Object Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Wooden Villa Hotel Upper Level Steak Menu, c. 1957 |
Object Name |
Menu |
Description |
Wooden Villa Hotel Upper Level Steak Menu, c. 1957. Wooden menu is shaped like a rectangular paddle with a handle at the bottom and a point at the top. One side is painted gold in the center of all but the handle with brown lettering that reads, "Upper Level / JUST FOR STEAKS / Villa HOTEL / SAN MATEO CALIFORNIA." Opposite side lists menue items including wine (burgundy, chablis or rose), steaks (Upper Level special cut, Tenderloin, New York, Top Sirloin, Filet and Petite Filet), Vegetable du Jour, Onion Rings and Dessert (Blueberries Supreme, Villa Hotel Cheese Cake and Coffee Crunch Sundae). Lettering is painted onto stained brown wooden paddle in white and yellow lettering with orange colored accents. Prices for wine start at $3.00, for steak start at $5.75 and for dessert $ .75. |
Date |
c. 1957 |
Catalog Number |
2018.069.002 |
Dimensions |
H-21.5 W-8.75 D-0.25 inches |
Collection |
3D - Documentary Objects |
Inscription Text |
"Upper Level / JUST FOR STEAKS / Villa HOTEL / SAN MATEO CALIFORNIA" (brown lettering on gold background on one side); "WINE / BY THE LITER / ... / COFFEE CRUNCH SUNDAE / Try it ...delightful ...." (menu items painted in white and yellow with orange accents) |
Provenance |
Used by restaurant patrons at the Villa Hotel Upper Level. |
Notes |
"Villa Hotel Combines Glamour and Informality for Profit Beauty, convenience, relaxation, glamour, service - a successful motor hotel isn't any one feature but, rather, a combination of all of these." [http://www.goofspot.com/lanai/villa/nov57zine.htm 11/14/2018] "Open since 1955, the Villa underwent an extensive remodeling in 1988 that still kept its 1950s feel. But the Villa Chartier Restaurant and the Lanai, a Polynesian-themed bar also operated by hotel owners, were closed then." [https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2005/12/18/villas-closing-ends-star-studded-chapter/ 11/14/2018] Upscale European (and some American) restaurants once listed prices only for men. Women would be given a menu without prices. A lawsuit in California, "helped put a stop to [ladie's menus] for good. In 1981, the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly suggested that "restaurants with a dual-menu policy may lose the patronage of their customers—and may also lose in court." An already minority practice sunk further into obscurity." [https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ladies-menus-no-prices-lawsuit 11/14/2018] |
Search Terms |
Restaurants San Mateo Villa Hotel, San Mateo |
Subjects |
Hotels Menus Restaurants |
Credit line |
Courtesy of Pacific Valley Inverstors, Inc. |