This splendid 1930s menu cover from The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles is from the collection of Craig Claiborne, the American restaurant critic, food journalist and author who donated his papers to The Culinary Institute of America. On his death in 2000, The New York Times noted that he had “coaxed millions of meat-and-potato Americans to the table of fine cuisine.”

The Ambassador Hotel and its nightclub Cocoanut Grove were super-stylish hotspots in that era, frequented by Hollywood stars such as Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and many others.

It was a showy place where ordinary folks got dressed up and rubbed shoulders with the stars they saw on the big screen. Post-Prohibition, everyone was happy to be able to drink booze openly and this wine and liquor list ran to many pages.

Courtesy The Culinary Institute of America

Each print is accompanied by a copy of the interior menu where available.

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