At the turn of the last century, the sprawling Brighton Beach Hotel served as a more upscale seaside resort than its neighbor, Coney Island.
And if you were wrapping up your summer vacation there in 1906, you’d probably make dinner plans at the hotel restaurant.
So what kind of food and drink would be available to you?
We’re talking about a mind-boggling array of seafood (clear green turtle soup! fried eels!), poultry, caviar, steak, chops, pastries, and ice cream, not to mention a pretty big wine and drink list.
The entire hotel restaurant menu from that year (the front cover is at left) has been preserved as part of the New York Public Library’s menu collection.
It’s a fantastic reference that gives us a peek at the city’s culinary preferences over the years.
The massive menu selection can be viewed here. But for just the seafood, check out this excerpt from it above. I wonder what exactly was in clam chowder Brighton?
A 1906 postcard of the lovely and genteel Brighton Beach Hotel, once at the foot of Coney Island Avenue. Thanks to Kevin P. for suggesting this menu.
Tags: Brighton Beach 1906, Brighton Beach Hotel, Brighton Beach Hotel menu, Brighton Beach postcard, Brooklyn in 1900, Brooklyn ocean resorts, Coney Island postcards, NYPL Menu Collection, vintage New York City postcards
Ephemeral New York 
September 6, 2012 at 5:29 am |
The enormous hotel faced clawing waves after a couple of seasons of bad erosion. Instead of picking a fight with the Atlantic Ocean as we are fond of doing today, they just moved their hotel several hundred feet inland. A Brooklyn contractor jacked the whole thing up and moved it in one piece, and did it for $20,000. Complete success; not even a cracked window.
September 6, 2012 at 6:17 am |
My goodness I have to re-blog this! Why can’t today’s menus be so appetizing? I’d probably take a half hour just to decide. The wine list was HUGE. This made me starving. Great find!
September 6, 2012 at 6:18 am |
Reblogged this on The Realm Of Olde Brooklyn and commented:
If you thought today’s restaurants have delicious entrees and choices, check out this 1906 menu from the Brighton Beach Hotel. It will make you starving! The wine list alone is a mile long.
September 6, 2012 at 2:22 pm |
“Delicious entrees” – really?? I’ll pass on the Calf’s Brains, Smoked Woodcock, and Smoked Pig’s Jowl. But I would like to know more about the Saratoga Potatoes (since I live near Saratoga) and Petite Marmite. Love the vintage postcard!
September 7, 2012 at 12:25 pm |
Saratoga potatoes most likely were thickly cut and fried, thus the famous Saratoga Chip.
September 7, 2012 at 1:17 pm |
Aha! That makes sense. A bit of Saratoga history mixed in with the NYC history. š
September 7, 2012 at 12:56 pm |
Per TJC above, there are some amazing old photos and engravings showing this hotel being towed away from the beachfront by a team of locomotives, each on separate tracks.
September 12, 2013 at 7:01 pm |
never let imegrant from ukraine Evgeniy Sadomskiy to enter eny restraunt in brighto beach he can cause proble kill him there russian people
July 11, 2016 at 6:34 am |
[…] elegant pavilion led guests to the sandy beach and rolling surf. The hotel’s restaurants and banquet halls served an incredible array of seafood and shellfish. The Brighton Beach Music Hall hosted famous […]