Before the Canadian Pacific

This small — roughly 6-1/2″x7-1/2″ — breakfast menu was issued in 1928. The front cover is supposed to illustrate was western Canada was like before the coming of the railroad, while on the back cover the Canadian Pacific modestly takes credit for all of the growth of the nation west of Lake Huron since the 1880s.

Click image to download a 1.7-MB PDF of this menu.

The menu itself, which is from my own collection is all a la carte and ranges from milk and cereal for 20 cents to a sirloin steak for $1.50. Other items include Finnan Haddie, fish cakes, fried oysters with bacon, and French toast with Canadian honey. Multiply prices by 11.5 to get today’s U.S. dollars.


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