Pictured above is the Bon Ton Hotel and Restaurant which was located on San Francisco Street just to the west of the Claire Hotel. While the Claire was considered a first class establishment, the Bon Ton catered to a less affluent clientele.
Nevertheless, in 1891 they offered a Christmas dinner far more elaborate than one would find today.
Jan Whittaker blogged about the event in 2012.
http://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/tag/conways-bon-ton/
Christmas dinner in a restaurant, again?
I suspect that a lot of people living in the Wild West in the 1880s and 1890s had little choice but to eat their holiday dinners in restaurants. The majority of the residents of western mining and ranching towns were males living in “hotels” which were nothing but crude rooming houses with a saloon, pool hall, and none-too-fine restaurant attached.
John W. Conway ran such a place in Santa Fe NM, but judging from the spread he laid out for Christmas in 1891, he was making a generous effort to please his guests with a delicious meal. On this particular day he served a genuine feast for only 25 cents, the price of an everyday dinner.
Conway’s Bon Ton Restaurant
Menu
Christmas Dinner
Soup
Clam Chowder Chicken Giblet
Boiled
Ham Corned Beef New England Boiled Dinner
Roasts
Suckling Pig, Apple Sauce Beef, Brown Gravy
Veal, Dressing Turkey, Cranberry Sauce
Duck, Jelly Chicken, Cream Gravy
Entrees
Breaded Veal Cutlets, French Peas
Pork and Beans Fricasseed Chicken, Dumplings
Quail on Toast Lamb Chops, Tomato Sauce
Macaroni and Cheese Irish Stew
Vegetables
Irish Potatoes, Mashed and Browned
Baked Sweet Potatoes Green Peas Corn Beets
String Beans Tomatoes Celery
Relishes
Worcestershire Sauce Tomato Catsup
Chow Chow White Onions Horse Radish
German Pickles Lettuce
Shrimp, Lobster and Potato Salad
Pudding
English Plum, Brandy Sauce Corn Starch
Nelly Bly, Nutmeg Sauce
Pie
Mince Cranberry Pumpkin Custard
Cake
Gallagher’s Marble White’s Jelly
Tea Coffee Chocolate Milk
Nuts Raisins Oranges Grapes
Wine List furnished by the waiter
Dinner from 12 to 1 o’clock, 25 cents
Just down San Francisco Street, Will Burton offered a more refined, pared-down dinner. Judging from the menu, the 50-cent meal might well have equaled one served in more sophisticated big city restaurants. Unlike John Conway’s, his dinner began with oysters and featured fish and game courses. And there was no Pork and Beans or Cornstarch Pudding on Will’s menu.
Merry Christmas!
Menu
Billy’s New Restaurant
1 to 4 PM
Blue Point Oysters
Soup
Fresh Oyster
Fish
Red Snapper, Shrimp Sauce
Boiled
Capon, Sauce Velouette
Roast
Turkey, Oyster Dressing, Cranberry Sauce
Loin of Kansas City Beef, Au Jus
Game
Baked Loin of Elk, Orange Sauce, Currant Jelly
Entrees
Brunswick Stew Roast Quail
Salads
Fresh Shrimp Potato
Vegetables
Browned Potatoes Tomatoes La Royal French Peas
Dessert
Almonds Nuts Raisins Apples
Pudding
English Christmas, Brandy Sauce
Pastry
Mince Pie Apple Pie
French A.D. Coffee Cheese Green Tea
Dinner, 50¢
Will C. Burton & Co., Props.
Will, aka Billy, had lived for a time in San Francisco where he may have acquired elite tastes. He hosted game dinners, kept vintage French wines in his cellar, and poured expensive Scotch whisky. He opened this restaurant in Santa Fe on Thanksgiving of 1891 but, alas, by the next spring he was ruined and reduced to running the short order department at Conway’s Bon Ton.
Regarding the first menu, I am left wondering what Nellie Bly pudding might be. Under Relishes on the same menu, German pickles were, I think, pickled green tomatoes with onions and green peppers. Chow Chow was a mixture of pickled vegetables. On Billy’s menu, Velouté Sauce, of meat stock, and creamed flour and butter, is incorrectly spelled. “A. D. Coffee” is short for after dinner coffee. Both menus use the French meaning of entree, a side dish usually of smaller cuts or chopped meat or fowl.
I find it interesting that Christmas dinner menus in most of the restaurants I looked at from the second half of the 20th century were far less elaborate than these.
© Jan Whitaker, 2012
