Mission Dolores Menu

This Western Pacific menu was used on a 1951 Prairie Farmer tour. I suspect that, like some Great Northern menus, this menu cover was specifically used for tour groups and wasn’t used for ordinary dining car passengers. Given the date, the menu was almost certainly used aboard the California Zephyr, but it doesn’t mention the train name.

Click image to download a 1.0-MB PDF of this menu.

The image on the cover is Mission San Francisco de Asís, more commonly known as Mission Dolores. Originally built in 1776, it was restored in 1917 and looks today pretty much as it does on this menu cover.

The back of the menu describes the Spanish missions in California, mentioning several of the missions between San Diego and Santa Barbara. Of them all, Western Pacific came closest to San Francisco.

The unpriced dinner menu offers a choice of Spanish omelette, halibut, roast turkey, or Swiss steak — not exactly first-class fare. Of course, the dinners came with soup or juice, potatoes, asparagus, bread, salad, dessert, and beverage.


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