A la Carte

There’s no denying that menus hold a certain power.  Whether you’re turned on by the typeface or drawn in by the offerings alone, the menu is a restaurant’s calling card of first impressions.  In a nod to the cultural value of these documents—and perhaps in reaction to a burgeoning trend toward menu digitization—archivists and designers are giving menus their due credit.

Art of the Menu:  A menu sends a message about more than just food; its layout, typography, feel and finish all contribute to overall aesthetic of the restaurant in which it’s used.  With this in mind, the graphic design firm Under Consideration set out to immortalize those rare menus that hit all the right notes. Their new blog Art of the Menu features the designers’ favorites from a range of restaurants, from the crowded and eclectic one-pager at Shopsins in NYC  to the silk-screened, wood-backed book at Marakuthai in Brazil.  This carefully curated collection suggests that a perfectly designed menu can work wonders to reinforce a restaurant’s concept, no matter how high- or low-brow.

Menu Design in America: 1850-1985:  A new wave of cultural nostalgia has prompted the rise of retro inspired products and platforms that help us peek into the past.  In that spirit, author Steven Heller recently compiled a collection of menus to build a visual history of America’s dining habits across centuries.  The resulting book features nearly a thousand menus, starting with very early ventures into fine dining and ending at the onset of New American Cuisine. This sort of pictorial exploration of the evolution of American restaurant trends seems especially well-suited to a post-1985 follow-up that would chronicle menus of molecular gastronomy, veganism, and the locavore movement.

Menu Archival at NYPL:  For those more interested in the dishes listed on a menu than its design, The New York Public Library is undertaking a massive archival project to preserve the texts of ancient menus. The library has been amassing menus since 1900 and, at approximately 40,000, its collection is the largest in the world.  Now, with help from volunteers, NYPL is transcribing each of them word for word in order to digitize their content (dishes, prices, meal categories, etc.) for increased accessibility and searchability.  Once completed, the collection will prove a valuable resource to historians, chefs, and food writers alike—not to mention hipster hosts hoping to set yet another vintage party trend.