The Hotel Astor’s Valentine’s Day menu in 1906

I don’t know why the Woman’s Press Club held a breakfast in honor of Valentine’s Day. Newspaper accounts seem to indicate it was an annual event around the turn of the century.

But here’s the menu, from the new, posh Hotel Astor in Times Square, and it’s quite extensive. Roast squab on toast, beef mignon, ice cream, and something called a Valentine’s salad—which I believe involves beets.

This menu comes from the New York Public Library’s fantastic Buttolph Menu Collection, a treasure trove of menus from 1851 to 1930.