Serious Eats: New York
New York Public Library Menu Collection is Probably Better Than Yours
Rebecca Federman has a pretty sweet job. As a librarian at the New York Public Library, she's in charge of the menu collection stacks. Who knew such a department even existed?! In this video interview with Chow, Federman shows us the collection, first organized in 1900 by Miss Frank E. Buttolph. Menus take us through history: from prohibition (no wine list), to presidential dinners, to Wheatless Wednesdays during wartime.
"I used to have a thing against take-out menus...but especially in New York, it really gives you a sense of time and place."
As an avid menu collector myself, this could be the coolest reason to visit a library. I only collect menus from meals I've eaten, so my oldest is from a birthday dinner at Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger in April of 2000. Are you a lunatic menu collector like me? What's the best menu in your collection? [via Eater]