attached by two small pink ribbons at the top, is a very thin onionskin paper with a pencil drawing (possibly tracing) of a cow standing in grass, with the cuts of beef demarcated and numbered from 1-19.

Park's Bakery and Restaurant, Scarborough, ca. 1950

Park's Bakery and Restaurant, Scarborough, ca. 1950
Item 31361   info
Scarborough Historical Society & Museum

"Parks Home Bakery was located on Route 1 in Dunstan near the Saco line. The restaurant and bakery were housed in a Quonset hut--one of the structures produced by the Navy during World War II in Quonset, Rhode Island, and sold as surplus after the war for about $1,000 each. The Quonset hut was removed long ago and a new building was erected on its site."
From Rodney Laughton's Book," Images of America, Scarborough in the Twentieth Century".

Sing's of Bangor glass, ca. 1980

Sing's of Bangor glass, ca. 1980
Item 10496   info
Maine Historical Society

The glass is from the Sing's Chinese Restaurant, Bangor.

Restaurant counter, Biddeford, ca. 1910

Restaurant counter, Biddeford, ca. 1910
Item 36577   info
Biddeford Historical Society

Employees pose in a Biddeford restaurant behind a soda counter. Prices on back board include steak - 25 cents, chicken soup - 15 cents, sardine - 10 cents and coffee - 5 cents.

Brass Rail restaurant, Bangor, ca. 1935

Brass Rail restaurant, Bangor, ca. 1935
Item 67534   info
Boston Public Library

A Tichnor Brothers postcard promoting the lobsters, sizzling steaks and air conditioning at the Brass Rail restaurant in Bangor. The restaurant was very popular in the mid-twentieth century when the Dow Air Force Base was in operation. The caption reads, "Brass Rail, air conditioned, Bangor, Maine, Bangor's finest restaurant!"

The Tichnor Brothers printing company published this type of postcard circa 1930-1945.

The Lobster Pot, ca. 1940

The Lobster Pot, ca. 1940
Item 80465   info
Friendship Museum

A view of the the Lobster Pot at the end of Stenger's wharf shows the restaurant's large windows facing the harbor. The boat at the end of the dock is the lobster smack Mayflower, which was owned by Chris Burns, who used it to transport lobsters from Friendship to Portland.

Howard Johnson's Restaurant, Kennebunk, ca. 1935

Howard Johnson's Restaurant, Kennebunk, ca. 1935
Item 66149   info
Boston Public Library

A Tichnor Brothers postcard aimed at Maine tourists dining at the Howard Johnson's restaurant in Kennebunk. By the end of the 1930s, a "HoJo's" could be found anywhere on the East coast from Maine to Florida. The Kennebunk Howard Johnson's features the familiar New England-inspired details of the franchise restaurant: dormer windows, the cupola with a clock, and multipaned windows.

The caption reads, "Howard Johnson's Restaurant, Kennebunk, Maine, midway on the Maine Turnpike." The Tichnor Brothers printing company published this type of postcard circa 1930-1945.

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