University of Las Vegas Menu Collection

We hope that La Cocina Historica inspires readers to visit the University of Texas in San Antonio. However, for those of you who live a little (or a lot) further away, we’ll also post occasional links to other great culinary collections.

Today, we invite you to explore Menus: The Art of Dining from the University of Las Vegas. This digital collection presents highlights from UNLV’s Bohn-Bettoni Collection, which contains approximately 2000 restaurant menus dating from 1870-1930. The site also includes a short and sweet introduction to the history of restaurants and menus. You might be surprised to learn that dining out–something so central to life in 21st century America–was virtually nonexistent before the 18th century, and remained uncommon well into the 19th!