The Carolina Coffee Shop “The Coffee Shop’s Sunday Menu”. Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, NC), September 26, 1937. https://universityofnorthcarolinaatchapelhill.newspapers.com/image/67858997 (accessed November 6, 2018)
This source is a newspaper clipping from the Daily Tar Heel. It features a Sunday menu of the Carolina Coffee Shop, dated back to September 26, 1937. This source tells us that the Carolina Coffee Shop has been in business since the Great Depression and Prohibition time period. This menu provides us with insight into what were some typical foods and desired cuisines that people eat in Chapel Hill during this time period. It allows lets us know that advertisement and newspapers (more specifically the Daily Tar Heel) were in production during this time period.
Several things can be noted when looking at this menu. First, it is important to note the prices for the meals on the menu. The prices range from thirty to sixty cents. Even more important to point out is the difference between the special dinners vs. The regular dinners. The main difference is the type of meat. In the special dinner, more seafood is highlighted such as salmon, shrimp, scallops, mackerel, bass, etc. This can possibly conclude to how popular seafood might have been or how it took more effort or resources to either make or attain certain seafood, as opposed to a meat like ham or steak.
It is also interesting to look at other options, such as vegetables and desserts. There are not that many options in the vegetable section, and there are even less in the dessert section. The dessert is a minced cobbler, which might not be the first image that comes to mind when we think of dessert. Possibly, this can conclude to how important and prevalent meat was in the diets of Chapel Hill citizens during that time.
Also, there are a few dishes that are made based on different places in America. For example, there is a dish that has Oysters a La Maryland. There is also a dished called Shrimp a La Newburg. This can suggest that exchange of recipes among locations is prevalent, highlighting potential trade of recipes in Chapel Hill and the Carolina Coffee Shop.
This source is important for comparing the cuisine of this time period to those of other time periods. The menu of the Carolina Coffee Shop today is probably very different than the menu in 1937. It is relevant as it’s the menu of a local restaurant on Franklin Street. As such, it tells the story of dishes and potentially the trade of recipes in Chapel Hill during the Great Depression and Prohibition.
Ellison Commodore
The Carolina Coffee Shop “The Coffee Shop’s Sunday Menu”. Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, NC), September 26, 1937. https://universityofnorthcarolinaatchapelhill.newspapers.com/image/67858997 (accessed November 6, 2018)