As marked on the cover, this menu was used at the Banff Springs Hotel. It is a little larger than CP dining car menus of that period: about 8″x11″ vs. 6-3/4″x9-3/4″. However, the same photograph was used on a 1950 Alaska steamship menu, which were the same size as dining car menus, so it is likely that this photo could also be found on a dining car menu.

Click image to download an 2.4-MB PDF of this menu.

Unlike the Alaska steamship and most dining car menus of this period, this hotel menu has a photo on the back as well as the front. The back cover photo shows Lake Louise in a clear effort to entice hotel guests to make a trip to the lake. The back cover also lists CP hotels at the time, of which there were 15-1/2 (since one of them, the Hotel Vancouver, being halfowned by Canadian National).

Since a hotel restaurant kitchen has more room than a dining car kitchen, it seems like this menu would offer a few more entrées than would be found on a dining car menu, but it does not. The table d’hôte side has five entrées — filet of sole, beef a la mode, shepherds pie, fruit and cheese plate, and cold cuts — which was typical of many dining car menus of that period. The a la carte side also offers these entrées along with a crab salad and a few sandwiches. The main thing this menu has that might not be on a dining car menu is a dozen hors d’oeuvres, eight sweet desserts plus four kinds of ice cream, four fruit desserts, and four savory desserts.

It also seems like hotel meals would be less expensive than dining cars due to the extra costs of mobile service. But, perhaps in keeping with the five-star reputation of the Banff Springs Hotel, table d’hôte meals on this menu were $1.75 (a little more than US$20 today), while Canadian Pacific dining car menus in the summer of 1947 were offering table d’hôte dinners for $1.35 and $1.65.