Today will be the first of three Santa Fe menus from the early 1960s. Unlike the Texas Chief menus shown previously, these menus have color covers, but don’t mention the name of a train on the inside. I’ve only seen Texas Chief and Super Chief on menus of this era, so presumably these menus were used on another train such as the Chief or San Francisco Chief.
Click image to download a 1.6-MB PDF of this menu.
Visions and Visionaries, Leigh talked the Santa Fe into giving him a free trip West in exchange for a painting. The railway eventually bought at least five of his paintings of the Grand Canyon.
On the cover of this menu is a painting by William Robinson Leigh, known as the “Sagebrush Rembrandt.” According to the book,
This particular menu has eight different entrées on the table d’hôte side and nine on the a la carte side, some of which overlapped. The most expensive things on the menu are table d’hôte meals French toast; griddle cakes; or ham, bacon, or sausage and eggs, each with juice, toast or muffins, and beverage, for $1.95 (about $15 today). If you are ordering the meat and eggs, that seems to be a good deal as they are $1.40 to $1.50 on the a la carte side, but the French toast and griddle cakes are just 90 cents on the al carte side, so the full meal is less attractive.