What's Cookin'? Vintage Menus From Early Days of the Hotels

Boiled halibut. Roast squab. Green sea turtles. Some of it sounds a little funky. 

Frozen eggnog. Hawaiian sweet potatoes. Pineapple meringue pie. Some of it sounds a little unconventional, but we'd definitely give it a try. 

It's always fun to see what was on the plates of guests 75 or 100 years ago (or more) at French Lick and West Baden Springs Hotels. Check out a few of these old menus from back in the day, and you can see even more of them on display during Preservation Month going on all throughout May at the resort. Here you can see the oldest menu in our collection from 1891. A little appetizer: One thing on the 1891 menu is veal and ham pie — which could be really good, or really questionable.

The French Lick West Baden Museum in town also has some old menus that are fun to peruse, just in case some of these don't satisfy your appetite.

The menu above and the two below are the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus from Jan. 5, 1908. (And with the date marked on them, it's pretty interesting to see that new menus were printed for each day.)

How 'bout some mackerel, whitefish or sirloin for breakfast? The cereals on here may not excite you today, but back then cereal was a relatively novel phenomenon as Shredded Wheat (1890), Corn Flakes (1894) and Grape Nuts (1897) had just been created within the last few decades.

A special "Washington's Birthday" menu from 1910 features an illustration of George toasting with Pluto, the French Lick Springs Hotel mascot.

The devilish Pluto even made an appearance on the Easter menu from 1910.

It was common for meals to start with soups and relishes, then move on to more courses with a sherbet/sorbet palate cleanser. There were even post-dessert courses with cheese, apples and breads, crackers or biscuits.

Also notice on the bottom of this menu the warning about avoiding uncooked fruits, raw vegetables and acidic foods. Those didn't agree with the sulphuric mineral water that so many hotel guests specifically came here to consume.

It's striking how many courses these menus included. In this time, meals were a major production. Guests sat down and took their time with dinner. Not like the eat-and-rush we experience today. You'd also get fully dressed up for dinner. Suits and dresses were a must — you weren't even allowed into the dining room otherwise.

Every holiday called for a special menu, even Halloween and Armistice Day. The chicken and eggs were certainly fresh, since there used to be a hen coop outside the dining room and kitchen at West Baden Springs Hotel.

Another thing that explains the sizable menus is that one main dining room essentially served all the guests at each hotel. There wasn't a range of restaurant options like hotels of today. At French Lick Springs Hotel, the main dining room was called the Hoosier Room. At West Baden Springs Hotel, the dining room is in the same spot Sinclair's Restaurant and Cafe are today.

Another interesting tidbit about dining in this era: Resort historian Jeff Lane said he's been told guests ate according to their room types. Those in the least expensive rooms ate first; those in the higher level rooms ate next. And the people who had the most expensive rooms ate last, so they would not be rushed.

65 cents for a cocktail and 40 cents for a glass of wine? Oh, to be living in 1955...

And if tomato juice (which was invented by a chef at French Lick Springs Hotel in 1917) wasn't your thing, kraut juice was also on the table as an option.