This mid-day menu used on the Dominion shows the Empress Hotel in Victoria on the front cover, and a dozen different Canadian Pacific hotels (one of them being the Empress) on the back cover. The Dominion began operating in 1931. This menu can’t be much later than that as the front cover refers to “a young people who fifty years ago dreamed of transforming a virgin wilderness into a nation.” This probably refers to the year Canadian Pacific construction began (1881).
Click image to download a 2.5-MB PDF of this menu.
Both sides of this menu are a la carte, and it includes an extensive list of hot and cold entrées, among which are Pacific Coast fish, baked stuffed tomatoes, boiled ox tongue, and a pot of baked beans. Among the beverages are “Fleischmann’s yeast, 10 cents per cake.” Why would anyone want to drink yeast? According to one source, it allows people to drink more alcohol without getting drunk.