Vexed in Park Slope: Historical Foodie Edition!

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Welcome to Vexed in Park Slope -- a column about every day things that FIPS would have reported on had FIPS existed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. All stories come from the NYTimes online archives, so if you don't believe one, look it up. 

When I started putting together this VIPS Food Edition, I imagined I'd dig up a few vintage restaurant reviews, detail some especially appalling menu items (ok, I did spend at least an hour fretting over the concept of a "rum omelette," but I digress) and throw in a few snarky comments about typical New York Times condescension about the Brooklyn restaurants. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? Not really. According to my extremely imprecise and far from exhaustive archival research, the New York Times didn't see fit to review restaurants in Brooklyn until well into the 1980s. My self assigned task thus became "difficult difficult lemon difficult."

After much perusal however, I was able to dig up the menu above from a private dinner held at the Montauk Club in 1906 (I sure hope that turtle soup was local turtle soup) as well as a few food related "tid bits" (ha!) from our neighborly past. . . Enjoy!


This impressive scoop from the New York Times in 1907:  for the first time ever Brooklyn surpassed Boston in total beans purchased. Or at least so claims the uncited mucracker. Journalistic standards being perhaps more lax at that time, the author offered no data to back this up but instead presented a lengthy history of the relationship between beans and the literary cache of a given city. However spurious this correlation may seem, the article did end on this somewhat prescient note: "Hence a sudden influx of beans into Brooklyn. What will happen! Emerson will blossom forth on the Park Slope (. . .) Hail, Brooklyn, future home of American letters!"
Today at 145 7th Avenue there is a toy store, but in 1947 there was a bakery. Not just any bakery, though. The Old Mill Bakery - exclusive supplier of baked goods to the famous (and now defunct) Wanamaker's Department Store. But local folks could skip the trip to Manhattan and just buy direct in the Slope. On offer? Buttermilk biscuits - three for 10 cents, meringues and oatmeal cookies - 5 cents each, brownies - 10 cents each, and cupcakes (vanilla, coconut, lemon, pineapple and chocolate all with butter cream) for a whopping 25 cents. Yep. The average cost of a cupcake in New York City has gone up by about 800% - but don't worry -- that's actually below the rate of inflation (I checked!) - so see? Things really can get better!

Chicken War!

*Not actual Park Slope Chicken War combatant.In December of 1959, our normally peaceful nabe found itself at ground zero of a war... a chicken war! Germain Stores (a grocery at 527 5th Ave, now Gamestop) and a Key Foods across the street (at 550 5th, now Blockbuster) competitively slashed prices until both were offering the bird for 10 cents a pound. And both were apparently doing great business until Key Food struck the final (and likely fateful -- given which chain survives today) blow: a free chicken with any $10 purchase.

And lastly... should you ever find yourself transported back in time to January 14th, 1962 and need something to do: