This is a pretty complete lunch menu for the mid-1960s. All it is missing is the nice cover with the menu inside; instead, it is just a card with the table d’hôte printed on one side and a la carte on the other. The Ron Nixon cover photo is present, but just located in the upper left corner of the table d’hôte side.
Click image to download an 881-KB PDF of this menu.
The table d’hôte side has just two entrées, broiled fish or spare ribs. The $3 plate includes juice or soup, the entrée, potato, beets, cherries, bread, ice cream and beverage. The $2.60 plate was identical but no juice or soup and a choice of two of the side dishes (potato, beets, or cherries). The a la carte side was more complete with nine different entrées ranging from Welsh rarebit for 90 cents to sirloin steak for $3.95. Multiply by 7 to adjust to today’s dollars using the consumer price index.
The plate lunch for the current price equivalent of $14 wasn’t bad since it was at least a complete meal – and you didn’t have to get beets. Why did railroads think everyone likes beets? Yuck! They still hadn’t figured out that people probably wanted a hamburger sandwich, even though they clearly had hamburger available for the hamburger “steak”. But at least they finally figured out (by 1966) that people REALLY didn’t want a tongue sandwich…or a sardine sandwich. They were very slow learners when it came to America’s changing eating habits.
Jim